Museum of the Represented City
For his first solo exhibition at a public gallery, Toronto artist Flavio Trevisan takes an entirely new approach to his creative practice, articulating a conceptual context for his main body of work.
Staging an immersive environment, Trevisan creates an ephemeral “museum of the present” that reflects on the current state of the city. The resulting installation conveys a fragmented yet revealing cartography of Toronto’s built history, inviting the visitors to explore different ways of engaging with the cityscape.
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 a 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.
Emulating museological strategies, Trevisan sets up his sculptural works as artifacts within a constructed display system that proposes a reflective representation of Toronto. In a time of civic debates and polarized views, the artist 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.
