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| Let's Twist Again |
| Exhibition: July 31 - September 25, 2010 |
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| Centre A presents The Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art will celebrate the tenth anniversary of its gallery, Centre A, with a retrospective exhibition and a symposium that will connect the cultural development of Vancouver to global changes in contemporary art. The project will have two major components, an exhibition, opening July 30, called "The Dig", and a symposium, called "The Twister", at Simon Fraser University's Wosk Centre for Dialogue, September 17 and 18, 2010. An online component will enable networked discussion and exchange. http://digcentrea.tk Private funding for the project is provided by generous gifts from Lead Patron, Anndraya T. Luui, and Symposium Patrons, Mark Allison and Stephanie Holmquist. Public support comes from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council and the City of Vancouver. The symposium will take place in the the Asia-Pacific Hall of the Wosk Centre for Dialogue at SFU. This is made possible by a Bruce and Lis Welch Community Award and a grant from the Office of the President of Simon Fraser University. The symposium celebrates the opening of Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts in the Woodwards Building The presentation of distinguished keynote speaker, David Elliott takes is co-presented the Curatorial Lecture Series of the University of British Columbia, with the support of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Department of Anthropology, the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies and the Faculty of Arts at The University of British Columbia. Curator Contact: Makiko Hara, Debra Zhou, Hank Bull - 604-683-8326 Part 1: EXHIBITION The Dig This exhibition will search the past for clues to the future. Since Centre A opened its doors in the summer of 2000, it has acquired a considerable, if informal, collection. Stored in boxes and back rooms, these archives are packed with history. For the archaeologist, this is a gold mine. Digging through the midden, piecing together fragments, making connections and discovering treasures, a culture comes to life and its story can be told. Over the summer of 2010, Centre A will conduct an excavation on itself, sorting through paintings, props, photographs, media works, sculpture, objects and documents. Once laid out, this history will be made visible from a new, all-of-a-sudden, perspective. The gallery will be packed with an astonishing array of objects and information, including works by Hong Hao, Nobuo Kubota, Shen Yuan, Germaine Koh, Sharmila Samant, Yang Jiechang, Koki Tanaka, Khan Lee, Roy Caussy, Jinhan Koh, Santiago Bose, Mo S'alemy, Leung Chi-Wo, Babak Golkar and many others. The gallery will be divided into a number of discursive spaces: a cinema, a café, a library, a bookstore, a lounge and a radio station. Publications and limited editions will be available for sale. Video in the gallery, and on the website, will feature highlights from past performances, lectures, symposia and interviews with key contributors. Let's Twist Again will be both a celebration of past achievement and a platform for imagining the future. For photos from the exhibition, please check out Centre A Flickr Part II: SYMPOSIUM The Twister Centre A was launched in May, 2000, with a symposium called Twisting the Box. Issues raised at this conference informed the development of Centre A. Ten years later, The Twister will examine the history and the future of Centre A within the context of international contemporary art, new technologies and Vancouver's rapidly changing cultural landscape. An evening keynote address by distinguished curator David Elliott will be followed by a full day of discussion. The symposium will make the most of the Asia Pacific Hall's unique design to stimulate an inclusive dialogue.
KEY NOTE SPEAKER: David Elliot Wounds, Happiness, Distance This lecture looks at three seminal exhibitions curated by David Elliott in three different cities that all aspire in different ways to reflect and describe the conditions of contemporary art as well as their relationship to the city and region in which they were made. The exhibitions were "Wounds: between democracy and redemption in contemporary art" (Stockholm,1998); "Happiness: a survival guide for art and life" (Tokyo, 2003); and "The Beauty of Distance. Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age" (Sydney Biennale, 2010). Introduction by Skeena Reece, artist, participant in the 17th Sydney Biennale
Saturday September 18 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Art and Globalization Moderator: Makiko Hara, Curator Centre A World maps of contemporary art have shifted dramatically since Tiananmen and the fall of the Berlin Wall. How does Vancouver situate itself amid these changes? What are the implications for the making of art and the production of artists? 2:00 - 3:30pm #artfutures DJ (discourse jockey): Debra Zhou, Assistant Curator, Centre A Global networks and social media are transforming the art world. What is their impact on the deisn of museums, cultural policy, education and arts funding? How are Vancouver artists responding to global issues and local pressures? A mix of live and online elements. 4:00 - 5:30pm Cultural Capital Moderator: Hank Bull, Executive Director, Centre A Vancouver is in the grips of a city-wide debate about the place of arts and culture in the city's vision of its future. What kind of spaces are we building for art? What does Vancouver have to say to the world? This closing discussion will consider these questions and identify the next steps forward.
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS The symposium features speakers who will kindle discussion with short interventions, as well as "active listeners" invited to contribute to the ensuing dialogue. Those interested in speaking are invited to submit proposals for short interventions. The following speakers are confirmed. Jo-Anne Bernie Danzker, Director, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, former Director, Vancouver Art Gallery Sabine Bitter, Artist, Director, the Audain Gallery, Simon Fraser University Hank Bull, executive Director, Centre A Randy Gledhill, Artist, Director, Live Biennale Francisco Granados, Artist. Master of Fine Arts program, University of Toronto Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator, Vancouver Art Gallery Makiko Hara, Curator, Centre A Ray Hsu, Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow, Creative Writing Department, University of British Columbia Brian McBay, Arts administrator, co-founder 221A Artist-Run Centre Jesse McKee, Curator of Visual Arts, Western Front Society Jonathan Middleton, Director, Or Gallery, Vice President of PAARC and representative to ARCA Alice Ming Wai Jim, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Concordia University Ken Lum, Artist Liz Park, Independent curator, Public Programmer, Vancouver Art Gallery Sadira Rodrigues, Director of Continuing Studies, Emily Carr University of Art and Design Maiko Tanaka, Curator-in-residence, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Board Member, Gendai Gallery, Toronto Keith Wallace, Editor-in-Chief, Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Scott Watson, Director, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia Yan Wu, Independent curator, writer, Board Member, Gendai Gallery, Toronto Jin-me Yoon, Artist, Professor, Visual Arts Department, Simon Fraser University Zheng Shengtian, Managing Editor, Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Victor Wang, Executive Director, Make Art History, Director, HERE IS NOW Ying Kwok, curator, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK Debra Zhou, Assistant Curator, Centre A And more to be confirmed.
NETWORKING The symposium will be preceded by a blog and streamed live to the Internet. Participation in the event will be possible by Skype and Twitter. The proceedings will edited and archived on Centre A's website. LUNCH The symposium will include time for casual conversation, conviviality and celebration. PATRONS Let's Twist Again is made possible in part by the generous support of the following individual patrons: Project Patron: Anndraya T. Luui Symposium Patrons: Mark Allison and Stephanie Holmquist REGISTRATION $40 tickets in clued keynote session, all-day symposium, refreshments and luncheon. Register online. www.centrea.org info@centrea.org FUNDERS |
