Art Metropole

#04780

Momentarily: Learning from Mega Events

Date

2011

Publisher

Western Front

Format

Artists' Books

Details

Softcover

Size

12.2 × 18 × 0.8 cm

Length

108 

Description

‘Momentarily: Learning from Mega-Events’ began with a shared interest in the impacts of the 2010 Olympic Games on Vancouver at a time when the city was ranked through a variety of criteria as especially livable. This publication employs multiple textual forms – from semi-fiction to interview to theoretical historical examination.

Western Front’s Executive Director Caitlin Jones expounds upon how ‘Momentarily’ fits into a rich organizational history of mail art and public accessibility. Artist collective Bik Van der Pol share a dialogue on their work ‘I Confess I Care,’ a response to the infringements on free speech that is encouraged by heavily sponsored sports events. Artists Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber talk with Jerry Zazlove about radical pedagogy at Simon Fraser University in the 1960s. Art historian and critic Jeff Derksen examines “the long moment” of Neoliberalism ushered in by large events. Curator Candice Hopkins considers the works of Bik Van der Pol and Urban Subjects as proposals in the most productive sense.

Activist Am Johal traces the link between development, culture and the State. Myka Tucker-Abramson evokes and analyzes the effectiveness of today’s universities as sites for public learning. Pelin Tan reveals the undercurrents of a recent clash between the art public and a local community within the Tophane neighbourhood of Istanbul. Moments, as defined by urbanist Henri Lefebvre, are expanded upon and illuminated by Stuart Eldon. Arnold Van Bruggen weighs the effects of the Sochi Olympics in Russia and Lize Mogel compares the recent megaevents of Beijing, Shanghai and Vancouver. The questions at stake are grounded in specific, local perspectives that dovetail into the global intertwined relationships of urban development, freedom of speech and public space.

Edited by Bik Van der Pol, Alissa Firth-Eagland and Urban Subjects

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