Our Main Building and galleries will not be open to the public for Nuit Blanche. Access to “Hopes and Fears Assembly” will be on the northwest side of the Main Building.

December 14, 2022

Post Capitalistic Auction

Canada, China, Finland, Norway

“A real and alternative auction where money doesn’t have the last say.” – PCA creator Jingyi Wang

Post Capitalistic Auction

This event is a Nordic Spotlight, part of Nordic Bridges.

Livestream Link

Overview

Access the Post Capitalistic Auction Catalogue below:

The auction is the performance and the performance is the auction. You are invited to bid for artworks in new ways, and actual transactions occur. The twist: bidders are invited to make offers not only with money; understanding, opportunity, and/or exchange are equally accepted currencies. The artists are present at the auction and will ultimately decide on the winning bid if they choose one at all.

Everyone in attendance is welcome to participate in the bidding. The bidders can choose to make offers based on any one or combination of the categories outlined below. All bids are placed through an online bidding software specially developed for this project and will be projected in the theatre. Please bring your smartphone or ipad to engage in the bidding.

1. Money: The traditional way.

2. Opportunity: The bidder offers the artist a career opportunity in exchange for the artwork. In this case the bidder might have social capital in the form of a network, or other significant industry contacts that they can introduce the artist to.

3. Understanding: The bidder can offer an intellectual understanding or their emotional understanding of the artwork, making deeper connection with the art or artist.

4. Exchange: This could be anything. The bidder offers a trade or exchange of services. The exchange can also be something that takes place in the actual event. The bidder’s imagination might be the only limitation to this category.

This event will have a concurrent livestream for viewers outside of Toronto, however, only in-person participants will be able to bid.

PCA is created by Jingyi Wang, a China-born, Norwegian-based artist. Zoë Foster is the guest curator for this edition. Confirmed artists: KC Adams (Canada); Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth (Norway, Finland, US); Ed Pien (Canada); Maria Qamar, aka HATECOPY (Canada); and John Wood & Paul Harrison (UK).

See how PCA works!

About Jingyi Wang, Creator

Jingyi Wang is a performance creator based in Bergen, Norway. Her works feature interdisciplinary performances involving artists and artworks in performing and visual arts. In 2014, Wang initiated the static theatre concept, which she developed into two versions of performances. Unlike conventional theatre, static theatre composes a time flow with artworks instead of performers on stage. In 2018, she initiated the concept of “performative events,” where she tries to explore social events as frameworks and recreate the rules to challenge the current system. Post Capitalistic Auction was the first work under this concept. This work premiered in Bergen, Norway, and it was invited to TPAM Direction in 2019. In 2021, her second performative event project, JUDGE ME, premiered at the Meteor Theater Festival in Bergen. 

About Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth, Artists

Collaborated since 2011 on publications and projects investigating contemporary humans belonging to the natural environment, their projects include the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and TEDMED Talk 2020. Finnish artist Riitta Ikonen received her MA from the Royal College of Art in 2008. Norwegian photographer, artist and writer Karoline Hjorth received her MA from the University of Westminster in 2009. 

About Ed Pien, Artist

Ed Pien has presented his artworks in global venues, including the Victor and Albert Museum, the Canadian Culture Centre, the Goethe Institute, Musée des beaux arts, Songzhuang Art Centre, the National Art Gallery of Canada, Sydney Biennale and many more. Pien’s ongoing and collaborative project involving a small group of Cuban Elders will be presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario from June 2022 to June 2023.

About KC Adams, Artist

KC Adams is a Winnipeg-based artist who graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A. in Studio Arts. Adams has had several solo exhibitions and group exhibitions and has been in three biennales, including the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. Adams participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, the Confederation Art Centre in Charlottetown, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Parramatta Arts Gallery in Australia. Her work is in many permanent collections nationally and internationally. Twenty pieces from the Cyborg Hybrid series are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery in Ottawa. Four trees from Birch Bark Ltd are in the Canadian Consulate of Australia. She was the scenic designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. Adams helped design a 30-foot public art sculpture called Niimamaa for the Winnipeg Forks and a piece for the United Way of Winnipeg called Community. Adams was awarded the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Making A Mark Award and Canada’s Senate 150 medal recipient for her accomplishments with her Perception Photo Series. She is the author of Perception: A Photo Series, chosen as the 2019 Books of the Year by Quill & Quire. 

About Maria Qamar, Artist

Maria Qamar is a Toronto-based artist, author and first-generation Canadian from a mixed South Asian background. Her art comments on racism, colonialism, classism, intersectional feminism, gender theory and the patriarchy in the form of pop art paintings and sculptures. Qamar’s bold, playful and colourful pieces amplify the global diaspora of South Asian voices and have been presented in Canada, the United States, France, the UK and India. 

About John Wood and Paul Harrison, Artists

John Wood and Paul Harrison make things that move and don’t, things that are flat and not and things that are mildly amusing and not. They do works that form a reference manual for how to do, make, build and draw something you probably never want to do, make, create or draw. They do it for you. Even though you don’t need them to, this attempt to compile an encyclopedia of every day started in 1993 after they met at art college. 

Dates & Times

December 13
5pm – Public Artwork Preview (3 hrs)

December 14
7:30pm – 11pm

Schedule

6:30 Doors

6:30 – 7:30 Ticket-holder Artwork Preview

7:30 – 9:30 Auction

15 minute intermission

9:45 – 10:45 Panel conversation  

More Info

The event will be livestreamed on multiple online platforms. By registering to this event, you acknowledge and agree that your image might appear on the public livestreams and used in future media.

Please arrive at least 15 minutes early to check in by providing your name at the door. There will be no latecomers seated. There is a day-of standby line and any unclaimed seats will be offered to those in the standby line.

Venue

Harbourfront Centre Theatre

231 Queens Quay West
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

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Keywords PerformancePublic ArtTalk/StorytellingTechnology