Joar Nango and Ken Are Bongo - Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV: On the Ravines

The Sàmi artist-architect Joar Nango and film director and long-time contributor Ken Are Bongo map Toronto’s ravines for the sixth episode of Nango’s expanded television series Post-Capitalist Architecture-TV. Nango and Bongo filmed a roaming, site-responsive, live-streamed episode from various locations in the urban wilderness—from the Don River to Black Creek—complete with itinerant, improvisational structures built using foraged and reclaimed materials gathered from Toronto’s ravine system. The series began in 2020 when the artist toured across Norway’s north with a roving television studio in a cargo van, speaking with scholars, makers, and activists about the relationship between Indigenous cultures and space. The sixth installment On the Ravines follows its predecessors in its variety show-like format, inviting guests planned and impromptu into Nango’s televised world.

About Joar Nango and Ken Are Bongo:

Joar Nango (Sámi, born in 1979, Áltá, Norway) is a process-based artist-architect, working within the provisional nature of sculpture, performance, and architecture. Embedded in Nango’s approach to artmaking is the proliferation of Indigenous history, people, and ways of life. Nango’s research begins socially and then builds into a sharing of skills and the development of platforms for knowledge sharing. This process has a materiality that is about accumulating objects and skills that accrue as the artist meets various individuals and gains knowledge of local communities. Nango has exhibited widely, most recently presenting a large-scale solo exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway. He has participated in exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, Tensta konsthall, Chicago Architecture Biennial, and documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens.

Ken Are Bongo (Sámi) is a film director, cinematographer, and editor. He comes from a Sámi village Guovdageaidnu and graduated from Nordland Art and Film School in Kabelvåg. He has been working in film and television since 2006, and recently produced the short fictional film Wolf (2018) which premiered at the Reykjavík International Film Festival. Other credits include an episode of the mini-series Hvem ringer? (2020); and the film shorts Ara Marumaru (2018) and Biegga savkala duoddariid duohken lea soames (2007).

Co-commissioned by Evergreen with the Art Gallery of York University and Toronto Biennial of Art as part of ArtworxTO.

Supported by Canada Council for the Arts.