Enjoying the view from Michel Goulet's "Echoes" at Vancouver's Kits Beach.

Vancouver’s legacy of great public art just grew quite a bit richer. Continuing from the momentum of Yue Minjun’s “A-Maze-Ing Laughter” last summer, the Vancouver Biennale welcomes Michel Goulet’s “Echoes” as the latest public artwork to find a permanent home in Vancouver.

Situated in front of the Boathouse Restaurant at Kits Beach, “Echoes” is a series of 16 one-of-a-kind stainless steel chairs created exclusively for the Vancouver Biennale in 2005 by Canadian artist Michel Goulet. Each chair is unique in design and has an inscription in French and English reflecting aphorisms of everyday emotions and dreamlike thoughts. The chairs have been positioned to encourage human interaction and communication and installed so that when sunlight hits them at the perfect angle, the phrases and aphorisms are projected onto the ground below as one large poem. The artwork was originally part of the Vancouver Biennale’s 2005-2007 exhibition, then re-installed at this site by the artist in 2010.

Michel Goulet with "Echoes" in 2010.

One of Québec’s best-known sculptors, Michel Goulet uses traditional techniques to create installations based on recognizable everyday objects that encourage public participation. He has an extensive exhibition history including representing Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1988. He received Quebec’s Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas in 1990, Canada’s Governor General’s Award in 2008 and will receive the Order of Canada in May 2013. He has taught at the University of Ottawa and at Université du Québec à Montréal and has designed sets for theatre and opera.

“Michel Goulet represents exactly what the Biennale means when we talk about using public art as a foundation for community building,” notes Barrie Mowatt, President of the Vancouver Biennale. “With Echoes he turns the everyday chair into a poetic sculpture that invites us to come together to interact as neighbours. We are inspired by his multi-disciplinary approach to sculpture, poetry and theatre design, and his many accomplishments internationally. As the second major legacy gift that the Biennale has facilitated from this exhibition, Goulet is a great Canadian artist and his iconic chair sculpture a great addition to this city.”

Tomorrow, join the Vancouver Biennale and artist Michel Goulet, along with representatives from Vancouver Park Board and the City of Vancouver for the official dedication and the Deputy Mayor’s proclamation of Michel Goulet Day in recognition of the artist’s significant contribution to the city.

Date: Tuesday April 16, 2013

Time: 10:30 – 11:00 AM

Location: Kits Beach in front of the Boathouse Restaurant

#MichelGouletDay

This donation is made possible through the generosity of the artist, the BUSCHLEN MOWATT FOUNDATION and the Vancouver Biennale Legacy Foundation.

Lifeguards hauling the row boat into storage in front of The Boathouse Kitsilano, with Michel Goulet's "Echoes" in the foreground.

Since 1998, the Vancouver Biennale has transformed Vancouver’s public spaces into an open air museum by installing works of art from internationally celebrated contemporary artists, freely accessible to citizens and visitors alike. Unique among biennales worldwide, the Vancouver Biennale celebrates art in public spaces, where people work, live, play and commute. Accessibility, engagement, diversity, interaction and education are the cornerstones of the Biennale.

Our next exhibition promises to be our biggest yet. Tentatively titled OPEN BORDERS/ CROSSROADS VANCOUVER, our 2013-2015 exhibition will celebrate multiculturalism and welcome the world. We hope to strengthen and enrich the cultural fabric of Vancouver by enabling citizens and visitors to engage in discussion and interact with artists from around the world. The Biennale is an opportunity for our city to create an enduring cultural legacy that celebrates the arts and highlight’s our city’s public spaces, multiculturalism and supernatural setting.

OPEN BORDERS/CROSSROADS VANCOUVER will showcase the best and brightest in international contemporary art. You can look forward to experiencing art from a variety of disciplines including sculpture, music, new media, dance and film. The Biennale’s impressive international curatorial team will work closely with each of the partnering communities (at this point Vancouver, Richmond and North Vancouver) in creating ‘live site’ pavilions easily accessible and within walking distance of rapid transit.

While art will begin appearing in sites throughout Metro Vancouver in late-2013, the exhibition will officially unveil in April 2014. A multi-evening event entitled Night Of The Arts will launch the Vancouver Biennale’s Opening Festival, a city-wide celebration of participating international pavilions, artists and galleries. Events, performances and lectures will animate the pavilions, which will remain open until October 2014. The fun doesn’t stop there, however. Additional projects and events will continue to be unveiled until December 2015. These events will run concurrently with our annual Tour de Biennale charity ride and our youth art education program, Big Ideas: Arts In Action.

We’re excited. REALLY excited. Keep your eyes on the Biennale Blog and our social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) over the coming months as this vision unfolds.

November is almost upon us and there are still a few more weeks to apply for the Vancouver Biennale’s 2012-2013 Big Ideas: Arts In Action program.  To get us excited, we’ve been posting last year’s videos on Facebook and Twitter (hashtag is #BigIdeasBC) and can’t wait to get started on another fantastic year of art education here in Metro Vancouver. You can watch a recap of last year’s program above.

Elementary and secondary schools from throughout the Lower Mainland will once again be involved in this year’s program. We’re also in dialogue with a number of local established and emerging artists to provide mentoring for the students. This year we hope to build relationships between elementary and secondary students by creating opportunities for the different grades to work collaboratively. As well, we’ve also received interest from SFU students, which we’re really excited by.

Keep your eyes on the Biennale Blog over the coming weeks as we release more details. This year’s deadline is November 16, so be sure to get your registrations in today!

The Vancouver Biennale BIG IDEAS Education Program is a cross-curricular, multi-grade, and inquiry based learning program. Taking students to Vancouver Biennale open-air museum injects a sense of real purpose into curriculum studies. BIG IDEAS is designed to nurture and encourage active engagement and inquiry based learning experiences through public art installations. Exploring curriculum topics via the community stimulates a sense of real inquiry for both teachers and students. Experiential learning focusing on students’ knowledge, critical thinking, skills and abilities is the core of the Vancouver Biennale BIG IDEAS education program.

Openness and Discovery: opening the mind to learning and the creation of understanding;

Learning to Learn: background to the art and artist, sculpture in public places, developing a curriculum challenge and the focus of a guiding question; and

Creation and Taking Action: students’ creation as an expression of learning and taking action to inspire positive changes in the community.

2012/2013 BIG IDEAS Arts in Action

The program aims to inspire and generate positive changes through the arts and neighbourhood learning communities. It is open to all BC elementary and secondary schools.

• Students participating in the project select one of seven Vancouver Biennale public art pieces as their inspiration for developing a ‘BIG IDEA’ or an issue, theme, cause or concern to focus on.

• The students’ ‘BIG IDEA’ is then used to inspire their own artistic creation involving one or more art forms (e.g. media, dance, drama, poetry, music, visual arts). Students can work in groups or as a class project

• Students will be required to develop and implement a specific action plan for putting their ‘BIG IDEA’ into practice. One of the action items is to include presenting their learning process, artistic creations and reflection to students at their own school and other participating schools

• Students from associate elementary and secondary schools within a community are encouraged to participate collaboratively on a joint ‘BIG IDEA’ and community action plan

Key Dates

November 16, 2012             Registration Deadline

November 24, 2012             Grant Award Notification

December 21, 2012             Artist School Assignments & Contracts Confirmed

January 9, 2013                    (tentative date) Program Teacher & Artist Workshop  

January – March, 2013        In Class Program Introduction

May, 2013                            In-School Student BIG IDEAS Arts in Action Presentations

Programs such as the Vancouver Biennale Teacher/Artist Collaboration of Take Action Matching Grants are available for selected applicants.

Registration information and 2011/2012 BIG IDEAS Performance case studies and videos are now available on vblearn.ca.

Looking forward to the Tour de Biennale this weekend? So are we! And we have a little surprise for you. Canadian cyclist Leah Guloien, sister of Olympic silver medalist Krista Guloien, will be leading the peloton on Sunday’s Tour!

A resident of Port Moody, 31 year old Leah Guloien had the opportunity to race in Europe for several months in 2010 and 2011 with the Canadian National team.  Some of her top European performances to date were at the Tour de Bretagne Feminine UCI 2.2 where she placed 11^th on Stage 3 and the Sparkassen Giro UCI 1.1 where she placed 29^th among some of the best riders in the world.

2012 started off strong for Leah. She raced with the Canadian National team in Europe and with her trade team Colavita ESPN-W across North America. Unfortunately, Leah crashed in the UCI Exergy Tour at the end of May forcing her to pull out of several races including the Canadian National Championships.  Since then, Leah has been rehabilitating and is extremely motivated to get back on the racing circuit.

We’re absolutely thrilled to have Leah join us for the Tour de Biennale with us on Sunday! If you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late. We’re accepting registrations until the Tour begins Sunday morning. Check out our website for everything you need to know.

See you Sunday!