Exhibitions

• Poste Restante

  JASON DODGE, HADLEY + MAXWELL, ALLISON HRABLUIK, AARON FLINT JAMISON, SAM LEWITT, HEATHER AND IVAN MORISON, AVIGAIL MOSS, PAMELA ROSENKRANZ, DEXTER SINISTER, MATT SHERIDAN SMITH, OSCAR TUAZON
  April 9–May 28, 2011

  

  

  

  

  

  Presenting the work of eleven artists and collaborators, this exhibition refuses to deliver. It offers artworks sent via national postal systems addressed to the gallery as “Poste Restante”. Typically relied upon by travelers and lovers, “Poste Restante” is a request for a post office to hold a letter or package until picked up by its recipient. The works are exhibited as received, in unopened envelopes or parcels, accompanied by any paperwork generated during transit, including customs forms, bills of lading, and pro forma invoices. Delivery is deferred as the packages wait, held by the gallery for a recipient whose identity is unknown.

  Objects are shaped by various encounters with systems of commerce, information, publicity and transportation. Stubbornly resistant to dematerialization, the art object remains local, specific and visible only in certain spaces, while operating in far-flung networks, both physical and immaterial. Guarantors of the exhibition as an exhibition, the art objects in Poste Restante serve as ground for exchanges of immaterial services, writings, and conversations. Through the suspension of delivery we remove the object-in-itself from scrutiny and see in clearer relief the systems the object both calls to life and circulates within.

  The exhibition will travel to further destinations, including both commercial galleries and non-profit spaces, marking out a geographical network of communication and interests analogous to those of the participating artists and organizations. Parallel events, including talks, performances, and publications, will accompany the exhibition at each location.

  Curated by Eric Fredericksen

  Postscript 42: Sophie Brodovitch on Poste Restante (PDF)

• International Chilliwack Biennial

  MARKUS MIESSEN, RON TRAN, OSCAR TUAZON
  July 28–July 29, 2010

  

  

  

  

  

  Artspeak, Or Gallery, and Bodgers’ and Kludgers’ Co-operative present:

  International Chilliwack Biennial

  The International Chilliwack Biennial takes place July 28 and 29 at the Delta Grove campsite of Cultus Lake Provincial Park near Chilliwack, BC. The event is an open question on large-scale exhibitions and takes a consciously precarious approach. This is the DIY, near-zero budget biennial—the bodged biennial. Shoe-horned amidst other campers in a state-run camping area, the International Chilliwack Biennial quietly goes about its business. This is the biennial that doesn’t sit up quite right, that wobbles, that is, perhaps, rained-out. Offsite, contingent, last minute favours: borrow your dad’s sleeping bag and your neighbour’s tent. The International Chilliwack Biennial hopes to make you feel different about camping.

  Understood as a prototype, the event will consider the biennial as studio or performance. Works will be created, rearranged, consumed, found and dusted off. Tents, trailers, and other portable or temporary structures will form pavilions for international projects. At our symposia smoke may get in your eyes. We don’t have a PA system, but we may be able to offer you a marshmallow. Enjoy.

  Park: Cultus Lake Provincial Park Campground: Delta Grove Directions: Cultus Lake Provincial Park is located 11km southwest of Chilliwack, BC. Access to the park is off Highway 1 at the Yarrow or Sardis exits. It is 16 km to the park entrance from Yarrow and 10 km from Sardis via the Columbia Valley Highway, which bisects the southeast section of the park.

  See www.chilliwackbiennial.org for updated information.

  This is the final program in Artspeak’s two-year OFFSITE series.

  ARTSPEAK PRESENTS

  RON TRAN

  Ron Tran’s practice typically examines the influence of chance and coincidence in daily life. Contending with the campfire ban and as of yet unforeseen culinary hurtles, Ron is designing a dinner menu for the Wednesday evening of the International Chilliwack Biennial.

  MARKUS MIESSEN

  The work of architect and writer Markus Miessen considers spatial strategies and cultural analysis, accommodating change through research, criticism, writing, teaching, and design. The editor of a trilogy of publications on participation, his most recent book, The Nightmare of Participation (Crossbench Praxis as a Mode of Criticality), is due out later this year. For the International Chilliwack Biennial Miessen not only provided six of his texts from this book for distribution and discussion in relation to the collective and offsite activities of the ICB, but also designed the ICB’s camp headquarters.

  OSCAR TUAZON

  Oscar Tuazon’s practice engages with do-it-yourself architectural concepts. Responding to the circumstances of camping at Cultus Lake for the International Chilliwack Biennial, Tuazon will read a campfire tale.

• Motto Storefront

  STUART BAILEY, ANDJEAS EJIKSSON, ROB GIAMPIETRO, METAHAVEN, PUBLICATION STUDIO, OSCAR TUAZON, WORKING FORMAT, WENDY YAO, ALEXIS ZAVIALOFF, METAHAVEN, OSCAR TUAZON, PUBLICATION STUDIO
  May 15–July 22, 2010

  

  

  

  

  

  Organized by Artspeak and Fillip, with Motto, Berlin

  Motto Storefront transforms Artspeak into a temporary space for the sale, presentation, and discussion of contemporary art publishing. The selection of printed matter for the store has been made by Motto, a Berlin and Zürich-based bookstore and distributor specializing in experimental, small run, and self-published artist books, magazines, and fanzines.

  Full Information and Stocklist (PDF) 
  TALKS AND WORKSHOPS: SATURDAYS AT 2PM
  Motto Storefront provides the context for a series of related public programming intended to create a sustained dialogue within Vancouver on issues related to the production and consumption of art publishing. Formed around an ongoing, ad hoc residency program with international publishers, designers, artists, and booksellers, this series will take the form of weekly talks, workshops, and launches investigating alternative retail models, self-initiated design practices, and small scale publishing initiatives.

  Participants will include Alexis Zavialoff (Motto, Berlin); Stuart Bailey (Dexter Sinister, New York); Rob Giampietro (Project Projects, New York); Matthew Stadler and Patricia No (Publication Studio, Portland); Wendy Yao (Ooga Booga, Los Angeles); Andjeas Ejiksson (Geist, Sweden); Stand Up Comedy (Portland); Primary Information (New York); and Abi Huynh and Ross Milne (Working Format, Vancouver), amongst others.

  EVENTS
  May 15: Opening and talk by Alexis Zavialoff
  May 22: Talk by Stuart Bailey
  May 29: Talk by Rob Giampietro
  June 5: Avalanche Magazine Launch
  June 12: Talk by Publication Studio (Matthew Stadler and Patricia No)
  June 19: Talk by Andjeas Ejiksson (Geist, Sweden)

  NIEVES ZINE LIBRARY
  As a compliment to Motto Storefront, Artspeak and Fillip are very pleased to present the Nieves Zine Library, a selection of 100 zines published by Nieves, Zürich between 2004 and 2010. Photocopied in editions of only a hundred or a hundred and fifty, and almost all long since out of print, the Nieves Zine Library includes publications by Ari Marcopoulos, Stefan Marx, Olga Prader, Mark DeLong, and many others. For more information see: www.nieves.ch

  FORMS OF STAND UP COMEDY
  For this project, Stand Up Comedy, Portland, has programmed a series of video documentation of lectures, presentations, and conversations conducted by other people. The topics relate to books, and are interpreted by reading, reproduction, and performance. The selections discuss artifact and style as refractive and unreliable measures, and the technique of talking about people by talking about things. Runs daily.

  ABOUT MOTTO
  Motto started in 2007 as a distribution company for Switzerland, specializing in magazines and fanzines, at the time, a rare service in the region. In 2008, Motto opened its first permanent bookstore, in Berlin. The store is a natural progression from the traveling temporary bookshops that Motto has organized since 2007, first in Switzerland and then internationally including locations in Vilnius, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Moscow, Chicago, Seoul, Tokyo, Paris, and Stuttgart. In 2010, Motto opened a second store in Zürich located in Perla-Mode, a place with many other ongoing projects including Corner College and the Message Salon. Both Motto locations function as spaces for events dedicated to discussions around art publishing, graphic design, photography, and typography.