Buoyed by art
‘We are going to blow people’s minds’: Becka Viau
A conference unlike any other will take place this week in Charlottetown — on land and on the water.
Flotilla, billed as the first transnational gathering focusing on nomadic and temporary elements of contemporary artist-run culture in Atlantic Canada, takes place throughout downtown Charlottetown from Thursday to Sunday.
Becka Viau, Flotilla project manager, said the event is much more of a showcase than a typical conference.
“We are actually showcasing and showing the rest of the country and our international delegates what artist-run centres do by showing their programming and popping them up in the city.”
Artist-run conferences have taken place in other regions of the country, and several years ago there was talk that such an event needed to come to the East Coast.
Viau said this time around, the East Coast was organized enough to put in a bid. Once the bid was accepted, organizers from Atlantic Canada wanted to do something different.
“We have four provinces in our association so you can’t just come to Charlottetown and experience the East Coast, it’s such a whitewash,” Viau said. “We wanted to do something different, we wanted to shake it up, we wanted to highlight some of our strengths here on the East Coast.”
There are 300 delegates expected at the event, including artists, curators, directors, writers, performers, administrators and leaders from across the country, as well as internationally, with delegates travelling from countries including Brazil, Germany, Iceland and the United States.
Participants will work to reimagine artist-run culture in a series of public exhibitions, events and discussions, with many events being open to the public at no charge.
There will be more than 100 artist actions happening at locations around town, and this is the first time the East Coast has seen an event of this scale that’s been focused on artist-run culture, Viau said.
“I’m super excited because we are going to blow people’s minds. I’m really proud it’s in Charlottetown because we are a cultural capital of Canada and with the city being ready and open to take the plunge with us for Flotilla, and for the province to believe in it, I think it just proves that Charlottetown is a place that artists can come and do big things.”
One unique part of Flotilla is the Floating Warren Pavilion and Projects, located in the water at Victoria Park in front of the cannons.
The Floating Warren curator and one of the project leads, Zachary Gough of Halifax, said he wanted to help create something that would allow artists the opportunity to make projects that would be out on the water.
“It could provide opportunities that are unique and different for artists that would be different from inside a whitewall gallery space.”
Gough said he and collaborator and co-lead Josh Collins had never worked on such project before.
“(We) felt like it’s a bigger project than we’ve worked on before, and while it’s totally within our skill set, we don’t often have the opportunity to work on a scale like this, so it’s been really great,” he said.
“Kudos to Becka and the Flotilla gang for taking dreams, and not being scared of the scale of them, and really making it come about.”
For more information and to view a complete event schedule, visit Flotillaatlantic.com.