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July 31st 2014

This tour began in an interesting park surrounded by condos and full of public art at Canoe Landing where were joined by some amazing volunteers providing free bike tune-ups. Shamez Amlani gave introductions and led the group again as our emcee, and we had both John Cairns and Navid Taslimi with their powerful bicycle sound systems. Mounted on another bicycle we had Heather Phillips' Portable Gallery Project join the ride with a special installation by Kristie MacDonald made specifically for the miniature space. Also tagging along the ride was our Rickshaw Residency project, curated this season by Asad Raza. This month we had artist Jose Andres Mora as the artist in residence, capturing unique field recordings of the evening. The folks from Promise Events again gave out their fantastic Promise Culture Pack to the person with the best bicycle style.

Our first stop on the tour was at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery where we saw three exhibitions, Sanatorium by Pedro Reyes, The End of Time by Akram Zaatari and Vasco Araújo's Under The Influence of Psyche. Many thanks to everyone at the Power Plant who took the time to speak to the group and walk us through the exhibition.

Our second stop took us up to the beautiful St. Lawrence Hall. Built in the Renaissance Revival style, this hall with working gas lamps made an amazing backdrop for Our Last Picture, a choreographic experiment examining the moments before and after a photograph is taken. This work, created by Andréa de Keijzer was produced by company Je Suis Julio and performed by Andréa, Ariane Boulet, Joannie Douville and Gabriel Vignola.

 

Following that performance we headed over to the picturesque courtyard at the Canadian Opera Company to be serenaded by soprano Charlotte Burrage with Rachael Andrist on piano. Charlotte sang five short aria's in both french and Italian and introduced many audience members to their first live opera performance. Special thanks to Phil Stevens from the COC for making this collaboration possible. Following that performance, we headed down across the Keating Channel to the Portlands for a visit to the VS VS VS collective's studio and gallery. Here, the members of the collective took turns sitting in a dunk tank, while audience members had the chance to pay a one dollar artist fee and dunk an artist. The gallery space held an exhibition by recent artist-in-residence Robert Hitzeman with works created from materials salvaged in the Portlands area.

 

Finally we headed to our final stop, a special site that we've been waiting for years to include on an Art Spin tour. We finished at the base of the Victory Soya Mill Silos on the waterfront. Dave Colangelo and Patricio Davila once again made a moving site-specific video piece, this one titled Tent City Projections played across the entire west wall of the silo structure and told a personal account of tent city and its history in the city.


We then opened up the Per Se Mobile food truck, started up the music and spent the rest of the evening watching more videos on the side of the soya mills. All the stunning video works were by Markus Heckmann and Rui Pimenta, Simone Jones, Vuk Dragojevic, Michael Toke, Wrik Mead, and Adam David Brown. Thanks to Les Petits Nouveaux (Andy Mac, Tak Arikushi and Scott Hunter) and Sean Pinchin for the wonderful musical accompaniment, and to Ryan and Billy for all their assistance hosting.
 

More thanks to Bike Pirates and to all of our other amazing volunteers who make this event possible, whether they're checking tickets, fixing bikes, marshalling the bike ride, cleaning up, documenting the event and more. We couldn't survive without you.


Art Spin would also like to acknowledge generous support from The D'Eon Eaton Family, Hoop Driver Bicycles, Kronenbourg and TAG Vodka, as well as the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. This tour was also made possible with support from Castlepoint Realty Partners, SP+ Parking and Waterfront Toronto.

ARTISTS & CREATIVE COLLABORATORS

Shamez Amlani, John Cairns, Navid Taslimi, Heather Phillips, Kristie MacDonald, Asad Raza, Jose Andres Mora, Pedro Reyes, Akram Zaatari, Vasco Araújo, André de Keijzer, Je Suis Julio, Ariane Boulet, Joannie Douville, Gabriel Vignola, Charlotte Burrage, Rachael Andrist, VSVSVS, Robert Hitzeman, Dave Colangelo, Patricio Davila, Markus Heckmann & Rui Pimenta, Simone Jones, Vuk Dragojevic, Michael Toke, Wrik Mead, Adam David Brown, Les Petits Nouveaux (Andy Mac, Tak Arikushi, Scott Hunter), and Sean Pinchin

PHOTOS

PARTNERS

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