We embark on a journey with no destination, traveling to wherever our minds take us.

This is often what it feels like in a research phase of creation. This is the time to let our minds wander. To unleash our curiosities and follow our impulses.

Borders, Borderlands and Crossings is a 7-week multidisciplinary virtual residency. We are made up of four multidisciplinary, multicultural, multi-generational artists seeking research in a shared realm of interest; the movement and curation of precious metals, seeds and humans across borders both imagined and real. Where we’ll travel to and where we’ll settle is still yet to be known.

We share this process with you, inviting you into our sketchbooks and minds through a series of blog posts and a final showing on August 7th (detail below). This kind of intimacy in the process is sacred. Be kind and open hearted as we will be too.

One of the first things we decided as a group and remind ourselves each and every group session is that we’re here to prioritize humanity over productivity. Indigenous practises teach us that our current usage of time is a colonial structure. And as artists we’re constantly proving our worth which often looks like a focus on product and outcome. The first agreement we made in our virtual space together was to centre our curiosities, desires and impulses.

What constructs stop the flow of people, seeds and precious metals?

What does it mean to be borderless?

What happens when we move across space and time?

What movement is allowed or not allowed?

Why is there compliance? And who enforces them?

When you think about the fault lines within the flow of commodities, the volume of current crises is infinite. Each of us intersect directly with a historic event that changes the migrational pull that brought us to where we are now.

Through the residency, we’ll continue to look at these fault lines and share our personal connection to displacement and movement of commodities. We have so much to discover. Join us in this rich and complex exploration of Borders, Borderlands and Crossings.

- Kunji, Shireen, Eric, and Mayumi

Borders, Borderlands and Crossings

Date: Saturday August 7th
Time: 11:00am MT / 1:00pm ET / 7:00pm CEST
Location: Online through Zoom, FREE!
Registration: Register here through Eventbrite.
Pre-registration is required and recommended at least 1-hour before performance time

Support From: Generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council, L'AiR Arts and Aeris Körper.

The First Step Across the Border