A snapshot of this city is different one day to the next. Situated at the western terminus of Canada’s transcontinental routes at the edge of the Pacific Rim, Vancouver’s accelerated pace of development and constantly shifting infrastructure collide with its historic isolation and stasis. Buildings are torn down and replaced at a surprising rate. The only constant is change.
The most coveted views of this city typically look outward toward the surrounding mountains and sea, rather than inward toward its streets, buildings and communities. WE: Vancouver offers an opportunity to shift our perspective, to scrutinize the life of the city itself, to observe its continual transformation and to acknowledge some of the extraordinary people and projects leading that change.
This exhibition brings together more than forty recent projects from various disciplines—architecture and design, art and visual culture, literature and activism—that are produced in Vancouver and reflect uniquely on the city. Individual or collective, they are realized by people who propose new ways we might inhabit this place.
WE: Vancouver is organized around the principle of the manifesto, a form of public declaration, often polemical and revolutionary. The twelve manifestos of WE: Vancouver are as elemental and direct as the projects that inspired them. Each one is a verb: an action describing the ways we encounter and experience the city, as well as how we might envision it anew.
The exhibition title refers to the multiple perspectives that make up the pronoun “we,” reflecting the viewpoints that give this place its unique shape and meaning. Rather than suggesting a single unified position, WE: Vancouver recognizes that difference is a fundamental part of a city.
If one thing unites the range of practices represented here, it is their desire to affect change, however small or large, specific or broad, subtle or direct. Seen together, these projects are no longer isolated initiatives. They are many calls to action, voices that form the city today and describe the trajectories of its future.
This exhibition is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Bruce Grenville, senior curator, and Kathleen Ritter, associate curator.
Presenting Sponsor:
This exhibition is supported by the City of Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary Partnership Grants Program with the participation of the Government of Canada:
