A scaffold with, against

A scaffold with, against features artworks by artists Jasmina Cibic, Caroline Monnet, and the collective Pejvak that take as their material the forms that prop up constructions of the future—processes that may appear elusive in the face of larger, seductive propositions for icons of progress. Beginning with references to material structures, the works expand to recognize a metaphoric scaffold, a perpetuating apparatus across borders, eras, and political contexts. Through film, print, and textile media, the works invite us to recognize and question our capacities and agencies to shift these scaffolds and generate new ones.

Cibic’s film Tear Down and Rebuild (2015) takes as its stage the preserved modernist architecture of the former Palace of the Federation (Yugoslavia), presenting a debate that positions global questions surrounding propositions to rebuild, renovate, or destroy buildings, monuments, and cultural icons that no longer serve contemporary political contexts. Monnet’s Marking the Underground (2021), a series of silkscreen prints on waterproofing membranes, considers the deep impact of the assimilationist vision of the Indian Act and the ongoing implications of colonial policy for housing on Indigenous reserves in Canada. Pejvak’s poetic film A Passage (2018) is oriented around reconstruction projects in a land-locked border region in the south of Armenia experiencing rapid neo-liberalization since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. A scaffold with, against considers a break with the commitment to a floorplan or blueprint for the future, asking us to imagine multiple futurities beyond the disaster-oriented schemes that presently persist.

This exhibition is produced as part of the requirements for the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto.