optica

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Index of artists, authors and curators
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OPTICA Fonds (Concordia University Archives)

Guidebooks to help in consulting the archives

Electronic Reproduction Fees

	From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001
	From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001 Appel de candidatures. Intersections - Résidence de recherche, création et production 2024-2025 / Partenariat entre le Conseil des arts de Montréal, l’EAVM et OPTICA, centre d’art contemporain Date limite de dépôt : 10 octobre 2024
	Paul Seesequasis From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001 Indigenous Archival Photo Project : dévoiler le jeu du Créateur
	Alvaro From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001 De sable et de neige During his research-creation in the Intersections residency program, Alvaro focused on the practices of immigrant artists who used the process of their integration as creative material. Consulting the archives at OPTICA, this choice led him to incorporate another temporal framework—namely, the sixteen-year period that had elapsed since his arrival in Canada—and to engage in a dialogue between institutional and personal archives. Two approaches uncovered in his research were particularly inspiring: the first is that of Fragment-s de silence I (2020–2022), by Iranian-born artist Maryam Eizadifard, whose work illustrates the complexity of the relationship between an adopted host environment and one’s country of origin, with the landscape conveying tensions connected with identity and exile. The second is The Novels of Elsgüer (Episode 4): Camouflaged Screams (2021), by Laura Acosta and Santiago Tavera, Columbian-Canadian artists based in Montreal. Their work enlists camouflage as metaphor for cultural and social integration, examining the visibility and invisibility of minorities. Camouflage here becomes a critical tool for reflecting on how immigrant bodies are seen or made invisible. Coming back to his personal archives, Alvaro found several photographic portraits in 2 x 3-inch format, initially produced for official documents required since his arrival in Canada. Following institutional specifications, these photographs take up the traditional canons of Western portraiture—frontal view, closely framed to the head, neck, and shoulders, absence of accessories—while incorporating contemporary features such as the white background, which detaches identity from context. Although their artistic use had not been planned for, they established themselves as a way of exploring identity through Alvaro’s five different faces. Another element incorporated into this research were the city plans of the Montreal neighbourhoods in which he had lived, built with GPS technologies representing the artist’s presence in the city. By bringing together and juxtaposing his institutional portraits and the rigidity of maps, Alvaro explored how urban organization transforms the image of the face, and how, in turn, organic traits modify one’s perception of spaces. The articulation between identity and territory thus becomes central, revealing the reciprocity between individuals and their environment. On a technical level, the creative process is marked by two orientations: the first concerns a relationship to nature in which snow and sand symbolize the host country and home country, respectively, and where the act of walking gains significance as the body’s sensory discovery of the territory. The second concerns colour, broached in an experimental manner: rather than using predetermined hues, colour is built directly on the print canvas or on paper in a process receptive to the unexpected. The use of “poor” and “prestige” paper allows for reexamining the codes of art printing, while the alternation between institutional exhibition spaces and “wild” street postering interrogates the circulation and reception of images: some images were created for outdoor display and were mounted without authorization in the neighbourhood of the gallery at the same time as the exhibition. Alvaro is a visual artist, designer, and video-maker who has been living and working in Montreal for sixteen years. Originally from Brazil, he explores visual arts as a space for critical research of the printed image. In his practice, he addresses colonial and personal archives as raw material for composing new images that interrogate the temporality of visual representations. His approach is marked by a decolonizing and queer stance and the appropriation and subversion of source images. The artist is particularly interested in the implications of reactivating archives and in the transformation of perception through printing techniques. His hybrid approach combines screen-printing, stencils, and engraving to question prevailing narratives, fixed identities, and cultural circulation. Alvaro obtained an MFA in visual and media arts from UQAM in 2023 and his research is focused on the transformation of collective imagination tied to colonial symbols. www.alvaroartist.ca.
	Lou Sheppard, From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001 26 septembre : Journées de la culture chez OPTICA
	Lou Sheppard, From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001 26 septembre : Journées de la culture chez OPTICA
	From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001
	From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001
	From November 30th -0001 to November 30th -0001