Notes for Tomorrow

What is art's role in making sense of a world in crisis?

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The pandemic has forced cultural institutions to explore alternative exhibition and outreach strategies, while acknowledging social justice issues that have come to the fore, both in local communities and around the globe.

Notes for Tomorrow, on view at Contemporary Calgary until Oct. 10, was conceived by Independent Curators International, a non-profit group based in New York that supports knowledge-sharing between contemporary curators. The show features works by 30 artists selected by 30 curators from 25 countries with the goal of reflecting on new global realities ushered in by the pandemic.

In this moment of cultural transition, Notes for Tomorrow – which includes photography, film, new media, painting, printmaking, sound and poetry – seeks to inspire with art that illustrates myriad aspects of a world in crisis. It elevates regional perspectives, giving them a global reach.

Art can be a bridge that allows us to examine collectively what it means to be human and it can also give voice, allowing expression and bringing people and ideas together. What small gestures can we make as individuals? What helps us get through hard times? How can  artists do this in their own way? This exhibition asks viewers to consider different perspectives and forms of knowledge in the hope they will reimagine and reconsider humanity's collective impact on global well-being.

Many works in the show address spirituality or activism as grounding mechanisms and ways to make sense of a world in crisis. Some engage with specific mythologies, while others consider political structures. Memory and the role of monuments – and their removal – are also a focus. The ideas that emerge in Notes for Tomorrow are disparate yet synchronistic.

Some works span walls in the upper gallery outside the dome of the building, a former planetarium, while others are part of a film series presented in theatre. And yet others, like #soothsayers, are presented through online platforms like Spotify or shared via Instagram and Twitter.

When I visited, a documentary film, O fim do sem fim (The end of the endless), by Brazilian artist Cao Guimarães, was being screened in the second-floor theatre. Made in the late 1990s and released in 2001, it takes viewers on a journey through remote towns and villages in search of crafts and professions in decline, such as midwifery and printing. An array of fascinating and outspoken characters share personal philosophies and reflect on a rapidly changing era. The film helps us rethink what technological progress has brought to our own communities, and how radically it has changed their social, environmental and behavioural fabric.

Contrast is provided by a new media work, Construction of the Cities of Memory, by Ernesto Bautista, an artist from El Salvador. His poetic virtual city, rendered in intense violets and graphic blacks, is based on the memories of close friends.

Another work, a music video titled Nadie aquí es ilegal / Here No One is Illegal, transports viewers to an alternative reality where aliens inhabit the Earth. Made by the queer feminist art collective INVASORIX, it uses uses lyrics to pose questions about the exploitation of both people and the environment through colonialism, slavery and racism.

Contrasts between new and old technologies and new and old worlds permeate the exhibition, no matter the medium. In the lobby outside the dome, works include a series of bulletin-board posters by Hungarian artist Tamás Kaszás. Set in an imagined future, these prints deploy a visual language informed by the tactics of grassroots political advocacy to critique oil production and its poisonous practices.

Equally powerful are photographic works by Zimbabwean artist Northando Chiwanga and Senegalese artist Ibrahima Thiam. Both use portraiture but to differing ends. Chiwanga’s haunting photographs deal with themes such as desolation, poverty and the oppression of  women. Thiam’s portraiture, on the other hand, is based on the mythology of the horseman who protects the city of Dakar, as well as supernatural connections between costume, ritual and the land.

Whether viewers engage with works online or in the gallery, they will be challenged by the show’s ability to be diverse yet speak to collective memories in a global era. ■  

Notes for Tomorrow at Contemporary Calgary from April 15 to Oct. 10, 2021. Artists include Madiha Aijaz, Ernesto Bautista, Maeve Brennan, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Luke Luokun Cheng, Nothando Chiwanga, Shezad Dawood, Demian DinéYazhi’, Cao Guimarães, Ilana Harris-Babou, Rei Hayama, Amrita Hepi, INVASORIX, Tamás Kaszás, Ali Kazma, A Liberated Library for education, inspiration & action, David Lozano, Mona Marzouk, Joiri Minaya, Peter Morin, Omehen, Daniela Ortiz, Kristina Kay Robinson, Luiz Roque, Mark Salvatus, Yan Shi, Ibrahima Thiam, u/n multitude and Wayne Kaumualii Westlake. 

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