What is the reception and place of Indigenous art in an international context? How has this reception changed in recent years? Candice Hopkins will speak about two recent and separate projects—the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art, which launched in September 2019, and the most recent Canadian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale featuring the media art collective Isuma—with both having a focus on Indigenous art.

The Toronto Biennial of Art addresses how a biennial can be responsive to place and expand historical knowledge while at the same time reflect on how these places are in flux. Titled The Shoreline Dilemma, this iteration acknowledges these complexities. “The Shoreline Dilemma” is a term used to speak about the impossibility of measuring (or quantifying) any shoreline because of their fractal nature. For Hopkins and her team of collaborators, the challenge was as though nature was pushing against attempts to rationalize it.

This focus on the environment also carries forward to the Canadian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale with the collective Isuma, who originated in Igloolik, in the Arctic. Their new featureWhat is the reception and place of Indigenous art in an international context? How has this reception changed in recent years? Candice Hopkins will speak about two recent and separate projects—the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art, which launched in September 2019, and the most recent Canadian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale featuring the media art collective Isuma—with both having a focus on Indigenous art.

The Toronto Biennial of Art addresses how a biennial can be responsive to place and expand historical knowledge while at the same time reflect on how these places are in flux. Titled The Shoreline Dilemma, this iteration acknowledges these complexities. “The Shoreline Dilemma” is a term used to speak about the impossibility of measuring (or quantifying) any shoreline because of their fractal nature. For Hopkins and her team of collaborators, the challenge was as though nature was pushing against attempts to rationalize it.

This focus on the environment also carries forward to the Canadian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale with the collective Isuma, who originated in Igloolik, in the Arctic. Their new feature film, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, is centered on an encounter between two men, Noah and Boss. Boss, who on behalf of the Canadian government, is trying to get Noah to move off of his homeland—now the site of a Baffinland’s mine in expansion—and into a settlement.

The context of art, particularly non-western art, is an important consideration in international exhibitions. A following workshop will focus on how Hopkins has built this context in the past, using documenta 14 as an example.

Candice Hopkins’ ESKWELA programme is in partnership with UP Center for Ethnomusicology. With support from The Embassy of Canada to the Philippines.

Recommended readings:
Isuma Book
Documenta 14
Outlawed Social Life