This exhibition brings together two distinct yet interconnected explorations of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, reframing the event through art, collaboration, and historical inquiry.
Bloody Saturday: The Making of a Monument features the preliminary plans, archival documentation, architectural model, and engineer’s drawings for Bloody Saturday, a monument created by Bernie Miller and Noam Gonick. Commissioned by the Winnipeg Arts Council to mark the centenary of the strike, the work encapsulates the complexity and tensions of this historic event.
While the monument itself has become an iconic commemoration, the exhibition seeks to recover the theoretical and aesthetic depth of Miller and Gonick’s collaboration, aspects that are often overshadowed by celebratory narratives. Through this lens, the exhibition explores the convergence and collision of their distinct creative approaches, showcasing the layers of meaning embedded within the monument.
The work reflects on how history, much like collaborative art, can reveal its differences, seams, and unifying threads, drawing a parallel to the collective action of the strike on June 21, 1919.
