Toronto Art Biennial: The Shoreline Dilemma

As Ontario and many other provinces call for a state of emergency in an attempt to slow the COVID-19 pandemic, it is leaving its citizens cooped up in self-isolation subject to hours of binge-watching on Netflix. As an avid lover of the arts, and a board member to a local media arts centre, I too had made the decision to temporarily close our doors as many other institutions are forced to reduce social gathering and the spread of the virus. This has resulted in any museums offering virtual tours of their exhibitions in an attempt to continually engage with their members. 

Several months ago before the pandemic hit our shores, Toronto hosted its first Art Biennial, 72 days of free art. Did you get a chance to catch one of over 20 programs scattered across the city of Toronto and Mississauga? Taking a very academic and political topic, “The Shoreline Dilemma”. On an autumn weekend, I bring my friends, who “like” art, to the Small Arms Inspection Building in Mississauga located on the Lakeshore. I try to explain the premise of the overall theme of the Biennial. “It’s about the lake and how we have colonized it. The artists are responding to this theme through…art.”