TERRITORY

June 10 - August 6, 2006
Opening Reception June 16
7-9pm Presentation House Gallery
8-10pm Artspeak Gallery

Curators: Melanie O'Brian and Helga Pakasaar
Organized by Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Artists: Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Roy Arden, The Atlas Group / Walid Raad, Yael Bartana, Cao Fei, Germaine Koh, Gonzalo Lebrija, Jayce Salloum, Seripop, Ron Terada

Territory is a visual art project concerned with mapping urban experience, civic space and contested terrains. The project includes installations at Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery as well as in public sites around Vancouver, guided walks, lectures, a film series, and publication.

The works in Territory involve navigating real and imagined territories - geographic, political, economic and social. The exhibition expands on earlier articulations of the flaneur and notion of derive, or wandering, as a way to investigate urban environments. Cities are understood as essentially unreadable cartographies, fragmented and unstable. This project points to the spatial collisions of urban life, such as those resulting from rapid urban development and increased privitization of public space. The works in Territory reveal how cultural mythologies, both local and global, are scripted into built environments and determine human interactions. The social impact of the often invisible boundaries delineated by political conflict, gentrification, security, and communication systems becomes apparent as the artists call attention to the intersections of psychological, social and physical space.

Five artworks have been commissioned for the public domain: photographic billboards by Roy Arden, roaming mobile signboards by Ron Terada, soil transplants by Germaine Koh, photographs by Jayce Salloum dispersed through various distribution systems, and silkscreens postered around the city by Seripop. Encountered by chance and through uncanny recognition, these ephemeral works provoke tensions between public and private space. Distinctions between private acts and communal life are seen as porous. These artists temporarily occupy and lay claim to civic terrain and transient street life.

In the galleries at Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery five international artists offer poetic interpretations of conditions that impact cities: Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Yael Bartana, The Atlas Group / Walid Raad, Gonzalo Lebrija and Cao Fei. Whether footage from Beirut, Guangzhou, or Guadalajara, spaces of crisis and conflict are highlighted. The instability of places like the Pearl River Delta in China and the Middle East are interpreted in terms of the intersections of global economies, political violence, and collective behaviour.

Territory also involves mapping the city through guided walks from literary, visual art and architectural perspectives that will bring to light some of its hidden narratives. Michael Barnholden will animate the events of two downtown riots, Neil Wedman will interpret the history of sidewalks, and Annabel Vaughan will trace threads of Vancouver's original urban grid.

Film series at Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street
Wednesday, July 19, Thursday, July 20, screenings begin at 7 pm

On July 19 at 7 pm, Cao Fei will discuss her artwork, followed by a screening of her film, "Father"

June 16, 7 pm, "Vancouverism, Civic Space and Dubai's Very False Creek"
opening lecture by Trevor Boddy, a Vancouver architecture / culture critic and urbanist.

Please check www.presentationhousegall.com for site maps and updated information.
333 Chesterfield Avenue North Vancouver, BC Canada V7M 3G9
telephone 604.986.1351