The Encampment (Toronto Version 2012) was commissioned by City of Toronto, for the War of 1812 Commemoration and Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity. The Encampment is a large-scale public participatory art installation that proposes the archaeological encampment as its metaphor. A dig for artifacts is replaced by a dig into the collective memory of a public space and its history. Th
e Encampment is about entering into a process of researching the stories of individuals whose experiences as civilians during the War of 1812 helped to establish “the spirit of the times” or the Zeitgeist in what we understood as Canada; the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, or political climate along with the general ambiance, morals, socio-cultural direction and behaviour. The stories may be of love, loss, survival and patriotism as well as those of collaboration, deception, greed and betrayal representative of all peoples.
125 Creative Collaborators worked with us over a 7 week period to unearth and transpose 200 civilian stories from the War of 1812 into a massive collective expression of art and history. Each tent contains an installation inspired by an individual from that period. The process is also about revealing those cultural ideas or practices (memes) which may have been spread or transmitted from person to person within a culture through repetition of language and behaviour or other phenomena that responded to selective pressures of the existing Zeitgist. Please visit our website www.thomasandguinevere.com for more details on aesthetic, Installation Creation Process, Frequently Asked Question (FAQ), etc. The Encampment is a Thomas+Guinevere Creation (Thom Sokoloski & Jenny-Anne McCowan) commissioned by Luminato and City of Toronto, for the War of 1812 Commemoration. Produced by Sherrie Johnson Productions. The final 200 tent installations will be set-up on the grounds on Fort York and will open June 8, 2012 and close June 24, 2012.
