AT A DISTANCE - FROM WITHIN
Project Casa - POP Montreal
Montréal, Canada
September 15 - October 2, 2022
At a distance – from within draws from the allegory of the seed as an entity that creates a sense of rhizomatic placemaking. This relational form of placemaking refers then to the flourishing of communities, practices, and exchanges that come from diverse and multiple diasporas. The exhibition explores the concept of diaspora through the use of texts by diasporic Caribbean writers, such as Stuart Hall, and Édouard Glissant, among others.
With works by: Holly Chang — Jin Heewoong — Kuh del Rosario — Laura Acosta et Santiago Tavera — Melissa Raymond et René Sandín — My-Van Dam — Par Nair — Santiago Tamayo Soler.
Curators:
Bettina Pérez Martínez is a Puerto Rican curator, art historian, and researcher based in Montreal. Her research focuses on Caribbean identity, decolonial studies, and the politics of ecology in the region.
Tyra Maria Trono is a filipinx artist and curator based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Concordia University. Their work explores the formation of one’s perception within the process of cultural identification.
The Novels of Elsgüer
(Episode 1)
When the River Sings, Stones it Brings
Episode 1: When the river sings, stones it brings is a video installation that explores the skin as a territory, composed of layers of lived experiences and accumulated memories which continuously shape and transform its topography. This living membrane is then a terrain in itself, transforming and adapting over time like a geographical ground. The installation is composed of video projection mapping onto a textile piece, along with a set-up of multiple screen monitors and spatialized sound. The audience is invited to step into an augmented landscape made up of digital skin textures and physical forms that are at once beautiful and repulsive. Hair, crevices, scars and folds of unidentified skins become the landmarks of this abstract virtual terrain. Specifically, this work reflects on how the skin of Bipoc individuals, similar to the natural landscape, bears the marks of the crossbreeding processes of colonialism, as well as histories of both oppression and resilience.
Photos x Abraham Mercado
