Americas
Grand-Métis (Québec
The International Garden Festival Announces the Designers for its 2010 Edition
The International Garden Festival announces the names of the designers selected by the jury for the 2010 edition of Festival. A total of 276 proposals for conceptual gardens was submitted by over 600 architects, landscape architects, designers and artists from 34 countries, a record number of participants since the inception of the Festival in 2000.
The jury was composed of Angela Grauerholz, director of the Centre de Design de l’UQAM, Martin Leblanc, architect with Sid Lee , Mélanie Mignault, landscape architect with NIPpaysage, Lisa Rochon, author and architecture critic with the Globe and Mail, Bernard St-Denis, professor, École d’architecture de paysage de l’Université de Montréal, Alexander Reford, director of Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens and founder of the Festival and Emmanuelle Vieira, artistic director of the 11th edition of the Festival.
The three teams chosen by the jury to create gardens in 2010 are:
• Studio Bryan Hanes (Bryan Hanes, Jose Menendez, Yadiel Rivera Diaz, Brenna Herpmann) landscape architects, and DIGSAU (Jules Dingle, Jeff Goldstein, Mark Sanderson, Jamie Unkefer, Aaron Jezzi) architects, all based in Philadelphia, USA, and their project “Veil Garden”
• Habitation (David Vago, Simone Marsh and Nick Brown) landscape architects from Sydney, Australia, and their project “The grass is greener”
• Rosetta Sarah Elkin, a Canadian landscape architect based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and her project “Tiny Taxonomy”
Special mention was given to 2 teams for the quality of their project:
• Leena Cho, landscape architect, and Matthew Jull, architect, from Rotterdam, Netherlands, and their project “Dirt Roll”
• Marc Pape, Sinisha Brdar, Nicolas Marier, Thierry Beaudoin, architects from Montreal, Dominique Leduc actress from Montreal and Paula Meijerink, landscape architect from Cambridge, USA, and their project “Undermining Paradise / L'envers du Paradis”
The names of designers from Berlin, Germany, invited to take part in the 2010 Festival will be unveiled in January, 2010.
The new gardens will join those that are returning for presentation in 2010:
• Forest.Square.Sky by Suresh Perera (Montréal);
• Seedling by Mateo Pinto, Carolina Cisneros, Victoria Marshall (New York City);
• Dymaxion Sleep by Jane Hutton, Adrian Blackwell (Toronto) – Gold Medal, Landscape Architecture Category, 2009 Design Exchange Award;
• HAHA! by spmb (Eduardo Aquino, Karen Shanski, Ralf Glor and Matt Baker from Winnipeg) and Martin Gagnon (Montréal);
• Every garden needs a shed and a lawn! by Deborah Nagan (United Kingdom);
• Bois de biais by Atelier le balto (Véronique Faucheur, Marc Pouzol, Marc Vatinel from France and Germany);
• Réflexions colorées by Hal Ingberg (Montréal);
• Bascule by Cédule 40 (Julien Boily, Sonia Boudreau, Étienne Boulanger and Noémie Payant-Hébert from Saguenay);
• SoundFIELD by Doug Moffat and Steve Bates (Montréal);
• Fractal Garden by Legge Lewis Legge (Andrea Legge, Deborah Lewis and Murray Legge from New York City and Austin, Texas);
• Réflexions suspendues by Francesca Moretti, Federico Brancalion, Rodolfo Roncella and Mirando Di Prinzio (Italy);
• Le Bon Arbre au Bon Endroit by NIP Paysage (Mathieu Casavant, France Cormier, Josée Labelle, Michel Langevin, Mélanie Mignault from Montréal);
• and the iconic Blue Stick Garden by Claude Cormier (Montréal).
The 11th edition of the Festival will be held from June 26 to October 3, 2010. A series of festival events for families and visitors will be held throughout the summer, gourmet picnics, cinema under the stars, concerts, brunches, garden parties and much more. In March, the Gardens will present the première of the new documentary on the Gardens by Philippe Baylaucq. The Festival is partnering with chef Normand Laprise and his team from Montréal’s famed Toqué! restaurant to present culinary events, the first in Montréal in March and the second in Métis in August.
The International Garden Festival is the leading contemporary garden festival in North America. Presented since 2000, the Festival has exhibited more than 115 gardens on the festival site and in Montreal, Toronto, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. The Festival was recently featured in Tim Richardson’s new book, Great Gardens of America and in the November issue of Landscape Architecture magazine.
The International Garden Festival is presented with the financial assistance of many public and private partners. The Festival wishes to thank the partners who assisted in the 2009 edition of the Festival: the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Economic Development Canada, Canada Summer Jobs, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Emploi-Québec, Tourisme Québec, ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l’Occupation du territoire, Conférence régionale des éluEs du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Fédération des chambres de commerces du Québec, Fondation canadienne de l'architecture du paysage, Association des musées canadiens, Fondation Héritage Canada, Canada Blooms, Landscape Ontario, Le Groupe Germain, Consulat général de France à Québec, Les Forges de Montréal, Premier Horticulture, Centre de design de l’UQAM, Musée du Château Ramezay, Société de développement commercial Vieux-Montréal, Ville de Montréal and Toqué! restaurant.
From June 26 to October 3, 2010
Différents espaces
www.refordgardens.com.
The International Garden Festival announces the names of the designers selected by the jury for the 2010 edition of Festival. A total of 276 proposals for conceptual gardens was submitted by over 600 architects, landscape architects, designers and artists from 34 countries, a record number of participants since the inception of the Festival in 2000.
The jury was composed of Angela Grauerholz, director of the Centre de Design de l’UQAM, Martin Leblanc, architect with Sid Lee , Mélanie Mignault, landscape architect with NIPpaysage, Lisa Rochon, author and architecture critic with the Globe and Mail, Bernard St-Denis, professor, École d’architecture de paysage de l’Université de Montréal, Alexander Reford, director of Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens and founder of the Festival and Emmanuelle Vieira, artistic director of the 11th edition of the Festival.
The three teams chosen by the jury to create gardens in 2010 are:
• Studio Bryan Hanes (Bryan Hanes, Jose Menendez, Yadiel Rivera Diaz, Brenna Herpmann) landscape architects, and DIGSAU (Jules Dingle, Jeff Goldstein, Mark Sanderson, Jamie Unkefer, Aaron Jezzi) architects, all based in Philadelphia, USA, and their project “Veil Garden”
• Habitation (David Vago, Simone Marsh and Nick Brown) landscape architects from Sydney, Australia, and their project “The grass is greener”
• Rosetta Sarah Elkin, a Canadian landscape architect based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and her project “Tiny Taxonomy”
Special mention was given to 2 teams for the quality of their project:
• Leena Cho, landscape architect, and Matthew Jull, architect, from Rotterdam, Netherlands, and their project “Dirt Roll”
• Marc Pape, Sinisha Brdar, Nicolas Marier, Thierry Beaudoin, architects from Montreal, Dominique Leduc actress from Montreal and Paula Meijerink, landscape architect from Cambridge, USA, and their project “Undermining Paradise / L'envers du Paradis”
The names of designers from Berlin, Germany, invited to take part in the 2010 Festival will be unveiled in January, 2010.
The new gardens will join those that are returning for presentation in 2010:
• Forest.Square.Sky by Suresh Perera (Montréal);
• Seedling by Mateo Pinto, Carolina Cisneros, Victoria Marshall (New York City);
• Dymaxion Sleep by Jane Hutton, Adrian Blackwell (Toronto) – Gold Medal, Landscape Architecture Category, 2009 Design Exchange Award;
• HAHA! by spmb (Eduardo Aquino, Karen Shanski, Ralf Glor and Matt Baker from Winnipeg) and Martin Gagnon (Montréal);
• Every garden needs a shed and a lawn! by Deborah Nagan (United Kingdom);
• Bois de biais by Atelier le balto (Véronique Faucheur, Marc Pouzol, Marc Vatinel from France and Germany);
• Réflexions colorées by Hal Ingberg (Montréal);
• Bascule by Cédule 40 (Julien Boily, Sonia Boudreau, Étienne Boulanger and Noémie Payant-Hébert from Saguenay);
• SoundFIELD by Doug Moffat and Steve Bates (Montréal);
• Fractal Garden by Legge Lewis Legge (Andrea Legge, Deborah Lewis and Murray Legge from New York City and Austin, Texas);
• Réflexions suspendues by Francesca Moretti, Federico Brancalion, Rodolfo Roncella and Mirando Di Prinzio (Italy);
• Le Bon Arbre au Bon Endroit by NIP Paysage (Mathieu Casavant, France Cormier, Josée Labelle, Michel Langevin, Mélanie Mignault from Montréal);
• and the iconic Blue Stick Garden by Claude Cormier (Montréal).
The 11th edition of the Festival will be held from June 26 to October 3, 2010. A series of festival events for families and visitors will be held throughout the summer, gourmet picnics, cinema under the stars, concerts, brunches, garden parties and much more. In March, the Gardens will present the première of the new documentary on the Gardens by Philippe Baylaucq. The Festival is partnering with chef Normand Laprise and his team from Montréal’s famed Toqué! restaurant to present culinary events, the first in Montréal in March and the second in Métis in August.
The International Garden Festival is the leading contemporary garden festival in North America. Presented since 2000, the Festival has exhibited more than 115 gardens on the festival site and in Montreal, Toronto, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. The Festival was recently featured in Tim Richardson’s new book, Great Gardens of America and in the November issue of Landscape Architecture magazine.
The International Garden Festival is presented with the financial assistance of many public and private partners. The Festival wishes to thank the partners who assisted in the 2009 edition of the Festival: the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Economic Development Canada, Canada Summer Jobs, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Emploi-Québec, Tourisme Québec, ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l’Occupation du territoire, Conférence régionale des éluEs du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Fédération des chambres de commerces du Québec, Fondation canadienne de l'architecture du paysage, Association des musées canadiens, Fondation Héritage Canada, Canada Blooms, Landscape Ontario, Le Groupe Germain, Consulat général de France à Québec, Les Forges de Montréal, Premier Horticulture, Centre de design de l’UQAM, Musée du Château Ramezay, Société de développement commercial Vieux-Montréal, Ville de Montréal and Toqué! restaurant.
From June 26 to October 3, 2010
Différents espaces
www.refordgardens.com.
New York
Action! Design over Time
Objects are not still. And yet design is often considered in terms of static aesthetic and functional qualities, without much consideration of trajectory in time or relationships with people. The objects presented in Action! Design over Time reveal the often overlooked dimension of temporality, providing a deeper understanding of contemporary design. Some of these objects embody frozen moments in time, whether crafted by hand (like Ingo Maurer’s Porca Miseria! chandelier, which is made of broken dishes) or crystallized by a computer using a digital manufacturing machine (as with Ammar Eloueini’s CoReFab chair). Instead of a single moment, other featured objects capture entire lifecycles; Christien Meindertsma’s book PIG 05049 tracks all 185 products made from a single pig. Some examples focus on communication and interaction design, whose nature is inherently connected to time. These interfaces and visualizations interpret and render data over time—commercial air traffic across the United States, taxi traffic in San Francisco, or the editorial evolution of Wikipedia entries, for instance—in an elegant and efficient way.
Ongoing
MOMA
www.moma.org
Objects are not still. And yet design is often considered in terms of static aesthetic and functional qualities, without much consideration of trajectory in time or relationships with people. The objects presented in Action! Design over Time reveal the often overlooked dimension of temporality, providing a deeper understanding of contemporary design. Some of these objects embody frozen moments in time, whether crafted by hand (like Ingo Maurer’s Porca Miseria! chandelier, which is made of broken dishes) or crystallized by a computer using a digital manufacturing machine (as with Ammar Eloueini’s CoReFab chair). Instead of a single moment, other featured objects capture entire lifecycles; Christien Meindertsma’s book PIG 05049 tracks all 185 products made from a single pig. Some examples focus on communication and interaction design, whose nature is inherently connected to time. These interfaces and visualizations interpret and render data over time—commercial air traffic across the United States, taxi traffic in San Francisco, or the editorial evolution of Wikipedia entries, for instance—in an elegant and efficient way.
Ongoing
MOMA
www.moma.org
Ottawa
POP LIFE: ART IN A MATERIAL WORLD
A North American exclusive at the National Gallery of Canada this summer
Pop Life: Art in a Material World explores the complex relationship between contemporary art, marketing and the mass media. Beginning with the late work of American Pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987), the exhibition proposes a re-reading of his legacy and explores how some of today’s high-profile media-savvy artists have followed his lead, embracing celebrity and commerce as the foundation of their work. The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) is the sole North American venue for this unprecedented exhibition, which is organized by Tate Modern, London, in association with the NGC and on view from June 11 to September 19, 2010.
Pop Life: Art in a Material World features more than 250 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, videos, installations, multiples and other ephemera produced over the past three decades. Among the many artists represented are: American artists Andy Warhol Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Pruitt Early; British artists Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, and Cosey Fanni Tutti; German artist Martin Kippenberger; Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan; Japanese artist Takashi Murakami; and Polish artist Piotr Uklański.
“This exhibition brings together important works by some of the most ambitious artists of the last twenty years, many of them household names in Canada, though hardly any of them have every shown here,” said Marc Mayer, NGC Director. “It is also a very timely show because the recession has hit the art world as hard as it has most other sectors. Some of these artists weathered the last economic downturn quite well and have yet to suffer much from this one. Pop Life examines their often controversial strategies for success.”
Andy Warhol’s legacy
The exhibition begins with Warhol’s notorious provocation that “good business is the best art.” Marketing and publicity provided a means for Warhol to engage in modern life beyond the confines of the studio, the gallery and the museum. Rather than simply representing or commenting on mass-media culture, Warhol deliberately infiltrated the publicity machine to cultivate an artistic persona. By performing as a partygoer, model, television personality, paparazzo and publisher, he harnessed the power of the celebrity system and expanded his reach beyond the art world and into the wider world of commerce.
Pop Life then looks ahead to the work of a number of artists who, like Warhol, have openly engaged with the cult of celebrity and unashamedly championed the idea of turning public attention into aesthetic notoriety and financial reward.
Pop Life highlights include:
Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986—With a shrewd understanding of publicity, Koons has built his reputation on a keen eye for images that appeal at the most basic level. Rabbit is a stainless steel sculpture based on a novelty balloon, which in turn was recreated as a giant inflatable for the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, bringing art to the masses in a spectacular form.
Keith Haring, Pop Shop, 1986—Keith Haring (1958-1990) made his name in the 80s when he took his chalk to the unsold advertising marquees of New York subway stops and popularised his “radiant child” signature logo. In 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in Soho where he sold T-shirts, toys, posters, buttons and magnets bearing his images, and which he considered to be an extension of his art. By painting the store’s entire interior with an abstract black on white pattern, Haring created a striking and unique retail environment frequented by celebrities and the average consumer alike. Facsimiles of the original Haring editions will be on sale in this reconstruction.
Jeff Koons' Made in Heaven, 1990—Made in Heaven, which debuted at the Venice Biennale in 1990, immortalized Koons’ marital union with the Hungarian-born porn star and Italian politician Ilona Staller, also known as La Cicciolina. This series of sculptures and silkscreens secured the artist’s leading role on the international art stage and swept him into tabloid notoriety.
Martin Kippenberger, Candidature à une Retrospective, 1993—From his earliest days in Berlin’s punk scene, Kippenberger (1953-1997) shrouded his work in an aura of rebellious behaviour and bad boy provocation. Pop Life recreates the first room of his 1993 Pompidou exhibition and presents an eclectic mix of posters, paintings and objects that bears witness to his numerous social connections and artistic collaborations.
The Young British Artists (YBA)—As the principal organiser of the 1988 Freeze exhibition in London, Damien Hirst attracted major collectors to what was essentially a display of student work, and in the process launched the YBA phenomenon. Space devoted to the YBAs will focus on Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas’s shop in London’s East End where they created and sold their work. Renowned pieces such as Gavin Turk’s Pop 1993 will also be featured, as will selected works representing Damien Hirst’s 2008 Sotheby’s auction, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever. On auction were the artist’s signature formaldehyde sculptures, butterfly, spot and spin paintings, and medicine cabinets. The record-breaking sale totalled £111.5 million. The NGC will also restage Hirst’s 1992 performance from Cologne’s Unfair art fair: changing sets of identical twins will sit beneath two identical spot paintings for the duration of the exhibition.
Takashi Murakami’s Collaboration Addiction, 2009—A new installation by the celebrated artist Takashi Murakami will be on view in the exhibition's final gallery. With the launch of his multinational company Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd. in the early 90s, Murakami employed several hundred assistants to design and fabricate his fine art works and various product lines, forging a distinctively Japanese form of Pop Art. Murakami conceived his Pop Life gallery as a reflection of his collaborations with established designers and celebrities. It includes jewellery and accessories as well as a short film on Akihabara, Tokyo’s major shopping district for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods.
From June 11 to September 19, 2010
Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada
www.gallery.ca
A North American exclusive at the National Gallery of Canada this summer
Pop Life: Art in a Material World explores the complex relationship between contemporary art, marketing and the mass media. Beginning with the late work of American Pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987), the exhibition proposes a re-reading of his legacy and explores how some of today’s high-profile media-savvy artists have followed his lead, embracing celebrity and commerce as the foundation of their work. The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) is the sole North American venue for this unprecedented exhibition, which is organized by Tate Modern, London, in association with the NGC and on view from June 11 to September 19, 2010.
Pop Life: Art in a Material World features more than 250 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, videos, installations, multiples and other ephemera produced over the past three decades. Among the many artists represented are: American artists Andy Warhol Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Pruitt Early; British artists Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, and Cosey Fanni Tutti; German artist Martin Kippenberger; Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan; Japanese artist Takashi Murakami; and Polish artist Piotr Uklański.
“This exhibition brings together important works by some of the most ambitious artists of the last twenty years, many of them household names in Canada, though hardly any of them have every shown here,” said Marc Mayer, NGC Director. “It is also a very timely show because the recession has hit the art world as hard as it has most other sectors. Some of these artists weathered the last economic downturn quite well and have yet to suffer much from this one. Pop Life examines their often controversial strategies for success.”
Andy Warhol’s legacy
The exhibition begins with Warhol’s notorious provocation that “good business is the best art.” Marketing and publicity provided a means for Warhol to engage in modern life beyond the confines of the studio, the gallery and the museum. Rather than simply representing or commenting on mass-media culture, Warhol deliberately infiltrated the publicity machine to cultivate an artistic persona. By performing as a partygoer, model, television personality, paparazzo and publisher, he harnessed the power of the celebrity system and expanded his reach beyond the art world and into the wider world of commerce.
Pop Life then looks ahead to the work of a number of artists who, like Warhol, have openly engaged with the cult of celebrity and unashamedly championed the idea of turning public attention into aesthetic notoriety and financial reward.
Pop Life highlights include:
Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986—With a shrewd understanding of publicity, Koons has built his reputation on a keen eye for images that appeal at the most basic level. Rabbit is a stainless steel sculpture based on a novelty balloon, which in turn was recreated as a giant inflatable for the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, bringing art to the masses in a spectacular form.
Keith Haring, Pop Shop, 1986—Keith Haring (1958-1990) made his name in the 80s when he took his chalk to the unsold advertising marquees of New York subway stops and popularised his “radiant child” signature logo. In 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in Soho where he sold T-shirts, toys, posters, buttons and magnets bearing his images, and which he considered to be an extension of his art. By painting the store’s entire interior with an abstract black on white pattern, Haring created a striking and unique retail environment frequented by celebrities and the average consumer alike. Facsimiles of the original Haring editions will be on sale in this reconstruction.
Jeff Koons' Made in Heaven, 1990—Made in Heaven, which debuted at the Venice Biennale in 1990, immortalized Koons’ marital union with the Hungarian-born porn star and Italian politician Ilona Staller, also known as La Cicciolina. This series of sculptures and silkscreens secured the artist’s leading role on the international art stage and swept him into tabloid notoriety.
Martin Kippenberger, Candidature à une Retrospective, 1993—From his earliest days in Berlin’s punk scene, Kippenberger (1953-1997) shrouded his work in an aura of rebellious behaviour and bad boy provocation. Pop Life recreates the first room of his 1993 Pompidou exhibition and presents an eclectic mix of posters, paintings and objects that bears witness to his numerous social connections and artistic collaborations.
The Young British Artists (YBA)—As the principal organiser of the 1988 Freeze exhibition in London, Damien Hirst attracted major collectors to what was essentially a display of student work, and in the process launched the YBA phenomenon. Space devoted to the YBAs will focus on Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas’s shop in London’s East End where they created and sold their work. Renowned pieces such as Gavin Turk’s Pop 1993 will also be featured, as will selected works representing Damien Hirst’s 2008 Sotheby’s auction, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever. On auction were the artist’s signature formaldehyde sculptures, butterfly, spot and spin paintings, and medicine cabinets. The record-breaking sale totalled £111.5 million. The NGC will also restage Hirst’s 1992 performance from Cologne’s Unfair art fair: changing sets of identical twins will sit beneath two identical spot paintings for the duration of the exhibition.
Takashi Murakami’s Collaboration Addiction, 2009—A new installation by the celebrated artist Takashi Murakami will be on view in the exhibition's final gallery. With the launch of his multinational company Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd. in the early 90s, Murakami employed several hundred assistants to design and fabricate his fine art works and various product lines, forging a distinctively Japanese form of Pop Art. Murakami conceived his Pop Life gallery as a reflection of his collaborations with established designers and celebrities. It includes jewellery and accessories as well as a short film on Akihabara, Tokyo’s major shopping district for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods.
From June 11 to September 19, 2010
Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada
www.gallery.ca
Québec
Human Copyright: The Great Thinking Man and Woman’s Exhibition
The red ochre of the Lascaux caves, the alphabet, counting stones, the printing press, the first maps of the world, and many more examples of how the human mind thinks and creates await at the great Human Copyright exhibition, through September 6, 2010, at Québec City’s Musée de la civilisation.
Impenetrable, mysterious, fascinating... A thinking mind has been a shared human trait since time immemorial—and will be so for ages to come. Now the public can explore this defining faculty of humanity from its very origins to the advent of artificial intelligence at the exhibition Human Copyright. The ability to think and reflect is uniquely human, it is our copyright, our Human Copyright.
“The Human Copyright exhibition dovetails perfectly with Musée de la civilisation’s passion for exploration. As an institution that prides itself on its openness to fields outside museology, the Museum is receptive to the blending of disciplines and the resulting interdisciplinary dialogue that enrich its expression as a museum and create spaces rich in metaphor and meaning. Human Copyright is a real step forward for the Museum as it continues to pursue this approach,” said Museum executive director Claire Simard. “The ability to think and reflect—our copyright as humans—is a complex subject, but one that is tailor-made for a museum of civilization. It allows us to explore the distant past, to examine the present, and to try to define and comprehend the future of humanity. We have chosen to tackle this subject by crossing boundaries between disciplines and areas of expertise. In Human Copyright, visitors will enjoy an intellectually, artistically, and scientifically rewarding experience in which they become objects of self-study as they reflect on what it means to be human.”
A three-part presentation
The presentation is divided into three sequential parts. Visitors discover how human thought—the ruminations of researchers, artists, scientists, and even ordinary individuals who showed perseverance and creativity—has changed the world. Some 220 carefully selected objects illustrate the exercise and evolution of human thought in all its complexity. Interactive displays and film clips further develop this exceedingly rich theme.
Prehuman: the fossil mind
Where do we come from? How do the great apes and humans resemble one another? To understand the origins of modern humankind, we must travel back to the fossil mind, that of the primates. Two events are of particular note.
About 2,000,000 years ago, Hominids began to manufacture tools. This marked the entry of representation and conceptualization into the thought process. To make the same tools over and over, they needed to draw on memory and probably a rudimentary form of language made up of signs or grunts. A second event occurred 300,000 years ago—lexical invention. These were the origins of human thought.
Illustrating this period are videos, giant photographs, tools, a Cro-Magnon skull, the skull of Descartes, archeological finds (flints, arrowheads), two unusual works by a Congolese chimpanzee artist, and a work by Betty Goodwin showing the evolution of the species and the important role bigger brains and walking upright played in the development of thought.
Humankind: a cultural animal
Humans are unique in the animal kingdom for their creativity, language, and ability to conceptualize. According to scientists, there are two forms of thought: the “natural” thought of animals and the “artificial or cultural” thought found only in humans.
“I think, therefore I am!” (Descartes). Humans are aware of their perceptions, actions, and thoughts and thus of their own existence. They have used this awareness to tailor the world to their needs and conceive objects that reveal their thoughts.
In this part of the exhibition, objects eloquently illustrate human self-awareness and the ability to develop symbolic language, to communicate, to create rituals, to formulate and share thoughts through the written word, to organize the mind through counting and measurement, to study the brain and its functioning, to create, to invent, but also to oppress or to revolt. Among the objects are rock paintings, figurines and statuettes, a farmer’s plow, ritual masks, funeral urns, cuneiform tablets, a pascaline, manuscripts, neurosurgery tools, brain scans, a huge photograph (Brain/dummy from the Inside/Outside series by Katherine Du Tiel)...and slave handcuffs.
Posthuman: artificial intelligence
Humans have forever dreamed of creating a being in their own image. The artificial intelligence humans began developing 40 years ago is today’s continuance of that dream: understand how the mind works and simulate human reasoning in a machine that surpasses human abilities through the power of new computer technology.
This posthuman era of thought is one of partnership between human intelligence and less intelligent, but increasingly autonomous machines.
But what if robots and computers became as intelligent as humans, or even more so? What would society be like? Many modern-day thinkers share their perspectives on such questions in an interactive installation called “artificial dialogue.” Join Mario Beauregard, doctor of neuroscience; Nick Bostrom, philosopher; Marie Chouinard, dancer and choreographer; Thomas De Koninck, philosopher; Nayla Farouki, philosopher; Yves Gingras, science historian; Albert Jacquard, geneticist and author; Ray Kuertweil, computer scientist; Marie Laberge, novelist; Céline Lafontaine, sociologist and author; Luc Langevin, magician and physics student; André Parent, neurobiologist at Université Laval’s Robert Giffard Research Center; Michel Raymond, evolutionary biology specialist, Hubert Reeves, physician and author; Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk and biologist; and Douglas Rushkoff, new media theorist.
This presentation area features an interactive robot environment, Area V5, created especially for the exhibition by internationally renowned Québec artist Louis-Philippe Demers.
Through September 6, 2010
Musée de la Civilisation du Québec
www.mcq.org
The red ochre of the Lascaux caves, the alphabet, counting stones, the printing press, the first maps of the world, and many more examples of how the human mind thinks and creates await at the great Human Copyright exhibition, through September 6, 2010, at Québec City’s Musée de la civilisation.
Impenetrable, mysterious, fascinating... A thinking mind has been a shared human trait since time immemorial—and will be so for ages to come. Now the public can explore this defining faculty of humanity from its very origins to the advent of artificial intelligence at the exhibition Human Copyright. The ability to think and reflect is uniquely human, it is our copyright, our Human Copyright.
“The Human Copyright exhibition dovetails perfectly with Musée de la civilisation’s passion for exploration. As an institution that prides itself on its openness to fields outside museology, the Museum is receptive to the blending of disciplines and the resulting interdisciplinary dialogue that enrich its expression as a museum and create spaces rich in metaphor and meaning. Human Copyright is a real step forward for the Museum as it continues to pursue this approach,” said Museum executive director Claire Simard. “The ability to think and reflect—our copyright as humans—is a complex subject, but one that is tailor-made for a museum of civilization. It allows us to explore the distant past, to examine the present, and to try to define and comprehend the future of humanity. We have chosen to tackle this subject by crossing boundaries between disciplines and areas of expertise. In Human Copyright, visitors will enjoy an intellectually, artistically, and scientifically rewarding experience in which they become objects of self-study as they reflect on what it means to be human.”
A three-part presentation
The presentation is divided into three sequential parts. Visitors discover how human thought—the ruminations of researchers, artists, scientists, and even ordinary individuals who showed perseverance and creativity—has changed the world. Some 220 carefully selected objects illustrate the exercise and evolution of human thought in all its complexity. Interactive displays and film clips further develop this exceedingly rich theme.
Prehuman: the fossil mind
Where do we come from? How do the great apes and humans resemble one another? To understand the origins of modern humankind, we must travel back to the fossil mind, that of the primates. Two events are of particular note.
About 2,000,000 years ago, Hominids began to manufacture tools. This marked the entry of representation and conceptualization into the thought process. To make the same tools over and over, they needed to draw on memory and probably a rudimentary form of language made up of signs or grunts. A second event occurred 300,000 years ago—lexical invention. These were the origins of human thought.
Illustrating this period are videos, giant photographs, tools, a Cro-Magnon skull, the skull of Descartes, archeological finds (flints, arrowheads), two unusual works by a Congolese chimpanzee artist, and a work by Betty Goodwin showing the evolution of the species and the important role bigger brains and walking upright played in the development of thought.
Humankind: a cultural animal
Humans are unique in the animal kingdom for their creativity, language, and ability to conceptualize. According to scientists, there are two forms of thought: the “natural” thought of animals and the “artificial or cultural” thought found only in humans.
“I think, therefore I am!” (Descartes). Humans are aware of their perceptions, actions, and thoughts and thus of their own existence. They have used this awareness to tailor the world to their needs and conceive objects that reveal their thoughts.
In this part of the exhibition, objects eloquently illustrate human self-awareness and the ability to develop symbolic language, to communicate, to create rituals, to formulate and share thoughts through the written word, to organize the mind through counting and measurement, to study the brain and its functioning, to create, to invent, but also to oppress or to revolt. Among the objects are rock paintings, figurines and statuettes, a farmer’s plow, ritual masks, funeral urns, cuneiform tablets, a pascaline, manuscripts, neurosurgery tools, brain scans, a huge photograph (Brain/dummy from the Inside/Outside series by Katherine Du Tiel)...and slave handcuffs.
Posthuman: artificial intelligence
Humans have forever dreamed of creating a being in their own image. The artificial intelligence humans began developing 40 years ago is today’s continuance of that dream: understand how the mind works and simulate human reasoning in a machine that surpasses human abilities through the power of new computer technology.
This posthuman era of thought is one of partnership between human intelligence and less intelligent, but increasingly autonomous machines.
But what if robots and computers became as intelligent as humans, or even more so? What would society be like? Many modern-day thinkers share their perspectives on such questions in an interactive installation called “artificial dialogue.” Join Mario Beauregard, doctor of neuroscience; Nick Bostrom, philosopher; Marie Chouinard, dancer and choreographer; Thomas De Koninck, philosopher; Nayla Farouki, philosopher; Yves Gingras, science historian; Albert Jacquard, geneticist and author; Ray Kuertweil, computer scientist; Marie Laberge, novelist; Céline Lafontaine, sociologist and author; Luc Langevin, magician and physics student; André Parent, neurobiologist at Université Laval’s Robert Giffard Research Center; Michel Raymond, evolutionary biology specialist, Hubert Reeves, physician and author; Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk and biologist; and Douglas Rushkoff, new media theorist.
This presentation area features an interactive robot environment, Area V5, created especially for the exhibition by internationally renowned Québec artist Louis-Philippe Demers.
Through September 6, 2010
Musée de la Civilisation du Québec
www.mcq.org
Toronto
Stitching Community: African Canadian Quilts From Southern Ontario
This exhibition uses quilts made from 1848 to 1976 to explore the role of African Canadian women in reinforcing community ties in new and unfamiliar settings. It addresses the notion of developing social and familial ties through quilts while mainly focusing on the African Canadian community in North Buxton, a community whose foundation owes much to the freed slaves who settled in Canada, the land of freedom.
The exhibition is comprised of artifacts loaned from the Buxton Museum and items from the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS), including quilts, photographs, tools of the trade, and a variety of black cloth dolls.
Until September 6, 2010
Royal Ontario Museum
www.rom.on.ca
This exhibition uses quilts made from 1848 to 1976 to explore the role of African Canadian women in reinforcing community ties in new and unfamiliar settings. It addresses the notion of developing social and familial ties through quilts while mainly focusing on the African Canadian community in North Buxton, a community whose foundation owes much to the freed slaves who settled in Canada, the land of freedom.
The exhibition is comprised of artifacts loaned from the Buxton Museum and items from the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS), including quilts, photographs, tools of the trade, and a variety of black cloth dolls.
Until September 6, 2010
Royal Ontario Museum
www.rom.on.ca
