Toronto Biennial of Art

Toronto Biennial of Art

AA Bronson & Adrian Stimson At 259 Lake Shore Blvd E

September 21 - December 1, 2019

259 Lake Shore Blvd East, Toronto ON, M5A 3T7

AA Bronson’s A Public Apology to Siksika Nation responds to European genocide, including his great-grandfather’s role as the first missionary at Siksika Nation, while Adrian Stimson’s response, generated in close dialogue with residential school survivors and leaders, reveals the layers of colonization and Indigenous resistance in his community.

Stimson’s piece centres on a dining room table, complete with a British colonial place setting and a light procured from the Old Sun school. The table serves a double function: it reconstitutes the conditions under which Siksika Nation members gathered to first consider Bronson’s proposal for an apology, while replicating the spare furnishings of a residential school. The installation features school portraits of residential school students, providing a personal dimension to the institutionalization of assimilation.

Performance: A Public Apology to Siksika Nation
Saturday September 21, 11:00am – 12:00pm

How does history become personally accountable in a post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission era? AA Bronson delivers his Apology to Siksika Nation, an atonement for his ancestors’ role in cultural genocide, while Adrian Stimson responds. Food will be shared following the performance.

Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts New Chapter program.


AA Bronson (born in Vancouver, BC, Canada; lives in Berlin, Germany) has worked and exhibited as a solo artist, often collaborating with younger generations of artists. From 2004 to 2010, he was Director of Printed Matter, Inc., New York, founding the annual NY Art Book Fair in 2005. In 2013 he was founding Director of Printed Matter‘s LA Art Book Fair. Recent solo exhibitions include: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018; Kunsthalle Wichita, 2016; Salzburger Kunstverein, 2015; Grazer Kunstverein, 2015; Art Museum at the University of Toronto, 2014; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2013; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, 2013; and Creative Time, New York, 2008.

Adrian Stimson (born in Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada; lives in Siksika, AB, Canada) received his BFA from the Alberta College of Art + Design (now Alberta College of the Arts), Calgary and MFA from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Stimson’s work investigates identity construction, specifically the hybridization of the Indian, the cowboy, the shaman, and Two Spirit being. He was awarded the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), Blackfoot Visual Arts Award (2009), and GGArts awards (2018).

For more information, please visit torontobiennial.org