Exhibition runs November 14, 2013 to January 25, 2014
D’UN DISCOURS QUI NE SERAIT PAS DU SEMBLANT / ACTORS, NETWORKS, THEORIES
A gap often manifests itself between the publication of a text in one language and that of its translation, or between the initial presentation of an artwork in one site and its display in a second. In this project presented in two installments, the first at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery of Concordia University and the second at the artist-run center Dazibao in February 2014, curator Vincent Bonin will address an instance of this phenomena of deferred reception: namely how a body of theoretical texts gathered under the label “French Theory” was assimilated by anglophone art milieus from the late 1970s to the present.
The exhibition will have two sections. The first part will be conceived as a historical survey, mapping the trajectory of these texts as they gained new value for artists within the framework of postmodernism (1977-1994). However, rather than aiming to establish a comprehensive chronology, Bonin will examine this period through a carefully chosen sample of key exhibitions and institutions. In this way, he will bypass the a priori thematic principles and arbitrary spatial cohabitation that often underline group exhibitions by structuring D’un discours around artists gathered in communities of elective affinities. While some works will be chosen because they directly address the aforementioned imported theories, many will encompass other topics, such as sexual difference, the renewal of institutional critique, and postcolonialism, that emerged in the art field as texts by Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Luce Irigaray, Jean-François Lyotard, etc. became available in English. The second part of the exhibition will display contemporary projects stemming from the questions raised by this attempt at a historiography of “French Theory,” wherein the added value of these discourses is no longer taken for granted, but rather becomes an object of critical scrutiny.
Artists: Berwick Film Collective, Group Material, Andrea Fraser, Andrea Fraser and Jeff Preiss, Peter Halley, International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, Gareth James (AHVA Visual Arts Faculty member), Mary Kelly, Karen Knorr, Jon Knowles, Thérèse Mastroiacovo, Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall, Anthony McCall and Claire Pajaczkowska, Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc Godard, Philip Monk, Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, Yvonne Rainer, Ian Wallace
Exhibition Opening Reception: Wednesday November 13, 5:30-7:30 pm
November 14, 2013 to January 25, 2014
In collaboration with Dazibao
Curator : Vincent Bonin
