In 1957, Canada's National Industrial Design Council (NIDC) organized a display for the Triennale di Milano, an international design exhibition in Milan. This exhibit focused on the development of the "new town" of Kitimat by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan). Along with furnishings and photographs taken of the workers' and guests' quarters were objects that had received NIDC Design Awards. This display was one of many that represented a revitalized Canadian identity to an international audience. The Second World War had thrust Canada onto the international stage as an autonomous nation. Through its development of social, economic and cultural policies, the nation sought to extricate itself from its old world heritage and differentiate itself from its continental partner. By featuring Canada's "Aluminum City," the NIDC presented Canada as a modern nation that encouraged new industry and technology. Simultaneously, the physical location of Kitimat in the northern half of British Columbia enabled the designers to utilize a traditional element of Canadian identity—the North—in new ways. The landscape was now being civilized through the use of modern design and technology, rather than conquered by force. Finally, the juxtaposition of a photograph of a male Alcan worker, at the front of the display, with domestic objects in the display allowed for a blurring of traditional gender binaries. No longer a hard-hatted, hard-headed industrial worker; he was portrayed as a sophisticated individual working in a modern technological sphere in a civilized community. His presence signalled a rethinking of the contrasts between male and female, producer and consumer, public and private. Canada's display problematized these polarities and familiar elements of national identity through its use of domestic objects and furniture. My thesis investigates the suitability of blurring these traditional classifications in order to form a visual representation of Canadian identity in the immediate postwar period.

My doctoral work aims to construct a theoretical and intellectual framework to understand a set of remarkable developments concerning the Italian discourse on architecture from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s. This was when the term Rationalism and its theoretical body of work acquired renewed prestige replacing the ephemeral aesthetic of the modernist movement with a grounded discourse based on a deep understanding of the city as background of all architectural artifacts. The main hypothesis of my research is that this return to a rational methodology characterized by a deep understanding of architecture's internal building logic and identifiable in the work and ideas expressed in the International section of the XV Triennale Exhibition of 1973 had a significant and lasting impact on the thinking and formation of architecture culture in Italy and worldwide. This dissertation will thus attempt to construct a matrix of historical and methodological associations and demonstrations that validate and legitimize that rational methodology through a close examination of the work and key concepts of Tendenza, a group of architects in the Italy of the 1960s, pointing out their importance in preparing the ground for the International section of the XV Triennale Exhibition of 1973, which represented a major point of arrival and a point of departure for architecture culture in Italy and worldwide.

In 1957, Canada's National Industrial Design Council (NIDC) organized a display for the Triennale di Milano, an international design exhibition in Milan. This exhibit focused on the development of the "new town" of Kitimat by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan). Along with furnishings and photographs taken of the workers' and guests' quarters were objects that had received NIDC Design Awards. This display was one of many that represented a revitalized Canadian identity to an international audience. The Second World War had thrust Canada onto the international stage as an autonomous nation. Through its development of social, economic and cultural policies, the nation sought to extricate itself from its old world heritage and differentiate itself from its continental partner. By featuring Canada's "Aluminum City," the NIDC presented Canada as a modern nation that encouraged new industry and technology. Simultaneously, the physical location of Kitimat in the northern half of British Columbia enabled the designers to utilize a traditional element of Canadian identity—the North—in new ways. The landscape was now being civilized through the use of modern design and technology, rather than conquered by force. Finally, the juxtaposition of a photograph of a male Alcan worker, at the front of the display, with domestic objects in the display allowed for a blurring of traditional gender binaries. No longer a hard-hatted, hard-headed industrial worker; he was portrayed as a sophisticated individual working in a modern technological sphere in a civilized community. His presence signalled a rethinking of the contrasts between male and female, producer and consumer, public and private. Canada's display problematized these polarities and familiar elements of national identity through its use of domestic objects and furniture. My thesis investigates the suitability of blurring these traditional classifications in order to form a visual representation of Canadian identity in the immediate postwar period. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

Depuis les années 1980-1990, au moment où on assiste, dans le monde de l’art contemporain globalisé, à une prolifération des biennales internationales d’art contemporain, le climat de compétition s’intensifie et l’univers des biennales se phénoménalise et s’homogénéise. Ce mémoire a pour but d’historiciser et de définir les biennales sous leur nature phénoménale afin d’identifier, parmi leur hétérogénéité, un dénominateur commun sous lequel il est possible de comparer ces institutions artistiques en toute légitimité. Le projet étudie ce point de comparaison défini selon les trois critères d’autoévaluation des biennales identifiés dans cette recherche : la globalisation, l’industrie culturelle et touristique, ainsi que l’événementiel et le spectaculaire. Ce mémoire présente comme étude de cas la Biennale de Montréal et son récent renouvèlement. Il fait le point sur la controverse y étant reliée à travers une analyse comparée de la nouvelle Biennale de Montréal et les grandes biennales internationales. / Since the 1980s and 1990s, back when Contemporary Art Biennials were quickly spreading in the Global Artworld, the climate of competition has been intensifying. The world of biennials is becoming more homogenous and more of a phenomenon each year. The current study’s purpose is to historicize and define the biennials according to their phenomenal nature in order to go beyond their heterogeneity and find a common denominator which would allow the comparison of such artistic institutions in a legitimate way. The project will study this point of comparison according to three areas of self-assessment identified for this purpose: globalization, the cultural and touristic industries as well as the entertainment industry. The case study for this research is Montreal’s biennial and its recent renewal. It will explore the controversy related to the subject by analysing and comparing the new Montreal Biennial to the great international biennials.

Akira Takayamas Theaterprojekt „J Art Call Center“ entstand im Herbst 2019 als unmittelbare Reaktion auf die temporäre Schließung der Ausstellung After ‚Freedom of Expression‘? bei der Aichi Triennale 2019. Die Ausstellung versammelte über zwanzig künstlerische Positionen, welche in staatlichen japanischen Museen nicht gezeigt werden konnten bzw. aus laufenden Ausstellungen entfernt worden waren. Aufgrund von aggressiven Protesten von Bürger*innen musste sie nach nur drei Tagen Laufzeit aus Sicherheitsgründen schließen. Eine Gruppe von Künstler*innen rief daraufhin die Kampagne „Re:Freedom Aichi“ ins Leben. Akira Takayamas J Art Call Center entstand im Kontext von „Re:Freedom Aichi“ und setzte in einer Situation der Konfrontation und Eskalation auf eine direkte Form des Dialogs. Die zentrale Idee des J Art Call Center: Beschwerdeanrufe von Bürger*innen wurden nicht mehr von Angestellten der Präfektur Aichi entgegengenommen, sondern von den beteiligten Künstler*innen und Künstlern selbst. Der Artikel reflektiert Takayamas Projekt als Antwort auf eine zunehmende Vereinnahmung der künstlerischen Sphäre durch politische Repräsentationskämpfe. Die Autorin beschreibt, wie Takayama im Rekurs auf die griechische Tragödie Strategien entwickelt, Theater vor dem Hintergrund der Radikalisierung des öffentlichen Diskurses als sozialen Raum neu zu aktivieren.