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In the Middle, a Chimera is the end-of-year exhibition/symposium for the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology. Multi-headed as its title indicates, the project will span two weeks, from May 5th to the 18th, 2022, and will take place in numerous locations above and beyond the physical and conceptual limits of Concordia University. Though theoretically an exhibition, its form will feel more like that of a biennale: a dynamism will imbue these two weeks, bringing viewers to see affixed projects and ephemeral endeavours—performances, workshops, and talks—throughout the city. This will all take place either concurrently with a symposium, where Milieux researchers will be invited to present papers that refer in some way or other to In the Middle’s theme.
In the Middle, a Chimera considers the ways in which modern technology and systems are presented as serving a specific function that inevitably gives way to something entirely different (and in most instances, nefarious). New, breakthrough technology developed under the veil of capitalism inevitably bends to its whirling, maelstrom pull: the goal of this exhibition/project is to envision and develop community-oriented futures where this pull is redirected towards person-to-person, mutually beneficial relationships (instead of person-to-fiscal gain), as well as the ways in which we might undermine or re-conceptualize these technologies to not only nurture ourselves but our surrounding ecosystems and environments.
An integral element to the exhibition is the pragmatic application of community-building, horizontally oriented project planning; we have selected the institutions and spaces to collaborate with based on their varied positionings (financial, structural, thematic, etc.) with the idea that they could all mutually benefit from collaborating with each other. This, too, can be lent to the curatorial approach: emerging artists/student members will be selected and exhibited alongside more established artists (Milieux members and otherwise), bringing to the first advantageous visibility and the promise of future opportunities, and to the latter new ideas from the forthcoming artist generation.
This information session will be for those who are interested in submitting but have questions! It will, as well, function as a space for those interested in working on the organizational side to chime in or see in what areas they could work with us. Click the link below to join in on Thursday, March 17th at 2:00 PM EST: