UTOPIA FACTORY: Part 2 Research Station

×

Expand

Interior view of Memorial Hall, Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, 1964

photograph by Arthur James, published Canadian Architect vol. 9, no. 11, p. 55

UTOPIA FACTORY is a research and exhibition project that engages in larger discourses about the conceptualization of communities and their landmarks from a historic and contemporary perspective and encourages accessible dialogue with a broad range of publics on issues of nationalism, state-making, inclusion, and belonging at a critical juncture in Calgary’s urbanization and planning for a new public art gallery.  

The project will investigate how state-building relates to city-building, while tracing how architecture and monuments inform memory, community-building and representations of nationhood. UTOPIA FACTORY also addresses the complexity of forming designated creative and cultural zones and civic-planning, while offering new forms or urban vitality.  

UTOPIA FACTORY is comprised of three parts:  

1. When Form Becomes Attitude, curated by Noa Bronstein
2. Research Station, curated by Lisa Baldissera and Nate McLeod
3. Architecture and National Identity: The Centennial Projects 50 Years On, curated by Marco Polo & Colin Ripley

Research Station

Curated by Lisa Baldissera and Nate McLeod

Mezzanine Gallery & Lobby, March 16 – July 30, 2017  

Research Station is a two-part project that features existing and research-based work by Mark Clintberg (Calgary, AB) and Nils Norman (London, UK), respectively, as they each develop new projects for the future home of Contemporary Calgary: the Centennial Planetarium. Two stages of the project will demonstrate the artists’ research and plans as they evolve, with the first opening on March 16th, 2017 (in conjunction with the reception for When Form Becomes Attitude), and the second opening on May 4th, 2017 (in conjunction with the reception for Architecture and National Identity).  

Mark Clintberg’s existing work, Not over you will be exhibited on the façade of our current venue for the duration of UTOPIA FACTORY, offering a heartfelt, romantic nod to the building as we host our final exhibition here. In the lobby, research and plans for a new public work titled Over you, will act as a continuation of the existing work, while signaling the transition from our current venue on Stephen Avenue to our future venue in the Centennial Planetarium. A printed multiple on the relation between the two works will also be available free to visitors.  

Nils Norman works across the disciplines of public art, architecture and urban planning. His projects
 challenge notions of the function of public art and the efficacy of mainstream urban planning and large-scale regeneration. Following a research trip to Calgary in January of 2017, Norman will develop an installation-based work for the Mezzanine Gallery at Contemporary Calgary, revealing his research into the history and architecture of the Centennial Planetarium while ultimately informing a future public work to be developed for the site.