The Beyond Within

It seems to me that collective energy may be found in a general unmastering, in which we would be ready to let go together – of mastery, of the narrative as a bounded entity, of gestures as “successful,” of meaning as “closed,” of roles as “defined.”
—Clara Schulmann

The Beyond Within book expands on an exhibition by the same title, that gathered films collaboratively produced by artists Maïder Fortuné and Annie MacDonell in an installation by MacDonell.

The works in the exhibition – mounted at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, SFU Galleries, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, and Illingworth Kerr Gallery between 2022 and 2023 – mark a significant turning point both artists’ careers, and the beginning of a collaborative body of research exploring the relationship between art and life, the permeability of the self, and the potentials and limitations of artistic and conceptual freedom under late capitalism.

This book includes images, film scripts, as well as essays by curators and collaborators including Crystal Mowry, Clara Schulmann, Leila Timmins, and Yan Wu, and interviews with Vincent Broqua, Ian Murray, Mathilde Girard and Cyril Neyrat. It acts not only as a document of the exhibition, but an extension of the artworks and ideas within. [publishers’ note]