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We are pleased to announce a major milestone in MOMENTA's evolution, as we continue to establish ourselves as a contemporary art biennale.
A contemporary art biennale
In recent editions, our programming has gradually opened up to various transformations of contemporary imagery, expanding to include a multiplicity of practices in visual arts. We now fully affirm this transition. Our goal is to represent the diversity of contemporary practices while asserting our position and perspective within both the Canadian and international art scenes. We remain closely engaged with issues of imagery, as reflected in the theme of our upcoming edition, "In Praise of the Missing Image," though no longer limiting ourselves. This further confirms MOMENTA as an emblematic event characterized, first and foremost, by its thoughtful and sensitive reflection on society.
MOMENTA gets a makeover
This renewal is the result of deep conversation, carried out alongside an enlightening consultation process with our broader community. Essentially, it formalizes what MOMENTA has always been: a large-scale contemporary art biennale, with an explicit mission statement for all our audiences and partners. Proud of its community, MOMENTA is excited to begin this new chapter with you and to share this fresh visual identity that embodies our renewed commitment to promoting contemporary art from here and beyond.
We take this opportunity to give a huge thanks to the entire House9 team for their exceptional work on MOMENTA's new visual identity. Your creativity and expertise have surpassed our vision!
We are excited to announce a new partnership between MOMENTA Biennale d'art contemporain and the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA), supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ). This collaboration reflects a shared commitment to building long-term, reciprocal relationships that connect Quebec-based organizations with art institutions outside the province.
Together, MOMENTA and TBA are dedicated to fostering artistic exchange, cultural dialogue, and new opportunities for artists to reach diverse audiences. We’re thrilled to co-present a series of exhibitions featuring five talented artists from Quebec in the 2024 edition of TBA from September 21 to December 1.
| Meet the artists and their exhibitions Karen Tam Exhibition: Scent of Thunderbolts Location: 32 Lisgar St and Park Manuel Mathieu Exhibition: Pendulum Location: Gallery TPW Stina Baudin Exhibition: Textiles by Stina Baudin Location: The Auto BLDG Leila Zelli Exhibition: Pourquoi devrais-je m’arrêter ?(Why should I stop?) Location: 32 Lisgar St and Park Maria Ezcurra Exhibition: Passing & Threatened (Birds in Canada) Location: 32 Lisgar St and Park |
View the full schedule
We are deeply grateful to the CALQ for supporting partnerships that transcend provincial boundaries and promote meaningful cultural exchanges. Together, we continue to build bridges and create spaces where art can thrive, inspire, and connect us all.
We have the honour of welcoming Marie-Ann Yemsi to Montreal for a special visit, as part of a first in-person meeting with all members of the team. This inspiring meeting was an opportunity to discuss the initial preparations for the Biennale which will be held in the fall of 2025. Stay tuned for more moments around Marie-Ann's visit to Montreal!
MOMENTA is launching its call for submissions for its 2025 edition. The Biennale invites Canadian* artists and artist collectives, emerging and established, to submit a project to show us their works connected with the Biennale’s theme, whether at the ideation or the production stage.
In Praise of the Missing Image
In a world saturated with images, some, strangely, are lacking. The 2025 edition of MOMENTA seeks to explore the potentialities of missing images to renew narratives relating to time, history, and the world. The programmation will open spaces for dialogue, hospitality, and the expression of struggles and solidarities wherein decolonial and feminist pedagogies and ancestral knowledge intersect.
Ever since the invention of photography and film, and their proliferation during the colonial expansion of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an ideological link was formed between these media and the construction of dominant narratives. This connection has been particularly evident in the production of figures of alterity – geographic, cultural, racial, economic – and in certain resulting historical blind spots. Narratives that fell outside this frame were swept away, and these stories have been either truncated or simply disappeared. With a focus on what is beyond our view – the silences and breaches in individual and collective memory – the Biennale will explore both contemporary challenges in relation to the image and the current consequences of the complex dynamics involved in constructing narratives. Which stories are told, how, and by whom? Through the unruly material of art, In Praise of the Missing Image invites us to imagine collectively the means, political and poetic, by which we may inhabit the impasses of the present and sketch out ways toward the future.
| We are looking for works that explore the potentialities of missing images to renew narratives relating to time, history, and the world. We wish to investigate multiple perspectives including, but not limited to, invisibilization, infiltration, erasure, fugitivity, hospitality, solidarity, archipelagic thinking, decolonization, new narratives, mechanisms of exclusion, hybridization, etc. We are interested in works that involve the notion of the image, including installations, experiential works, and other forms. We will pay special attention to works that are new or have not been exhibited in Quebec and/or in Tiohti’á:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal. From a perspective of openness and self-reflection, MOMENTA aspires to adopt a flexible and caring attitude. We therefore invite artists from a variety of horizons, origins, and career stages to submit a project. In addition, applicants who are experiencing challenges supplying materials in the form requested may contact our team at exposition@momentabiennale.com to make special arrangements for making a submission. MOMENTA also pays particular attention to eco-responsibility and encourages artists to submit proposals that are respectful of and sensitive to environmental issues. |
Only proposals for art projects related to the theme, In Praise of the Missing Image, and consistent with MOMENTA’s mission will be considered. Please do not send proposals for exhibition curation.
Deadline: May 14, 2024
Full submission guidelines
*People with Canadian citizenship or permanent residency status
MOMENTA is pleased to announce the appointment of Marie-Ann Yemsi as curator for its 19th edition, titled In Praise of the Missing Image, which will take place in the fall of 2025. Yemsi proposes to explore the potentialities of missing images to renew narratives relating to time, history, and the world. The exhibitions, public programs, and publication will all be centred around this theme.
| In Praise of the Missing Image By Marie-Ann Yemsi In a world saturated with images, some, strangely, are lacking. This edition of MOMENTA seeks to situate these lacunae in a historical perspective. Ever since the invention of photography and film, and their proliferation during the colonial expansion of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an ideological link was formed between these media and the construction of dominant narratives. This connection has been particularly evident in the production of figures of alterity – geographic, cultural, racial, economic – and in certain resulting historical blind spots. Narratives that fell outside this frame were swept away, and these stories have been either truncated or simply disappeared. With a focus on what is beyond our view – the silences and breaches in individual and collective memory – In Praise of the Missing Image will explore both contemporary challenges in relation to the image and the current consequences of the complex dynamics involved in constructing narratives. Which stories are told, how, and by whom? Can the subaltern speak? wondered the Indian philosopher Gayatri Spivak in her celebrated essay. With this question at the core of its reflections, the Biennale aims to open up multiple perspectives for experimentation and speculation on the nature, uses, and production of missing images. Following traces and echoes from the thinking of Édouard Glissant, it deploys an archipelago of forms and ideas, emanating from a constellation of subjects, viewpoints, and artistic positions. A significant engagement with concepts of the archive, the document, traces of recollection, and body memory will underline their potential to build a repertoire of languages from which artists may draw to probe the univocity of dominant narratives. This reordering of collective and individual memories in contemporary narratives is aimed at re-establishing the voice of the Other and the memory of different knowledges, exploring their imaginaries, and revealing issues at stake in the enduring mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization. How to speak about ourselves on our own terms, be the subject of our own story within societies in which certain communities have been stripped of their lands, languages, cultures, or humanity? Linking collective struggle to the formation of the self, the artists will propose critical reflections often inspired by concepts such as hybridization, infiltration, fluidity, and fugitivity. They will create emancipatory images for new stories of the living, and bring to light personal narratives and collective histories that have been invisibilized, minoritized, marginalized, or erased. Conceived as a gathering that will draw its strength from the active co-presence of many, the 2025 edition will open spaces for dialogue, hospitality, and the expression of struggles and solidarities wherein decolonial and feminist pedagogies and ancestral knowledge intersect. The narratives and gestures employed by these artists will evoke the vital necessity of bringing together diverse voices and stories, and will underline the transformative and healing experience of choosing consonant words and forms to speak of oneself. Through the unruly material of art, In Praise of the Missing Image invites us to imagine collectively the means, political and poetic, by which we may inhabit the impasses of the present and sketch out ways toward the future. About the Curator Marie-Ann Yemsi is an independent exhibition curator and contemporary art consultant based in Paris, France. With a degree in political science, Yemsi pays particular attention to theoretical, critical, and aesthetic productions in the Global South and develops multidisciplinary art programs at the intersection of the visual arts, performance, dance, music, and writing. Her projects focus on collaborative art practices and experimental forms, highlighting themes such as memory, history, gender, and identity in relation to contemporary political, social, and ecological issues. She has organized numerous international exhibitions including, most recently, the group exhibition Ubuntu, a Lucid Dream, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and Grada Kilomba’s A World of Illusions, at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa. MOMENTA 2025 will encourage conversations, encounters, and exchanges initiated by a selection of artists from all over the world, with particular focus on artists from Quebec and Canada. Produced in collaboration with numerous exhibition partners, the exhibitions will present the work of more than twenty artists in total. The exhibitions will be accompanied by a publication and an extended program of activities for the public. Press release Portrait of the curator |
On this occasion of the International Day of Zero Waste, we wish to highlight MOMENTA's recent green initiatives and the implementation of our sustainable development policy.
| A few of MOMENTA’s initiatives Exhibition Production -Our team provides specific support to artists in producing more sustainable artworks. -We prioritize the use of eco-friendly materials, such as recycled paint, and establish collaborations with local partners for the fabrication of exhibition furnishings. Transportation and Travel -We favor the use of eco-friendly means of transportation for the dissemination of artworks as well as for the travel of our artistic collaborators whenever possible (for example: prioritizing trains over airplanes) -MOMENTA recommends its visitors routes that gather addresses close to each other, encouraging travel on foot, by bicycle, and by public transportation. Local Circular Economy -MOMENTA collaborates with several Montreal-based companies adopting eco-responsible approaches and socio-vocational reintegration practices. -We prioritize reuse, rental, and sharing with our partners rather than purchasing materials and equipment. Management and Governance -MOMENTA formed a socio-ecological transition committee, which adopted a sustainable development policy and an action plan incorporating clear objectives and concrete measures. -In its daily activities, MOMENTA has transitioned to an almost 100% digital mode. Awareness -MOMENTA raises awareness among its audiences about issues surrounding socio-ecological transition by addressing themes and offering educational activities questioning our relationships and impacts on the environment. -MOMENTA provides its team with training offering sustainable alternatives across all its various activities. -By encouraging the involvement of all its employees, MOMENTA aims to ensure that the measures reflect its organization's daily reality as closely as possible, and to inspire a sincere desire to carry out this work successfully. |
Our Future Actions
Eco-responsibility is a long-term commitment. We are aware that there is still much work to be done: MOMENTA commits to continuing its current initiatives and adopting new ones, including the inclusion of eco-responsibility clauses in contracts with its partners and suppliers. We aim to continue creating learning opportunities around environmental issues for our audiences, especially children, as well as strengthening our event management actions, such as quantitative monitoring and ultimately the reduction of waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Lastly, MOMENTA strives to continuously improve its sustainable development policy and action plan by engaging its team, notably through group discussions.
Resources
We encourage our audiences to learn about the International Day of Zero Waste and use this opportunity to develop awareness around the challenges and impacts of our individual and collective actions by consulting the United Nations website. Additionally, Carboneutre Québec offers 23 ecological actions to reduce our carbon footprint. You can also learn about the key points of the Quebec Government's 2023-2028 Sustainable Development Strategy.
The board of directors of MOMENTA is very pleased to announce the appointment of Dominique Sirois-Rouleau as the organization’s executive director. She will join the team on April 15.
| Dominique Sirois-Rouleau has almost 20 years’ experience in the contemporary-art field. With her rich experience as a university professor, exhibition curator, and art critic, combined with her engagement with various publics to foster the transmission of knowledge, she will make an essential contribution to achieving the Biennial’s mission. “I’m excited and proud to undertake this new adventure at MOMENTA in order to promote the biennial’s mission and continue its commitment to the community and to audiences for contemporary art.” – Dominique Sirois-Rouleau Dominique Sirois-Rouleau succeeds Audrey Genois, who is stepping down after eight years leading the organization. During her time with the MOMENTA, she successfully oversaw, among other things, the Biennial’s identity change in 2017 and the updating of its mission and strategic plan. The board of directors extends its sincere thanks to Audrey for her devotion and many contributions, which have positioned the Biennial as an unmissable Montréal event. “The MOMENTA board of directors is thrilled to welcome Dominique Sirois-Rouleau to the team. With her great expertise as a manager, her long experience in research and writing on contemporary art, and her deep commitment to the Montréal art scene, Dominique has every asset essential to brilliantly executing the Biennial’s 2024–29 strategic plan.” – Lesley Johnstone You can view our press release here |
From September 7 to October 22, people curious about contemporary art came together for the 18th edition of the Biennale and visited the 16 exhibition venues throughout the city. For 46 days, our 60 activities, including exhibitions, workshops, performances, symposiums, talks and panel discussions, and even a marathon, drew audiences that were interested in and won over by a program that stirred up unequalled excitement!
By the end of the Biennale, MOMENTA registered a record attendance rate, with more than 50% increase in visits to artist-run centres and university galleries compared to the previous edition.
| 2023 in numbers Exhibitions - 23 artists from abroad and from Canada, representing 15 countries, 4 provinces, and 4 Indigenous nations - Almost 30,000 unique visits to artist-run centres and university galleries - 113 artworks presented in 16 exhibition venues across the city, including: ~ 52 new works presented in public for the first time ~ 20 commissioned works produced in collaboration with MOMENTA and the exhibition partners ~ 3 artists participating in the RBC Foundation’s program for emerging artists ~ 3 performances, including one co-production with the Bonavista Biennale Public and educational activities - 60 activities, including exhibitions, workshops, performances, symposiums, talks and panel discussions, and a marathon - 1 inaugural evening at Fonderie Darling with a record attendance of 1,300 visitors - 21 directors of North American biennials and triennials attending the second Ennials Alliance symposium - 340 participants in our eight educational and creative workshops - 2,300 participants in our guided tours Online presence - 480,000 online visits - 7 podcast episodes - More than 30,000 downloads of our route maps - 19% increase in our number of subscribers Partnerships - 89 financial, promotional, and production partners associated with the Biennale - 70% of our digital advertising budget invested in Canadian media Publications - 46 plain-language exhibition booklets, including 2 in Indigenous languages - 1 book each in French and in English, co-published with Kerber Verlag And more! Thank you all With deep gratitude, we extend our heartfelt thanks to our public for its trust and commitment to MOMENTA. Your presence and continued support have made this event a memorable success! We would also like to thank our invaluable partners, as well as our external collaborators and volunteers, for their invaluable contribution to the success of this 18th edition of MOMENTA. Your dedication and support were key elements in realizing this edition. |
As a member of the Ennials Alliance, MOMENTA was pleased to welcome a delegation of directors from 14 Biennials and Triennials in North America at the Canadian Centre for Architecture on October 11, 12 and 13, as part of MOMENTA’s 18th edition.
| The Ennials Alliance is a network of contemporary art organizations focused on periodic art events, such as biennials and triennials. Originating in North America, their goal is to foster the exchange of resources, better practices and ideas among member organizations. During their visit, the Ennials had the opportunity to discover MOMENTA's exhibitions, take part in discussions on contemporary issues in visual arts and share their own perspectives and practices. |
For the first time, most of our exhibitions feature plain-language text to facilitate visitors’ understanding of the exhibitions and ensure inclusivity and discoveries for everyone. This new initiative is an important mediation tool that enhances MOMENTA’s engagement with its publics.
| According to the Government of Canada, the fundamental objective of using a plain language approach in written communications is to convey essential information to the audience in an accessible manner, without requiring a “condescending style” or “oversimplified” vocabulary. You can find the leaflets in the exhibition spaces, but also on this website. |
This year, for the very first time, MOMENTA produced a seven-episode podcast series designed and hosted by artist Jamie Ross, whose guests are artists Mara Eagle, Lindsay Katsitsakaste Delaronde, Rémi Belliveau, Valérie Blass, Michèle Pearson Clarke, Séamus Gallagher and Tuan Andrey Nguyen.
| Produced by Virage sonore, each episode of the series takes the form of a twenty-minute one-on-one interview with an artist from our program. Our episodes are available here. This project is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. |
| As part of its ongoing commitment to local media, MOMENTA is proud to partner with La Presse, our Preferred Media Partner! This new initiative is part of our desire for continuity and solidarity with the “Mouvement média d’ici”. MOMENTA is delighted with this new partnership and would like to thank La Presse for its commitment to our institution. |
MOMENTA is pleased to invite you to the opening celebration of the biennial’s 18th edition! Come celebrate with us on September 7 from 5 to 10 p.m. at Place du Sable-Gris in front of Fonderie Darling.
| Starting at 5 p.m., don't miss the performance We're magic. We're real #3 (These Walls) by Jeannette Ehlers, accompanied by Eve Tagny and Sophia Gaspard. Then enjoy the rest of the evening to discover Jeannette Ehlers and Valérie Blass’s exhibitions at Fonderie Darling, while grooving to the music of DJ Patron. On the menu: Creole and Caribbean food by Plaisance Café & Traiteur S.E.N.C. We look forward to seeing you there! |
MOMENTA is delighted to announce the complete list of artists and exhibition venues participating in its 18th edition, from September 7 to October 22, 2023.
| Designed by curator Ji-Yoon Han, Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis aims to explore the dynamics of visibility and invisibility that shape representations of the self and the other from the metamorphic potentials of mimicry. Deployed in fifteen locations across the city, the biennial program will bring together 23 artists from abroad, representing 15 countries, and from 4 provinces and 4 Indigenous nations of Canada. From one exhibition to the next, processes of transformation, mimicry, and mutation will be activated, questioning the functions of the image, between representation and metamorphosis. Artists and Exhibition Partners - Centre CLARK : Kristina Norman (Estonia) - daphne : Meky Ottawa - Dazibao : Anette Rose (Germany), Carey Young (United Kingdom/United States) - Diagonale : Bianca Baldi (South Africa) - Fonderie Darling : Valérie Blass (Canada), Jeannette Ehlers (Denmark/Trinidad and Tobago) - Galerie B-312 : Michèle Pearson Clarke (Trinidad and Tobago)*** - Galerie FOFA : Mara Eagle (United States) - Galerie de l’UQAM : Marion Lessard (Canada)*, Émilie Pitoiset (France), Naomi Rincón Gallardo (Mexico) - Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery : siren eun young jung (South Korea) - McCord Stewart Museum : Séamus Gallagher (Canada)* - Montreal Museum of Fine Arts : Lynn Hershman Leeson (United States) - Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal : Hito Steyerl (Germany) - Occurrence : Chris Curreri (Canada), Maya Watanabe (Peru/Netherlands) - OPTICA : Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes (Costa Rica/Canada)*, Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde (Kahnawà:ke, Canada)** - VOX, centre de l'image contemporaine: Rémi Belliveau (Acadia, Canada)*, Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), Marianne Nicolson (Musgamakw Dzawada’enuxw Nation)* *Presentation of a work commissioned by MOMENTA **Presentation of a work co-commissioned by MOMENTA and Bonavista Biennale ***Presentation of a work in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Hamilton To learn more about our program, download our press release here |
MOMENTA is proud to announce a new partnership with RBC Foundation to support the work of three emerging Québec-based artists
| MOMENTA and RBC Foundation are partnering to support the career development of three emerging artists by creating a guidance, mentorship, and production program. This is the second fruitful collaboration between MOMENTA and RBC Foundation; the first resulted in a path of augmented reality works in 2021. Now, RBC is renewing its confidence in MOMENTA by joining up to create an all-new support program for Québec-based emerging artists. The 2023 MOMENTA x RBC Foundation program offers a unique chance to Rémi Belliveau, Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes, and Marion Lessard to create original works for presentation during the 18th edition of MOMENTA. The program will provide these artists with significant support to further their career: providing a solid springboard, the program helps to raise the visibility of the artists and offers incomparable networking and professionalization opportunities, while bringing their work to a broader public in Québec and beyond. |
MOMENTA is delighted to announce the visit of Korean artist siren eun young jung, as part of a conference to be held at Concordia University on April 18, 6:00 p.m. This talk will be an opportunity to meet one of the major international artists featured in the 2023 program of the biennale.
| Yeoseong Gukgeuk Project: To Imagine Queer Mnemonics with siren eun young jung April 18, 2023, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. In person - Concordia University, Room 114, VA Building, 1395 René-Lévesque BLVD W. Reception to follow. Please note that there is a limited number of places, we advise you to arrive a little earlier. Online - Join Zoom meeting here Artist siren eun young jung discusses her long-term ethnographic research project, Yeoseong Gukgeuk Project (2008-present), which critically investigates gender binaries, the invention of traditions, and history writing. The gender-bending practices of Yeoseong Gukgeuk, a theatrical form played by people who identify as women, reveal the hegemonic construction of modern norms and historiography. In this talk, the artist attempts to imagine forms of queer memory, genealogy, and defiance against hegemonic powers through this long-term project grounded in moving images. To ensure time for presentation and questions, we encourage attendees to visit the artist’s website in advance of the talk and watch Deferral Theatre (2018) available for streaming (35:05 minutes). A presentation co-hosted with the Global Emergent Media Lab (GEM Lab), MOMENTA, and the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. This program is part of the GEM Lab 2022-2023 Seminar in Media and Political Theory, Video/Art/TV: Digital Aesthetics and Politics. Have questions? Email mayarae.oppenheimer@concordia.ca |
SAVOIR DEVENIR IMAGE. QUELLES STRATÉGIES DE VISIBILITÉ ET D'INVISIBILITÉ AUJOURD'HUI?
Panel moderated by Ji-Yoon Han, curator of MOMENTA 2023
With Jade Almeida and Nathalie Casemajor
Saturday, August 27, 12 p.m.
As part of the Papier Art Fair, Grand Quay in the Port of Montreal
(200 de la Commune W St)
In French only
In view of its 18th edition, which will take place in the fall of 2023, MOMENTA Biennale d'art contemporain presents a first public conversation around the theme Masquerades: The Lure of Metamorphosis. Jade Almeida, researcher in sociology and history of culture, Nathalie Casemajor, professor-researcher specialized in digital culture, and Ji-Yoon Han, curator of MOMENTA 2023, discuss contemporary issues of visuality raised by, among other things, identity politics and the development of surveillance technologies.
MOMENTA Biennale d'art contemporain is pleased to collaborate with Papier for its next edition which will take place from August 26 to 28, 2022 at the Grand Quay in the Port of Montreal. Created by the Association des galeries d'art contemporain (AGAC) in 2007, Papier is the largest art fair in Québec. The event is a key driver for Canadian contemporary art, as well as a unique meeting ground for the greater public, enthusiasts and visual arts professionals alike.
MOMENTA 2023
Building upon a theme titled Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis, curator Ji-Yoon Han will explore the dynamics of visibility and invisibility that shape representations of the self and the other from the metamorphic potentials of mimicry.
"We’ve all experienced that gap between who we think we are and how others perceive us. We’ve all felt the friction between the identity assigned to us and the one we construct for ourselves. We: that is, you and me—as well as others, human or not. Individuals are constantly recorded, formatted, fixed as same and identical, so here’s the urgent question: how do we (re)set in motion our understanding of identities and differences in the social space and in intimate experiences of otherness?"
- Ji-Yoon Han, curator of MOMENTA 2023
Deadline: May 15, 2022
Theme: Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis
Curator: Ji-Yoon Han
MASCARADES. L'ATTRAIT DE LA MÉTAMORPHOSE
The 2023 edition of MOMENTA will explore the dynamics of visibility and invisibility that shape representations of the self and the other, between mutation, exhibitsure and concealment, separation and fusion. At the core of the curatorial proposal dwells the notion of mimicry. Looking into the image as an agent of metamorphosis, the theme calls for an exploration of theatricality and of the moving lines that today are redefining gestures of appropriation and disguise. Identities will also be addressed in relation to animal, plant, and technological mimicry. The biennale will foster a dialogue among artists whose works probe the functions of the image, between representation and metamorphosis, and seek to (re)set in motion our understanding of identities and differences in the social space and in intimate experiences of otherness.
TYPES OF WORKS BEING SOUGHT
We are looking for works by Canadian artists that explore the potential for mimicry and metamorphosis in identities (whether human or not). For the different exhibitions, we wish to investigate multiple perspectives including, but not limited to: mimicry (in its transversality), metamorphosis, masquerade, visibility processes, invisibilization, camouflage, alteration of the self, becoming image, and more.
We are interested in works that employ photographic and videographic languages, which may take diverse forms such as installations, three-dimensional works, or experience-based works. We will favour newly produced works or works that haven’t been exhibited in the province of Quebec and/or Montreal.
We are soliciting only artists’ works that respond to the theme Masquerades. We are not seeking curatorial proposals. This call for submissions is addressed only to Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Submissions
Submissions must be sent by email only (in English or French), by no later than May 15, 2022, at 11:59 PM, to: soumission2023@momentabiennale.com
All submissions in compliance with the instructions described herein and received by the deadline will be carefully reviewed by the curator and MOMENTA. Since we receive a very large number of proposals, MOMENTA will contact only the applicants whose file has been selected.
MOMENTA gratefully acknowledges the generous support of its partners: Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Ville de Montréal, Gouvernement du Québec, and Government of Canada
MOMENTA Biennale d'art contemporain is delighted to announce the appointment of Ji-Yoon Han as curator for its 18th edition, which will take place in September and October 2023. Building upon a theme titled Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis, curator Ji-Yoon Han will explore the dynamics of visibility and invisibility that shape representations of the self and the other from the metamorphic potentials of mimicry. The exhibitions, the publication, and the public programs will be organized around this theme.
MASQUERADES: DRAWN TO METAMORPHOSIS
By: Ji-Yoon Han
We’ve all experienced that gap between who we think we are and how others perceive us. We’ve all felt the friction between the identity assigned to us and the one we construct for ourselves. We: that is, you and me—as well as others, human or not. Starting from this premise, MOMENTA 2023 will explore the dynamics of visibility and invisibility that shape representations of the self and the other. Individuals are constantly recorded, formatted, fixed as same and identical, so here’s the urgent question: how do we (re)set in motion our understanding of identities and differences in the social space and in intimate experiences of otherness?
The notion of mimicry serves as the main driving force for developing the biennale. Mimicry designates the aptitude to “do as if”: to imitate (do the same), which involves first and foremost the capacity to transform (unmake) oneself by blurring the borders that define the edges of beings and things. Transversally, mimicry concerns human behaviour, the experience of all living things (animal and plant mimicry), and technological modelling (machine-learning mimicry). It situates us in the interstice between the self and the other, linking them and leading them to melt into one another. It is precisely the potential for metamorphoses inscribed in this interstice that MOMENTA 2023 wishes to embrace with the title Masquerades.
The image has a decisive role to play in these operations of mutation, of exhibitsure and concealment, of separation and fusion. It is an ideal tool for seeing, experiencing, and testing perceptions of the self. The theme of mimicry thus calls for an exploration of theatricality and of the virtuality of the mask, whose performance is facilitated and stimulated by technical images. In this sense, the biennale will pay particular attention to the moving lines that today are redefining gestures of appropriation and disguise: how are identities played and outwitted? And who can possess light of the spectacle of identity?
Beyond its function of representation, the image is also an agent of mimetic metamorphosis. Doing like the other, taking oneself for another, or seeing oneself as another is to “become image.” In a reality that indeed seems to be devoured by images, mimicry takes on a unique significance, as borne out in camouflage strategies that have emerged to cope with generalized institutional and corporate surveillance. As a consequence of the demand for the right to invisibility and anonymity, the face—a fundamental aspect of identity—is erased, replaced, or even disfigured. Might this not also be the expression of a more ambiguous desire to “blend into the background”?
The disruption of perception, especially visual, is at the core of mimetic scenarios. Who is looking at whom in my encounter with a chameleon, a stranger, an artificial intelligence? What about the feelings of incongruity, immersion, sinking, and vertigo, or even intoxication, produced by mimicry? The biennale will foster a dialogue among artists whose works seize on these operators of ambiguity and of entangled gazes. The exhibitions will provide a fresh look at the issues involved with mimicry and the alteration of identities by exploring the functions of the image, between representation and metamorphosis. Beyond the instability of identity that is thus brought to light, might these intersubjective experiences lead us to reimagine our commonalities and what creates a sense of community?
CURATOR
Ji-Yoon Han lives and works in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal. In her often interdisciplinary curatorial projects, she seeks to reclaim the embeddedness and relevance of the visual arts in multilayered contexts that are themselves in transformation. Previously a curator at Fonderie Darling (2017–20), she organized exhibitions of works by Cynthia Girard-Renard, Barbara Steinman, Javier González Pesce, and Guillaume Adjutor Provost, as well as a performative cycle on listening and sound art practices. She has contributed to monographs on Geneviève Cadieux and Louise Robert. In her PhD dissertation, she investigated how images competed between 1929 and 1936, articulating photography, surrealism, and the nascent cultures of the illustrated press and advertising. She is currently a guest researcher for the Photography and Commission project, with the support of Les amis du Centre Pompidou, Paris.
MOMENTA 2023 will encourage conversations, encounters, and exchanges initiated by a selection of artists from all over the world, with particular focus on artists from Quebec and Canada. Produced in collaboration with numerous exhibition partners, many exhibitions will present the work of more than twenty artists in total. The exhibitions will be accompanied by a publication and an extended program of activities for the public.
MOMENTA is proud to join forces with the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) to present two film programs by Lebanon-born artist and curator Joyce Joumaa, given carte blanche as part of FIFA 2022 from March 15 to 27.
For the International Festival of Films on Art's 40th edition, Joyce Joumaa presents two film programs regarding the ways in which we create relations. Titled Warm Regards and Are you not coming?, each program offers a perspective, both foreign and familiar, on distance, the one and same that defined our daily lives during the pandemic.
Available throughout the festival, Joyce Joumaa's carte blanche will be showcased online on ARTS.FILM, FIFA's webcasting platform.
MOMENTA has been partners with the International Festival of Films on Art for the past four consecutive years. Presenting contemporary video art and art films is at the core of the biennale's mission, as well as guiding and supporting emerging curators.
Four artists and an art critic present performances responding to the theme of this edition, Sensing Nature, and explore speculative futures, ancestral memories, nondual realities, and healing practices.
Listen to Past / amongst / bones and seeds, a series of audio walking dialogues with the Oji-Cree / Mennonite artist and choreographer Lara Kramer, curated by the Black art critic James Oscar. Conversations will explore Kramer's image-making and performative explorations spanning from her early photographic exploration of Portage la Prairie and Brandon Indian Residential School to her present billboard project In Blankets, Herds and Ghosts.
In Blankets, Herds and Ghosts by Lara Kramer is presented by Dazibao, in collaboration with MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), as part of Dazibao satellite.
MOMENTA × DESJARDINS
In collaboration with Desjardins, MOMENTA will offer the winners of the contest a guided tour of the exhibition "Of the Land", at Galerie de l'UQAM. Specially created for you, the tour will be facilitated by MOMENTA's Executive Director, a member of the curatorial team, and artist Kama La Mackerel. With 5 persons of your choice, this is the occasion to learn more about the program of MOMENTA 2021, the artists' works and their artistic process. Exclusive access with your friends, a drink and a MOMENTA 2021 catalogue per person will be offered. This tour will take place on Tuesday, October 5, and will last 1 hour and a half. Two tours are to be won, one at 5pm and the other at 6:45pm.
This contest is open at all times from September 13 to 24, 2021. The draw will be held on September 30.
For details to participate, click here.
The photography festival Mérignac Photo, located in Mérignac, France, presents in collaboration with MOMENTA the video portrait of Quebec artist Maryse Goudreau, in addition to the presentation of her movie « Tankonautes », at the Médiathèque Michel Sainte-Marie. The artist talks about her projects completed around the discovery of a World War II tank on her property, in Escuminac, Gaspésie.
The discovery of this military vehicle resulted in artistic and participative creations, such as the "Festival du Tank d’Escuminac - première et dernière édition", and a honey harvest. "Tankonautes" was born from this harvest, and takes places around the immersion into two microcosms: the world of bees and the artist’s small town. We witness the transformation of a military vehicle into an engaging and dreamlike community project.
In this video portrait, the artist recalls the highlights of this ambitious and rallying project.
This video portrait was produced thanks to the support of the Délégation générale du Québec à Paris.
Maryse Goudreau is a multidisciplinary artist born in Campbellton, New-Brunswick, in 1980. She was always in Mi’kma’ki, traditional Lnu’k (Mi’kmaq) territory. She lives and works in Escuminac, Gaspésie.
Discover the full video on our YouTube channel.
Quand la nature ressent
Sensing Nature
51 artists from 24 countries
September 8 to October 24, 2021
Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal
The 17th edition of the biennale will take place from September 8 to October 24, 2021 under the title Sensing Nature. An ambitious edition curated by Stefanie Hessler in collaboration with Camille Georgeson-Usher, Maude Johnson, and Himali Singh Soin, MOMENTA 2021 brings together 51 artists from 24 countries, their works are presented in 15 exhibitions including an Indigenous-led outdoor garden and an augmented reality circuit in the public space.
This edition of MOMENTA can be read in multiple ways. On the one hand, it assumes a human who is sensing nature, perhaps holding a blueberry picked in a forest, exhibitsed to various modes of perception: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. On the other hand, it assumes nature sensing back. Our doings register like sunlight bleaching the colour of driftwood over time or imprinting itself on the retina of an exhibitsed eye. In acknowledging this reciprocity, the biennale recognizes that we are in relation with nature, that we are of nature.
ARTISTS AND EXHIBITION PARTNERS
NORTH SITE OF THE GRANDE BIBLIOTHÈQUE / BAnQ
T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss Skwxwú7mesh / Stó:lō / Hawaiian / Swiss, Canada
Silverbear Kanien'kehá:ka
Joce TwoCrows Mashkikii Bimosewin Tremblay Great Lakes métis
CENTRE CLARK
New Red Order:
Adam Khalil Ojibway, United States
Zack Khalil Ojibway, United States
Kite Oglála Lakȟóta, United States
Jackson Polys Tlingit, United States
DIAGONALE
Léuli Eshrāghi Sāmoa, Australia
PHI FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
In collaboration with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Abbas Akhavan Iran / Canada
PHI FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Jamilah Sabur Jamaica / United States
FONDERIE DARLING
Charlotte Brathwaite United Kingdom / United States
Julien Creuzet France
Sandra Mujinga Democratic Republic of the Congo / Germany / Norway
Tabita Rezaire France / French Guiana
Jamilah Sabur Jamaica / United States
Tejal Shah India
GALERIE B-312
Chloë Lum and Yannick Desranleau Canada
GALERIE DE L’UQAM
Carolina Caycedo United Kingdom / United States
Taloi Havini Nakas Tribe Hakö, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea / Australia
Ts̱ēmā Igharas Tāłtān, Canada
Erin Siddall Canada
Kama La Mackerel Mauritius / Canada
Miriam Simun United States / Portugal
Eve Tagny Canada
LEONARD & BINA ELLEN ART GALLERY
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz Porto Rico
MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
Anne Duk Hee Jordan Korea / Germany
McCORD MUSEUM
Caroline Monnet Anishinaabe / French, Canada
Laura Ortman White Mountain Apache, Arizona, United States
OCCURRENCE
Candice Lin United States
P. Staff United Kingdom / United States
Thao Nguyen Phan Vietnam
OPTICA
BUSH Gallery:
Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill Metis
Peter Morin Tāłtān
Tania Willard Secwépemc
VOX, CENTRE DE L’IMAGE CONTEMPORAINE
Jen Bervin United States
Carolina Caycedo United Kingdom / United States
Maryse Goudreau Canada
Ayesha Hameed Canada / United Kingdom
Hamedine Kane Mauritania / Belgium and Senegal
Ts̱ēmā Igharas Tāłtān, Canada
Erin Siddall Canada
Susanne M. Winterling Germany / Germany and Norway
MOMENTA IN AUGMENTED REALITY
Frances Adair Mckenzie Canada
alaska B Canada
Scott Benesiinaabandan Anishinaabe, Canada
Anna Binta Diallo Senegal / Canada
Maryse Goudreau Canada
Ts̱ēmā Igharas Tāłtān, Canada
Lisa Jackson Anishinaabe / Aamjiwnaang, Canada
Kama La Mackerel Mauritius / Canada
Malik McKoy Canada
Alex McLeod Canada
Sabrina Ratté Canada
PERFORMANCE PROGRAM
Léuli Eshrāghi Sāmoa, Australia
Kama La Mackerel Mauritius / Canada
Lara Kramer Oji-Cree / Mennonite, Canada
James Oscar d. Trinidad, b. Canada
Tejal Shah India
PUBLICATON
As with each edition of the biennale, a publication accompanies the exhibitions. Co-edited with the prestigious German publishing house Kerber Verlag, it is offered in English and French. An overview of the biennale containing portfolios on each artist, the publication also includes essays and poetic texts written by Jen Bervin, Léuli Eshrāghi, Stefanie Hessler, Camille Georgeson-Usher, and Himali Singh Soin. The publication will be launched at the opening of the biennale on September 8, 2021.
GOVERNMENTAL AND INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Gouvernement du Québec, Government of Canada, Ville de Montréal, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (Germany), Institut français, Consulat général de France à Québec, Office for Contemporary Art Norway
We are pleased to announce our first collaboration with Mérignac Photo, a photography festival organised by the city of Mérignac, France.
Mérignac Photo will taking place in Mérignac, a town in the Bordeaux Métropole of France, from April 30 to August 8, 2021.
This event will present some twenty French and international artists, including two Canadian artists, Meryl McMaster and Maryse Goudreau, presented in partnership with MOMENTA and with financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Délégation générale du Québec à Paris.
Emeline Dufrennoy, the guest curator for this edition of Mérignac Photo, offers an exploration of the theme Possible Worlds, which questions our relationship with time(s), the interdependence among past, present, and future, and the role of images in our comprehension of the world.
Maryse Goudreau, Tankonautes, 2021
Tankonautes is a video work drawn from a larger ensemble titled Tank Honey, which combines art and permaculture. Arising from Goudreau’s discovery of an incongruous object, a partially buried military vehicle, on her property, Tank Honey transformed her initial archaeological exploration, in which she sought to unearth and reconstruct an unknown past, into an event that brought people together, the "Festival du tank d’Escuminac – première et dernière édition", in 2015, then to an impulse of revitalization. In 2016, she brought forth a rural dream rethought on a local scale and closer to the community: honey production.
Meryl McMaster, As Immense as the Sky, 2019
Influenced by her ancestry, both Indigenous and Western, Meryl McMaster finds herself at the crossroads of two visions of the world. As Immense as the Sky retraces her journeys along the paths and through the immemorial landscapes of the central and southern prairies and the early colonies on the shores of provinces in Atlantic Canada. To reconnect with those who, before her, trod these lands, McMaster undertakes to make their voices resonate. Having studied the history of the migrations and the social, cultural, and environmental encounters of her Indigenous and European ancestors, she reactivates their knowledge at the sites of these historical confrontations.
We are thrilled to announce that for the third consecutive year, MOMENTA and the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) are partnering up to present Sandlines, the Story of History, the first feature film by artist Francis Alÿs for the 39th edition of the Festival held online March 16–28, 2021.
Sandlines, the Story of History, produced in collaboration with the Ruya Foundation, was produced between 2018 and 2020 near a Yezidi encampment in Iraq. Alÿs asked children in a mountain village, twenty kilometres from Mosul, to revisit a century of their history, from the Sykes-Picot Agreement signed in May 1916 to the reign of terror imposed by Daesh in 2016. The children were asked to act out, in their own way, a series of events.
This feature film is presented as a Canadian première, after its presentation at the Sundance Film Festival and the Festival du film international de Rotterdam, in 2020. Sandlines follows in the footsteps of a series of projects that Alÿs has produced with children all over the world. It especially echoes his Children's Games exhibition presented at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal during MOMENTA 2019.
? MOMENTA's fundraiser for Canadian artists ?
We were invited by Art Toronto to hold a virtual booth for the 2020 edition of the fair. We decided to use this opportunity to fulfill one of our mandates which is the representation of Canadian artists, by showcasing and selling works of artists who were part of MOMENTA 2017 or 2019, and who are not represented by galleries.
Through this initiative, MOMENTA aims to make a solidarity gesture towards artists in these precarious pandemic times ❤️.
? Support Canadian artists by buying a work from our booth!
- 65% of the fundraiser revenues will go to the artists
- 35% of the fundraiser revenues will go to MOMENTA to finance the production of works by Canadian artists for MOMENTA 2021.
? Participating artists:
Elisabeth Belliveau; Raphaëlle de Groot; Bridget Moser; Juan Ortiz-Apuy; Anne-Marie Proulx; Jamie Ross; Camille Turner.
An educational video game on contemporary art
MOMENTA is proud to announce that its second educational video game, Enki and the Gallery of Mysteries, is now online. Intended for children 6 to 8 years old, the game is the result of a collaboration between MOMENTA and Dpt., a studio specializing in interactive experiences. The first game, The Gallery of Mysteries (2018), for children 9 to 12 years old, has been played by more than 13,000 people since it was put online.
Synopsis
Many stories are told about the Gallery of Mysteries. Some people say that it whispers, and others claim that it moves around in the forest when night falls. In reality, you are about to discover one of its greatest secrets … As you pass by, you wake up Enki! This strange spirit watches over a collection of portraits, but one of the artworks has disappeared. Enki needs you to help complete the collection. Explore the gallery, solve Enki’s challenges, and maybe you’ll be able to lay your hands on the missing artwork!
When they embark on this adventure, children come into contact with works by artists Annie Baillargeon, Patrick Bernatchez, Claudie Gagnon, Adad Hannah, Hua Jin, Moridja Kitenge Banza, JJ Levine, Marisa Portolese, Skawennati, and Jonas St. Michael.
Trailer
Pedagogical objectives
This interactive experience was designed to introduce children in cycle one of elementary school to works by Québec artists. The pedagogical objectives of the game are:
- development of a sense of observation;
- introduction to analysis of images;
- stimulation of imagination through digital creativity;
- initiation to reading.
Offered free of charge in English and French, the game is a wonderful parent-child activity or a stimulating art-appreciation activity in a classroom context. A pedagogical guide has also been designed to encourage students to reflect on the works displayed in the game, which features the theme of the portrait.
MOMENTA is delighted to announce that Camille Georgeson-Usher and Himali Singh Soin will join guest curator Stefanie Hessler and MOMENTA’s curatorial assistant Maude Johnson to form the curatorial team for its 17th edition, which will take place in September and October 2021.
Together, the curatorial team will share their expertise to develop the artistic program around the theme Sensing Nature/Quand la nature ressent. MOMENTA chose to initiate this formula that puts the collective before the individual in order to integrate and recount diverse perspectives and experiences.
Camille Georgeson-Usher
“This year we have been tested in so many ways we were not prepared for. At a time of so much uncertainty we have talked about care, intimacy, truth, and relationalities with each other, with the lands we walk across, and with plant and animal communities that we share this world with. We have talked about how small we are as humans within the universe and how to leave less traces of ourselves. Sensing Nature to me, presents an opportunity to intermix ourselves into a world that doesn’t exist yet and to let it wash over us; a future world that folds us into a tender imaginary.”
Camille Georgeson-Usher is a Coast Salish / Sahtu Dene / Scottish scholar, artist, and arts administrator from Galiano Island, BC, which is the land of the Pune’laxutth’ (Penelakut) Nation. She is a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies department at Queen’s University where she is writing on ontologies of gathering and how protocols from different nations intersect in urban centres. She is interested in looking at the many ways in which peoples move together in urban space, relationalities and intimacies with the everyday, and acts of mark making through the example of public art practices as types of gathering from an Indigenous perspective.
Himali Singh Soin
“This time feels like the earth, normally tilted on its axis, is losing its balance. It feels light because the extraneous stuff of our lives has suddenly shed; it feels heavy with the weight of our collective pain. It feels like parts of us are healing while other, interconnected meridians, are ill. I say it “feels like” because it has maybe brought us closer to an embodied way of knowing and being, of sensing. MOMENTA will, we hope, exude this energy of listening to ourselves and therefore to the other, and provoke gestures towards small kindnesses, local community building, and transnational planetary thinking.”
Himali Singh Soin is a writer and artist based between London and Delhi. She uses metaphors from outer space and the natural environment to construct imaginary cosmologies of interferences, entanglements, deep voids, debris, leakages, alienation, distance and intimacy. In doing this, she thinks through ecological loss, and the loss of home, seeking shelter somewhere in the healing power of performance and the radicality of love. Her speculations are performed in audio-visual, immersive environments. Soin's art has been shown at Khoj (Delhi), Somerset House, Mimosa House, and Serpentine Gallery (London), Gropius Bau and the HKW (Berlin), Migros Museum of Contemporary Art (Zurich), Anchorage Museum (Alaska) and will be presented in the next Shanghai Biennale. Soin is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and was the recipient of the Frieze Artist Award last year.
Sensing Nature
The 2021 edition of MOMENTA titled Sensing Nature, proposes nature as a maker of images representing itself. Today, many depictions of nature are testimonials and elegies to the loss of biodiversity, the climate, and the myth of progress. They provide messy evidence of anthropogenic climate change, devotedly supported by capitalism and colonialism. Images are important in communicating this moment of planetary urgency. At the same time, images of presuppose the possibility of defining and speaking on behalf of an Other constructed as passive—be that nature, womxn, indigenous peoples, people of colour, queer communities, among others. To retire such narratives and conjure alternatives in art and beyond, different imaginaries are urgently needed.
MOMENTA 2021 will be attuned to the time of geology, the textures of a coral, the perspective of a swallow, in order to fathom different futures. The exhibitions will probe the image as something more-than-visual, be it sound, taste, or smell. In doing so, the biennale hopes to calibrate visitors’ senses to the possibilities granted by speculative fictions in nature and through art. Sensing Nature longs for responsivity with planetary ecologies not as something to be represented, but as something that we are part of and “become with.”
After presenting the rich program, Spotlight on Iranian Art Films, at its 38th edition last March, the International Festival of Films on Art continues its exploration of Iranian arts and art films on a new web platform, in partnership with MOMENTA. This new initiative, supported by the Conseil des arts de Montréal, was entrusted to director and curator Leila Khalilzadeh, a Montreal-based Iranian filmmaker who has directed, written, and produced short fiction, animation, and documentary films. Through a newly-curated selection of films accessible on LeFIFA.com, Leila Khalilzadeh invites us to discover the experiences of pioneers of Iranian film and new generations alike, whose work is unrestricted to any one cinematic convention or mainstream style. Several different genres are presented: cinema, documentaries, as well as animated and experimental short films, which makes for an exceptionally rich and diverse program.
Building on the success of its recent initiative, suggesting a selection of enriching and fun cultural activities to enjoy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, FIFA has decided to launch LeFIFA.com in order to allow this sharing with the art-loving community to extend beyond the current period of confinement. Available online as of this week, this bilingual microsite resembles a sleekly designed webzine. Alongside the artfifa.com website, it aims to share content specifically created or commissioned by FIFA.
The content of this platform will be enriched each week with news, projects and artistic meetings initiated or selected by FIFA.
MOMENTA is proud to partner up with Capture Photography Festival and Canadian Art to present a talk in the form of a webinar by curator Cliff Lauson, on Thursday April 30 from 12pm to 1pm (PT) and from 3pm to 4pm (EDT)
In this illustrated talk, curator Cliff Lauson discusses the complex relationship between lens-based image culture and the ‘experience economy’. Recently, most countries around the world closed their borders and imposed lockdowns in response to the global pandemic. Cliff reflects on the condition of electronic mediation and the current extreme turn. For the time being, art and exhibitions can only be experienced through our devices and screens, testing the limits of our virtual sensibilities.
Dr. Cliff Lauson is Senior Curator at the Hayward Gallery, London, where he has organized major exhibitions including: Bridget Riley, Martin Creed, Ernesto Neto, Tracey Emin, Light Show and Space Shifters. He currently serves on the British Council Collection Acquisitions Advisory Committee, the Open Space Advisory Board, and is a trustee of Film and Video Umbrella. Lauson is also a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and a qualified coach.
MOMENTA is delighted to announce the appointment of Stefanie Hessler as curator for its 17th edition, which will take place in September and October 2021. Drawing on a theme titled Sensing Nature, curator Stefanie Hessler will explore earth systems as narrators of their own logic. The exhibitions, the publication, and all of the activities for the public will be organized around this theme.
Theme
The 2021 edition of MOMENTA, titled Sensing Nature, is informed by a desire to unsettle the divide between nature and its representation. The exhibitions will be guided by the works of artists deeply invested in decolonizing strategies and examining queer ecologies to reimagine environmental politics and notions of the natural. MOMENTA 2021 will work towards decentring the often-foregrounded Western human creator of knowledge about the natural world to make room for stories that dwell in the blurred boundaries between culture and nature, weaving in different forms of knowing, both human and nonhuman. Audacious and hopeful, these “other” stories propose a shift in perception toward the sensibility of earth systems as narrators of their own logic. In turning toward nature’s own enunciations, the biennale explores new, caring sensitivities.
The upcoming edition of MOMENTA proposes nature as a maker of images representing itself. Today, many depictions of nature are testimonials and elegies to the loss of biodiversity, the climate, and the myth of progress. They provide messy evidence of anthropogenic climate change introduced and sustained by capitalism and colonialism. Images are important in communicating this moment of planetary urgency. At the same time, images of presuppose the possibility of defining and speaking on behalf of an Other constructed as passive—be that nature, womxn, indigenous peoples, people of colour, queer communities, among others. To retire such narratives and conjure alternatives in art and beyond, different imaginaries are urgently needed.
When an image is extracted from the natural world, it is detached from its ecological, cultural, and spiritual entanglements. Aided by technologies of visibility, it becomes decontextualized and is often mobilized for political and economic interests. It tells certain stories, while the voices of indigenous peoples, people of colour, queer communities, and others often go unheard. Some images fade overnight, while others linger for years to shape perceptions. Similarly, water retains chemical spills for decades and radioactivity for millennia. Yet, exhausted soil can also regenerate. Like film registering light, nature is a matter through which stories are recorded and from which they emerge.
The artists in the biennale will trace and sense muddled worlds. They will be attuned to the time of geology, the textures of a coral, the perspective of a swallow, in order to fathom different futures. The exhibitions will probe the image as something more-than-visual, be it sound, taste, or smell. In doing so, the biennale hopes to calibrate visitors’ senses to the possibilities granted by speculative fictions in nature and through art. Sensing Nature longs for responsivity with planetary ecologies not as something to be represented, but as something that we are part of and “become with.”(1)
(1) This idea, elaborated by philosopher Gilles Deleuze and biologist Lynn Margulis, among others, proposes that identities are not fixed but constantly in the process of becoming. As such, we are not just becoming by ourselves, isolated; rather, we become with others, human and nonhuman beings.
About the curator
Stefanie Hessler (Germany) is a curator, writer, and editor. Her work focuses on interdisciplinary systems from an intersectional feminist perspective, with a focus on the ocean and other ecologies. Hessler is the director of Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. Her recent curatorial projects include the exhibition “Joan Jonas: Moving Off the Land II” at the Museo Thyssen in Madrid (2020); the 6th Athens Biennale (2018); and the symposium “Practices of Attention” at the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo (2018). Between 2017–2019, she was a guest professor in art theory at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. Her book Prospecting Ocean was published by The MIT Press in 2019.
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MOMENTA 2021 will encourage conversations, encounters, and exchanges initiated by a selection of artists from all over the world, with particular focus on artists from Quebec and Canada. Produced in collaboration with numerous exhibition partners, a thematic exhibition and many solo exhibitions will present the work of more than thirty artists in total. The exhibitions will be accompanied by a publication and an extended program of activities for the public.
MOMENTA launches its call for submissions from Canadian artists for its upcoming edition, which will take place in September and October 2021. Drawing on the theme Sensing Nature, proposed by curator Stefanie Hessler, the biennale’s 17th edition will present a wealth of exhibitions featuring the work of more than thirty artists from the local and national scenes as well as from elsewhere in the world.
Theme
The 2021 edition of MOMENTA, titled Sensing Nature, is informed by a desire to unsettle the divide between nature and its representation. The exhibitions will be guided by the works of artists deeply invested in decolonizing strategies and examining queer ecologies to reimagine environmental politics and notions of the natural. MOMENTA 2021 will work towards decentring the often-foregrounded Western human creator of knowledge about the natural world to make room for stories that dwell in the blurred boundaries between culture and nature, weaving in different forms of knowing, both human and nonhuman. Audacious and hopeful, these “other” stories propose a shift in perception toward the sensibility of earth systems as narrators of their own logic. In turning toward nature’s own enunciations, the biennale explores new, caring sensitivities.
Submission guidelines
We are soliciting only artists’ works that respond to the theme Sensing Nature. We are not seeking curatorial proposals. This call for submissions is addressed only to Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Type of work being sought
We are looking for works by Canadian artists that explore the idea of nature representing itself and/or the various relationships between human beings and nature and that demonstrate their complexity. For the different exhibitions, we want to investigate a multiplicity of perspectives including, but not limited to, these types of perspectives: environmental crisis, decolonization, queer ecologies, ecofeminism, science-fiction, non-Western cosmologies, practices of care.
We are interested in works that employ photographic and videographic languages, which may take diverse forms such as installations, three-dimensional works, or experience-based works. We will favour newly produced works or works that haven’t been exhibited in the province of Québec and/or Montréal.
Submission instructions
Submissions must be sent by email only (in English or French), by no later than May 24 at 11:59 PM, to: soumission2021@momentabiennale.com
Submissions should include the following:
- A short cover letter explaining how the submission relates to the theme (250 words maximum) in Word or PDF format.
- An artist statement (100 words maximum) in Word or PDF format.
- Visual supporting material, which may include:
- a maximum of 10 images (maximum 500 kb per image) in JPG (72 dpi, RGB colour mode) or PDF format. Images must be clearly identified and accompanied by a descriptive image spec sheet (title, date, medium, and dimensions).
- a link to your web page or other website featuring your work (if available). Do not send videos by email; instead, please provide a link in order to view your video(s) online.
- A short CV (3 pages maximum) in Word or PDF format.
- Your contact information (first and last name, mailing address, telephone, email address, website, country of birth, and country of residence). Artists submitting as a collective are asked to identify one participant as the project coordinator, and provide that person’s contact information.
Please note
All submissions in compliance with the instructions described herein and received by the deadline will be carefully reviewed by the curator and MOMENTA. Since we receive a very large number of proposals, MOMENTA will contact only the applicants whose file has been selected.
All submissions must be sent by email only: any other unsolicited material sent to our offices will be neither viewed nor returned. MOMENTA and Stefanie Hessler are not responsible for unreadable, undelivered, or lost materials. Late submissions, incomplete proposals, and work unrelated to the theme will not be considered.
If you have any questions, please contact: soumission2021@momentabiennale.com
Titled The Life of Things, the 16th edition of MOMENTA was held from September 5 to October 13, 2019. The official art program has gathered 39 artists from 20 countries, in 12 exhibitions and 1 public space tour, which was accompanied by a substantial educative program. With more than a hundred partners and 200 cultural workers for the 2019 edition, MOMENTA participates greatly in the cultural ecosystem, in order to highlight Canadian expertise on the international scene. Thanks to the extent and quality of the contribution of these partners, MOMENTA 2019 has been a success, collecting positive feedback from all sides.
MOMENTA 2019 gathered:
- 39 artists from 20 countries
- 12 exhibitions
- 1 public space tour
- 10 educational activities
- 40 activities and events
- 201,028 exhibition visits
- 11,595 participants to educational activities
