Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV, Episode 06: On the Ravines
In collaboration, the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), Evergreen Brick Works (Evergreen), and Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA) announce the online launch of: Joar Nango and Ken Are Bongo, Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV, Episode 06: On the Ravines.
Toronto’s ravine system is both location and subject for Joar Nango and Ken Are Bongo’s most recent episode of Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV: On the Ravines, a joint commission and presentation by AGYU, Evergreen, and TBA, now available online.
Nango, an artist and architect, and Bongo, a filmmaker and producer, collaboratively produce Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV (PCA-TV), a thematic video series exploring Indigenous architectures from Sámi fishing huts to their nomadic environments through to defining, questioning, and embodying decoloniality as a global manifestation. The television series began in 2020 following Nango’s travels across northern Norway in an aging, modified cargo van as he interviewed Indigenous scholars, artists, and architects, staging performances for the camera and holding screenings for live audiences. Currently, there are six episodes which address a variety of themes such as nomadism and flow, resource economy, decolonization and architecture, and the history of the Gumpi (a mobile shelter used by reindeer herders).
On the Ravines is the first international production of PCA-TV, with this sixth episode set on the shore of the Don River in Toronto/Tkaronto, Canada. This edition continues the series’ multi-disciplinary format, featuring interviews, performances, installations, and public events that encapsulate and document the research, artworks, and lifestyles of local artists and architects.
Throughout the episode, Nango and Bongo are introduced to important discussions that address property rights, homelessness, and architecture’s colonial heritage on Turtle Island. These conversations are held in one of the city’s largest ravines—which connect the downtown core to the wild greenery of the northern section of the city—along the Don River where the PCA-TV crew built a small cinema from found objects and materials for the premiere screening of this installment. In the episode, viewers meet local and international architects, scholars, activists, writers, and artists, including Adrian Blackwell, Bonnie Devine, Ange Loft, Thomas Holland Eriksen, Lorraine Lam, Thomas Juell Christensen, and Amish Morell, with artistic contributions from Kuzy Curley, Dayna Danger, Fortunato Durutti Marinetti, Ándaris Rimpi, and Archer Pechawis.
PCA-TV is emblematic of Nango’s relational and improvisational approach to making artwork, which begins socially and then builds into a sharing of skills and the development of platforms for knowledge sharing. An engagement with Indigenous people in the regions Nango works is integral to his methodology, learning local histories through interactions with artists, writers, and architects. A year after its production and first screening, On the Ravines will be available to view on the websites of its co-commissioners and co-presenters AGYU, Evergreen, and TBA.
Joar Nango is a process-based artist, architect, builder, publisher, and host working within the provisional nature of sculpture, performance, and architecture. He is Sámi, belonging to the Indigenous peoples from Sápmi, the traditional Sámi territory and lives and works in Tromsø, Norway. Nango has exhibited widely, recently presenting a large-scale solo exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall, and has participated in exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, Tensta Konsthall, Chicago Architecture Biennial, and Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens. He is bringing Girjegumpi, the Sámi Architecture Library, to the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Ken Are Bongo is a film director, cinematographer, and editor. He comes from the Sámi village Guovdageaidnu and graduated from Nordland Art and Film School in Kabelvåg. Bongo has been working in film and television since 2006, and recently produced the short fictional film Wolf (2018), which premiered at the Reykjavík International Film Festival. Other credits include one episode of the television miniseries Hvem ringer? (2020), and the short films Ara Marumaru (2018), and Biegga savkala duoddariid duohken lea soames (2007).
