Mission
Dazibao is a contemporary art center and non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination and mediation of contemporary image practices, privileging artistic experimentation, enquiry and reflection related to current social issues.
Dazibao is dedicated to the development and presentation of original artworks by Canadian artists whose contemporary practices are founded on the image. Providing the public an opportunity to create links between local and global discourses, such works are presented alongside works by international artists thus contextualizing their relevance within a broader art ecology.
By questioning the discourses, uses and modes of disseminating images, Dazibao explores artistic as well as historical and social issues, sharing them with the various communities that make up Montreal’s diversity.
The reflections developed by Dazibao are conveyed by way of exhibitions, video programs, films, public artworks, books and special events. These activities are accompanied by a cultural outreach program that facilitates stimulating encounters with art and create conversations raised by societal issues.
Dazibao collaborates with numerous artists, curators, critics, researchers, and the university milieu and is involved in several ongoing partnerships with related or complementary organizations. Dazibao promotes equity, inclusivity, equality, diversity and cultural hybridization so that art can assert itself as a field of knowledge capable of facilitating a better understanding of the world around us. Offered free of charge, the activities organized by the center are open to all.
Founded in 1980 by Stéphanie Colvey, Pierre Crépô, André Denis, Jean-Pierre Gariépy, Bernard N’Guyen and Éric Roy, Dazibao was one of the first exhibition centers in Quebec and Canada to devote itself exclusively to disseminating photography. From the beginning, the organization defined itself as a place for thinking about the image as a vector of social change and a way of better understanding the world. The center quickly opened up to more hybrid artistic endeavors and, in keeping with the evolution of artistic practices, began to devote itself to all artistic forms having the image as their common denominator.
Over the course of this process of emancipation, the center’s mission remained true to the intentions set in place by its founders: to create a space for experimentation and the exchange of ideas, a place of artistic stimulation and enquiry that would be both a witness and actor in the evolution of image practices. It was to this end, and in order to give permanence to both the artworks and the discourses around them, that in 1996 Dazibao began a publication program that is now recognized for its rigor and editorial quality. To date, the center has published more than sixty volumes as part of various series. With this same goal of supporting the development of artistic practices, in 2005 Dazibao and PRIM joined forces to offer an annual production and dissemination grant to an artist.
In 2009, feeling that its growth was restrained by the inadequacy of its venue, with regards to the presentation of the projects it was developing, Dazibao began a period of reflection that led to a relocation that has proven especially significant to the life of the center. From the beginning, the goals of this project were to equip the center with high-quality spaces, which would be flexible enough to respond to the various changes in image practices; to ensure the long-term future of the center’s activities by acquiring a stable venue; to sustainably make the center part of a place with a strong identity; to improve the visibility of its activities and develop new audiences; and to contribute in a more proactive manner to the ecosystem of the cultural milieu.
To carry out this process of reflection fruitfully, Dazibao undertook a residency at the Cinémathèque québécoise that lasted two years. This formidable testing ground enabled the organization to explore new modes of dissemination and to define its precise needs in order to offer artists modes of dissemination that would make a tangible contribution to their professional advancement. With the benefit of this experience, in 2014 Dazibao set up in the heart of Mile End, the neighborhood with the highest density of creative people in Canada.
The center’s new space, including a large exhibition space as well as a small projection room furnished with adaptable high-end equipment, has significantly contributed to the considerable growth of the organization, making it possible to develop projects of an almost museum caliber while preserving the spirit of research and experimentation essential to the professional advancement of artists and to the development of new audiences. The center is committed to creating space for atypical image practices, which are under presented in gallery or cinema networks.
Today, Dazibao’s programming is grounded in contemporary image practices, presenting emerging and established artists from Québec, Canada, and abroad, as well as large-scale projects that support the development of artistic practice and the discourse on art. It's a mature organization, exercising hindsight yet always on the lookout, a vector of change as much as a memory.
Dazibao acknowledges that it is located on the unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá: ka Nation and that Tiohtiá:ke / Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations, and today, is home to a diverse population of Indigenous as well as other peoples. Guided by ethics of respect, listening, and awareness, Dazibao commits to a continued reflection regarding the deep-rooted and systemic challenges tied to accessibility and inclusivity in the arts and beyond, and endeavors to apply such reflections to all aspects of its activities and governance.
History
