Art Metropole

02 Aug. 2019

The Halifax Conference

Editor

Jeff Khonsary

Speaker

Craig Leonard

Time

7-8:30pm

The Halifax Conference
Organized by Seth Siegelaub
Craig Leonard in attendance

The Halifax Conference presents a transcript of a conference held at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design on October 5–6, 1970, transcribed and adapted by artist Craig Leonard.

Organized by Seth Siegelaub, the Conference was conceived as a means of bringing about a “meeting of artists…[from] diverse art making experiences and art positions…in as general a situation as possible.” Infamously, the conference was held in the college’s boardroom, while students and other interested parties watched the proceedings on a video monitor in a separate space. The result was a conversation that devolved—technologically and ideologically—into a quasi-tragicomic farce, punctuated by remarkable moments of rupture initiated by activist resistance to the Conference from the outside and dissenting voices from within.

Attendees at the Conference included Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Ronald Bladen, Daniel Buren, Gene Davis, Jan Dibbets, Al Held, Mario Merz, Robert Morris, Robert Murray, N.E.Thing Co. (Iain and Ingrid Baxter), Richard Serra, Richard Smith, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, and Lawrence Weiner.

Craig Leonard is a Halifax-based artist and educator whose practice explores artist publishing, sculptural installation, anarchivism, participatory performance, and global histories of conceptual art. Leonard received his Master of Visual Studies in 2005 from the University of Toronto and has taught at NSCAD University since 2006. His work has been exhibited at a number of institutions and galleries in Europe and North America including Central Art Garage (Ottawa), Acme Project Space (London, UK), Skuc Gallery (Ljubljana), Anarch Gallery (London, UK), MASS MoCA (North Adams, US), LMAK Projects (New York), AXE NÉO7 (Hull), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), Mercer Union (Toronto), YYZ (Toronto) and A Space (Toronto).

Craig Leonard is a Halifax-based artist and educator whose practice explores artist publishing, sculptural installation, anarchivism, participatory performance, and global histories of conceptual art. Leonard received his Master of Visual Studies in 2005 from the University of Toronto and has taught at NSCAD University since 2006. His work has been exhibited at a number of institutions and galleries in Europe and North America including Central Art Garage (Ottawa), Acme Project Space (London, UK), Skuc Gallery (Ljubljana), Anarch Gallery (London, UK), MASS MoCA (North Adams, US), LMAK Projects (New York), AXE NÉO7 (Hull), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), Mercer Union (Toronto), YYZ (Toronto) and A Space (Toronto).

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