In the early 1970s, a number of artist collectives and cultural producers incorporated as non-profit organizations in order to disseminate art practices that were still considered marginal (conceptual art, performance, etc.). In conjunction with the fulfillment of administrative tasks that their institutional existence required, they also created a shared mail-based network. In the same spirit, they utilized cable television and portable video cameras to circumvent communications media hegemony. Within these frameworks, the document represented both a vehicle for decentralized exchanges and the result of bureaucratic transactions.

Some of the organizations dating from these first instances of a self-management paradigm rapidly disbanded while others have survived, despite mandate changes and member rotation. Consequently, individuals with differing ideological views were united under a common corporate name. The historical trajectory of these organizations can be observed in their archival fonds, where the results of partially realized utopias exist alongside material evidence of the artists’ labour. Today, these archives are often entrusted to public museums or university collections.

Documentary Protocols II offers a fragmentary narrative relating to a pivotal period (1967-75) and also highlights the conflicting demands of both displaying archives according to museum standards and making them accessible as research material. The original documents are grouped into thematic clusters linked to the evolution of a structure in which artists developed information management systems. A free publication that includes a commentary, a list of the documents and chronological references accompanies this selection of original documents. A larger number of photocopied documents are presented without an interpretative apparatus.

This exhibition is the second part of a project conceived by Vincent Bonin. A book, the third part of this project, will be published in 2009.

The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery’s contemporary exhibition program is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.