Immune Nations (2014-2022)
<ImmuneNations>
Curated by Natalie Loveless
Artists: Jesper Alvaer, Julia Belluz, Sean Caulfield, Patrick Fafard, Caitlin Fisher, Steven Hoffman, Johan Holst, Annemarie Hou, Alison Humphrey, Kaisu Koski, Vicki S. Kwon, Natalie S. Loveless, Patrick Mahon, Lathika Sritharan, Mkrtich Tonoyan
<Immune Nations> is a collaborative and interdisciplinary initiative that brings together artists, academics, and healthcare professionals in order to explore the complex issues related to the use and distribution of vaccines in the world today.
Immune Nations was developed as part of The Vaccine Project. Funded with support from the University of Ottawa, the University of Alberta, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Norwegian Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. A multi-year collaborative research-creation project, it brings together artists, scientists, academics (and combinations thereof) to develop interdisciplinary knowledge and generate public debate surrounding vaccine history, science, distribution, and culture. Developed and launched before the COVID-19 pandemic, the project addresses head-on the difficulties that come from bringing together disciplinary methods and insights that are, at first blush, incompatible – as in, for example, the contrast between the openendedness of artistic social commentary and the determinate nature of policy. Immune Nations was, at the time and to our knowledge, the first multi-year research-based exhibition to specifically address the issue of vaccines from a collaborative, interdisciplinary perspective, attentive to the arts and its many roles for advocacy and political intervention. In Sept 2021, the Immune Nations team will be launching a new iteration of the exhibition at the McMaster Museum of Art, alongside public programming that helps galvanize national debate on key issues surrounding COVID-19 and vaccination, such as anti-vax sentiment, fear and misinformation, the cold chain, herd immunity, and what steps are needed moving forward.
Related links
James Smith, "Exhibition: The art of immunisation," The Lancet, vol 389 (June 17, 2017): 2367. [PDF].
"ON VIEW: ‘Immune Nations’ at Galleri KiT, Norway," SciArt Magazine, March 21, 2017. Link
Review in Canadian Art, May 25, 2017. Link
Sarah Foster, "uOttawa and uAlberta take on vaccine controversy with evidence-based Geneva art exhibition," Gazette Bulletin, University of Ottawa, May 29, 2017. Link
Erik Einsiedel, "Understanding Global Vaccination through Art," Curious Arts, Jun 13, 2017. Link
Alexis Kienlen, "Research and artists collaborate to bring a fresh voice to public debates on vaccination," University Affairs / Affaires universitaires, Aug 1, 2017. Link
Special Issue of Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, Aug. 2020: Link
2017 curatorial brochure: Program
