TRAFFIC: Public Events
25th January, 2012
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE EXHIBITION
TRAFFIC : CONCEPTUAL ART IN CANADA 1965-1980
Lecture by Adam Welch
BOUNDARY DISPUTES: CANADIAN AND AMERICAN ART AROUND CONCEPTUALISM
Wednesday February 1 at 6 pm
At the Gallery
FREE ADMISSION
Beginning in the late 1960s, artists working in Canada initiated a dialogue with their American counterparts that was, in many ways, unprecedented. Many took up the figure of the border as a means of reflecting on this newfound, and often fraught, transnational relationship. This talk will trace a few of these cases—including works by General Idea, Greg Curnoe, Dennis Oppenheim and Carl Andre—which engaged explicitly with the international boundary. Such engagements open onto larger political debates of the period: deep-seated fears of American cultural imperialism and a concomitant Canadian nationalism.
Adam Welch is a doctoral candidate in Art History at the University of Toronto; his dissertation is entitled Borderline Research: Art between Canada and the United States, 1965–1980. His writing centres on minimal, conceptual and institution critical art, as well as art systems and networks among artists, curators, museums, galleries and artist-run centres. His MA thesis from Columbia University was an account of the technological work of Vancouver-based artist Rodney Graham. Welch has worked in curatorial departments at the National Gallery of Canada, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and most recently at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto.
Lecture by Jean-Philippe Warren
LES HIPPIES QUÉBÉCOIS: TENDANCES LOCALES D’UN PHÉNOMÈNE GLOBAL
Wednesday February 8 at 6 pm
At the Gallery, in French
FREE ADMISSION
Other than a few superficial generalizations, little is known about the Québec hippies of the 1970s. Although it was part of a global – mainly American – phenomenon, the Québec hippie movement was also part of a local context. In this regard, the social and political career of Pierre Vallières can serve as an example: a former editor of Cité libre who became a terrorist leader, Vallières then became involved with the counter-culture. How did this transition occur? What were the steps and the notable influences? In reconsidering this period, which was colourful – to say the least – Jean-Philippe Warren describes one dimension of a changing Québec whose place in recent history we tend to underestimate.
Jean-Philippe Warren is Associate Professor of Sociology and holds the University Research Chair on the Study of Québec in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. In 2010-2011 he held the Contemporary Quebec Chair at the Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3). Author of more than 150 scholarly articles, he has published on a wide variety of subjects related to the history of Québec, including Native peoples, social movements, pop culture, youth, the Roman Catholic Church, and the arts. His work has appeared in literary, sociology, history, religion, literary, and anthropology journals. His book L’Engagement sociologique was awarded the Clio Prize and the Prix Michel-Brunet in 2003. Among his latest publications is L’Art vivant. Autour de Paul-Émile Borduas (2011).
Image: Bill Vazan, Canada Line, 1970. Courtesy of Bill Vazan and VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine.
