MFA STUDIO ARTS : Concordia University

Ursula Johnson Friday, November 29 at 6:00pm Concordia University, VA-114, 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W. Presented in collaboration with the TextilesTimeTrade symposium

This conversation is About Making Conversation.

In 2014, Ursula Johnson created a three component exhibition titled Mi’kwite’tmn: Do You Remember (Vous souvenez-vous)

The show’s three components were:

The Museological Grand Hall

The Archive Room

Processing (a performative space)

This nationally touring trilingual exhibition was hosted with a number of partners from various Indigenous communities, universities and public galleries. The premise of the show was to create a discourse around the importance of language and the handmade as having integral roles in the survivance of culture while exploring our individual roles within that construct of community and what that means to be an active member while exercising our privilege of exploration.

At each venue, Johnson engaged in a 30-35 hour long physically intensive performance where she processed an ash log on-site.

When visitors interacted with Johnson and asked her what she was “making” she would reply - “conversation.”

Bio

Ursula Johnson is from Eskasoni First Nation and is an alumna of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally since graduating in 2006. Her interdisciplinary practice is based in performance and installation, stating she “changes mediums based on who I am talking to and the conversation I am inciting.”

Johnson has been shortlisted for the Salt Spring National Art Prize (2015) and the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award (2016). She was a recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Reveal Indigenous Art Award (2016), the Finalist for Sobey Art Award (2017) and Finalist for the NS Masterworks Award (2019) for her installation Moose Fence. This talk is presented in collaboration with the TextilesTradeTime symposium

On est tu heureux hen.

Friday, November 8 at 6:00pm Concordia University, de Sève Cinema McConnell Library Building, LB-125, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.

“This conversation is a conversation about conversation.”

On est tu heureux hen. is the victim of a fatal attraction for adventurous enterprises - risky, dangerous and even impossible, some witnesses would have said. This tendency leads the collective through an irreverent but insightful practice, that could not be identified, explained or documented without recourse to absurd strategies. Exploring the connections between reality and trickery, between a factual event and its fiction, On est tu heureux hen. likes to simulate and extrapolate what is, and what could have been. The collective tends to be involved in a never ending problematic, which turns out to be the very sense of its practice and which must be kept secret at all costs.

Bio

On est tu heureux hen. was founded in 2008 (2009?) on a cold February day by Frédérique Laliberté and Sarah L’Hérault. Its work has been presented in Quebec City, Vanier, Wendake, Montreal, Mexico, Switzerland, in the Sahara desert and on the Internet. The collective wears clothes. Its astrological sign is Aquarius. If you want to know more about its personality, please feel free to google “Aquarius’’. On est tu heureux hen. holds not one but two Masters from well-known and cool institutions whose names are alas too long to be included in a 100-word bio.

*Frédérique Laliberté is the 2018 recipient of the Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website. concordia.ca/cica

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« Cette conversation est une conversation à propos de conversation. »

On est tu heureux hen. est victime d’une attirance fatale envers les entreprises d’envergure – risquées, dangereuses et même impossibles, auraient dit certains témoins. Cette inclinaison l’entraîne dans une pratique irrévérencieuse mais perspicace, que l’on ne saurait cerner, expliquer ou documenter sans avoir recours à d’absurdes stratégies. Explorant les relations entre réalité et supercherie, entre l’événement concret et sa fiction, On est tu heureux hen. joue à simuler et à extrapoler ce qui est et ce qui aurait pu être. Le collectif tend à être impliqué dans une problématique sans issue, qui se trouve à être le sens même de sa pratique et qui doit être gardée secrète à tout prix.

Bio

On est tu heureux hen. est fondé en 2008 (2009 ?) lors d’une froide journée de février, par Sarah L’Hérault et Frédérique Laliberté. Son travail a été présenté à Québec, Vanier, Wendake, Montréal, au Mexique, en Suisse, dans le désert du Sahara et sur Internet. Le collectif est habillé. Son signe astrologique est Verseau. Si vous voulez en apprendre plus sur sa personnalité, n’hésitez pas à googler “Verseau”. On est tu heureux hen. détient non pas une mais bien deux maîtrises qui proviennent d’établissements reconnus et cools dont les noms sont hélas trop longs pour être inclus dans une bio de 100 mots.

Gratuites et ouvertes au public, toutes les activités du Cycle de conversations sur l’art contemporain (Conversations in Contemporary Art ou CICA) sont tenues en anglais. Premiers arrivés, premiers servis! Pour en savoir plus sur le CICA et regarder les conversations des années précédentes, consultez la page concordia.ca/cica.

Aaron McIntosh

Friday, October 25 at 6:00pm Concordia University, VA-114 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W. aaronmcintosh.com

This conversation is a meander through interspecies relationality. What are the implications for queer “worldmaking” as it encounters the heteronormative, colonialist understandings of nature and ecology? Aaron McIntosh’s own upbringing by generations of farmers impressed upon him a clear distinction between cultivation and ferality. Linking the very human-centered concept of “weeds” with xenophobia and homophobia, he launched the Invasive Queer Kudzu project, which destigmatizes and reclaims the invasive kudzu vine to exponential grow LGBTQ2+ visibility across the Southern United States. Informed by critical readings in queer history, nature studies, queer ecology and ethnobotany, this conversation asks us to imagine queerness entangled with nature-based undercurrents, more akin to the sexually-expressive and gender-variant dynamisms of the plant world.   Bio Aaron McIntosh is a cross-disciplinary artist whose work mines the intersections of material culture, family tradition, sexual desire and identity politics in a range of works including quilts, sculpture, collage, and writing. His exhibition record includes numerous solo and group exhibitions and his residencies include Haystack Mountain School of Craft, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and Banff Centre for Creative Arts. His critical writing has been published in the Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Surface Design Journal, and the Journal of Modern Craft. He currently lives and works in Montréal, where he is Associate Professor of Fibres & Material Practices at Concordia University. Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website. concordia.ca/cica

Crystal (Mikinaak) Migwans Friday, October 18 at 6:00pm Concordia University, VA-114 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W.

“This conversation is an offering of words for water and weavers.”

Anishinaabe mat-weaving is a practice of responsible, reciprocal connection with place. Looking to historical examples while responding to current movements in Indigenous activism, this talk considers the role of weavers in the gendered labours of governance and treaty-making, the significance of bulrushes as the first water protectors, and the terms of our relations with the non-human in the face of ongoing ecological devastation.

Alastair MacLennan

Friday, September 27 at 6:00pm Concordia University, de Sève Cinema McConnell Library Building, LB-125 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Presented in collaboration with VIVA! Art Action “This conversation is releasing, holding, forming and being in the process of art-making”. The planned address will involve showing a 29 minute video, an artwork alluding to alchemy, involving four artists working together, of whom I’m one. It includes sound, but no spoken words in French or English. Then several edited, 3-4 minute videos of my solo and duo performances will be screened, followed by showing a few stills of one’s drawings/works on paper. The process is then opened up for discussion and questions from audience/spectators. I’m happy to discuss any related issues. My work involves location/dislocation, placement/displacement, time ‘being’/time edited, underlying issues being political, social and cultural. Our gathering together can meet the 'unforeseen’.

This lecture will not be recorded. Bio Alastair MacLennan represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale, in 1997. During the 1970’s and '80’s he made long, non-stop performances of up to 144 hours duration, in Britain, America and Canada. He is a founding member of Belfast’s Art and Research Exchange (1978). He ran the MA Fine Art program in Ulster Polytechnic, later the University of Ulster, for eleven years. He travels extensively in Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, North America and Canada, presenting Actuations (performance/installations). Since 1989 he’s been a member of performance art entity Black Market International, which performs globally. He is a founding member of Belfast’s Bbeyond Performance Art organisation. Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art (CICA) events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve and the lectures are held in English. To learn more about CICA and to access recordings of previous lectures, please visit our website. concordia.ca/cica ___ « Cette conversation libère, retient, forme et intègre le processus de création artistique. »

La conférence débutera par la projection d’une vidéo de 29 minutes, une œuvre sur l’alchimie et la collaboration entre quatre artistes, dont moi-même. Elle comporte des sons, mais aucun mot parlé en français ou en anglais. Plusieurs montages vidéo de 3 à 4 minutes de mes performances en solo et en duo seront ensuite présentés, suivis de quelques plans fixes de dessins et d’œuvres sur papier. Suivront une période de questions et une discussion avec les membres du public. Je discuterai avec plaisir de tout sujet connexe. Mes travaux abordent différents thèmes : l’établissement et la dislocation, l’installation et le déplacement, le temps « en soi » et le temps modifié, les enjeux sous-jacents de l’expression d’idées politiques, sociales et culturelles. Notre rassemblement se veut ouvert à l’« imprévu ».

Javier González Pesce                  

PRESENTED IN COLLABORATION WITH DARLING FOUNDRY Friday, September 13 at 6:00pm Concordia University, de Sève Cinema McConnell Library Building, LB-125 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. concordia.ca/cica Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve. The lectures will be held in English. Tous les événements du programme Conversation in Contemporary Art sont gratuits et ouverts au public. Les sièges sont assignés selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi. Les conférences se dérouleront en anglais. concordia.ca/cica _____________________

Love, politics, gravity and other sources of attractive energy

Dean Baldwin

Friday, April 5 at 6:00pm Concordia University, VA-114 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W. Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve. The lectures will be held in English. Tous les événements du programme Conversation in Contemporary Art sont gratuits et ouverts au public. Les sièges sont assignés selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi. Les conférences se dérouleront en anglais. _ All media is time-based, in the work of Dean Baldwin. A piece of fruit can be turned or wrung; an event erupted; an evening slowed. In every case, a river runs. Baldwin, an artist who wonders if he’s missing his collective, elevates and underscores our relations. His is the happy chaos of making things happen from the things to hand. “I use the energy it takes to commit to a mildly mad occurrence, convince others to get on board, struggle through the logistic hurdles, fear the taste of potential failure, and partake of ensuing celebrations.” At turns host, guest, and irreverent spectator, Baldwin offers a radical hospitality that “helps us to mean.” Baldwin channels Dan Graham’s pronouncement that all artists “dream of doing something that’s more social, more collaborative, and more real than art.” With the crack of a bottle against the bow of a boat, time is launched and stretched out, and we are seated, invited to make an occurrence, take a story for telling. Peripatetic, opulent, but also pastoral, Baldwin’s practice often sits agrarian means within an artworld setting. Through a process that focuses on its own occasioning, he pays close attention to the meaning of his materials, the structures he ought to fit or resist, and what requirements there are, of both the wood and the road, to bend. Bio Dean Baldwin (b. 1973) gambols across installation, performance, and photographic media. Toronto-born and Montreal-based, he moves on themes of hospitality, conviviality, performative still-life, and the structural discrepancies around which we pivot.  Baldwin has exhibited in Rome, Tasmania, London, Mumbai, New York City, Quebec City, and Winnipeg, among others. He shows with Katherine Mulherin Projects (Toronto and NYC) and Parisian Laundry (Montreal).

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Andréanne Abbondanza-Bergeron

Friday, March 29 at 6:00pm Concordia University, de Sève Cinema McConnell Library Building, LB-125

Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve. The lectures will be held in English. Tous les événements du programme Conversation in Contemporary Art sont gratuits et ouverts au public. Les sièges sont assignés selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi. Les conférences se dérouleront en anglais. - An artwork influenced by architecture can be seen as a model for something larger, a city grid, buildings, but its scale morphs when one starts looking a it as a model that represents a different form of space or structure.  The grid is a recurrent presence in Andréanne Abbondanza-Bergeron’s work.  More than a formal experience in an installation form, one interest of her work is to point out the disparities between inside and outside, as they point out to various forms of built and social structures of control; dictating access or rejection into a specific structure or relationship.

In her work, Abbondanza-Bergeron aims to blend those boundaries and the potential exchange that happens in this new hybrid space.  What captures her attention is the interrelation between structure and humans in space; each one possessing its own agency while also affecting the other.  She approach sculpture and installation, using it as an inquiry into those social and spatial relations. Bio

Andréanne Abbondanza-Bergeron is a Montreal-based installation artist and current artist-in-residence at Concordia University as the 2017 recipient of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art.  She completed her MFA in Sculpture at Concordia University (‘16) where she received the 2016 Yvonne L. Bombardier scholarship in Visual Art, and holds a M.A. in Art Education and a BFA in Studio Arts.

Abbondanza-Bergeron’s installation, photography and drawing works have been exhibited in numerous solo and curated group shows in various Canadian cities and abroad in Germany, UK, Belgium, Mexico and the United-States. Her work has benefited from the support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the SODEC and the City of Montreal.  She is a professor in the Communications, Media and Studio Arts department at Vanier College.

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Une œuvre influencée par l’architecture peut-être vue comme un modèle pour une entité plus large – un réseau urbain, un bâtiment – mais son échelle se transforme lorsque l’on commence à la regarder comme un modèle qui représente une forme d’espace ou structure différente.  La grille ou trame est un motif récurrent dans le travail d’Andréanne Abbondanza-Bergeron. Plus qu’une expérience formelle, ses installations tentent à faire ressortir les disparités entre les concepts d’intérieur et d’extérieur. Ses œuvres pointent vers différentes formes de structures de contrôle, qu’elles soient construites ou sociales, qui dictent l’accès ou le rejet d’une structure ou relation spécifique.

Dans ses œuvres, Abbondanza-Bergeron vise à brouiller ces limites et frontières afin de créer un potentiel d’échange qui s’effectue dans ce nouvel espace hybride.  Ce qui capture son attention est l’interrelation entre les structures et les personnes dans l’espace; chacun possédant une influence et un impact sur l’autre. Elle approche la sculpture et l’installation tel une étude des liens entre espaces et relations interpersonnelles.

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