The Transformative Memory International Network (TMIN), in collaboration with the Transnational Justice Project at the University of Toronto, Queen's University, and the University of British Columbia, is pleased to announce MemoLab 2024, entitled, "Possibility: Difficult Archives, Difficult Memories” from June 18 to 22, 2024.
By interrogating absence in the archive as well as 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 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.
The public-facing event, the collective exhibition, and the art exhibit launch are FREE and open to the public.
Collective exhibition June 18-22
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. The exhibition will offer an opportunity to explore diverse visual, audio-visual, and interactive artwork. The exhibit will be open to the public throughout the week – from June 19th to 22nd from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm – with a special launch opening on June 18th at 6:00 pm.
The exhibit will feature works from:
- Abqurah Shauqat (Pakistan)
- Families of Disappeared and Missing People in Uganda (Uganda)
- Alit Ambara (Indonesia)
- Butterflies in Spirit (Vancouver-based group)
- Guayacan Crafts Group and the Committee for the Rights of the Victims of Bojayá (Colombia)
- Jennifer Burrel, Kamari Clarke, and Sara Kendall (US - Canada - UK)
- Laura Acosta-Zarate (Colombia / Toronto - Canada based)
- Morgan Asoyuf (Ts’msyen Eagle Clan from Ksyeen River, BC - Canada)
- Pablo Herrera (Cuba / Toronto - Canada based)
- Peter Morin (Tahltan Nation - Canada)
- Sabeen Kazmi (Pakistan / Mississauga of the Credit based)
- The Woman Advocacy Network (WAN) (Uganda)
- Visualizing Palestine (Remote team collaborating from multiple locations)
Register to attend the launch opening event on June 18.
Public-facing event on June 22
On Saturday, June 22, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, MemoLab 2024 will host at It's OK Studios, 468 Queen Street West, a public-facing celebration entitled, "Possibility: Difficult Archives. Difficult Memories. Transformations in Black and Indigenous Worlds." The event will involve an array of artistic expressions, including music, dance, lectures, poetry, spoken word, and live performances – all pointing to the challenge of the archive and ways to create new futures.
Register attend the June 22 celebration event.
Funding acknowledgement
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 Research Cluster for the Study of Racism and Inequality.
More information
For more information, please contact Kamari Clarke (kamari.clarke@utoronto.ca) or Ricardo Medina (ricardo.medina@utoronto.ca).