What Water Knows, The Land Remembers
March 26–June 5, 2022
The Toronto Biennial of Art (the Biennial/TBA) has announced an extensive series of free public programs during the 10-week Biennial that will take place from March 26 to June 5, 2022. More than 40 local, national, and international participants will lead talks, workshops, performances, and learning programs that intersect and extend ideas emerging from the 2022 Biennial, What Water Knows, The Land Remembers. Programs will take place at several Exhibition sites, as well as at nearby outdoor locations. Working across and between both the 2019 and 2022 Biennial editions, the Programs team continues centering complex, relational contexts in its approaches as it brings intergenerational visitors together again through virtual and in-person events.
Contributors to 2022 Biennial Programs include: Derya Akay, Judy Chicago, Stephanie Comilang, Emilie Croning, Jess Dobkin, Ceinwen Gobert, Francisco-Fernando Granados, Timothy Yanick Hunter, Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF), Emily Johnson, Carolyn King, Emily Law, Yaniya Lee, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Ange Loft, Dr. George Mahashe, Ivanie Aubin-Malo, Moccasin Identifier, Dr. Moyo Rainos Mutamba, Anne Zanele Mutema, Eduardo Navarro, Aki Onda, Laura Ortman, Paul Pfeiffer, Dana Prieto, Eric-Paul Riege, Susan Schuppli, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Dainty Smith, Talking Treaties Collective, Toronto Landscape Observatory, Camille Turner, Syrus Marcus Ware, and Ravyn Wngz.
Most in-person Programs will be held at the Biennial’s two main Exhibition venues—72 Perth Avenue in the Junction neighborhood and the Small Arms Inspection Building in nearby Mississauga—and will also occur at site-specific locations throughout the city. Other programming sites include 5 Lower Jarvis Street; Arsenal Contemporary Art; Colborne Lodge; Fort York National Historic Site, Toronto History Museums; High Park; Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA); and Textile Museum of Canada.
The Programs team worked alongside the Exhibition curators to develop a lexicon of terms that has helped inform their approach to public programs. Terms of particular resonance (bolded) include: coming together as part of a shared ethos at a given moment in time (collectivity); “breathing together” (the etymological roots of conspiring, further complicated by the current pandemic); experimenting new points of focus to better hear each other (listening); and embracing narratives that impact and, in some cases, uncomfortably upend prior learnings as a guiding principle to look inward as we move outward together (unlearning).
Throughout the course of the 2022 Biennial, Programs bring together participants and collaborators, whose practices offer visitors multiple entry points for engagement in a series of six programming streams: TBA Public Programs, Mobile Arts Curriculum (MAC), Storytelling, TBA School Programs, TBA Podcasts, and Onsite Libraries.
The Biennial’s 2022 programs are collaboratively developed by Roxanne Fernandes; Mary Kim, Kesang Nanglu, Emily Schimp, and Ilana Shamoon, with contributions from Exhibition curators Tairone Bastien, Candice Hopkins, Katie Lawson, and former curators Clare Butcher and Myung-Sun Kim.
Read more about the programs here.
Programs Partners include: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Metropole, Art Museum at the University of Toronto, C Magazine, Colborne Lodge, Gallery TPW, Gardiner Museum, Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Jumblies Theatre & Arts, MOCA Toronto, Moccasin Identifier, Oakville Galleries, Small Arms Inspection Building, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto District School Board, Urban Indigenous Education Centre, and Wedge Curatorial Projects.
About the Toronto Biennial of Art
The Toronto Biennial of Art is Canada’s leading visual arts event focused exclusively on contemporary art from around the world. For 10 weeks every two years, local, national, and international Biennial artists transform Toronto and its partner regions with free exhibitions, performances, and learning opportunities. Grounded in diverse local contexts, the Biennial’s city-wide programming aims to inspire individuals, engage communities, and contribute to global conversations.
Media contacts: For additional information, Libby Mark or Heather Meltzer, Bow Bridge Communications, LLC. Toronto: +1 647-544-8441, New York City, + 917-968-5567. For Toronto-based media inquiries, Yolonda Abrahams at Toronto Biennial of Art: +1 647-209-8297; or Deanne Moser at DMPUBLIC: +1 647-888-9388
