Learning from Vancouver
Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam, NL) and Urban Subjects (Vancouver, CA and Vienna, AT) in dialogue
According to a recent survey prepared by Mercer Consulting, the world’s largest human resource firm specializing in investments and outsourcing, Vancouver is now the fourth most livable city in the world establishing it as an increasingly popular model for urban development. The survey, which effectively confers world-class status on the city, sparks obvious questions about Vancouver and its role in the global imaginary. Why is Vancouver the only North American city in the top ten? What images of the city are created and circulated to represent this livability, and what do such images signify?
The title of this project, Learning from Vancouver, comes from a commissioned work by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam, NL). This exhibition marks the first presentation of their practice in Canada. Bik Van der Pol’s work will be presented together with a work by the collective Urban Subjects (Vienna AT and Vancouver, CA) that is in formal and thematic dialogue.
Learning from Vancouver will engage diverse local communities in live conversation about Vancouver and its image through a range of entry points, all free to the public. In addition to the exhibition, a three-day symposium headed by distinguished local and international speakers will unpack current mediatizations and images of the city: Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam, NL); Clint Burnham (Vancouver, CA); Paul de Guzman (Vancouver, CA); Alissa Firth-Eagland and Johan Lundh (Grenoble, FR and New York, US); Hadley + Maxwell (Berlin, DE); Candice Hopkins (Ottawa, CA); Fiona Jeffries (New York, US); Am Johal (Vancouver, CA); Laiwan (Vancouver, CA); Randy Lee Cutler (Vancouver, CA); Kristina Lee Podesva (Vancouver, CA); Glen Lowry (Vancouver, CA); Tom Sherman (Syracuse, US); Matthew Soules (Vancouver, CA); Monika Szewczyk (Berlin, DE and Rotterdam, NL); Althea Thauberger (Vancouver, CA); Henry Tsang (Vancouver, CA), Urban Subjects: Jeff Derksen, Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber (Vancouver, CA and Vienna, AT); and Amy Zion (Vancouver, CA).
Learning from Vancouver is curated by Alissa Firth-Eagland and Johan Lundh for Western Front (Vancouver, CA), 2010. It is produced with the generous support of a Canada Council for the Arts Media Arts Dissemination Project Grant and the Mondriaan Foundation.