MELENTIE PANDILOVSKI IN CONVERSATION WITH IHOR HOLUBIZKY 1/2

MP: For the past twenty-five years, you've assumed the roles of an art critic, curator, gallery director [for the private and public art sectors], performance artist, musician etc. You started out in history and political science, but have specialised in art and technology. It reminds me a bit of the situation in Australia, where people frequently wear numerous hats. In your case, was this because of survival or the absolute inner need to express yourself in different roles?

IH: The many-hat scenario was of the times, a personal, formative period, as everyone has a coming-of-age or consciousness. For the art and cultural scene in Toronto [Canada for that matter], the 1960s was a 'heady' time [the centenary of nationhood was in 1967] and had resonance into the 1970s. I was still in high school in the 1960s. [You make choices, learn to live with them, make something of them, otherwise you live in denial.] I studied political science and history at university, with an emphasis on non-Western histories and the development of the Labor Union movement-because of 'the times'. If you didn't chose a career path, or were not an outright slacker, you lined up on the side of social change, believing that change was necessary and that things could change. The Vietnam War had a lot to do with the radicalisation of that time, as did the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. These were not just 'American Problems'.[...]