Momentarily: Learning from Mega-Events

Description:

Momentarily: Learning from Mega-Events was a publication that emerged from research into the impacts of the 2010 Olympic Games on livability standards in Vancouver. The publication was part of a larger project that took several forms at Western Front: a residency with Bik Van der Pol, the exhibition Bik Van der Pol and Urban Subjects: In Dialogue, and the symposium Learning From Vancouver.

Momentarily begins with a text by Western Front’s executive director Caitlin Jones, who expounds upon the publication’s place within a rich organizational history of mail art and public accessibility. Artist collective Bik Van der Pol share a text which has been uttered by the anonymous voices in their installation I confess I care (2010) as part of their exhibition In Dialogue. Artists Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber talk with Jerry Zazlove about radical pedagogy at Simon Fraser University in the 1960s. Art historian and critic Jeff Derksen walks readers through the long moment of neoliberalism and the challenges it poses to representation. Curator Candice Hopkins talks about the works of Bik Van der Pol and Urban Subjects as proposals in the most productive sense. Activist Am Johal traces the link between development, culture and the State. Myka Tucker-Abramson evokes and analyzes the effectiveness of today’s universities as sites for public learning. Pelin Tan reveals the undercurrents of a recent clash between the art public and a local community within the Tophane neighbourhood of Istanbul. Moments, as defined by urbanist Henri Lefebvre, are expanded upon and illuminated by Stuart Eldon. Arnold Van Bruggen weighs the effects of the Sochi Olympics in Russia and Lize Mogel compares the recent mega-events of Beijing, Shanghai, and Vancouver.

Featuring texts ranging from auto-fiction, to interviews, to theory, the questions at stake in Momentarily are grounded in local perspectives that dovetail into the global intertwined relationships of urban development, freedom of speech, and public space.

Momentarily: Learning from Mega-Events was published as a limited print run of 1000 copies, and made available to download as an ebook on the Western Front website. 

Momentarily: Learning from Mega-Events
Western Front, 2011
Texts by Bik Van der Pol, Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber, Jeff Derksen, Stuart Elden, Alissa Firth-Eagland, Candice Hopkins, Am Johal, Lize Mogel, Pelin Tan, Myka Tucker-Abramson, Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen, Jerry Zaslove
Edited by Bik Van der Pol, Alissa Firth-Eagland, Urban Subjects, with assistance from Derek Brunen
Designed by Karianne Blank
Printed at Horizon Printers 
58 pages
ISBN 978-0-920974-49-0

Documents:

• Momentarily: Learning from Mega Events (2011). Texts by Bik Van der Pol, Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber, Jeff Derksen, Stuart Elden, Alissa Firth-Eagland, Candice Hopkins, Am Johal, Lize Mogel, Pelin Tan, Myka Tucker-Abramson, Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen, and Jerry Zaslove.