Planetary
to
Contemporary Calgary 701 11 Street SW, Calgary, Alberta
Dan Hudson, "Eclipse," 2019
installation detail
Temporary Closure
Dear Friends,
It has been a few weeks since we announced the temporary closure of Contemporary Calgary to do our part in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the need to keep our employees and our visitors safe. Contemporary Calgary will remain closed to the public until further notice, and we remain committed to keeping you updated and informed.
In light of the current situation surrounding COVID-19 and the need for self-isolation and quarantines, there is urgency around developing arts engagement on multiple platforms that in most cases exclude physical locales. Already museums, galleries, and other cultural organizations are rapidly offering a dizzying array of ways to encounter art.
While online programming is far from new, the acute reliance on it now is creating new opportunities. Our team has been hard at work creating and repurposing existing content and we look forward to launching our own initiative in the coming week offering experiences and ways to engage with art, artists and the Contemporary Calgary community online. Through this, we are chiefly thinking about ways we can directly support artists and the social wellbeing of our community. We look forward to sharing more with you soon.
These are unprecedented times, and they provide us the opportunity to reflect. I know I have been thinking a great deal about the things in my life that I appreciate. A government that cares about its citizens, amazing healthcare professionals who risk their wellbeing in support of ours, the importance of friends and family, and technology that helps us to connect and share ideas.
I’m also reminded of the important role that museums, ballets, theatres, symphonies, music centres and art galleries all play to enrich our lives here in Calgary. We stand in solidarity with our friends and peers who all need your support, who all look forward to welcoming you back through their doors, and who all believe—more than ever—that art has the ability to transform lives.
We thank you for your continued support and hope this note finds you well.
David Leinster
Chief Executive Officer, Contemporary Calgary
Contemporary Calgary is pleased to launch Planetary as one of our inaugural exhibitions in our new home at the former Centennial Planetarium. Grounded in contextual investigations around shaping vision through site and placemaking, 36 artists living in Calgary respond to our much beloved City landmark, creating work that draws upon the building’s architecture, its cosmological connections and its relationships to personal memory and nostalgia.
Planetary is an opportunity to consider the aspirations and ideologies driving the building design as it was realized in 1967 and its familiar role as a science centre for many decades thereafter. Through research, workshops and extensive site-specific residencies, artists addressed notions of futurity, technology, space travel and knowledge through a multiplicity of genres and mediums, both collaboratively and individually. Critically, Planetary is an occasion to reflect on our past and reignite our imaginations about the future of this site, our cultural landscape, and a vision for Contemporary Calgary that is welcoming, inclusive, engaging and relevant.
Rami Abdulnour, Mahwish Ahmed, Derek Beaulieu, Brittney Bear Hat, Richelle Bear Hat, Ashley Bedet, Noel Bégin, Ryan Bourne & Rebecca Reid, Morgan Campbell, Cody Cox & Ali Ceaser, Mark Clintberg, Bill Gardner, Guy Gardner, Rocio Graham, Brandon Hearty, Cipayak, Dan Hudson, Jennifer Ireland, Kriss Janik, Joe Kelly, Dan Cardinal McCartney, Tammy McDonald, Joanne MacDonald, Jeremy Pavka, Mireille Perron, Leah Petrucci, Shea Proulx, Alberta Rose, Alia Shahab & Michel Gignac, Lane Shordee, Teresa Tam, Tommi Watts, George Webber.