Curated by 2019 and 2022 Biennial contributors Jane Wolff and Susan Schwartzenberg, Toronto Landscape Observatory is both an installation and a collection of tools, walks, workshops, and conversations designed to help Biennial visitors recognize, acknowledge, and understand their relationships to this place—and to other people who care about it. From May 1–June 5, 2022, the Observatory will host weekly programs to investigate the surroundings of the Biennial site at 72 Perth Avenue and draw attention to processes, phenomena, and connections that often go unnoticed. In examining the land and its relationships as they are today, the Observatory looks toward a future made uncertain by local and global change, from development pressures to the climate emergency. It invites visitors to contribute their own observations to an open vocabulary for imagining possibilities that are kinder, more just, and more resilient than the status quo.

Toronto Landscape Observatory is supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Office of the Vice-President, International, University of Toronto.

Programming

Toronto Landscape Observatory walks and workshops are held every Sunday from 2-4pm for the duration of the installation at 72 Perth Avenue. For a full list of programs, see below:

May 1: A Conversation about Language and Landscape with James Bird

May 8: An Observing Walk with Jane Wolff and Susan Schwartzenberg

May 15: A Conversation about Being in Place with Dr. Jennifer Wemigwans

May 22: Workshop: Measuring a Leaf with Alexander Moyle 

May 29: A Listening Walk with Sherry Lee and Emily MacCallum

June 5: A Walk to Greet Plants with Lorraine Johnson