FLAVIO TREVISAN
MUSEUM OF THE REPRESENTED CITY
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery at 80 Spadina, 2012
Photo documentation by Isaac Applebaum
In Museum of the Represented City, Flavio Trevisan stages a temporary museum of the present in which he examines the current state of the city, conveying a fragmented yet revealing cartography of its built history. Emulating museological strategies, the artist sets up his sculptural and mixed media works as artifacts within a constructed display system that proposes a reflective representation of Toronto.
Trevisan’s three-dimensional maps and playful objects expose the city as a collection of places successively shaped by and reshaping public ideals. Reduced to a single layer of information, the maps highlight means of moving around the urban environment – streets, paths, highways. These patterns uncover the complexity of geographical, social and political histories that have influenced Toronto’s development. They indirectly emphasize the human presence, alluding to the way we occupy, experience and constantly create the city.
While rendering the metropolis at once iconic and uncanny, Trevisan produces evocative documents that conjure up memories of places, enticing the viewers to recall the roads once travelled and their stories. Sparseness allows the maps to function both as memory triggers and blank slates upon which to project our narratives. At the same time, they are loaded with the expectation of further change.
In a time of civic debates and polarized views, Trevisan considers the dual meaning of representation, attempting a faithful depiction of the city and advocating for its future. Ultimately, he raises questions about our continuing legacy, our shared histories and our collective expectations.
While rendering the metropolis at once iconic and uncanny, Trevisan produces evocative documents that conjure up memories of places, enticing the viewers to recall the roads once travelled and their stories. Sparseness allows the maps to function both as memory triggers and blank slates upon which to project our narratives. At the same time, they are loaded with the expectation of further change.
In a time of civic debates and polarized views, Trevisan considers the dual meaning of representation, attempting a faithful depiction of the city and advocating for its future. Ultimately, he raises questions about our continuing legacy, our shared histories and our collective expectations.
Artist Info
Flavio Trevisan is a visual artist with a background in architecture and exhibition design. Recent projects include Pink Republic, an installation in the window at TYPE Books on Queen Street West curated by author Derek McCormack; The Game of Urban Renewal (Special Regent Park Edition), a project for Queen Specific, curated by Joy Walker; and Flavio Trevisan: Studies of a New Past, at Diaz Contemporary, Toronto. His work has been featured in Art with Heart 2011 (fundraiser for Casey House, Toronto), Titles (curated by the Way Up Way Down collective) and A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Toronto (published by Douglas & McIntyre). Trevisan is a founder and co-director of the convenience (a window gallery that provides an opening for art that engages, experiments, and takes risks with the architectural, urban, and civic realm), where he co-curated the Parkdale International Art Fair with Georgiana Uhlyarik in 2008. Originally from Padova, Italy, he now lives in Toronto.
