May 2  2014 Reception at Artcite for THE DIGNITY OF WORK MayWorks Windsor 2014
Channel: Mayworks Windsor
Date: 2014-05-09

May 2. 2014 Reception at Artcite for THE DIGNITY OF WORK 
& MayWorks Windsor 2014

Artists, and speakers addressed the theme of the 
representation of work and Windsor's MayWorks celebrations..

"THE DIGNITY OF WORK"
Dan Bergeron (Toronto ON)
Vince Kogut (Windsor ON)
Dulce Pinzón (San Andrés Cholula Puebla, Mexico)
April 25 - May 31, 2014 

An invitational group exhibition as part of MayWorks Windsor 
2014 

In defiance of the "erasure" of aspirational images of working 
people, The Dignity of Work aims to re-affirm the importance 
of the representation of workers and work.

Keynote Speakers:
Susan Gold Smith; MayWorks Windsor 2014
Bernard Helling to introduce the show and the artists
Vince Allen Kogut on his work
Paul Chislett; WWEC Windsor Workers Education Centre
Pat Strople; CUPE 543

Live performance by Windsor Feminist Theater's Trevor 

Malcolm after the speakers. 

Dan Bergeron (Toronto ON), is a photographer and street artist 
who photographed and reproduced on a gigantic scale, the 
images of the workers at the Papiers Gaspesia mill in Chandler 
Quebec, which closed in 1999 despite a government-
sponsored infusion of nearly 400 million dollars, causing 
Chandler to lose more than half of its population. The site is 
now slated for destruction. A Vietnamese company is 
dismantling most of the mill's machinery to send to Vietnam. 

Gaspesia: Les portraits en papier literally puts a human face on 
the industrial remains of Papiers Gaspesia. Portraits of the 
former mill and forest workers are installed on the front of the 
mill and on the mill's oil tanks. While these men and the story of 
the mill are well known in the community, the deteriorating mill 
itself has been the only public memorial to the pride, grief and 
frustration those affected by the closure feel. The images of 
these workers now mark the physical structures of the mill and 
lay claim to its history and to its continuing impact on Chandler. 

One of the subjects, Serge Soucy, remarked that you could 
see his "eyes were crying for the mill" when he saw his own 30 
foot face on the Papiers Gaspesia's oil tank.



Vince Kogut (Windsor ON) " I'm from Windsor, Ontario, 
Canada where the only jobs are factory work. It's a culture 
around here as it is in Detroit. I used laborers in my work due to 
their relevance to the culture, but my main focus is to take 
subjects that may be overlooked or unappreciated and depict 
them in a heroic or romantic manner. Most of the subjects that 
were in Proletariat were my friends and family that are involved 
in that line of work. They were all pretty stoked on being 
involved in an exhibition and it was awesome to see the arts 
culture mesh with the labor culture. Bringing groups of people 
together that wouldn't usually be was the most rewarding thing 
for me. Breaking down cultural barriers between groups of 
viewers is an aspect of my work I hope to keep developing." 
-- Vince Kogut interview frank151.com


Dulce Pinzón's (Brooklyn NY, USA/ San Andrés Cholula 
Puebla, Mexico) "The Real Story of the Superheroes" 
introduces the Mexican immigrant in New York in a satirical 
documentary style featuring ordinary men and women in their 
work environment donning superhero garb, thus raising 
questions of both our definition of heroism and our ignorance 
of and indifference to the workforce that fuels our ever-
consuming economy.

Please visit our MayWorks Windsor site: 

http://www.artcite.ca/mayworks/ 
for the most up-to-date listings and information about 2014 

events, past MayWorks and more!