Yvonne Rainer, a co-founding member of the Judson Dance Theater in 1962, made a transition to filmmaking following a fifteen-year career as a choreographer/dancer (1960-1975). After making seven experimental feature films  — “Lives of Performers” (1972), “Privilege” (1990), “MURDER and murder” (1996), among others — she returned to dance in 2000 via a commission from the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation for the White Oak Dance Project (“After Many a Summer Dies the Swan”).

Radical Acts, scheduled in conjunction with the exhibition Introducing Suzy Lake and Feminist Art Gallery (FAG)’s residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario, will explore questions of feminism, performance, and self-representation raised by the exhibition. What is a radical act? Who is visible? Who is invisible? How do we redress the incomplete history on display in most museums?

Jean-Michel Basquiat took the New York City art world by storm in the early 1980s and gained international recognition for his powerful and expressive works that confronted issues of racism, identity and social tension. On the occasion of the first major retrospective of the artist's work in Canada, we gathered together artists, writers, historians and other creative thinkers to consider the legacy of Basquiat’s work and its relevance today.

Filmed: Wednesday, April 22, 2015
5:30 - 6:30 pm
Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario

Throughout the 20th Century, Kodak was a primary force in shaping the practices of amateur photography, actively influencing the practices of family and personal photography with its concept of the “Kodak moment.”  In the postwar period, its counterpart Polaroid emerged to sell the idea of photography as instant, key to parties, sex, and art.  Yet, in the early 2000s, both companies went bankrupt, right at the moment when social media such as Facebook and Google aim to shape the practices of personal and family photography.

In this illustrated presentation, Professor James Young will trace the “arc of memorial vernacular" from World War I forms such as Lutyens's Battle of the Somme memorial, to Henri Pingusson's "Memorial to the Deportees" in Paris, to Maya Lin's "Vietnam Veterans' Monument. He will look at the way these forms lead to and underpin contemporary memorials, counter-monuments, and their processes, such as Berlin's Denkmal to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the National September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero in New York City.  

Using the photographs of Henryk Ross as a starting point, artists, educators, and researchers will consider the role of image making as an act of resistance, the importance of creating and sharing visual records, and how the creative application of technological tools can spread awareness and affect social change.

Gerardo Mosquera reflects on his experience as a co-founder of the Havana Biennial and a participant in the curatorial team of the three first editions. Mosquera examines the Havana Biennale’s collective creation of a new internationalism in art in the framework of Cold War’s Cuba and its Third World politics, and the contradictions involved.

In conjunction with From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia, join us as artists, writers and curators offer their insights into the work of Emily Carr. Featuring filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal, Kwakwaka'wakw artist Corrine Hunt, curator Sarah Milroy, artists Silke Otto-Knapp and Jessica Stockholder, writers Susan Crean and Susan Musgrave.

Swedish-born, Berlin-based artist Karl Holmqvist uses a wide range of formats—poetry readings, installation and sculpture—to explore the qualities of language.  Investigating the transformative potentials of language, Holmqvist believes in the act of listening as a counter balance to the more isolating and authoritative qualities of the written word.  Holmqvist will be reading new and recent work.