Another City

Artists: Masashi Ogura, Yoshihiro Suda & Paul de Guzman
Curator: Makiko HaraExhibition: March 14 – April 25, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, March 13, 8 pm-
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 14, 2 – 4 pm at Centre A, followed by a walking tour to the satellite venues.Centre A. Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
2. West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1G6
Tel: 604-683-8326, www.centrea.org, [email protected]
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am – 6 pm, Sunday, Monday & Holidays closed.Walking Tour Schedule: Saturday, March 14, April 11, & April 25, 4 – 5 pm
Meet at Centre A at 4 pm
*Visit to the satellite venues is only available during this schedule.——————————————————————————————–Another City is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration art project that takes the form of a site-specific exhibition with publication addressing architecture, transfiguration of urban environment, and human condition.

Over a two-year period from 2007-2009, Masashi Ogura, Yoshihiro Suda from Japan & Vancouver-based, Paul de Guzman have established a dialogue to examine urban issues related to ongoing gentrification and the flow of globalization. The resulting exhibition will consist of “transient” architectural structures designed by Paul de Guzman, in which are sited wooden sculptures by Yoshihiro Suda. The architectural elements will make reference to the train platforms, bus shelters, corridors and waiting rooms that characterize the nomadic mobility of the urban environment.

Viewers are invited to walk through these structures and encounter the artworks installed in unexpected locations inside the gallery to discover new perspectives and experience of the space. Suda’s sculptures will punctuate this journey. This leads to the viewers to adventure further outside of the gallery to two satellite venues located within several blocks in Gastown and Chinatown. This satellite trip will provide another perspective to the audience of which they will each physically experiences some key heritage architecture and cultural histories of Downtown East Side area. Centre A is located at one of the most significant heritage buildings, the BC Electric Building (built in 1912), and with two other satellite sites, we will address the potentiality of new view on such architectural significance and richness of the DTES through the exhibition experience.

The production of Suda and de Guzman will be amplified by a hard-boiled Short Noir essay written by Masashi Ogura. The book, under the same title, will be published in 2009 and will include photographic and video documentation of the exhibition. This exhibition provide a new level of dialogue on the ongoing critical issues of gentrification in Vancouver toward the Winter Olympic and Global economy, as well as build a new way of cultural exchange in a international level. This exhibition will travel to Musée d’Art de Joliette, Québec, September 2009 – January 2010.

Exhibition patrons
Mark Allison & Stephanie Holmquist

Sponsors
The Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts in British Colombia.
Arts Partnership Cultural Development,
The Japan Foundation

Centre A gracefully acknowledge the generous support of its patrons, sponsors, members, partners, private foundations, and government funding agencies including the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Colombia Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs.

This exhibition celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and CanadaArtists, Venues and Other Collaborators

Paul de Guzman 
Paul de Guzman’s art has been exhibited widely in Canada and Europe over the last decade. Having immigrated to Canada in 1986 from the Philippines, Paul is now based in Vancouver. His art practice is characterized by text-based combinations of architecture and visual art. He recently showed at the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Kenderdine Art Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan, Art Gallery of Windsor, Vancouver Art Gallery and Art Gallery of Ontario. Internationally he has shown at Hofstra University Museum in New York, Galerie Markus Richter in Berlin, Dominique Fiat in Paris and Galerie Transit near Antwerp. Current and upcoming exhibitions include Oakville Galleries (March 2009) and Birch Libralato in Toronto (May 2009).Yoshihiro Suda
Yoshihiro Suda is based in Tokyo. Suda is an internationally celebrated contemporary artist who was nominated for the Canadian Millennium Prize (National Gallery of Canada, 2001), and his work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery in Ottawa. Suda has exhibited at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago (2002), Le Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2004), and the Victoria & Alberta Museum, London (2007-08). In 2009 he will be the first Japanese artist to have a solo exhibition in the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. Another City will be Suda’s first exhibition on the West Coast of Canada. Suda is represented by several galleries including Gallery Koyanagi in Tokyo and Galerie René Blouin in Canada.Masashi Ogura 
Masashi Ogura is a Tokyo based art critic and former editor of the leading Japanese art magazine, Atelier. For more than three decades he has organized numerous exhibitions and contributed texts to many Canadian and European publications. During his long and distinguished career, he has translated important works of philosophy into Japanese, produced exhibitions and publications, and worked with leading artists from around the world. Over the last 15 years, Ogura and Makiko Hara co-founded the art collective Tokyo Art Speak, which since 1993 presented monthly round table discussions and symposiums, and published periodical catalogues and journals.Ogura received Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française in 1994. Ogura’s publications include: A translation of Jean-Luc Nancy’s La ville au loin, Tokyo, 2007; Contemporary Art from Art Nouveau to Postmodern Age (collaboration), Tokyo, 1989; “L’entre-deux,” in Sylvie Bélanger’s catalogue De la séduction à la résistance, Art Gallery of Windsor, 1999; Du côté de l’ombre, catalogue de l’exposition Jocelyne Alloucherie, Montreal, 2001.Makiko Hara
Makiko Hara has been the curator at Centre A: Vancouver International Centre
for Contemporary Asian Art since January 2007. She has curated numerous
contemporary art exhibitions by Japanese, Canadian and international
artists, and has served as project coordinator for several international
exhibitions, including the International Triennale of Contemporary Art
in Yokohama, 2001/2005, and the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale, 2003. Hara
has served on several juries including the VIVA Awards, the City of Richmond and the City of Vancouver Public Art Programs, and the Visual Arts Section of the Canada Council for the Arts. Hara is one of the curators for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009 in Toronto.

John Atkin is a Vancouver historian, heritage advocate and conducts popular walking tours of Vancouver neighbourhoods. He edits British Columbia History for the BC Historical Federation, is a co-founder of Heritage Vancouver, and curated City Lights: Neon in Vancouver, an exhibition at the Vancouver Museum.

Atkin’s published works include numerous articles on heritage issues and four books: Heritage Walks Around Vancouver (1992) (with Michael Kluckner) and Strathcona: Vancouver’s First Neighbourhood (1994) (both winners of the City of Vancouver Heritage Award), Vancouver Walks (2004, 2nd ed. 2005) (with Michael Kluckner) and Skytrain Explorer (2005).

Gary McFarlane is a Vancouver based freelance writer and editor, and has been an administrator in the non profit sector for over 20 years. He also composes and performs with the Alligator Joy Gamelan ensemble.

The Best Way Studio is an artist studio established in 2008 by Vancouver artists Randy Gledhill, Glenn Lewis and Elisha Burrows. It is located in Chinatown’s historic Chinese Times Building on the corner of Carroll and Pender Street. The studio hosts art events in collaboration with local art organizations periodically.

Stratagem Pacific Consulting was formed in 1995. The company provides qualified and innovative services associated with cultural, economic development and natural resource issues. Stratagem Pacific Consulting is represented by Craig R. Noordmans. Since 2007, Stratagem has held four art exhibitions and artist-in-residency programs of local Vancouver emerging artists using their office space in the Marcantile Building located on the corner of Homer and Water street.

For more information, please contact:
Makiko Hara (curator)
Makiko[dot]hara[at]centrea[dot]org
604-683-8326