Artists: Medina Ardic, Firuze Avci, Melika Forouzan Pour, Shiyao Fu, Tayebe Joodaki, Maryam Mahdavian
Research and facilitation by Nurgül Balaç Rodriguez
An installation at Contemporary Calgary includes local artists part of marginalized people groups. Here is the summary from CC.
(Re)Imagining Inclusion is a community-based art project, engaging individuals who have experienced re-emerging into an art community. This project investigates the diverse communities of artists who are members of invisible/racialized minority groups in the city of Calgary and focuses on the role of racialized women artists when confronted with cultural gatekeeping.
This is a project in which seven racialized immigrant women artists are invited as participants to share their immigration stories in their own words and artworks. They (six of them) made one collaboration with the facilitator and one individual work. Using the format of an interview to facilitate a process of self-expression and representation, this project allowed participants to reflect on their experiences. The art tells their stories.
The project is initiated and facilitated by Nurgül Balaç Rodriguez, artist and educator; and currently a PhD student at the University of Calgary.
Re-Imagining Inclusion allowed both the researcher Nurgül Balaç Rodriguez and the artists to realize the importance of community-based art in developing and maintaining public interest in othering and belonging. The relationship between the immigrant artists, the researcher, and the art organization will strengthen the ties of the diverse and growing arts community in Calgary.ill strengthen the ties of the diverse and growing arts community in Calgary.
https://www.contemporarycalgary.com/whats-on/reimagining-inclusion-exhibition