tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE (TOLSON, Michael)

PO-PO Into the Wasteland
Saturday August 22 10 pm
Front St wasteland (between Spadina Ave & Bathurst St)

Urban Myth of the Force That Prevents Building on the Railway Lands

In 1998 I created a site-specific action for the PO-PO Into the Wasteland night of the 7a*11d festival in Toronto. This action was created in the spirit of spreading an Urban Myth detrimental to the building of condos in one of Toronto’s few downtown wilderness areas.

About the PO-PO Wasteland series:

The main intent here is to create an audience participatory event, where the viewer is involved in the work and the space so much so that they are no loner passive but become active participants in the event. To expand the scope of what is thought of as ‘performance art’ by exposing it to, and to it, another audience, a younger, uninitiated audience, more of a ‘general public’. In a temporary unification of disparate communities, the art community and the electronic dance or ‘rave’ world, both will benefit from some new blood, and cross fertilization of energies. To make art fun and exciting and to somehow bridge the gap between art and life and pop and high culture.

This event is similar in theme and practical application to a series of performance events held in Toronto over the winter of 1997-98, organized by Jubal Brown and Stephen Rife. Entitled the Wasteland Series (I, II & III), large, abandoned industrial spaces were used for site-specific performances and installations by roughly 10 artists each time.