11 April – 22 April 2012

Marginal Utility Gallery is proud to present ‘Vancouver #1-13 (Notes for a report…)’, an exhibition of new work by MIKE VASS as a part of FIRST AMONG EQUALS exhibition at the ICA in Philadelphia.

Vancouver #1-13 (Notes for a report…)

On June 26th & 27th, 2010, the largest mass arrest in Canadian history took place in Toronto. These arrests were in response to acts of vandalism that occurred when a small group black-clad “anarchists” broke off from a large, peaceful march protesting the G20 meeting that was taking place in the city that weekend. In the 36 hours that followed over 1000 people were arrested. Hundreds of items were confiscated during the arrests, including many cameras containing thousands of photographs and hours upon hours of amateur video footage.

In Vancouver #1-13 (Notes for a report…), an intelligence agent analyzes a notebook and thirteen videotapes that were confiscated during the arrests. The videotapes contain footage shot a few months earlier in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, while the notebook contains an assortment of political observations, quotations, newspaper clippings, and more personal diary-like entries.

A video essay about security and protest in the society of the spectacle, Vancouver #1-13 (Notes for a report…) mixes documentary and fiction to examine the grey areas between surveillance, observation, and fabulation.

to view trailer of: Vancouver #1-13 (Notes for a report…) http://vimeo.com/38828559