Toronto Biennial of Art highlights this week: Performances by RISE Edutainment | Combat Ready Kitchen | Non-human Entanglements: Slime Mould Workshop

Crowd at RISE Edutainment event. Courtesy Randell Adjei.

November is the final month for the Toronto Biennial of Art so be sure to take advantage of these last few weeks. Get out and explore more than 100 artworks and countless artist-led events across the city—all for free!

From November 8 to 14, Biennial visitors can experience music, poetry, tastings, workshops, leading edge technology and more.

The Biennial’s programming connects issues, practices, and methodologies related to the Biennial’s first edition, The Shoreline Dilemma, which explores the implications of Toronto’s ever-changing waterfront in the context of a central question: What does it mean to be in relation?

For a complete overview of exhibiting artists, programs, locations, and hours, please visit our website.

This week’s highlights include:

Isonomia in Toronto

Performances by RISE Edutainment
Program: Currents
Date: Fri, Nov 8
Time: 7–9pm
Location: 259 Lake Shore Blvd E

RISE Edutainment will curate a one-hour musical and poetic performance intended to inspire, engage and empower the audiences. These messages will delve into introspection, self-love and self -identity. Participants in this program for the Biennial include: Tamir Holder, Dynesti Williams, Randell Adjel, and Jayda Marley.

Readings by Wingston González and Urayoán Noel
Program: Currents
Date: Sat, Nov 9
Time: 2–4pm
Location: Small Arms Inspection Building

Lectura: Qué haré con mi lugar en el cielo [en español]: A partir de una obra en la que Naufus Ramírez Figueroa reflexiona sobre la figura de los silleros en la América Latina colonial, Qué haré con mi lugar en el cielo reflexiona alrededor de la idea del peso, la materialidad y el tránsito.

Wingston González will read new work from ‘Qué haré con mi lugar en el cielo,’ poems inspired by the sculptures of Naufus Ramírez Figueroa, reflecting on the figure of the silleros in colonial Latin America. Readings by Puerto Rican poet, performer, professor, and polemicist Urayoán Noel will follow.

Please note: This program will be a mixture of Spanish and English, and coincides with the launch of González’s new book. Free copies will be available.

Image (L): Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, 2015. Photo credit: Jorge Salcedo.
Image (R): Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat. Image credit: Christopher Sergio, Art Director.

“Combat Ready Kitchen” with Anastacia Marx de Salcedo
Program: Co-Relations
Date: Sun, Nov 10
Time: 1-3pm
Location: Small Arms Inspection Building

Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, author of “Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat” (2015), discusses the military’s role in the technological development of processed foods and the distribution, commercialization, and effects of packaged goods within society.

The event will offer tastings of MRE (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) and mass-produced food that is developed through military technology.

Tosca Terán, Physarym polycephalum & the TTC, 2019. Courtesy of the artist.

Non-Human Entanglements: Slime Mould Workshop
Program: Tools for Learning
Date: Wed, Nov 13 and Thurs, Nov 14
Time: 10am–1pm
Location: 259 Lake Shore Blvd E

During these workshops, Tosca Terán introduces the amazing potential of slime mould for collaboration at the intersection of art and science. Participants learn how to transform their kitchens and closets in to safe, mini-Physarum biolabs and leave the workshop with a feeding and growing kit, their own Slime mould, as well as a wide array of possibilities of slime mould (Physarum polycephalum*) culturing. The workshops invite participants to experiment with different biological media and feeding substrates, reflecting on how they inform the growth and morphology of protozoans and protists.

*Physarum polycephalum is a yellow ameboid dweller of decaying logs and decomposing vegetation on dim forest floors. It made headlines when Japanese biologists demonstrated its uncanny ability to optimize paths through mazes and reproduce tracks between mapped Tokyo railway stations. Since then, slime mould has become an attractive living substrate for research in diverse areas such as mathematical modeling, computation and bio-art.

Coming Soon

TELLINGS: A Post-Human Vocal Concert
Program: Co-Relations
Date: Sat, Nov 16
Time: 3-7pm
Location: Graduate Gallery of OCADU, 205 Richmond St W

TELLINGS: A Post-Human Vocal Concert seeks to challenge traditional conceptions of voice. Artists working experimentally with sound—live electronics, deep listening, sound art—perform compositions that explore new modes of vocal production. The experimental vocal compositions in solo and ensemble formats question the way we imagine the body of a voice and the “receiver” as well as the divisions made between nature and technology. Each composition performed in TELLINGS presents increasingly inter-species, inter-organ, feminist, and collaborative notions through the languages of plants, animals, and even human organs not normally associated with having authorship or intention.

In advance of the performance and in conjunction with TELLINGS performance program, Miya Masaoka will be giving a performative lecture and demonstration, and Stephanie Loveless will be offering a deep listening workshop.

ARt @ LARGE App
Experience the Toronto Biennial of Art on your mobile phone with augmented reality (AR) through a co-production between the CFC Media Lab and ARt @ LARGE. Discover and learn more about Biennial sites, create AR scenes and messages with selected art objects, and share your experiences with friends throughout the duration of the Biennial.

About the Toronto Biennial of Art
The Toronto Biennial of Art (the Biennial/TBA) is a new international contemporary visual arts event that is as culturally connected and diverse as Toronto itself. For 10 weeks every two years, the city will be transformed by exhibitions, talks, and performances that reflect the local context while engaging with the world’s most pressing issues of our time. In an effort to make contemporary art available to everyone, the Biennial’s free, citywide programming aims to inspire people, bridge communities, and contribute to global conversations from a variety of perspectives.

For more information, visit: torontobiennial.org, @torontobiennial, and #TObiennial19 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Media Contacts
For additional information, Libby Mark or Heather Meltzer at Bow Bridge Communications, LLC, Toronto: +1 647-544-8441, New York City, +1 347-460-5566; info@bow-bridge.com.