Artist: Clarissa Tossin

When: June 26th, 6PM

Where: let’s meet at 33 Gould Street, Toronto

  • Clarissa Tossin, Streamlined: Belterra, Amazônia / Alberta, Michigan (still), 2013, two-channel video. Courtesy of the artist 

It’s that time of year again! Join us at the Image Centre, where we’ll be visiting Clarissa Tossin’s exhibition Streamlined: Belterra, Amazônia / Alberta, Michigan. This installation brings together moving images of almost identical Ford Motor Company towns, offering a subtle investigation of the history of globalized production and its material and social consequences.

The left side of the video moves across Belterra, a rubber plantation village in the Amazon forest, while the right shows Alberta, a sawmill town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Both were built at the same time in 1935 for the purposes of producing rubber and wood for the manufacturing of the Model T in the United States.

We propose this walk to open the discussion on the notions of space and place through the observation of these communities, oscillating between simulacrum and authenticity: located in two different countries, they resemble each other to a fault, yet are the scene of scenes of daily life full of sincerity.

We hope you’ll join us for a convivial evening, ending with a drink at the Jazz Bistro. Admission to the Image Centre is free. This event is primarily for Labo members, but is open to all.

Clarissa Tossin

Clarissa Tossin (Brazil, b. 1973) is a visual artist who uses moving images, installation, sculpture, and collaborative research to engage the suppressed counternarratives implicit in both the built and natural environments of extractive economies. She has had solo exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (2023); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Colorado (2022); and La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France (2021). She has also participated in the 14th Shanghai Biennial (2023); the 5th Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023); and the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2020). Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Fundação Inhotim, Brazil.