NEWSLETTER / PRESS RELEASE
Tioh'tià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal, April 8, 2020
5th Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA 2020)
Kahwatsiretátie : TeionkwariwaiennaTekariwaiennawahkòntie
Honoring kinship
Exhibitions and online programming
We are pleased to announce that the Contemporary Native Art Biennial will take place on schedule! These are exceptional times. As a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, physical public gatherings are prohibited. Art galleries, among most other public sites, are closed. The more than fifty artists participating in the Contemporary Native Art Biennial 2020 have committed a great deal of time and care in this important cultural event. We, the BACA curatorial and administrative team, are dedicated to sharing these works and practices with you.
Thanks to the grace of the artists, the flexibility of the curators and the administrative team, BACA 2020 will present its exhibitions, performances, and other community programming online. Opening Ceremony will be on April 23 and the virtual exhibition will continue until June 21. In addition to a virtual tour of the Art Mûr exhibition and a PDF of the exhibition catalogue (for sale-soon to be followed by the physical book), visitors will also discover works from the other exhibitions, curatorial talks about selected works, live performances, a live streaming dance party with live DJ, artist videos, workshops, talking circles, among other projects and events. If all goes well, some of the physical galleries will have exhibitions when the government lifts restrictions and gradually allows reopening public spaces.
We thank the artists and our exhibition partners for their patience and ingenuity and look forward to sharing their innovative creative works with you.
SUMMARY
Launch of the Biennale
Opening ceremony
Curators' speeches
Presentation of participant artists
Happy Hour DJ - Live streaming
Exhibition and catalog
Virtual exhibition online
Launch of the online catalog
Online event scheduling
Interviews with the artists, original captures around the theme of the Biennale
Performances
AV works
Round tables
Workshops
Sharing circles
Launch of the Biennale
We therefore invite you on April 23 for the launch of the Biennale which will be held in the virtual space of social networks. For this launch, a ceremony presided over by the Elders from Kahnawà:ke will be a moment of meditation and recognition of the welcome we are given by the traditional stewards of this territory.
Also on social media, David Garneau, Faye Mullen and rudi aker, curators, will introduce their project. The virtual meeting will be followed by a DJ-live streaming happy hour.
Acknowledgements
The Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) thank its partners: Gouvernement du Québec (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec - Fonds d'initiative et de rayonnement de la Métropole - Secrétariat aux affaires autochtones du Québec), Conseil des arts du Canada, Conseil des Arts de Montréal, Galerie Art Mûr, La Guilde, La Maison des Régions, MuséeMcCord, Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain, La galerie d'art Stewart Hall, Tourisme Montréal, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, député à l'Assemblée nationale, Les Amis du Stewart Hall, Les Hôtels Germain, Ciel Variable, Border Crossings, Espace art actuel, Esse Arts + Opinion, Inuit Art Quarterly, First American Art Magazine, Festival TransAmérique (FTA), Vie des Arts
About BACA
The Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) is a key event to recognize and support contemporary Indigenous art and artists. Initiated in 2012 by the Art Mûr gallery, the BACA pursues its mission as a non-profit organization, in order to better respond to the scale of the event. In each of its editions, Montreal / Tiohtià:ke once again becomes for two months the place of convergence of Native artists in North America.