An exhibition curated by Anne Ramsden
January 26 - March 25, 2017
Opening reception: Thursday, January 26, 2017, from 6 PM to 8 PM
(preceded by a guided visit with the artist at 5:30 PM)
The Artexte team is pleased to present an exhibition by Anne Ramsden, based on a research residency carried out by the artist in 2015-2016.
Artists, curators and writers all at some point reflect back on the body of work they have realized over an extended period of time. For this exhibition, Anne Ramsden considers what it means to think about one’s past artistic production. Using her own practice as a case study, the artist displays documents from the Artexte collection and her own archive to situate her work within the larger cultural context of visual art production. Video interviews with artists and curators speaking about their experience working on retrospective or survey exhibitions provide a glimpse of how modern art institutions have formalized the contemplation of past artistic achievements through the form of the retrospective or survey exhibition. A display of catalogues of retrospective exhibitions of Canadian artists creates another layer of information that informs the artist’s exploration of this difficult territory. What is the benefit for artists to look backwards while they are primarily invested in moving forward?
Co-founder of Artexte and co-director from 1980 to 1987, Anne Ramsden is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist. Grounded in conceptual art, feminist and critical theories, her work explores connections between manifestations of the everyday, the museum and the collection. She has exhibited her work in North America, Europe, Scandinavia and Asia. She was an Editorial Assistant for Parachute magazine from 1980 to 1982 and taught at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts in Vancouver from 1987 to 1998. She currently teaches in the École des arts visuels et médiatiques at the Université du Québec à Montréal.