Learning from Vancouver
Exhibition and Symp
osium
Bik Van der Pol and Urban Subjects: in dialogue
Curated by
Alissa Firth-Eagland and Johan Lundh
Exhibition: January 30 to March
6\, 2010
Opening reception: January 29\, 2010\, 8 PM
Symposium:
January 29 to 31\, 2010
According to a recent survey prepared by Merc er Consulting\, the world’s largest human resource firm specializing in inv estments and outsourcing\, Vancouver is now the fourth most livable city in the world establishing it as an increasingly popular model for urban devel opment. The survey\, which effectively confers world-class status on the ci ty\, sparks obvious questions about Vancouver and its role in the global im aginary. Why is Vancouver the only North American city in the top ten? What images of the city are created and circulated to represent this livability \, and what do such images signify?
The title of this project\, L earning from Vancouver\, comes from a commissioned work by Dutch artis t duo Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam\, NL). This exhibition marks the first pre sentation of their practice in Canada. Bik Van der Pol’s work will be prese nted together with a work by the collective Urban Subjects (Vienna AT and V ancouver\, CA) that is in formal and thematic dialogue.
Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol\, known as Bik Van der Pol\, have worked collectively s ince 1995. They have researched and developed this work during two residenc ies at the Western Front in 2009 and 2010. Their practice explores the pote ntial of art to produce and transmit knowledge and research methods of how to activate situations in order to create a platform for various kinds of c ommunicative activities. Bik Van der Pol’s works has been shown extensively \, for instance at Art In General (New York\, US)\; ISP Whitney (New York\, US)\; Marie Louise Hessel Museum/CCS Bard (Annandale-on-Hudson\, NY)\; Rij ksmuseum (Amsterdam\, NL)\; Van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven\, NL)\; Witte de Wit h (Rotterdam\, NL).
Urban Subjects is a visual research collective fo rmed by Sabine Bitter\, Jeff Derksen\, and Helmut Weber\, developing interd isciplinary artistic projects focusing on urban issues. They recently publi shed the book Autogestion\, or Henri Lefebvre in New Belgrade\, wi th a previously unpublished manuscript by Lefebvre (Fillip\, Vancouver\, CA and Sternberg Press\, Berlin\, DE) and have another edited volume\, No t Sheep: New Urban Enclosures and Commons forthcoming. They are curren tly developing an international exhibition on the urban effects of Olympics and Expos\, Where the World Was: Cities After Global Mega-events and are working on a project on new forms of autogestion in relati on to the state in Caracas\, Venezuela.
Learning from Vancouver will engage diverse local communities in live conversation about Vancou ver and its image through a range of entry points\, all free to the public. In addition to the exhibition\, a three-day symposium headed by distinguis hed local and international speakers will unpack current mediatizations and images of the city: Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam\, NL)\; Clint Burnham (Vanc ouver\, CA)\; Paul de Guzman (Vancouver\, CA)\; Alissa Firth-Eagland and Jo han Lundh (Grenoble\, FR and New York\, US)\; Hadley + Maxwell (Berlin\, DE )\; Candice Hopkins (Ottawa\, CA)\; Fiona Jeffries (New York\, US)\; Am Joh al (Vancouver\, CA)\; Laiwan (Vancouver\, CA)\; Randy Lee Cutler (Vancouver \, CA)\; Kristina Lee Podesva (Vancouver\, CA)\; Glen Lowry (Vancouver\, CA )\; Tom Sherman (Syracuse\, US)\; Matthew Soules (Vancouver\, CA)\; Monika Szewczyk (Berlin\, DE and Rotterdam\, NL)\; Althea Thauberger (Vancouver\, CA)\; Henry Tsang (Vancouver\, CA)\, Urban Subjects: Jeff Derksen\, Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber (Vancouver\, CA and Vienna\, AT)\; and Amy Zion (Va ncouver\, CA).
Learning from Vancouver is produced with the generous support of a Canada Council for the Arts Media Arts Dissemination Project Grant and the Mondriaan Foundation.
The Western Front gratefu lly acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts\, the BC Ar ts Council through the Government of British Columbia\, the City of Vancouv er\, Direct Access Gaming\, our members and volunteers. The Western Front i s a member of the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC).
Learning from Vancouver includes the work of University of British Columbia MFA alumnus Kristina Lee Podesva.