Co-Relations

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Opening day at the Auto BLDG, 9th floor as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

The workshop on Thursday, November 14 will take place in the Music Room (located on the second floor) and the workshop on Friday, November 22 will take place in the East Common Room (located on the first floor).

This workshop invites a group of intergenerational adults to dance together, creating a space to embody questions: How do we dance through inevitable transitions of ageing, whatever age you are? What can the ageing body teach us between generations? What does it need from us, and how can it support us in the society we live in?

Intergenerational spaces are among the oldest forms of learning and development across cultures. This workshop honours this tradition, beginning with meditation, grounding stretches and gentle breathing exercises to foster ease and mobility. Through creative movement guidance, participants will Dance while practicing intergenerational empathy, fostering understanding, connection and joy.

This inclusive workshop is open to individuals of all backgrounds, including participants with disabilities and those using mobility aids such as walkers, canes, and wheelchairs. No prior dance experience is needed. Join us in a supportive environment where we can explore and celebrate the wisdom and vitality of the ageing body together.

Note: Participants are not required, but are encouraged, to attend both workshops. See “Related Programming” below for more information.

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MOSSBELLY is an intergenerational performance and choreographic meditation on our human connection to land, plant life, nature and time.

This program is part of Keeping Time, a workshop series that centres embodied learning by inviting intergenerational audiences of all abilities to pay special attention to time, space and movement through somatic learning and unlearning.

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This program is presented in partnership with Hart House and the Institute for Dance Studies.

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Jingshu Yao leading a Storytelling Session at 32 Lisgar Ave for the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Opening day at the Auto BLDG, 9th floor as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

In this skill-building workshop, participants will explore how art and impactful visual language amplify social movements. Participants will make their own media, inspired by the history of: zines, wheatpasting, and related democratic multiples produced in the context of queer, trans, Black, and Indigenous liberation movements, and their intersections with local and international struggles against imperialist, settler colonial, ableist, and capitalist violence.

Over the course of the workshop, participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of relief printmaking, including carving techniques, positive and negative space, and inking. Participants will work in groups to brainstorm visual imagery used for social movements of their choosing. They will then carve their own stamps and share their created visual symbols with each other to make posters. Participants can take their stamps home, so that they can make prints and intervene in public space in perpetuity.

Note: Capacity is limited. Please Register to secure your spot.

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This series of artist-led workshops consider how expressions of voice operate “off the page” to explore the world-shaping power of narrative, which continues to be urgent amidst ongoing colonial violences. Participants will experiment with the influence of language, media, and art on how stories and knowledge are acted upon, shaped, and recorded. Through a lens of embodied and collective critical practices, these workshops ask: How do we seek the difficult questions? How do we recuperate images from the gazes of their uncomfortable archives? How can visual print media and protest intervene in everyday life, through web-like ways? How does your voice influence your surroundings?

This program is co-produced in partnership with C Magazine.

Visual artist Ness Lee and Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT) come together to imagine a performance that will gently move through the Biennial’s exhibition space at 32 Lisgar, with seven performers interacting with Ness’ distinctive sculptures and objects. Finding moments of intimacy between their bodies and the plush characters Ness creates, the dancers will animate the gallery through a tender parade, embodying the breath of space as a momentary feeling of one another.

Note: This performance is drop-in. Registration is not required.

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This program is a part of Your Timing is Perfect: Moments and Movements of Inquiry, a performance series in which artists investigate the body as a living archive, exploring its extraordinary strength and resilience, as well as its tenderness, vulnerability, and limitations.

This program is presented in partnership with the Toronto Dance Theatre and is made possible through the generous support of the Lindy Green Family Foundation.

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Toronto Dance Theatre is the legendary artistic home, where since 1968, curious creators, ensemble performers, and audiences inspire each other through forward thinking choreography and embodied experiences. Under the Artistic Direction of Andrew Tay, the company plays a pivotal role as an incubator for boundary-pushing contemporary dance and performance, supporting the development of local artists and connecting the Toronto dance scene to national and international communities. Interested in sparking important conversations around dance and performance in society, TDT is unique as one of the rare companies in Canada supporting a full time ensemble of dancers.

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Jingshu Yao leading a Storytelling Session at 32 Lisgar Ave for the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Opening day at the Auto BLDG, 9th floor as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

Join Storyteller Jingshu every Sunday at 32 Lisgar St for a drop-in writing circle that will spark your creativity!

Schedule:

• 12:30pm: Meet inside Pamila Matharu’s installation, tere naal _ with you (2024), where Jingshu and Siki will start their tour of the exhibition, highlighting a selection of artworks and artists to inspire the following writing session.
• 1:30-2:30pm: Following the tour, Jingshu and Siki will facilitate a drop-in writing session. After some quiet time for writing, participants will be encouraged to share in a casual discussion, depending on their comfort level.

Everyone is welcome and no prior creative writing experience is required. This program does not require registration and those interested are free to drop in at any time. Writing materials will be provided.

Image credit: Storytelling in Pamila Matharu’s installation tere naal _ with you (2024) at 32 Lisgar St, 2024. Photography: Jingshu Yao.

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Opening day at the Auto BLDG, 9th floor as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

Visual artist Ness Lee and Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT) come together to imagine a performance that will gently move through the Biennial’s exhibition space at 32 Lisgar, with seven performers interacting with Ness’ distinctive sculptures and objects. Finding moments of intimacy between their bodies and the plush characters Ness creates, the dancers will animate the gallery through a tender parade, embodying the breath of space as a momentary feeling of one another.

Note: This performance is drop-in. Registration is not required.

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This program is a part of Your Timing is Perfect: Moments and Movements of Inquiry, a performance series in which artists investigate the body as a living archive, exploring its extraordinary strength and resilience, as well as its tenderness, vulnerability, and limitations.

This program is presented in partnership with the Toronto Dance Theatre and is made possible through the generous support of the Lindy Green Family Foundation.

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Toronto Dance Theatre is the legendary artistic home, where since 1968, curious creators, ensemble performers, and audiences inspire each other through forward thinking choreography and embodied experiences. Under the Artistic Direction of Andrew Tay, the company plays a pivotal role as an incubator for boundary-pushing contemporary dance and performance, supporting the development of local artists and connecting the Toronto dance scene to national and international communities. Interested in sparking important conversations around dance and performance in society, TDT is unique as one of the rare companies in Canada supporting a full time ensemble of dancers.

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Jingshu Yao leading a Storytelling Session at 32 Lisgar Ave for the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

At our third Biennial, local multidisciplinary artists have been commissioned as Storytellers to develop participatory sessions informed by their personal insights and experiences of the city and will lead visitors through the exhibition artists’ installations, research, and perspectives. They will offer both booked and drop-in walks and conversations to intergenerational audiences regularly throughout the duration of the Biennial.

Contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to book a free group Storytelling tour for your school, organization, or community space.

Image Caption: Opening day at the Auto BLDG, 9th floor as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art. Photography: Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

The Curatorial Encounters program series invites all members of the arts community and the general public to meet and converse with the 2024 exhibition curators.

For the first three Curatorial Encounters, the 2024 exhibition curators – in dialogue with artists, collaborators, and other TBA staff – hosted iterative conversations focused on the curatorial process and building of the 2024 Biennial.

Led by Dominique Fontaine, this final edition of Curatorial Encounters highlights the impact that the Biennial artists have on Toronto, focusing on west end venues Gallery TPW and the Auto BLDG at 158 Sterling Rd.

West End Tour Schedule:

• 11am: Tour at Gallery TPW, featuring the works of Abraham O. Oghobase, Manuel Mathieu, Nicholas Galanin
• 12-12:30pm: Walking to The Auto BLDG at 158 Sterling Rd
• 12:30-1:30pm: Tour of The Auto BLDG at 158 Sterling Rd, featuring the works of Angelica Serech, Cristina Flores Pescorán, Elina Waage Mikalsen, Gaëlle Choisne, Hangama Amiri, Rudy Loewe, Sameer Farooq, Sandra Brewster, Santiago Yahuarcani, Stina Baudin

Note: Registration is not required to attend, but is strongly recommended and will allow registrants to receive important updates about the Program. Register via Eventbrite.

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For information about Precarious Joys: The East End Tour, taking place on Saturday, October 4, please visit the What’s On page or “Related Programming” below.

This program is co-presented with Gallery TPW.

Image credit: A Walk Across Space and Time, Toronto Biennial of Art, 2019. Photography: Yuula Benivolski.

Artists Peter Morin and Jimmie Kilpatrick are friends who share an abiding love for karaoke and present it through their ongoing artistic collaboration, Love Songs to End Colonization, a participatory karaoke project founded in kindness, joy, futurity, and engaging a collective voice through singing. Repurposing popular love songs, this project critiques, confronts, and dismantles the historical notions and the current presence of settler colonialism and utilizes karaoke as a methodology for social change. Listeners are invited to perform a song, sing-along, clap, dance, or simply witness and soak in love and music to dismantle colonialism, one love song at a time.

“For those three minutes you are a star, and you feel like a star. And the people watching realize that they are watching a star. This performance is guided by those three minutes, and in those minutes we offer the singer a chance to reframe their relationship to colonization and the act of decolonizing in Canada.” — Peter Morin & Jimmie Kilpatrick

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Ticket Information:

• Tickets go on sale on November 12 at 11am and will be released through Theatrecentre.org! Check back here for the registration link.
• Tickets for this program are pay-what-you-can in support of the Toronto Biennial of Art and its commitment to continue offering free ticket options to its public programs.

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Presented in partnership with The Theatre Centre and generously supported by Dancemakers.

Image credit: Love Songs to End Colonization, Peter Morin and Jimmie Kilpatrick. Presented at the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, 2022. Photography: Matt Horseman.