Ravine Screenings by Joar Nango
Toronto’s ravine system is both location and subject for Joar Nango and Ken Are Bongo’s newest episode of Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV, jointly commissioned and presented by AGYU, Evergreen, and the Toronto Biennial of Art. Episode 6 of Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV is set in the Don River Valley. The episode continues the series’ variety show format, featuring interviews, by local knowledge holders and those invested in the ravine’s ecosystems, including Bonnie Devine, Ange Loft, Adrian Blackwell, Amish Morrell, Dayna Danger, among many others, that speak to and document the ravine systems as architecture, as a place of formal and informal building practices, resistance, and refuge. Episode 6 is also centred on how the ravines are a contingent archive of colonialism, gentrification, and Indigenous knowledge. A thematic video series, Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV documents Indigenous architectures from mobile Sámi fishing huts to questioning, and embodying decoloniality as a global manifestation. The TV series began in 2020 following Nango’s travels across northern Norway in an aging and modified cargo van. The Ravine Screenings developed and unfolded from May 5 to May 17 as Nango and Bongo worked in the ravines and meet with locals. Their new production culminated in a site specific installation and gathering space constructed by Nango and collaborators in the ravine system in the Don Valley. This special screening of episode 6 marks the final Toronto Biennial curated event hosted within Jeffrey Gibson’s evolving installation, I AM YOUR RELATIVE. This event is co-presented by AGYU, Evergreen Public Art Program, and The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto.
