MemoLab 2024 is proud to present a collaborative exhibition, part of the broader Transformative Memory International Network (TMIN), which brings together artists and scholars from around the world to explore “Mapping and Reimagining: Difficult Archives, Difficult Memories." This event, in collaboration with the Transnational Justice Project at the University of Toronto, Queens University, and the University of British Columbia, will run from June 18th to 22nd, 2024.

By interrogating absence in the archive and its possibilities, MemoLab 2024 invites the university community and the public to explore art as a catalyst for social change and transformation. It asks how how we can rectify the lives of those obscured by land dispossession, violence, and the aftermath of plantation slavery, while also opening domains of creative possibility? Through an art exhibit, musical and spoken word performances, and scholarly engagement, MemoLab will explore loss and dispossession by rendering absence present.

Collective Exhibition June 18-22

As a significant element of this collaborative project, MemoLab 2024 will host a public Collective Exhibition entitled Mapping and Reimaging Difficult Archives, Difficult Memories at It’s OK* Studios, 468 Queen Street West, second floor. This exhibition will feature diverse visual, audio-visual, and interactive artwork that engages with memory as a creative force in the aftermath of human violence and its possibilities.

The exhibit will be open and free to the public from June 19th to Saturday, 22nd, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with a special launch opening reception on June 18th at 6:00 p.m.

Registration for the opening event: https://forms.gle/RNnRDMmseWMvczQa6

The international collective exhibition will feature pieces from

Alit Ambara (Indonesia)

Butterflies in Spirit (Turtle Island - Canada)

Guayacan’s Crafts Group and the Committee for the Rights of the Victims of Bojayá (Colombia)

Jennifer Burrell, Kamari Clarke, and Sara Kendall (US, Canada, UK)

Laura Acosta-Zarate (Colombia)

Morgan Asoyuf (Ts’msyen Eagle Clan from Ksyeen River, BC - Canada)

Pablo Herrera (Cuba-UK)

Peter Morin (Tahltan Nation/French-Canadian)

Sabeen Kazmi (Pakistan - Mississaugas of the credit-based)

Syeda Abqurah Shaukat (Pakistan)

The Families of the Missing (Uganda)

The Women’s Advocacy Network - WAN (Uganda)

Visualizing Palestine (Remote team collaborating from multiple locations)

This initiative is funded primarily by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) with support from the Jackman Humanities Institute, the Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, and the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies’ Transnational Justice Project and the Cluster for the Study of Racism and Inequality. The public-facing event, the collective exhibition, and the art exhibit launch are FREE and open to the public.

More information and media inquires contact:

Alejandra Gaviria alejita@mail.ubc.ca