Calendar

Aki Onda has channelled the spirit of the late Korean artist Nam June Paik via radio transmission in Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me (2017/2021). Paik is known for his association with shamanism, a practice that consistently surfaces in his works. With a portable radio in hand, Onda communicates with his spirit from a distance—collecting field recordings of cryptic broadcasts and messages on anonymous radio stations. The series of séances has been conducted in different cities across the globe, beginning in Seoul, Korea in 2010 and continuing in Cologne, Germany in 2012, Wrocław, Poland in 2013, and Lewisburg, United States in 2014. This work was originally commissioned by documenta 14’s radio program Every Time A Ear di Soun in 2017.

From March 26 to June 5, 2022, Aki Onda will present Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me through microbroadcasting and printed matter at the Toronto Biennial of Art. Broadcasting over two frequencies (88.5 FM and 106.5 FM) that cover the exhibition site of 72 Perth Ave in Toronto, radios are placed as part of the exhibition to symbolize sound waves in the air. The audio work exists as invisible yet discrete and perceptible through the proper medium, recalling the ritual of channeling spirits. Bring your own radio to catch the frequencies.

Onda is also bringing Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me to the international radio waves in a series of international public programs. The program will play, uninterrupted and in its entirety of 50 minutes. For Onda, those broadcasts are a response to how Nam June Paik spread his ideas through TV cable networks and connected to a large number of people at a global scale.

Made possible by the generous support of The Japan Foundation.

Curated by 2019 and 2022 Biennial contributors Jane Wolff and Susan Schwartzenberg, Toronto Landscape Observatory is both an installation and a collection of tools, walks, workshops, and conversations designed to help Biennial visitors recognize, acknowledge, and understand their relationships to this place—and to other people who care about it. From May 1–June 5, 2022, the Observatory will host weekly programs to investigate the surroundings of the Biennial site at 72 Perth Avenue and draw attention to processes, phenomena, and connections that often go unnoticed. In examining the land and its relationships as they are today, the Observatory looks toward a future made uncertain by local and global change, from development pressures to the climate emergency. It invites visitors to contribute their own observations to an open vocabulary for imagining possibilities that are kinder, more just, and more resilient than the status quo.

Toronto Landscape Observatory is supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Office of the Vice-President, International, University of Toronto.

Programming

Toronto Landscape Observatory walks and workshops are held every Sunday from 2-4pm for the duration of the installation at 72 Perth Avenue. For a full list of programs, see below:

May 1: A Conversation about Language and Landscape with James Bird

May 8: An Observing Walk with Jane Wolff and Susan Schwartzenberg

May 15: A Conversation about Being in Place with Dr. Jennifer Wemigwans

May 22: Workshop: Measuring a Leaf with Alexander Moyle 

May 29: A Listening Walk with Sherry Lee and Emily MacCallum

June 5: A Walk to Greet Plants with Lorraine Johnson

Image credit: Aaron Hernandez

On the occasion of the second edition of the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA), TBA and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) are partnering to present a free public talk by Judy Chicago. Chicago is joined by TBA Senior Curator, Candice Hopkins for a conversation around her celebrated career and major TBA commission, A Tribute to Toronto, moderated by the AGO’s Xiaoyu Weng, Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art.

This program is presented in partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario.

A Tribute to Toronto (2022) is commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and made possible with the generous support of the City of Toronto, ArtworxTO, Waterfront Toronto, Waterfront BIA, Menkes Developments, the Delaney Family Foundation, and the Women Leading Initiative.

Join us for a special screening of Joar Nango and Ken Are Bongo’s Episode 6 of Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV. The screening will be followed by a conversation led by Toronto Biennial of Art Senior Curator Candice Hopkins and special guests. 

June 2^nd in the lobby of MOCA Toronto. Free screening begins at 4:30pm with conversation to follow. 

Toronto’s ravine system is both location and subject for Joar Nango and Ken Are Bongo’s newest episode of Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV, jointly commissioned and presented by AGYU, Evergreen, and the Toronto Biennial of Art. 

Episode 6 of Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV is set in the Don River Valley. The episode continues the series’ variety show format, featuring interviews, by local knowledge holders and those invested in the ravine’s ecosystems, including Bonnie Devine, Ange Loft, Adrian Blackwell, Amish Morrell, Dayna Danger, among many others, that speak to and document the ravine systems as architecture, as a place of formal and informal building practices, resistance, and refuge. Episode 6 is also centred on how the ravines are a contingent archive of colonialism, gentrification, and Indigenous knowledge.

A thematic video series, Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV documents Indigenous architectures from mobile Sámi fishing huts to questioning, and embodying decoloniality as a global manifestation. The TV series began in 2020 following Nango’s travels across northern Norway in an aging and modified cargo van. 

The Ravine Screenings developed and unfolded from May 5 to May 17 as Nango and Bongo worked in the ravines and meet with locals. Their new production culminated in a site specific installation and gathering space constructed by Nango and collaborators in the ravine system in the Don Valley. This special screening of episode 6 marks the final Toronto Biennial curated event hosted within Jeffrey Gibson’s evolving installation, I AM YOUR RELATIVE. This event is co-presented by AGYU, Evergreen Public Art Program, and The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto.

Join us at Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto for Storytelling sessions led by Emily DiCarlo.

Storytelling sessions combine modes of conventional interpretation with artist-led, narrative and embodied responses. Storytellers offer weekly guided sessions, informal conversations, and spot tours to intergenerational audiences at TBA’s main sites. Sharing personal insights and experiences of the city as well as offering perspectives on the artworks within the exhibitions, they guide visitors through the research and artist practises that form What Water Knows, The Land Remembers.

Weekly Schedule
Fridays: 11am–12pm
Saturdays: 11am–12pm and 2–3pm

Note: For the last weekend of the 2022 Biennial, Storytelling will be available on Friday, June 3rd and Sunday, June 5th.

American Sign Language Interpretation
The following Storytelling Session at Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto will be accompanied by an ASL–English interpreter:

• Saturday, May 21, 2022, 11am-12pm.

On from April 1st–June 5th, 2022.

Join us at the Small Arms Inspection Building in Mississauga for Storytelling sessions led by lwrds duniam and Nicole Markland.

Storytelling sessions combine modes of conventional interpretation with artist-led, narrative and embodied responses. Storytellers offer weekly guided sessions, informal conversations, and spot tours to intergenerational audiences at TBA’s main sites. Sharing personal insights and experiences of the city as well as offering perspectives on the artworks within the exhibitions, they guide visitors through the research and artist practises that form What Water Knows, The Land Remembers.

Weekly Schedule
Fridays: 11am–12pm, 2–3pm, and 4–5pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 11am–12pm and 4–5pm

On from April 1st–June 5th, 2022.

American Sign Language Interpretation​
The following Storytelling Sessions at the Small Arms Inspection Building will be accompanied by an ASL–English interpreter:

• Saturday, April 23, 2022, 4-5pm.
• Saturday, May 21, 2022, 11am-12pm.

Image credit: Storytelling at the Small Arms Inspection Building with Jeffrey Gibson’s ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL, 2015. Photography by Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias.

Join us at 72 Perth Ave for Storytelling sessions led by Jeffrey Canton and Melissa Davidson.

Storytelling sessions combine modes of conventional interpretation with artist-led, narrative and embodied responses. Storytellers offer weekly guided sessions, informal conversations, and spot tours to intergenerational audiences at TBA’s main sites. Sharing personal insights and experiences of the city as well as offering perspectives on the artworks within the exhibitions, they guide visitors through the research and artist practises that form What Water Knows, The Land Remembers.

Weekly Schedule
Fridays 11am–12pm, 2–3pm, and 6:30–7:30pm
Saturdays and Sundays from 11am–12pm and 4–5pm

On from April 1st–June 5th, 2022.

American Sign Language Interpretation
The following Storytelling Sessions at 72 Perth will be accompanied by an ASL–English interpreter:

• Friday, April 29, 2022, 6-7pm.
• Friday, May 13, 2022, 6-7pm
• Friday, May 27, 2022, 2-3pm.

2022 Biennial artist Buhlebezwe Siwani is joined by Dr. George Mahashe for an intimate conversation that brings together Mahashe’s ongoing research at the intersection of artistic practice, archives, and anthropology with Siwani’s work, which interrogates the patriarchal framing of the Black female body and experience within the South African context. Moderated by curator Emilie Croning, this discussion will move through tributaries of thought such as Siwani’s artistic practice on rituality, their collaborations on works such as Siwani’s Sinje Ngamajuba, and the relationship between Christianity and African spirituality with a focus on khelobedu. The program will open with a Chivanhhu-centred opening ceremony led by musician, storyteller, and lecturer Dr. Moyo Rainos Mutamba.

This program is part of We Might Listen for the Shimmerings, a curatorial project organized by Chiedza Pasipanodya, as part of the 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art Curatorial Fellowship program, made possible by the generous support of TD Bank Group, through the TD Ready Commitment, and presented in partnership with Wedge Curatorial Projects, and the Toronto Arts Council.

Join 2022 Biennial artist Syrus Marcus Ware and actors Dainty Smith and Ravyn Wngz for a staged reading of the complete performance of MBL: Freedom (2022), an interactive film experience reflecting on climate change, white supremacy, abolition, and disability justice, currently on view at the Small Arms Inspection Building.

MBL: Freedom presents the newest chapter of Ware’s expansive, interdisciplinary, multi-year project that predicts a near-future taking place between the years 2025 and 2027, wherein Antarctica has become the only habitable place on the planet. In it, three Black, Indigenous, and POC Antarcticans abandon their mission to colonize Antarctica, swimming in icy waters toward the only part of the continent not claimed by a country, “Mary Bird Land,” or MBL. The three set out to create a territory for all activists and abolitionists to be free in, but when they land on the shores of MBL, they make an unexpected discovery that changes their trajectory.

On the first Saturday of each month during the Toronto Biennial of Art, Ware and fellow artists, activists and organizers gather for a hybrid series of workshops and performances that invite participants to consider the future, the stakes at present, and our collective freedoms. Drawing on prevalent concepts explored within Ware’s MBL: Freedom, participants will be led through a series of critical thinking exercises and activities that will aim to explore abolition, crip and disability justice and futures, climate change, and building futures together where we take care of each other.

Image Caption: Dainty Smith as Jessica and Ravyn Wngz as Sabian. Syrus Marcus Ware, MBL: Freedom, 2022, Film and mixed medium installation. Cinematography by Mishann Lau. Photo by Roxanne Fernandes. Courtesy of the artist.

Timing:
DJ and Bar opens at 7pm
Performance begins at dusk

Marking the closing of the 2022 edition, the Toronto Biennial of Art presents a newly commissioned site-specific work by artist Judy Chicago. This one-of-a-kind Smoke Sculpture™ will be visible from the shore of Lake Ontario, as a series of environmentally safe, non-toxic coloured smokes are released from a barge. For this one-time performance, the public is invited to gather at the waterfront to see the lake and sky transformed. Harkening back to Chicago’s Atmospheres photo series of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which sought to soften and “feminize” harsh, man-made environments, A Tribute to Toronto, 2022 works against the tradition of male Land Art artists whose work imposed itself on the earth. Instead, Chicago’s performance offers an alternative and impermanent approach that merges colour with landscape to increase awareness of the beauty of our natural environment.

For additional information on Judy Chicago’s performance, please click here.

A Tribute to Toronto is commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and made possible with the generous support of the City of Toronto, ArtworxTO, the Delaney Family Foundation, Menkes Developments, Waterfront Toronto, the Waterfront BIA, and the Women Leading Initiative.

Join us at 5 Lower Jarvis for Storytelling sessions led by Emily DiCarlo.

Storytelling sessions combine modes of conventional interpretation with artist-led, narrative and embodied responses. Storytellers offer weekly guided sessions, informal conversations, and spot tours to intergenerational audiences at TBA’s main sites. Sharing personal insights and experiences of the city as well as offering perspectives on the artworks within the exhibitions, they guide visitors through the research and artist practises that form What Water Knows, The Land Remembers.

Schedule:
Sundays from 11am–12pm and 2–3pm

Note: For the last week of the 2022 Biennial, Storytelling will be available at 5 Lower Jarvis on Saturday, June 4th. 

The Toronto Biennial of Art will celebrate the closing of the 2022 edition with a family- and youth- friendly BBQ for neighbours and those further afield. Enjoy great food and an array of participatory activities including Storytelling tours of the exhibition at the Small Arms Inspection Building, interactive walks focusing on the building’s history and the Indigenous history of its grounds, as well as pop-up stations with hands-on, intergenerational art-making workshops. This event also marks the official launch of A Treaty Guide for Torontonians—an activity-based publication by the Talking Treaties Collective examining the complex intercultural roots of treaty relationships in the place we now call Toronto.

Schedule

• 9:00am–2:00pm – Lakeview Farmers’ Market
  Stationed in the outdoor parking lot of the Small Arms Inspection Building, Lakeview Farmers’ Market will feature local, sustainable, organic, and artisanal products, which provide an important source of income for local farmers, growers, producers, and artisans.




• 11:00am–12:00pm – ASL Interpreted TBA Storytelling
  Accompanied by an American Sign Language English interpreter, Storyteller Nicole Markland will guide visitors through the exhibition at Small Arms, offering personal insights and perspectives on the artworks, and delving into the research and artist practises that form What Water Knows, The Land Remembers. 




• 11:00am–5:00pm – Your Tkaronto Companion Guide Activity Table
  Stop by our outdoor activity table where Storyteller Melly Davidson will introduce visitors to Your Tkaronto Companion Guide: a series of three guidebooks exploring place- and arts- based explorations of the complex and contested ways the city of Toronto was established. Created collaboratively with the Talking Treaties Collective and inspired by the activities in their newly published book, A Treaty Guide for Torontonians, the guides serve as an experiential learning resource as part of the Biennial’s Mobile Arts Curriculum toolkit. 




• 12:00–2:00pm – Free public BBQ
  Enjoy a free meal in the sunshine, including burgers and hot dogs with fresh toppings and assorted beverages. Vegetarian options will be available.




• 12:00–4:00pm – VIBE Arts Family Workshops
  Join artist Jenny Chen for a drop-in art workshop. Participants are invited to create colourful abstract images on bristol board tiles in an activity that takes inspiration from the exhibition themes—such as land, displacement and migration.




• 1:00, 2:30, and 4:00pm – Walking tour of the history of the Indigenous Peoples of this Land with Eagle Spirits of the Great Waters
  Learn about the present-day and historical Indigenous presence in Mississauga and along the shores of Lake Ontario in this outdoor walking tour.




• 1:00, and 3:00pm – Lakeview walking tour: Past and Future with Lakeview Ratepayer’s Association
  Discover the rich history of the Lakeview neighbourhood, including the Small Arms Inspection Building, which was once a munitions plant during the Second World War in this walking tour.




• 1:00–2:00pm – A Treaty Guide for Torontonians Book Launch
  Celebrate the official book launch of A Treaty Guide for Torontonians with authors Ange Loft, Jill Carter, Martha Steigman, and Victoria Freeman of the Talking Treaties Collective, who will share the project’s background and how the publication came to be—plus, a dramatic reading of excerpts from the book featuring actor Jesse Wabegijig, followed by a live audience Q&A. 




• 4:00–5:00pm – TBA Storytelling with Nicole Markland

Co-presented in partnership with Oakville Galleries, the Biennial is offering a multi-site ARTbus Exhibition Tour which includes a stop at the Small Arms Inspection Building, where participants will be able to attend the closing BBQ and take part in the event programming. To learn more and register for the ARTbus Exhibition Tour, click here.

This event is co-presented in partnership with Art Metropole, Creative Hub 1352, Eagle Spirits of the Great Waters, Jumblies Theatre + Arts, Lakeview Ratepayer’s Association, and Small Arms Inspection Building, with the generous support of FRAM + Slokker, and the City of Mississauga.

Join us for a multi-exhibition tour of Oakville Galleries’ current exhibitions and Biennial sites. The ARTbus will pick up participants from 72 Perth Avenue and go to see Ange Loft’s DISH DANCES (created in collaboration with Jumblies Theatre & Arts) at the Fort York National Historic Site. The bus will continue to the Small Arms Inspection Building to tour the work of twelve artists as part of What Water Knows, The Land Remembers. Participants will also attend TBA’s Closing BBQ and Book Launch where they will have the opportunity to take part in various workshops and programs. Then it’s off to Oakville Galleries, where participants will visit the opening celebrations of solo exhibitions Tanya Lukin Linklater: My mind is with the weather at Centennial Square and Paul P.: Friendly in the Knife-Edged Moment at Gairloch Gardens.

Note: This ARTbus does not include a tour of the 72 Perth Avenue TBA site. Participants are encouraged to do a self-guided visit of the exhibition at 72 Perth Avenue prior to the ARTbus pick-up.

Schedule

• 12:00pm: Meet at 72 Perth Avenue for bus pick-up.
• 12:30pm: Visit TBA at the Fort York National Historic Site.
• 1:20pm: Visit TBA at the Small Arms Inspection Building.
• 2:50pm: Visit Tanya Lukin Linklater: My mind is with the weather at Oakville Galleries at Centennial Square.
• 3:30pm: Visit Paul P.: Friendly in the Knife-Edged Moment at Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens.
• 5:00pm: Drop-off at 72 Perth Avenue.

This program is co-presented in partnership with Oakville Galleries.

Image credits (clockwise from top left):
Ange Loft with Jumblies Theatre & Arts, Dish Dances, 2021, film still; Installation view of 72 Perth Avenue as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art (2022). Photo by Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias; Tanya Lukin Linklater, An amplification through many minds, 2019, video still; Paul P., Untitled, 2009, watercolour on paper. Courtesy the artist and his galleries.

Writer Lorraine Johnson leads this walk exploring the flora of the West Toronto Railpath. Its goal is to build immediate, emotional connections that help people see themselves as part of the natural world.

Curated by 2019 and 2022 Biennial contributors Jane Wolff and Susan Schwartzenberg, Toronto Landscape Observatory is a collection of tools, walks, workshops, and conversations designed to help Biennial visitors recognize, acknowledge, and understand their relationships to this place—and to other people who care about it. From May 2–June 5, 2022, the Observatory will host weekly programs to investigate the surroundings of the Biennial site at 72 Perth Avenue and draw attention to processes, phenomena, and connections that often go unnoticed. In examining the land and its relationships as they are today, the Observatory looks toward a future made uncertain by local and global change, from development pressures to the climate emergency. It invites visitors to contribute their own observations to an open vocabulary for imagining possibilities that are kinder, more just, and more resilient than the status quo.

Please note that capacity for this program has been met. We are unfortunately unable to accept anymore registrants.

Toronto Landscape Observatory is supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Office of the Vice-President, International, University of Toronto.

Image credit: Aaron Hernandez