Expand Your Reality

29ROOMS

COMES TO TORONTO

BY JORDAN ADLER

all photos courtesy of getty for 29rooms

Picture a 1990s-inspired bedroom with a library of teen lit, a functioning Nintendo 64, and surfaces covered in bright Muppet-like fur. Or a space where gazing at two crystallized sculptures of a child and adult can inspire one to write a letter to their younger selves. Or a maze where one scoops and carries sand to an unseen place, blindfolded, with just the assistance of an audio guide.

While these places may seem peculiar, they are among the installations that have charmed, dazzled and provoked contemplation for more than 100,000 curious museumgoers since 2015. This fall, Toronto will become the first city outside of only a few major American markets to experience the immersive 29Rooms.

Initially, the rooms – of which there are, yes, 29 – were set up in a Brooklyn warehouse in 2015. They were organized as a celebration to mark the tenth anniversary of Refinery29, a prominent online magazine and media company that explores issues affecting young women. Brought to life during New York Fashion Week, the pop-up art exhibits created a stir, while bringing ideas examined in a virtual realm into a more physical environment. With free admission, crowds eagerly emerged to snap photographs and become absorbed in an array of installations.

“We took time to make sure that there were collaborations with local artists,” says Olivia-Jene Fagon, associate creative director for Refinery29. “We’re trying to create [camaraderie] with those creative communities when we go into each city.” The expansion north of the border was a natural choice due to the launch of the company’s Canadian portal in October 2018.

When 29Rooms debuted four years ago, arts and culture lovers’ relationship to museums and pop-up exhibitions was not the same. Big, bold, “destination art” experiences, including Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors, were just starting to reach blockbuster status.

The hype around these immersions did not just target an elite niche of art lovers, but began to attract more casual visitors, or those who, as Fagon says, “felt isolated from this cultural sphere.” This increased popularity was probably helped by free admission in the first two years of its New York run. “We wanted to create an experience that was open to the public and very accessible to our audience,” she says, noting that Fashion Week events are often exclusive and expensive.

The partners collaborating with Refinery29 for Toronto’s exhibitions include seven Canadian companies and several local artists. These visionaries include Hannah Epstein, who goes by “hanski.” The textilebased artist, who uses her work to explore both her Latvian and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, is creating one installation.

Meanwhile, one room will be devoted to a billboard-inspired work by Maria Qamar, also known as Hatecopy. Born in Pakistan and residing in Mississauga, Qamar is an artist and humourist. Like Epstein, her pop art focuses on hybridization, as it examines the intersection between South Asian and Canadian identities.

Around 10 of the rooms will be transplants – audience favourites, according to Fagon – from exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. In one corner, multimedia artist Uzumaki Cepeda’s Teenage Bedroom should be a hit among those who came of age during the 1990s. The room contains posters, books, and a period-perfect telephone. (Be sure to pick up the receiver to hear some of the pre-recorded conversations.) “She was interested in inviting guests to tap into the nostalgia of that time,” Fagon says of Cepeda’s room. “It’ll be a little bit of a time warp.”

Other rooms benefit from the social interactions between guests. Conversations with your Inner Child, from performance artist and choreographer Carlota Guerera, allows guests to reflect on their adolescence, as they see the face of their inner child in the artwork.

The rooms are not just vessels to explore other visionaries’ repertoires, but for visitors to explore their own creative juices. Beyond the installations, some of the rooms contain writing and drawing workshops through activities led by event staff. “The main piece of feedback [Refinery29 received] when we were developing last year’s tour…was for more opportunities to do things that were hands-on interactive,” Fagon says.

Nevertheless, with approximately 800 guests able to move through the exhibition at once, these opportunities are not always private. Visitors must make the most of their two-and-a-half hour timeslot. With that compressed time to visit the activations, Refinery29 has described the exhibition as “speed dating for ideas and art.”

29Rooms’ rise to fame is tied to the launch of similar pop-up museums which retain mileage from the numerous opportunities available for selfies and photos. Fagon says that there is an emphasis on creating experiences that can be both interactive and easily spread on social media, however, there has also been resistance to the photo-friendly experience.

“In the inception of the event, we never thought about it as an Instagramable space,” Fagon says. “Even if the idea of taking a photo in a space feels inherently superficial, people are actually using those images in service of a more meaningful message.”

The socially and politically minded rooms that have invited snaps and shares in previous installments include ones designed by notable names, such as musician Janelle Monae and producer/screenwriter Lena Waithe. Transparent creator Jill Soloway helped to design a gender-neutral bathroom where visitors can listen to testimonials from people talking about their gender identity.

Past sponsors with potent political messages included Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union. Another installation entitled The Values Stand, advocated for voter registration in the United States in 2018, and will receive a Canadian twist this fall, as we approach the Canadian federal election in October. The space replicates a newsstand that utilizes graphics and messages to bring awareness to current sociopolitical issues.

While the appeal of online photo sharing is key to 29Rooms’ viral success, the plan is to have the themes of certain spaces resonate beyond their interactivity. Fagon explains, “The idea is to see this art for its social or political purpose, and not as a mere, empty spectacle.”

Expand Your Reality runs September 26 - October 6, 2019. For more info, visit www.29rooms.com