September 21 – December 1, 2019
New Mineral Collective is the largest and least productive mining company in the world. The company provides counter- prospecting operations and geo-trauma healing therapies at 259 Lake Shore Blvd E and Small Arms. This video installation, Pleasure Prospects, follows the process of acquiring prospecting licenses for alternative values and takes a critical look at “perforated landscapes”—land altered by extractive industries.
Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art with generous support from the Office of Contemporary Art Norway.
Credits & Acknowledgments:
Directors: Tanya Busse & Emilija Škarnulytė; Editing: Matthew Doyle; DOP: Polina Teif, Colin Medley; Drone Operator: Vlad Lunin; Second Drone DOP: Shawn Beringer; Sound: Jokūbas Čižikas; Field Recorders: Alex Williams, Deirdre Morrison; Exhibition Design: Linas Lapinskas, Vsevolodas Kovalevskis.
Special thanks:
Performers: Lauren Runions, Jamee Valens, Oriah Wiersma, Nyda Kwasowsky, Maurícia Barreira Neves, Joana Castro, Ashes Perez, Emily Law, Kiera Boult; Synchronized Swimmers: Olympium Synchro Club and Cosette Le Blanc; Hydrotherapy performed by: Alison Creba; Watersuit and head cap: compliments of In Sync; Performance artist: Tess Martens; Swimsuit design & performance consultant: Caroline St. Laurent; Artist assistant: Elizabeth Sullivan; Acupuncturist: Laura Kaufer; Assistant I: Layne Hinton; Assistant II: Lucia Stevens; Costume Design: Lee Dekel; Costumes: 100% Silk; University of Toronto Lassonde Institute of Mining; Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources.
Bio
New Mineral Collective is an artist duo formed by Tanya Busse (born in 1982, Moncton, Canada; lives in Tromsø, Norway) and Emilija Škarnulytė (born in 1987, Vilnius, Lithuania; lives in Tromsø, Norway). Their work looks at contemporary landscape politics to better understand the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth’s surface. As an organism, NMC infiltrates the extractive industry with alternative forces such as desire, body mining and acts of counter-prospecting.
Exhibition Site
259 Lake Shore Blvd East
The life of this nondescript building reveals the area’s economic history. Its first tenant in 1945, the Standard Chemical Company, produced methanol, formaldehyde, and charcoal. A railway line to the south tethered the site to the movement of goods. By 1954, the building was divided into a warehouse and a showroom, a configuration that remained intact over the course of various leaseholders, including oil and electrical supply companies and a series of car dealerships. (The advertising of its most recent tenant, Volvo, is still visible on the façade.) This building’s fate is indeterminate, as real estate development is increasingly filling the voids left by industrial decline.
259 Lake Shore Blvd East
Toronto ON
M5A 3T7