Art Metropole

#16100

PUBLIC 69: The Witch

Date

2024

Publisher

PUBLIC Journal

Format

Periodicals

ISBN

08454450

Size

19 × 24 × 1 cm

Length

137 pp

Genre

Canadian, Contemporary Art

Edited by Tamara de Szegheo Lang, Emily Pelstring, and Dan Vena

In August 2021, The Witch Institute came to life as a seven-day virtual symposium to address the figure of the witch in art and media. Initially planned as a four-day in-person conference, the event shifted online as the COVID-19 pandemic intensified. As if in poetic response, the virtual Institute generated a plethora of meaningful points of contact: dozens of roundtables and workshops, several screenings and featured talks, and performances from hundreds of artists, scholars, and practitioners. This special issue offers a glimpse into the rich discourse that took place over that week, presenting multiple perspectives from those grappling with the complicated histories and current instantiations of the witch, tied together by themes such as invisible forces, the more-than-human, and the magic of images. The works presented here consider discounted, discredited, and undermined paradigms for understanding our world, many of which have been strategically suppressed to preserve systems of domination.