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FOFA Gallery to be cultural hub at Congress  

By Russ Cooper

“For Congress, I consider the gallery to be an exchange site, not a shiny penny to show us off. We want conversation.”

FOFA Gallery director jake moore knows the gallery is the perfect venue to translate the theme of Connected Understanding/le savoir branché at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, here May 28 to June 4.

“One of the beauties of our Faculty of Fine Arts is that there is a unique hybrid of research and creation,” says moore. “We want to make that available and viable for visitors as well as our colleagues here.”

For the exterior vitrine facing Ste. Catherine St., computation arts professor Jason Lewis is creating a touch-screen exhibition that’ll allow passers-by to interact with the installation. Moore imagines this will expand on Lewis’ City Speak on-going project (last presented at Nuit Blanche 2009), one that enabled people to send text messages for display on large dedicated billboards. Here, the Montréal tradition of “Lecher la vitrine will be a physical, hands-on experience,” she says.

Just west of the FOFA storefront will be Café Congrès. A true outdoor Montreal terrace will be set up in the exterior courtyard where the university physically meets the street for anyone to stop by.

To supplement the traditional Congress book fair (spread throughout the atrium and metro levels of both the EV and MB Buildings for all eight days, selling works of more than 150 publishers), inside in the foyer of the gallery will be a specialized ‘off-book fair’ featuring printed wares from fine artists who don’t often publish with academic presses.

The interior vitrine along the EV’s York corridor will feature electronic textiles, the research of Barbara Layne, pk langshaw, Ingrid Bachman and Joanna Berzowska exploring the often-overlooked ways in which fashion communicates. “By referencing clothing in what is ostensibly a store window, making those things move becomes a way to animate the idea of savoir branché,” moore says.

The gallery will be transformed into a media presentation space incorporating multiple screens for projection and an octophonic sound system. Among the projects to be displayed will be the animated poetry performance of Jhave Johnson using software designed by Lewis.

The gallery will also host four discussion panels called Dialogues, each including Concordia researchers or artists from different fields, to examine a topic from unique angles. While panelists and details are still being finalized, the themes will be Dissemination Textures, Creative Ecologies, Aesth/ethics, and Sustainabilities. The morning discussions will be followed by what moore calls ‘afternoon tea’, an opportunity to hear from one distinct project. Research/creators will present their latest projects and answer questions from attendees.

The events at FOFA will provide a unique opportunity to showcase Concordia’s support of unique types of research/creation that are considered equal with standard academic research.

“Throughout Congress, we’ll be showing how visual and material culture transmits our values and interests,” says moore. “I think the highly gifted academic people visiting Concordia are going to recognize we are doing and making what they are writing.”

See the gallery site or Concordia's congress site for more.