Skol, Montréal, QC

2013-2014 PROGRAMMING OVERVIEW : image credit: Poster Design: David Court (image from Herbert Bayer’s Fundamentals of Exhibition Design) A work by David Court, commissioned by Skol. The theme The Artist in Dangerous Times will be developed over two years of active programming. Conceived as a “shared vision” rather than a constraint, this theme echoes the political concerns, looming abstract threats, and ghostly aesthetics found in a number of the selected projects, and serves as a premise for the conferences and exchanges that Skol plans to generate. By examining and re-evaluating their own artistic processes, by tackling the structures that define our identities, or by making way for feelings of discontent or outrage, the artists and curators participating in this programming share a weather-eyed approach, each engaging with the following questions in their own way: Is the artist’s stance still inherently progressive? Can fears and concerns be expressed without immediately being digested, dissolved, dismantled? How can one respond, when words like “liberty”, “creativity” and “difference” — once so dear to artists — now serve to fuel the new capitalist ethos? “I see perilous times ahead.” - Jim Rogers, financial analyst “Global Exchange, ” CNN. Atlanta, November 9, 2011.