© Irem Karaaslan, 2022.
As part of the 8th edition of Montreal Monochrome, graduate student Irem Karaaslan presents Can we liquidate the past once and for all?
Positionality, in one of its definitions, is how an individual is circumscribed in a social context. Although one’s position is often argued to be assigned to them through fixed elements of race, skin color, and nationality, one can also reclaim and shape their position through fluid factors such as their political views, personal life history, and experiences. Positionality is a departure point when writing, speaking, talking, and empathizing; a place one holds through their subjective experiences. Fixed experiences and measures of the past often unfold themselves in the present, at times, disrupting the conventional understandings of time and especially of the past where the subject is bound by these lived experiences and cannot “liquidate the past once and for all.” Hence, positionality is a constant conversation between the past and the present, or rather a negotiation between abiding by the reality of the lived past and creating a position anew. For the Monochrome series, Karaaslan extends the idea of positionality building on her own experience as a Kurdish woman from Istanbul and opens a dialogue for the participants to share their positioning in the world, concluding with a discussion on the extent to which it is to release the past and re-position ourselves.
Considering the increase in COVID 19 and flu transmissions, please note that masks must be worn for the duration of the events.
Irem Karaaslan (she/her) is Kurdish from Istanbul, Turkey and a graduate student currently at McGill University. Her research currently explores how contemporary artists unravel the interwoven relationship between the so-called migration crisis and long-enduring schemas of coloniality in their artworks. Her research interests likewise include racialization of time and space and their relation to themes of positionality and agency.
Montreal Monochrome is an annual conference organized by articule’s Fabulous Committee (anti-oppression). It aims to address the mis- and under-representation and systemic oppression of marginalized groups in Montréal’s contemporary art milieu. The conference works toward imagining and nurturing new and existing bonds, solidarities and friendships between Indigenous artists, thinkers and cultural workers and their racialized allies.
As a project of the Fabulous Committee, this year the Short Term Programming Committee is joining the efforts of the Fabulous Committee to combine the annual conference with a window exhibition and a Special Project. Both proposals are an invitation to think about the new gallery space in terms of multiple notions of time.
Given that accessibility is contextual, varied and dynamic, if any aspect of our programming is inaccessible to you now or in the future, please let us know. We are happy to discuss and provide an alternative.
articule is located in a ground floor commercial building in Villeray neighbourhood. There are no stairs at the gallery, and to enter, the front door has a slope (light inclination). There is one glass door to get into the gallery. A staff member can assist you with the door.
Accessibility contact: Aziza Nassih - outreach@articule.org