Paper short abstract:

This paper will reflect on an investigation into several artworks produced by Inuit for the 1967 Montréal World Fair, and the difficulty of documenting their circulation afterwards, while exploring alternative methodologies offered by Inuit scholars.

Paper long abstract:

Provenance research generally focuses on two primary sources: the artwork itself as a key document, if not the most important one, on the one hand, and the archives to trace back the object’s circulation through space and time on the other. What happens to provenance research then when the object is missing, and the archives are lacking? Understanding provenance research as reconstructing an object’s biography, I aim to explore this question by presenting my investigation into several artworks produced by Inuit artists in the 1960s, at the time of colonization of the Arctic, and exhibited by the Canadian government at the 1967 Montréal World Fair (known as Expo’ 67). In attempting to track down the artworks and their current location, however, I have quickly come up against the limitations of archives, whether regarding the uncertain provenance histories for entire collections of Inuit art in cultural institutions, or the absence of the artist’s perspectives on their work. Therefore, I wish to offer in the first place a critical reading of this failed attempt at provenance research, as to highlight how colonial relations impacted and still impact the way Inuit art has been discussed, curated, documented and circulated. I will then reflect on the possible ways to integrate these artworks, both present and absent, into an art history which focuses on Inuit agency and challenges settlers’ narratives, by mobilizing the recent works of Inuit scholars and curators.