Virtual Space

Nov 21 5:00 pm to 9:30 pm |
Nov 22 5:00 pm to 9:30 pm |
Nov 23 11:00 am to 6:00 pm

Open to public, no reservation required.

The process of healing a physical wound comes in layers and steps, but what about our emotional wounds? Wounds of trauma? Wounds of a lived experience?

In this year’s Virtual Space you will be taken through a mixed media landscape which examines the often overlooked but human experience of healing through the process of inflammation, rebuilding and eventually repair.

Us and Them

Year: 2019
Genre: Installation
Country: Canada

When war strikes and people are killed, they leave traces of their life behind. Their presence lingers in their empty spaces and their forsaken possessions. In her installation, Najia Fatima brings back this relationship. The space with the objects speaks of the people that were impacted by Drone attacks in Pakistan.

By Najia Fatima

Najia Fatima is a Toronto based Pakistani artist. Her work brings together the traditional art practices from Pakistan, with the contemporary mediums she has practiced in Toronto. She explores global cultural relations and geo-political tensions that influence the treatment of South Asian bodies and landscapes. She addresses specific political events in her lifetime that impacted the lives of the South Asian population at home and abroad.

They Should be Flowers

Year: 2019
Genre: VR
Country: Canada
Language: English
Length: 3 min

They Should Be Flowers is a VR experience about a six-year-old Black girl who was handcuffed by police in Ontario. Set in a childlike world of play and wonder, this multi-layered experience uses the latest VR technology to examine Canada’s long standing history of policing Black bodies told through the eyes of a child.

By Karen Chapman

Born to Guyanese parents, award-winning filmmaker Karen Chapman has screened her work everywhere from subway displays and airplanes to classrooms and international festivals. A graduate of Emily Carr University, Chapman is an alumna of the Banff Centre, a Hot Docs Accelerator Fellow, and was named one of Playback’s “5 Filmmakers to Watch” in 2018. Currently she is preparing to shoot her first feature film, Village Keeper, through Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch Program.

Immersed in Youths’ Stories of Toronto: Building a Sense of Community Through Virtual Reality Storytelling

Year: 2019
Genre: 360 VR
Country: Canada
Language: English
Length: 20 min

Immerse yourself in a Virtual Reality experience that examines the potential of community-based storytelling to raise the voices of inner-city youth. Through narratives created by four youth from Regent Park and other Toronto neighbourhoods, we ask if community storytelling can provide an avenue to empower youth to share their stories.

By Ducey, Emmanuel Beausoleil, Micaiah Beausoleil and Marsha

Brought to you by Artscape and Centennial College with youth participants from the Ada Slaight Youth Arts Mentorship Program. Project Funding by NSERC CCSIF program

The Smiling Room

Year: 2019
Genre: Installation
Country: Canada
Language: English, Spanish

The Smiling Room is an interactive and immersive community engaged media art installation, exploring the interplay and politics of Queer Happiness, Resistance and Struggle within the intersections of Toronto’s dynamic LGBTQ2SIA communities.

By Alejandra Higuera and Naty Tremblay

Alejandra Higuera is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in Toronto working in the fields of video art, projection, photography, animation, sound, and installation. She is a graduate of the Integrated Media Program at OCADU and has been involved in community arts in Canada, Colombia, and Mexico since 2007. Her work explores issues of migration, feminism, memory and the many ways in which we create healing spaces.

Naty Tremblay believes deeply in the radical & transformative power of the arts leveraged for community rooted education, organizing, healing & political activism. Naty’s experiences as an identical twin, a metis-francophone farmer, a rambler, and a gender-queer feminist has shaped their creative social change practice. Naty has developed a broad body of interactive multi-media performance, workshops & community engaged art works exploring identity, power, regenerative reciprocity, justice and decoloniality amidst the backdrop of global predatory capitalism.

Thank you to our Co-presenters and Community Partners!

Co-presenter