Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society

September 2 – September 22, 2010

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LOGOTOPIA:
The Library in Architecture, Art and the Imagination

Presented by the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts in partnership with Cambridge Galleries – Design at Riverside for 2010 ArtCity: Calgary International Festival of Visual Arts, Architecture and Design

Aspects of structure and spatial innovations in contemporary Canadian and international architecture – especially in the projects dedicated to library science -  are the topics of the major exhibition project: Logotopia: the Library in Architecture, Art and the Imagination , currently  at the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts.

Curated by Sascha Hastings, a former Curator of Contemporary Architecture & Design at the Cambridge Galleries – Design at Riverside in Cambridge, Ontario, this multi-disciplinary exhibition and publication project presents original artworks, commissioned essays and stories, contemporary library architecture, library lore and ephemera, and pop culture icons. Several Canadian and international writers, visual artists and architects explore library as a concept and a built form through four distinct categories: the Universal Library, the National Library, the Public Library, the Private Library – and take a peak into the future of new technology and the librarian as a cyber avatar.

Featured renowned Canadian and international architects, such as Hariri Pontarini Architects, Kongats Architects, Patkau Architects, Shigeru Ban Architects, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, and Snøhetta Architects share their inspirations and their deep appreciation for libraries of all types, in both Canadian and international contexts.

Featured artists: Adam David Brown, Douglas Coupland, Denis Farley, Guy Laramée and Michael Lewis contribute another dimension to the Logotopia experience. Their works encompass a wide range of media, and were selected for their visual commentary on the notion of the library and their reinforcement of the link between art, architecture and literature.

Featured writers: Lise Bissonnette, Ray Bradbury, Alberto Manguel, Robert Jan van Pelt and Nora Young inform and expand the multi disciplinary tribute to the library by recounting their personal and professional library experiences in essays created expressly for Logotopia.

Jacek Malec
Director / Curator
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts

List of Images (left to right, top to bottom):

1. Bibliotheca Alexandrina – Alexandria, Eqypt. Completed 2002. Snohetta Architects
2. Grande Bibliothèque du Québec – Staircase and elevators at heart of General Collection, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Completed 2005. Patkau Architects with Croft Pellectier and Menkès Shooner Dagenais Architectes Associeés
3. Guy Laramée, Borges’ Last Coffee, 2006, basswood, table with metal stand, chair.
4. Hespeler Library – Main entry with weather canopy, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Completed 2007. Kongats Artchitects Inc.
   Douglas Coupland, School Spirit, 2004, chewed up books on metal rods, twigs.
5. Logotopia – installation view of National Library Section at Cambridge Galleries – Design at Riverside
6. Logotopia – installation view of National Library Section at Cambridge Galleries – Design at Riverside
7. Logotopia – installation view at Cambridge Galleries – Design at Riverside
8. Logotopia   - installation view at Cambridge Galleries – Design at Riverside