Conflicting Heroes
June 8–August 4, 2018
Curator: Michael Patten
Sonny Assu (Kwakwaka’wakw), Natalie Ball (Modoc – Klamath), Dayna Danger (Metis – Anishinaabe – Saulteaux), David Garneau (Metis), Leonard Getinthecar (Nicholas & Jerrod Galanin, (Tlingit – Aleut)) in collaboration with Nep Sidhu, Kent Monkman (Cree), Caroline Monnet (Algonquin), Jessie Short (Metis), Skawennati (Kahnawake Mohawk)
In parallel to the 10th Berlin Biennale, the Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) is very pleased to present a special project in Berlin: a group exhibition of North American Indigenous art.
In the stories we tell and in the stories we are told, it is generally the hero who inspires us the most. At times, a hero allows us to feel compassion for hardships that we may ourselves have never experienced. Or, it is the bravery, the fearlessness and the determination of the hero that compels us to defend what we believe in, stand for what seems fair or just and find the strength to rise up to an oppressing power. For many communities, notably for Indigenous peoples, heroes are a necessity. North America was built on the obliteration of Indigenous peoples, every effort to salvage their cultures is heroic in nature. It is a way of battling the colonizers while honoring their ancestors. It is a way of dealing with history.
Today, the stories that circulate about indigenous peoples are far too often those of drug-abuse, violence, criminal activity and incarceration, which have contributed to the normalization of a negative image of Indigenous peoples as menacing and deviant. Heroic figures are more than models to look up to, they also unite people.
Text by Michael Patten, curator
Opening: June 21, 2018 from 5pm to 8pm (Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day)
Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) 4th edition
níchiwamiskwém | nimidet | ma sœur | my sister
Guest curators: Niki Little and Becca Taylor
Aura (Oneida), Eruoma Awashish (Atikamewk), Natalie Ball (Modoc – Klamath), Catherine Blackburn (Dene), Tamara Lee-Anne Cardinal (Cree – Saddle Lake), Jade Nasogaluak Carpenter (Inuvialuit), Uzumaki Cepeda (République Dominicaine), Chief Lady Bird (Chippewa, Potawatomi), Dayna Danger (Metis – Anishinaabe – Saulteaux), Raven Davis (Anishinabe), Lindsay Dobbin (Mohawk), Lita Fontaine (Anishinabe), Brittney Bear Hat (Blackfoot – Cree), Richelle Bear Hat (Blackfoot – Cree), Tsēmā Igharas (Tahltan), Tanya Lukin Linklater (Alutiiq), Caroline Monnet (Algonquin), Sandra Monterroso (Maya Q’eqchi’ – Guatemala), Shelley Niro (Mohawk), Jeneen Frei Njootli (Vuntut Gwitchin), Gilda Posada (Aztec -Xicana), Skeena Reece (Cree – Tsimshian – Gitksan – Métis), Skawennati (Kahnawake Mohawk), Marian Snow (Kahnawake Mohawk), Tasha Spillett (Nehiyaw – Trinidadian)
BACA’s 4th edition spans across six locations in Canada: Art Gallery of Mississauga, Art Mûr, Stewart Hall Art Gallery, La Guilde, Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke and Musée McCord. Each is rooted with community elements inviting the viewer to join, listen, share, while being surrounded by the varied and layered relationships we connect to within Indigenous sisterhood. We are linked as sisters through our shared knowledge and experience; each kinship has different and multiple connections, whether through a ceremony, activism, lineage, regionality, heritage, nationhood, identity, etc. Within these holistic relationships, we remain grounded, using them as a source and process of sustainability, of nourishment.
Exhibition: May 4–July 22, 2018
