The Vancouver Art Gallery has commissioned a large-scale site-specific installation by artist Ken Lum for display at the recently finished space, "Offsite" during the 2010 Winter Games. The artist's large sculptural work includes three scale replicas of squatters' shacks that once populated North Vancouver's shoreline.

Titled from shangri-la to shangri-la, Lum's rustic cabins resemble those of the Maplewood Mudflats squatters' community. Located along North Vancouver's intertidal zone from the early 20th century until 1971, this improvised village was home to a number of artists, writers and activists. For his project, Lum has recreated the homes of renowned writer Malcolm Lowry, artist Tom Burrows and Greenpeace leader Dr. Paul Spong. Propped up on stilts over the surface of the Offsite reflecting pool, the huts strike a sharp contrast with the surrounding downtown architecture. Located at the foot of the Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver's tallest building at the busy intersection of Thurlow and West Georgia Streets, these dissimilar structures evoke the character of the mudflat community and draw attention to the rapid advance of urban development in the Lower Mainland.

The work of Vancouver artist Ken Lum questions the relationship between modernism, mass culture and everyday experience, often blurring the boundaries separating high art and popular culture. Over the past twenty years, Lum's work has been presented in solo exhibitions throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has also represented Canada at the Istanbul Biennial, São Paulo Biennial, Shanghai Biennale, Gwangju Biennale and Documenta.

Visceral Bodies presents the work of contemporary artists who investigate the human form, tracing artistic responses to scientific and medical innovations over the past two decades. Presented in conjunction with Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man, the two exhibitions trace the considerable history of artists using the body as a subject of physiological and anatomical study. The contemporary artists included in Visceral Bodies underscore how cultural perceptions of the human body have shifted from an anatomical fact to a perpetually evolving and increasingly artificial or fragmented form.

Artists such as Gabriel de la Mora, Wim Delvoye, Valie Export and Mona Hatoum borrow the tools of medical imaging to exteriorize what is internal. The exhibition also presents work by artists who imagine a fantastical future where the body has become fragmented and mutated.

Liadov: The Enchanted Lake
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15

Mariinsky Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, conductor
Denis Matsuev, piano

Kylián Evening
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal

Symphony of Psalms
Music by Igor Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, dedicated to the glory of God and based on Psalms 39, 40 and 150

Bella Figura
Music by Lukas Foss, G. B. Pergolesi, Allessandro Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Torelli

Sechs Tanze (Six Dances)
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sechs Deutsche Tänze (Six German Dances), KV 571

Bobby McFerrin, a 10-time Grammy-winner, is one of the world’s foremost vocal innovators and improvisers, a classical conductor, and perhaps best known as the creator of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” one of the most popular songs of modern day music. With a four-octave voice, Bobby McFerrin refuses to be bound by one genre, seamlessly blending folk, classical, and jazz.

Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park
Toronto, ON
M5S 2C6