Learning from Vancouver -- In dialogue:Bik Van der Pol and Urban Subjects
The installation devised by Urban Subjects grabs two historical moments in the dialectic of the production and closure of public space in Vancouver and one speculative future moment. The historical moments exist as grainy archival photographs. Premier Bill Bennett and labour leader Jack Munroe stand on the patio of Bennett’s house in Kelowna just after they have shaken hands to seal a deal “that would end the most massive protest in the province’s history”. This late-night meeting on November 13, 1983 lingers as the betrayal of “Operation Solidarity”, a coalition of unions, community groups, students and activists, as it moved toward a general strike that was to counter the initial move in the game of neoliberalism in B.C. Hours of archival research did not churn up the specific image of Bennett and Munroe shaking hands, yet that image is dramatically burned into social memory.