Scope

SCOPE is a series of inter­dis­ci­pli­nary encoun­ters and mini art inter­ven­tions to be pre­sent­ed in a vari­ety of flex­i­ble, easy to install for­mats in var­i­ous cities in Ontario.

The objec­tive is to facil­i­tate mobil­i­ty and vis­i­bil­i­ty of artists across dif­fer­ent urban cen­ters, and to estab­lish a dia­logue between local and vis­it­ing artists, as well as artists and the gen­er­al pub­lic. The exhib­it­ed art­works will include per­for­mances, pro­jec­tions, or small instal­la­tions. Specif­i­cal­ly, SCOPE will ask the fol­low­ing ques­tions: How are the places of res­i­dence of each par­tic­i­pat­ing artist shap­ing his/her art? How does this cre­ativ­i­ty affect the com­mu­ni­ty in gen­er­al? What kind of cross-fer­til­iza­tion could be estab­lished between cities in the province?

The focus of art activ­i­ties in Ontario and Cana­da has a ten­den­cy to take place in major city cen­ters and in tra­di­tion­al gallery spaces. SCOPE pro­pos­es to invert this ten­den­cy by host­ing the events in dif­fer­ent cities and non-tra­di­tion­al venues across the province. We envi­sion between three (3) or four (4) venues locat­ed in dif­fer­ent cities, which will host local artist(s) and vis­it­ing artist(s). The local artist(s) will lat­er become vis­it­ing by bring­ing his/her work(s) to anoth­er city. The tour is esti­mat­ed to be up to one year. At the end of the tour the artists and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the hosts will share their expe­ri­ences and will engage in a final project dis­cus­sion in Toron­to. We are com­mit­ted to the estab­lish­ment of a dia­logue that is not lim­it­ed to per­son­al or social inter­ac­tions, but also includes the trans­mis­sion of dif­fer­ent knowl­edge, media of choice and local spe­cif­ic tra­di­tions. Thus, the con­tent of the micro-exhi­bi­tions and inter­ven­tions will be inter­dis­ci­pli­nary, includ­ing sci­ence-art inves­ti­ga­tions, explo­rations into indige­nous knowl­edge, inno­va­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and pos­si­ble dia­log­ic solu­tions among each other.

Inter­ven­tions and dia­logues might not always occur in the tra­di­tion­al space of the gallery, but will poten­tial­ly occu­py venues of var­i­ous sizes and use, such as shop win­dows, small spaces, or the out­doors. In order to enable artists and art­works to trav­el to dif­fer­ent venues, the for­mat cho­sen is inten­tion­al­ly flex­i­ble. Thus, we encour­age the artists involved to be open and to adapt to chang­ing cir­cum­stances and venues: we envi­sion ana­log and dig­i­tal art­works whose mate­ri­als, tech­nolo­gies and con­struc­tion can be as portable as pos­si­ble, so that they can trav­el across Ontario in time­ly and sus­tain­able man­ners. In each city we intend to col­lab­o­rate with local co-orga­niz­ers who will con­tribute as advi­sors, espe­cial­ly con­cern­ing cura­to­r­i­al selec­tions. Pos­si­ble for­mats may include pro­jec­tions, pho­to based works, per­for­mances, urban inter­ven­tions, small mixed media or sound instal­la­tions when­ev­er pos­si­ble, spe­cif­ic to the var­i­ous locations.

Ulti­mate­ly, flex­i­ble for­mat and mobil­i­ty respond to the need to address an ongo­ing “dis­con­nect” between the con­stel­la­tions of dif­fer­ent local art scenes in Ontario (includ­ing Toron­to), and the insu­lar­i­ty that often char­ac­ter­ize the arts out­side of the main urban areas. Out­reach activ­i­ties will be decid­ed with the gal­leries and venues involved and will con­sist of the­mat­i­cal­ly linked events that address the spe­cif­ic top­ics and for­mats expressed by the artists involved, while link­ing and antic­i­pat­ing fur­ther top­ics. Ide­al­ly, these activ­i­ties will take the form of round tables, pre­sen­ta­tions, or artist talks.

The tour­ing struc­ture of this project is unique. We are com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing a two-way cir­cu­la­tion of art­works and new forms of artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tion, pro­mot­ing both the tour­ing artist and the host artist. This method will not only help us and the tour­ing artists bet­ter embrace dif­fer­ent local con­texts, but will also improve the audi­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion. It has been not­ed that greater con­cen­tra­tions of artists and arts-relat­ed events lead to high­er degrees of arts par­tic­i­pa­tion among res­i­dents. Through par­tic­i­pa­tion and polit­i­cal action, cit­i­zens can shape their com­mu­ni­ty to bet­ter reflect their values.

Co-cura­tors: Nina Czegledy and Rober­ta Buiani