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RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne Canadian Art Review

UNCEDED: Voices of the Land, 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, May 26–November 25, 2018, Lead Architect: Douglas Cardinal, Curators: David Fortin and Gerald McMaster Jason Baerg

What is Critical Curating? Qu’est-ce que le commissariat engagé ? Volume 43, Number 2, 2018

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1054388ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1054388ar

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Publisher(s) UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | Association d'art des universités du Canada)

ISSN 0315-9906 (print) 1918-4778 (digital)

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Cite this review Baerg, J. (2018). Review of [UNCEDED: Voices of the Land, 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, May 26–November 25, 2018, Lead Architect: Douglas Cardinal, Curators: David Fortin and Gerald McMaster]. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 43(2), 125–127. https://doi.org/10.7202/1054388ar

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This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Costa (Cree), Tammy Eagle Bull (Lako- ta), Ryan Gorrie (Anishinaabe), Daniel Glenn (Crow), Ray Gosselin (Dakota, Métis, and German), Mat- thew Hickey (Mohawk), Brian Porter (Oneida), Ouri Scott (Dene), Eladia Smoke (Anishinaabe), Patrick Stewart (Nisga’a), David Thomas (Anishin- aabe), and Alfred Waugh (Dene). The installation is everything one would expect from Douglas Cardinal. Spatially, in signature style, its flow undulates through time as the wind-sculpted land or sweeps UNCEDED : Voices of the Land like an ancient sleeping river. At the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale entrance, a video of Kitigan Zibi Elder May 26–November 25, 2018 Jane Chartrand welcomes us. She rep- Lead Architect : Douglas Cardinal resents the Grandmothers Council Curators : David Fortin and Gerald McMaster and speaks from this responsibility, noting that “Elders must advise gently, to encourage us to come with a clear

heart and clear mind in connection to the land.” Chartrand acknowledges the natural elements and welcomes Jason Baerg us to this space in a good way. It is a grounding initiation into the installa- Indigenous architecture is not object orientated. Indigenous peoples and their natur- tion, a gesture related to a “Welcome 2018 is a historical year for Canada in al resources. The exhibition seeks to to Territory,” yet it is respectful of the Venice. The renovations to the Can- help rectify this lack of awareness. fact that we are visitors on Italian soil. adian Pavilion in the Giardini della A spirit of generosity envelops the After this welcome, the installation Biennale are completed, and the architectural team representing Tur- meanders into four main spaces. It is pavilion was ceremonially reopened tle Island (the place name for what rich in media. There is extensive con- to the public at the launch of the settlers refer to as North America). tent projected on multiple screens Biennale. After almost sixty years, the With twenty honorary PhDs, Douglas throughout. Everything has intention pavilion required restoration. Since Cardinal is internationally respect- and purpose. The curating needed to it was unavailable during the time ed for his conceptual and formal respect the numerous lives, cultures, needed to prepare this year’s entry contributions to architecture ; his and architectural practices repre- to the Architecture Biennale, the accomplishments could have easily sented in the exhibition. In the first Canadian exhibition was installed at been showcased independently at the space, audiences are introduced to the Arsenale. More importantly, the Biennale, but this occasion was to be Dr. Douglas Cardinal and some of his 2018 Canadian entry stands out as it shared, a decision that illustrates soli- prolific practice. The spaces undulate, is the first time Canada has selected darity among Indigenous architects. and, in the alcoves, media projec- Indigenous architects to represent That this entry represents Indigenous tions with targeted audio speakers it. For this installation, developed architects from what most consider relay culturally imbued personal nar- by a large team of Indigenous archi- today to be Canada and the US (Turtle ratives. Sometimes it is hard to hear tects and titled UNCEDED : Voices of the Island) is a political statement in itself. the content, yet there are specific Land, Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot) Indigenous relations on Turtle Island spaces in each area where the sound served as lead architect/presenter ; do not treat borders in the same is intended to be absorbed intimately. he was supported in this role by cur- manner as the aforementioned gov- One of the media screens portrays the ators Dr. David Fortin (Métis) and Dr. erning entitles. Alongside Douglas community consultation for the First Gerald McMaster (Blackfoot and Cree). Cardinal, the sixteen other archi- Nations University of Canada project What most don’t understand is that tects showcased are : Tamarah Begay in Regina, Saskatchewan. The consul- Canada, to this day, is a colonial pro- (Navajo), Harriet Burdett-Moulton tation process had a profound influ- ject, one that functions as a complex (Métis), Jake Chakasim (Cree), Chris ence on the final design of the uni- set of relationships to its sovereign Cornelius (Oneida), Wanda Dalla versity, as the local Elders offered a

racar 43 (2018) 2 : 124–152 125 ⇢ UNCEDED : Voices of the Land 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale for decades. “Venice, Love it or Leave role and relationship to this land and it ?” was a panel discussion organized our political sovereignty. compelling vision, with the desire to and moderated by Ryan Rice for the When considering the develop- have a central sacred space for them 2007 Aboriginal Curatorial Collect- ment of the curatorial process for the to hold ceremony, receive students, ive Colloquium hosted in Saskatoon 2018 Venice Project, the notion of and welcome the community. The by Tribe Inc., a center for evolving UNCEDED remained central from the iconic mîkiwahp (tipi) was integrated Aboriginal media, visual and per- beginning, as McMaster has empha- into the schematics, reinforcing this forming arts. The panel asked : “Is the sized. The architects on the team sacred space’s cultural significance, world’s stage a place for Aboriginal gathered and considered entry points and the result was an internationally artists and curators to strive for ? In in Indigenous contemporary archi- recognizable façade for the university. the end, does it make a difference and tecture. Everyone on the team holds As audiences proceed deeper what are the effects of representing ?” great respect for and honors Douglas into UNCEDED, they are introduced to The conversation resulted in a heady Cardinal, who effortlessly facilitated the other architects and encounter discussion with those who had previ- the initial conversation at OCAD Uni- historical references to the impacts ously participated on this global plat- versity. The discussion began with a of colonization on the Indigenous form. Dr. Gerald McMaster had the response to the industrial, residen- Peoples of Turtle Island. Profound honor of curating an installation cre- tial, and boarding-school scenarios on facts are relayed through media about ated by Edward Poitras, the very first Turtle Island, which unfortunately still colonization and the Catholic Church. Indigenous artist to represent Canada systemically affect our cultures in dra- For instance, visitors learn that, in at the Venice Biennale of Contempor- matic ways. Native American people 1491, “ten million Indigenous Peoples ary Art in 1995. What was paramount still feel the impacts of attempts to lived on Turtle Island”; and in 1493, to the panel was a statement made assimilate and institutionalize them. “the Pope of Rome issued the Papal by McMaster, in which he empha- It is impossible to deny the affects of Bull, declaring ‘savages have no souls, sized that one’s politics do not matter colonization when we consider our you may kill them.’” Then, from 1492 on the international stage : the work design histories. The interactions with to 1900, “nine million Indigenous has to be provocative and formally the Crown have challenged Indigen- People died due to foreign diseases resolved, the work has to be strong to ous people socially and politically, and and violent colonial conflict.” These stand out. affected our economies, our relations statements seem emotionally height- McMaster recognizes that much to other living creatures, our lan- ened by the fact that we are in Italy. has advanced since 1995, and the guages, and our traditional territor- The installation continues to meand- motivation to continue to participate ies — yet we have not given up on our er gently and finishes in an abstract- is valid. At the 1995 Venice Biennale, core values, we hold on to our sover- ed ceremonial circular room, where a there was no felt Indigenous audi- eignty. This response to institutional bench encourages contemplation, so ence ; our participation in the global structures is what motivated UNCEDED. that audiences can reflect upon the conversation was just beginning, and This leads us to reflect and project onto final media screens. the media response to Edward Potrias’ the bigger picture. Four major themes The audio that echoes through the project was insufficient. Since that grounded the development of the pro- space hits tender emotional cords time, we have seen many Indigenous ject : the impacts of colonization ; resili- and reinforces a fully sensorial experi- curatorial delegations tour various ence, which has supported Indigenous ence. It is powerful to hear the voices international biennales, and there Peoples overcoming the overwhelm- of our First Peoples tell their own stor- is an increased representation of ing odds in favour of assimilation ; ies, to hear sacred songs sung, and Indigenous artists in these critical, sovereignty, which provides the grounds to hear the drum beat, which con- mass exhibitions. A few privileged to hold onto our ancestral land and jures muscle memories of dance. The Indigenous artists, curators, and ways of being ; and Indigeneity, which context is paramount in this distant architects are now recognized, and, supports our destinies through cul- land, this Western Mecca where high as a result, our politics or stories are tural continuity and fuels Indigenous art is esteemed, and where the inter- advancing as well. However, we still Futurisms. Ultimately, the process was national stage is set for creative work have a long way to go. There is still determined by the outcomes that high- that will be hosted by and concurrent- support and action required for our light Indigenous values, which take ly attract the world’s intellectual elite. Indigenous creative intellectuals, into consideration our community, What is the Indigenous relation- who need increased representation in the Indigenous story, our territories, ship to, or intention behind, pre- all spaces of the field — in the gallery and how we navigate our current con- senting at the Venice Biennale ? This streams, as well as in influential sen- text. The exhibition is about language, has been an ongoing conversation ior positions in major art and design history, and ceremony, which were within the Indigenous art community institutions — to reflect our critical articulated through a new set of design

126 Reviews | Recensions principles that are outlined on a didac- internationalism, transnationalism, Where Martin Heidegger conceived tic panel as you enter the installation. globalism, and aesthetic experience. of the world-as-picture as a frame for Co-curator and architect David Jones argues that the contem- a singular idea, Jones argues that it Fortin adds that Indigenous archi- porary biennial circuit holds the is partial and globally linked. From tecture is not object orientated, but potential for global art to make view- nineteenth-century world’s fairs to that structure manifests through our ers aware of global entanglements twentieth-century biennials, artists ancestral experiences and accumu- through an aesthetic “experience.” have critiqued the world-as-picture lated knowledge systems. Inspired by She emphasizes the action and agency model through the development these notions, UNCEDED aims to sup- of artworks as they move transnation- of strategies of blindness that treat port the story of relationships, to offer ally through and between world’s fairs multisensory knowledge as an aes- insights into the paradigms of Turtle and now biennials. For Jones, “Art thetic experience. Island’s First Peoples in relation to the works. It is and has been active, work- In her second chapter, Jones land, the natural elements, and all our ing on the viewer historically, work- convincingly argues that blind epis- relations. Everything interconnects, ing on me still” (x). Conceptually, this temology enters biennial culture by creates, or constructs space : our entails thinking about “work as a verb” shaping and contemplating the finite intentions, the sounds, the gestures, (x) in order to reflect the historical limits of situated knowledge. Artis- and our time-collapsing connections transition of art from an object to an tic techniques of conceptualism and and commitments to sustaining our experience. What results for visitors institutional critique, which were relationships, which in turn inform of these events is an awareness of part of the turn towards an aesthet- our complex Indigenous worldviews. art’s global position, or “globalism.” ics of experience, offer multisensory There is a continuum, and the under- Jones describes this as “an aesthetic strategies of knowing that challenge pinning or framework of Indigenous response to economic, technological, the notion developed at world’s fairs culture is the architecture itself. ¶ and cultural processes of globaliza- of the world-as-picture. She develops tion” (xiii) that resists the longer hist- a lineage from Hiram Powers’ work Jason Baerg (Métis) is a visual artist and Assistant ory of the art market. The Greek Slave (first completed as a Professor in the Faculty of Art at OCAD University. — [email protected] In the first of its seven chapters, plaster model around 1843), which The Global Work of Art outlines its theor- was an international sensation prior etical framework, which Jones refers to its display in London’s Great Exhib- ition, to twentieth-century artists like Pablo Picasso and Max Bill. She then Caroline A. Jones moves on to global postwar artists, The Global Work of Art : World’s Fairs, such as Hélio Oiticia and Javier Téll- Biennials, and the Aesthetic of Experience ez, and ends with contemporary art- Chicago : University of Chicago ists, such as Cai Guo-Qiang and Tino Press, 2017 Sehgal. The case of Power’s marble 400 pp. 37 colour plates, 128 b/w illus. statue is most telling, especially as it $ 65 (cloth) ISBN 9780226291741 relates to Jones’s arguments regard- ing the physical encounters with art that fairs produced, and how their

context often speaks to difference, Amy Bruce that is, the difference between local and global situations. For Jones, biennials inherited The focus of Caroline A. Jones’ new to as “blind epistemology.” In her and built upon the international art book, The Global Work of Art : World’s Fairs, view, world’s fairs were conceived audience of world’s fairs by replicat- Biennials, and the Aesthetic of Experience, as microcosms of the world or the ing earlier notions of the world-as- is the widening of the international world-as-picture. In their emphasis picture. Like world’s fairs, biennials and global art world. She bases her on sight and perspective, they mater- operate within a European coloniz- study on the lineage of world’s fairs ialized Enlightenment philosophies. ing legacy. However, biennials have and biennials and examines globalisa- Jones, however, traces the import- had a more global goal, one that tion in contemporary art. Building ance of blindness in epistemology embraces experience as the driving outward from an exhibitionary com- from Plato to Descartes to Georgina force behind aesthetic changes in plex that began in the nineteenth Kleege in order to rethink how bienni- contemporary art. These changes to century, Jones probes key concepts al culture produces a different sort of the content and form of contempor- like cosmopolitanism, nationalism, knowledge through world-picturing. ary art were produced, in part, by the

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