Current
The Hungry Mist (A Névoa Faminta)
Curated by Rodrigo D’Alcântara
Residency: 13 – 30 November 2023
Artists: Bento Leite, Dyó Potyguara, Simon(e) Jakiriuma Paetau w/ guest artist Cecilia Vilca
Public Workshop: Friday, November 17, 2023, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (In-person & Zoom)
Open Studio: Saturday, November 25, 2023, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM (Zoom)
Opening Reception: Friday, December 1, 2023, from 5:00 – 7:00 PM (In-person & Zoom)
Exhibition: 1 December 2023 – 3 February 2024
Artists: Bento Leite, Dyó Potyguara, Simon(e) Jakiriuma Paetau
Additional details below…
RESIDENCY
Nelson: Rodrigo D’Alcântara, Bento Leite, Simon(e) Jakiriuma Paetau
Remote: Dyó Potyguara (Brazil) + Cecilia Vilca (Peru) via Zoom
Prior to the exhibition, Oxygen Art Centre will host D’Alcântara, Leite, and Jakiriuma Paetau on the tum xula7xw of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx, otherwise known as Nelson, B.C., for a three-week residency program from November 13, 2023, to November 30, 2023. Artist Potyguara is joined by transdiscipinary artist, feminist chola techno-witch and language activist Cecilia Vilca remotely via online platforms from Brazil and Peru, respectively. The residency creates space for the group to engage with exhibition thematic and to work collaboratively on new process-based pieces that will be presented alongside existing multimedia and two-dimensional artworks in the exhibition.
PUBLIC WORKSHOP: Drawing Flux 1 / Fluxo de Desenho 1: In-nature Immersion, Fantasy & Anti-colonial Gaze
Date: Friday, November 17, 2023 @ 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Nelson PST)
Format: In-person (meet at Oxygen Art Centre) OR Remote (Asynchronous)
In this first workshop of the residency, the curator will lead a free drawing workshop in which the artists and the public will be encouraged to think in fantastic terms in relation with their surrounding natural environments. The public are invited to meet with the curator and artists at Oxygen Art Centre on Friday, November 17, 2023 at 10:00 AM to be led on a walk outdoors. Please be prepared for varying weather conditions. The workshop will be two-hours in length.
*Participants should bring their notebooks and drawing materials so that they can respond to the curator’s drawing exercises throughout the hike.
To participate remotely, please access the workshop instructions here or contact info@oxygenartcentre.org to receive the workshop instructions via email. Remote participants will receive a series of outdoor drawing instructions and are encouraged to share their resultant drawings following the exercise.
Nessa primeira oficina da residência, o curador guiará uma oficina de desenho livre na qual es artistas serão estimulades a pensarem de forma fantástica em relação à integração com a natureza local de Nelson [parque será anunciado]. 10h a 12h, Nelson.
+ Suggested Material / Material sugerido: Capikarã (Dir. Rodrigo D’Alcantara, 2019) – password: sincretica
Admission is free. No registration required.
OPEN STUDIO:
Date: Saturday, November 25, 2023 @ 1:00 – 3:00 PM (Nelson PST)
Format: Online (Zoom): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81049822954?pwd=a0FDUHNrRlh2bncrOStNb3A5dys3Zz09
(Meeting ID: 810 4982 2954 / Passcode: 140675)
The public is invited to meet with the artists and curator at an online Open Studio event on Saturday, November 25, 2023, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM (Zoom). This event is free to attend and will be an opportunity to learn more about each artist, the curator, and their practices, as well as their experiences working together during the residency itself.
Ateliês Abertos Online: Dyó Potyguara & Cecilia Vilca. As artistas residentes online abrirão seu ateliê para agentes culturais e público geral de Nelson. A sessão será exibida de forma online e transmitida na OAC. Artistas terão tempo para dedicarem-se a seus processos criativos.
Admission is free. No registration required.
OPENING RECEPTION:
Date: Friday, December 1, 2023 @ 5:00 – 7:00 PM (Nelson PST)
Format: In-person @ Oxygen Art Centre & Online (Zoom): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83574238702?pwd=d3ZIVkZ2UkNmb0dDNk1MRElyTGVQQT09
(Meeting ID: 835 7423 8702 / Passcode: 891009)
We close the residency program with an Opening Reception on Friday, December 1, 2023, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM (In-person/Zoom). The public is invited to join in the festivities as we gather to mark the opening of The Hungry Mist (A Névoa Faminta). The artists and curator will be in attendance, both at Oxygen Art Centre’s facility and online via Zoom. The event will include performances and light refreshments to celebrate the opening of the group exhibition and the ending of the three-week residency.
Possíveis performances des artistas em residência ocorrerão como parte da abertura. Haverá uma lista de músicas organizadas pelo curador que serão tocadas durante todo o evento (es artistas também são bem-vindes a colaborar). O evento ocorrerá das 17:00 às 19:00 horas. Haverá bebidas leves disponíveis.
Admission is free. No registration required.
EXHIBITION
The Hungry Mist (A Névoa Faminta)
Curated by Rodrigo D’Alcântara
Artists: Bento Leite, Dyó Potyguara, Simon(e) Jakiriuma Paetau
1 December 2023 – 3 February 2024
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays to Saturdays, 1:00 to 5:00 PM
Admission is free.
Oxygen Art Centre is delighted to present the group exhibition, The Hungry Mist (A Névoa Faminta) guest curated by Rodrigo D’Alcântara (Brazil/Canada) featuring international artists Bento Leite (Brazil), Dyó Potyguara (Brazil), and Simon(e) Jakiriuma Paetau (Germany/Colombia).
Guest curator Rodrigo D’Alcântara conceived of the exhibition as a response to the global pandemic alongside the very state of collapse and acute uncertainties of life caused by the current neo-colonial system. D’Alcântara’s curatorial practice focuses on Brazilian contemporary art and Latin American futurisms and continues this research as a doctoral candidate at Concordia University (Montréal, Canada).
The Hungry Mist (A Névoa Faminta) as a concept and exhibition title draws on spiritual implications of the pandemic. It directly alludes to an Indigenous Brazilian Guarani-Nhadeva cosmology that foresaw an invisible smoke arriving to take people’s lives. At once concerning the material and ephemeral, The Hungry Mist (A Névoa Faminta) looks to repetitions of systemic colonial violence on bodies, the land, and our communities to contend with the present towards alternative futurities.
With this premise, curator Rodrigo D’Alcântara (Brazil/Canada) and international artists Bento Leite (Brazil), Dyó Potyguara (Brazil), and Simon(e) Jakiriuma Paetau (Germany/Colombia), with special guest artist Cecilia Vilca (Peru), will be immersed in the residency from 13 to 30 November 2023 producing works related to the tensions between spiritual, urban, natural, and territorial spheres in Nelson, BC.
The exhibition will be on view from December 1, 2023, to February 3, 2024. Oxygen Art Centre will be open Wednesdays to Saturdays from 1:00 to 5:00 PM throughout the exhibition run.
Exhibition didactics will be available in both Portuguese and English, translated by Lara Bourdin (Montréal, Canada). Promotional materials feature design by Keiko Lee-Hem (Nelson, Canada). An exhibition catalogue including documentation, curatorial texts and art writing responding to the project will be available shortly following the exhibition close.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Rodrigo D’Alcântara is a Brazilian visual artist, curator, film/video-maker and PhD candidate in the Interuniversity Doctoral Program in Art History at Concordia University (Tiohtiá:ke/ Montréal, CA). His practical and theoretical research articulates symbolisms, dreams and counter-hegemonic mythologies in contemporary times, through personal and collective dissident narratives. His doctoral studies are supported by Concordia University Graduate Fellowship and Concordia International Tuition Award of Excellence. He holds a Master degree in Visual Arts from the School of Fine Arts of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and a Bachelor degree in Plastic Arts from the University of Brasília (Brazil) – with an exchange term in the Los Andes University (Colombia). Rodrigo’s works have been screened internationally, in countries such as Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, Germany, Greece, Italy, among others.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Bento Ben Leite was born in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 1990. He lives and works in Fortaleza and is represented by Alfinete Galeria and A Pilastra Galeria, both in Brasilia, DF. With a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Universidade de Brasília, Bento focuses his studies on painting, engraving, drawing, and cinema. His collages are what guide his creative process, addressing subjects such as violence, conflict, daily life, love, questions about gender and sexuality, and the strength of the TLGBQI+ family. Music shows up in his works as the soundtrack of metaphorical fictional images. It may be surprising to see his painting series including movie names, music albums, blogs, and memes of Ceará’s drag queen reality show. Furthermore, he proposes links between composition texts and acclaimed pop culture images. Bento has participated in multiple solo and collective shows throughout the Brazilian territory and was a nominee at the PIPA Prize 2019 and 2020 editions.
Dyó Potyguara is Rastros de Diógenes (Brasil, 1994) a proposer of performances, poetry, and pedagogical interventions in which she intersects ecologies, memory, presence, and virtuality. She has collaborated with collectives and institutions, taking part in exhibitions, residencies, publications, and festivals throughout Abya Yala and Europe, such as Campo, Capacete, Casa Mata, Acciones al Margen, Transweb, Ehcho, MEXE International Art and Community Festival, and Schwules Museum. She is part of the Ocultas collective and works with the Terreiro Afetivo laboratory of artistic and ecological practices, selected by Campo’s Várzea research grant. Most recently, she has been selected as a resident at Pivô Pesquisa 2023 (São Paulo, Brazil).
Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau is a German-Colombian interdisciplinary artist. Their works are located between cinema, video installations, and performance, dealing with queer decoloniality. Simon(e) studied Media Art at the KHM Cologne and Film at the EICTV Cuba. Simon(e)’s films have premiered at Cannes Directors Fortnight, BFI London, New York Film Festival, documenta14, New Directors/New Films MoMa, and Rotterdam, and won, among others, the Emerging Talent Award at kurzfilmtage Oberhausen 2022, the Norman Award2022, the Best Director Award at the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival Colombia 2018, and a nomination for the Queer Palm at Cannes 2022. Simon(e)’s performances and installations have premiered at Wexner Center of the Arts, Berlinische Galerie – Museum of Modern Art, HKW, Monitoring Kasseler Dokfest, Studio Я of Maxim Gorki Theater, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Hebbel am Ufer, Cinemateca de Bogotá, as well as the 11th Berlin.
Cecilia Vilca
Peruvian transdisciplinary artist feminist, chola techno-witch, and language activist
Born in Lima, Peru. M.A. Digital Arts, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Grant awarded in GIS and Atlas Design at Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) – University of Twente, The Netherlands. Founding member of the creative and digital heritage division, MyAP Electron Microscopy Laboratory. Her artistic work is made with technology in concept and realization, exploring its relationship with gender, society, and nature. From a decolonizing vision, it develops in the borders of art and science, connecting ancient technologies with new ones. Her main goal and poetic is to encourage reflection through revelation using technology. Her projects are born from her personal crusades; therefore, they are micropolitical flesh. Scientific & Artistic Committee member of FEMeeting 2023 Taos and TTT2023 Malta: Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science. Independent International Program Committee Member (IPC) of ISEA2020 Montreal and ISEA2023 Paris. Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR) Reviewer. Eight Art Residency Programs: Mexico, Bolivia, USA, and Canada. She has exhibited her work, organized exhibitions, and given lectures in Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Chile, Norway, Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, and the USA.
This project is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, and the Regional District of Central Kootenay.
