In honour of Earth Day 2008, the new curatorial agency No.9 in Toronto has mounted their inaugural installation, a witty environmental interviention by the super-hot Quebec artist collective BGL.

Installing Project for the Don River. Image: All installation images courtesy of Catherine Dean.

This installation is the most significant public work outside of Quebec for the collective, who speak mostly en francais and who were each outfitted like the captain on Gilligan’s Island – in head-to-toe white with sailor caps - at the opening party on Saturday night.

A shrunken, blackened cruise ship, the Nowhere II / Nulle Part II, 30 feet long and anchored on the troubled waters of the Lower Don is faced by an even larger orange life buoy, totally out of proportion to the ship.

Ideas of saving and being saved come to mind, as does the possibility of being in a place without really seeing it – which is how we tend to relate to ‘urban’ nature, isn’t it?

BGL (Jasmin Bilodeau, Sebastien Giguère and Nicolas Laverdière) have been making exhibitions in galleries, museums and public spaces throughout Quebec, Canada and abroad for over ten years.

They have shown at the The 1er Bienal del fin del mundo, Ushuaia, Argentina; the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Musée d’art moderne Lille Métropole, France; Mercer Union, Toronto; The Havana Biennale, Cuba; and The Montreal Biennale. In 2006 they were short-listed for the Sobey Prize (with a fantastic room size installation involving a spinning, glittering disco ball), and in 2007 were winners of the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council for outstanding work in the visual arts.

About No.9: Contemporary Art & the Environment:

Taking on what Artangel in the UK and Creative Time in the US have been doing for years – introducing the public to contemporary art outside of the gallery & museum – No.9 is a curatorial agency committed to the belief that art can stimulate positive social and environmental change. No.9 brings the power of art to bear on some of the most pressing issues of our time, using urban public space as a forum for exhilarating creativity and vital discussion.

VoCA urges you to leave work early today and head down, through Toronto’s gorgeous ravines, to check out this artwork. If it makes you appreciated the nature in our midst, then BGL and No. 9’s work is – for the moment, anyway – done.

Click HERE for No. 9’s website.

BGL is represented by Diaz Contemporary. Please click HERE.