The first Emergent gallery (above) was set to be originally exhibited in Venezia in 2022. This posed challenges as both the conditions (and costs) of shipping as well as the location of the venue required modifications in its size and portability. The result was a gallery containing 2 chambers: a bigger chamber can be viewed through a series of Peeping holes or lenses to magnify or help visualize the interior of the vessel. This chamber can contain small projections, visual material, or even small objects. The division between the two chambers can be removed to use the entire space. the smaller chamber can function like a more traditional exhibition space. The external wall can be removed, or can take different formats (for examples, it can be transparent, embossed, or look like a traditional door).
The following year (2023), a second small mobile gallery was designed with improved portability in mind. Whereas the first Emergent gallery was shipped as a fully built artifact ready to be filled and exhibited, this second version is equipped with removable hinges on each side, making it collapsable and therefore easier to transport. This second version was conceived for a 2023 exhibition at the Malta Art Society, and is traveling across Europe to be repurposed, adapted, and re-installed by local artists. This version of Emergent is the third instalment of our mobile gallery.
Emergent 1 – Megachile Alienus
Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. Giudecca (VE), June 22-28, 2022
Megachile Alienus was the first Emergent gallery to be built and the first to be exhibited in an international context. Initially thought to move on wheels and powered by a bicycle, it had to be adapted to the special circumstances of Venice: the city does not allow bikes on its islands.
Over the course of one month, Toronto Based interdisciplinary artist Cole Swanson received and adapted the gallery to respond to the rich ornate and golden style of Venice, and to accommodate a delicate installation featuring two species of bees that thrive both in Canada and oversea.
Swanson worked with our team and with a number of collaborators, including a skilled woodworker, a maker, and mellitologist Dr. Laurence Packer, who acted as scientific advisor.
documentation of this first installation can be found here
Emergent 3 – Creatures of Future/Past
Malta Society of Arts. Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta, Sept. 26-29, 2023
Emergent #3 contained the work of Berlin based interdisciplinary artist Kaethe Wenzel. Wenzel closely collaborated with us to redesign the gallery in order to improve its portability and worked with Spencer Barclay to fabricate and complete it.
The final mobile gallery contained a collection of bone costumes which combined ideas of the past (the idea of “boning” in the tradition of corset making) with futuristic garments that both spoke to animal/human relation as well as their resilient and/or extinction.
more about this gallery can be found here