A gap always manifests itself between the publication of a text in one language and that of its translation, or between the inaugural presentation of an artwork in one context and its subsequent display. In this project, presented in two installments, the first at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery of Concordia University and the second at Dazibao, curator Vincent Bonin addressed this phenomenon of deferred reception of theories and art. A section of the first part focused on the assimilation of writings by French philosophers in English-speaking visual arts milieus from the late 1970s until today. Bonin mapped this trajectory in an indexical manner by alluding to the network of institutions and communities of elective affinities that intercepted these texts and recycled them. In the second part of the project, this narrative of North American imports of “French Theory” takes a different tack as Bonin highlights the ways in which artists, critics, theorists and curators graft affect onto the transmission of these discourses and references. Collaboration – while not suspending the power relations that exist between these aforementioned protagonists -, become a means to safeguard the concept of autonomy within the heteronomous field of art. The first part consisted in a series of micro-exhibitions following the sequence of interconnected rooms at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery. In the second installment, Bonin is taking into account Dazibao’s open presentation space in order to make the connections between the participants’ works and statements even more perceptible.

 

Author : Vincent Bonin
Edited by France Choinière and Michèle Thériault
Design : Studio Feed
2017
Bilingual, 207 pages, color reproductions, perfect binding
ISBN : 978-2-922135-45-9