Opening Reception: September 16, 2022 from 7 - 10 PM
Exhibition Dates: September 17, 2022 - October 22, 2022
Guided Exhibition Tours: September 24, 2022 at 5 PM / October 14, 2022 at 5 PM
Closing Reception: October 22, 2022 from 7 - 10 PM
Performance of Historias Negras: October 22, 2022 at 8 PM
TRUCK Contemporary Art is thrilled to present Resilience—an exhibition by Susana Pilar. Featuring a number of recent video and photographic works, Pilar highlights the interaction of race and gender to reveal its effects on the everyday experiences of Black women. Using her body as the site of confrontation and resistance, she examines how Black women disproportionally face sexual violence and exploitation, both physically and ideologically.
On October 22, 2022 at 8 PM, Pilar will present the performance Historias Negras, a gestural investigation which delves into the artist’s African ancestry from the Congo and Sierra Leone, and the enduring, embodied memory of slavery. First presented in Dakar, Senegal—the largest center for the slave trade to America between the 16th to 19th centuries—at the Biennale of Contemporary African Art in May 2022, Pilar sits with hands tied behind her back while folding black origami birds with her feet. Through this act of dispersion, Pilar highlights the fragmented imprints between the Cape Verde Peninsula and African descendants in the Americas.
EXHIBITION TEXT / ONWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER! BY TUMELO MOSAKA
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Susana Pilar was born in Cuba in 1984. From 2011 to 2013 she did a Postgraduate course in New Media, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) with DAAD Scholarship, Germany. From 1998 until 2008 she studied in the Fine Arts Academy “San Alejandro” and the High Institute of Arts (ISA) in Havana, Cuba.
She has been artist in residency of Caribbean Linked VI 2021 (virtual edition), CAD+SR 2019-20 Research Fellowship in Italy and Kenya (2019-2022); as well as Guest Professor with the Peter and Irene Ludwig Grant at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary, 2020.
Among group shows and international venues we can mention the Berlin Biennale, Germany (2022), 14th Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2022), 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, République Démocratique du Congo (2019); 13 Havana Biennale, Cuba (2019); Resilience and Resistance in African Diaspora, New Museum of African Civilizations, Dakar, Senegal (2018); 56th International Art Exhibition, Cuban Pavilion, Venice, Italy (2015); 1st Biennale of International Contemporary Art, Martinique (2013); Prome encuentro Bienal Arte Contemporaneo di Caribe, Aruba (2012); III Biennale Arts Actuels Réunion, Reunion island (2011) and the 7th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2008).
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TRUCK gratefully acknowledges the support of our members, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and Calgary Arts Development. This exhibition is made possible thanks to partnerships with Shelf Life Books, Village Brewery, and Cloverdale Paint.
PHOTOS:
Historias negras, performance, 2022. Photograph by Devin B. Johnson. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua.
Historias negras, performance, 2022. Photography by Syowia Kyambi. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua.