AA Bronson at 259 Lake Shore Blvd E – Toronto Biennial of Art

AA Bronson, *A Public Apology to Siksika Nation,* 2019, multi-media project with publication, installation, and performative components in several stages. Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art. On view at 259 Lake Shore Blvd E as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019). Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid. Courtesy the Toronto Biennial of Art.

AA Bronson and Adrian Stimson visit the Old Sun Residential School, now a community college, on Siksika Nation reserve, March 25, 2018. Photo: Ben Miller.

AA Bronson, *A Public Apology to Siksika Nation*; and Adrian Stimson, *Iini Sookumapii: Guess who’s coming to dinner?*. Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art. On view at 259 Lake Shore Blvd E as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019). Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid. Courtesy the Toronto Biennial of Art.

Bronson’s multi-year project, A Public Apology to Siksika Nation, responds to European genocide, including his great-grandfather’s role as the first missionary at Siksika Nation and founder of the Old Sun residential school. (Old Sun, an influential Siksika leader, is an ancestor of Bronson’s collaborator, Adrian Stimson.) Generated from ongoing dialogue with Stimson and extensive research into museum and family archives, Bronson’s project makes actionable the responsibility of settlers in the era of reconciliation.

Bronson’s apology, first delivered at Siksika nation, now takes the form of a book. More than 14,000 copies are available on-site at the Biennial for free.

This iteration of Bronson’s project is commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art. This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

Bio

AA Bronson

AA Bronson (born in 1946, Vancouver, Canada; lives in Berlin, Germany) is the great-grandson of Archdeacon John William Tims, the founder of Old Sun Industrial School on Siksika Nation, Alberta, and the grandson of the principal of St. George’s Residential School in Lytton, British Columbia (both schools were brutal in their treatment of Indigenous peoples). AA is a founding member of the artists’ group General Idea (1969–1994). His most recent publication is AA Bronson’s House of Shame (Edition Patrick Frey, 2021).

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