B/OLD: Aging In Our City
May 14 - 24, 2019
How can traditional notions of aging be challenged to facilitate a more inclusive and accessible experience for elderly people in an urban environment? B/OLD: Aging In Our City was a two-day event series, imagined by Concordia’s ACT Project and engAGE, the Centre for Research on Aging, at Concordia University that examined the experiences of aging in Montreal with an interactive, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational approach.
At 4TH SPACE, an immersive programme expanded upon and activated the discussions from the event series. Citizens, researchers, artists, policy makers, activists, and the public-at-large came together to consider what it means to grow old together in the city through participatory installations and workshops; from escape rooms to intergenerational graffiti workshops, meetings with city representatives to singing groups, visitors were invited to embrace “old”.
ARCHIVE
B/OLD Exhibits
For the duration of the programming, exhibits of art, documentaries, films, and research projects invited visitors to engage in the latest research on aging.
Escape Room on elder abuse
For the duration of the programming, 4TH SPACE housed an interactive escape room that invited visitors to engage in the sensitive issue of elder abuse.
Graffiti Workshop
Led by Jimmy Baptiste, a visual artist from Montreal, this workshop brought together older adults from the downtown YMCA and students from James Lynn High School to collaborate on street art. Visitors could add to the work throughout the programming.
Urban Play and Mobile Ethnography workshop
A workshop on mobile ethnography asking how do technologies get domesticated into our regular lives?
Exposing and Undoing Ageism Workshop
Presented by Ryan Backer, this workshop deconstructed the young/old binary, and aimed to make way for a view of aging based on community care and social justice for all.
Art Hive
Art Hives bring the tools of the creative arts therapies back into communities, and welcome everyone as an artist and scientist and invite people from all ages, abilities and backgrounds to explore their creativity, meet their neighbours, share their skills, break isolation and enhance their wellbeing.
