Yay for Leah Sandals. She posted an excellent report on the Toronto Biennial forum that happened at MOCCA on Saturday. I was secretly hoping she'd do this, since I couldn't make it and I've been curious. It sounds like there was a pretty provocative (and entertaining) presentation by Philip Monk. Leah herself also makes a really good point about local expectations, and puts out a call for conversation.
You also have to be realistic; Canada may be a wonderful country (I certainly like to think so) but it is also a rather small one in terms of population. I don’t think it’s very realistic to aim for more than (or lament being) “a second or third tier country” at Venice. Sometimes all you can do is do your best, be a pro, market the hell out of it, and appreciate the coverage you get—which I’d bet is actually a fairly high proportion relative to Canada’s population size.

Then again, maybe I’m missing some data. What is this other country that people think Canada should be “equal to” artistically? Or a city that people think Toronto should be thought of in the same league with (other than Vancouver, people!). If you have ideas beyond the usual unreachably-megalopolis suspects (NYC, London, Paris) please share in the comments. Is it that Sydney and Auckland are outshining TO? What’s a reasonable point of comparison?
Go and tell her what you think!

- sally mckay 4-23-2010 11:48 am

Simpleposie has also taken this up. I've made a few comments over there.
- sally mckay 4-23-2010 5:01 pm


Thanks to Leah for pointing out that Rick Rhodes has also made a report on the symposium.
- sally mckay 4-23-2010 5:29 pm


Toronto should have a Triennial, not a Biennial.

Because it alliterates better.

(VB via SM)
- sally mckay 4-24-2010 4:10 pm


Excellent point, VB.
- J@simpleposie (guest) 4-25-2010 11:38 pm


Toronto should have a triennial ... pronto.
- joester (guest) 5-02-2010 4:47 am


Hey Sally, thanks for the link! Took me a while to figure out it was here!
- Leah Sandals (guest) 5-07-2010 3:26 am





add a comment to this page:

Your post will be captioned "posted by anonymous,"
or you may enter a guest username below:


Line breaks work. HTML tags will be stripped.