Aesthetics/Ethics of the Flesh
In his posthumous book Confessions of the Flesh (Pantheon Books, 2021), Michel Foucault (1926–1984) analyzes how early Christianity considered sexuality. This fourth instalment on the sexualized body follows the volumes published in his lifetime—The Will to Knowledge (first English edition in 1978), The Use of Pleasure (1984) and The Care of the Self (1986). His…
Solace and Wakeup Calls: the 59th Venice Biennale
Venice, Italy 23 April 2022 – 27 November 2022 The 59th Venice Biennale presented the work of 213 artists from 58 countries, and was an exciting event for many reasons, not least of which was because Cecilia Alemani was the curator, a first for an Italian woman. It was also the first biennale since…
Poetics of the voice
In an essay titled “Der Erzhäler,” translated into English as “The Storyteller,” philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) offers a stunning proposal concerning experience and wisdom. Taking a work by Russian storyteller Nicolai Leskov (1831–1895) as an example, Benjamin makes the following hypothesis: “The art of storytelling is coming to an end.” This is so, he suggests,…
SPACE IN THE FEMININE
Russian and U.S. film industries recently got involved in a rivalry regarding the release of a film, several scenes of which were filmed in the International Space Station (ISS). Even if the ISS has often served as a model for various film scripts since its putting into orbit in 1998, this is the first time…
Redefining Museums
The Museum Is Not Enough is the intriguing title of a book intended to be the first part of a collective reflection that the team at the Canadian Centre for Architecture instigated, regarding the role of institutions and the challenges to be faced regarding “contemporary social concerns.”1 Which issues should be foregrounded when works and…
Parc Offsite: An Interview with Eli Kerr
For the past 7 years, Eli Kerr has been committed to producing exhibitions through emerging alternative models in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal’s contemporary art scene. After working for a few years as cofounder with Daphné Boxer of VIE D’ANGE, an art space that closed in the midst of aggressive gentrification, in the Fall of 2020 he opened Parc…
It’s all happening so fast
If there is an urgent matter that must dominate government decisions from now on all over the world, but more precisely those of the industrialized countries such as Canada, it is certainly the one linked to climate. Regardless of efforts to create a balance between the economy and ecology, it is hard to believe that…
