Jota Mombaça

Installation textile

Description de l’exposition

The St. Lawrence River was a site of exchange among vast numbers of bodies: those of the Iroquois of the St. Lawrence, the Wendat, the Innu, and other nations who navigated through the land—those of the French and English settlers who brought colonization to the area, and those of slaves brought from Guinea or Louisiana. Several centuries later, in one of its tributaries—the Rivière du Sud—Jota Mombaça soaked their fabric, their “bodies of water.” In doing so, they experiment with letting go and explore what they call “the radical gesture of sinking.” Bearing the water’s marks and the more-than-human life that inhabits it, the fabric is evidence of freedom—the freedom of the currents—in contrast with the violence of colonization, the slave trade, globalization, and industry. Although the work intrinsically resonates with the place where it was created, it also challenges the idea of a restricted locale.

Forming an enclosure, the cloth evokes a kind of closing in that is both political—as we witness the hardening of governmental strategies—and architectural—as the work is located in a city famous for its ramparts. Like a ghost ship, the fabric also appears to be haunted, as the traces of past performances continue to linger within it.

Biography

Jota Mombaça

(Born in Natal, Brazil – Lives in Lisbon, Portugal, and Natal, Brazil)

Jota Mombaça is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses poetry, drawing, performance, installation, sound, and video. Informed by anti-colonial critique and queer studies, they delves into the continuing traumas of the transatlantic slave trade and the escalating impact of the climate crisis, traversing such topics as global water transport, displacement, water-control systems, queer mourning, and time travel. Mombaça’s work has recently been presented in major exhibitions such as the São Paulo Biennale, the Sydney Biennale, and the Berlin Biennale.

Informations pratiques

L’Œil de Poisson – Galerie

• 541 Rue Saint-Vallier Est Québec, QC G1K 3P9
• Phone: (418) 648-2975

Visitor Information

• Public transit RTC: 800, 801 (Saint-Vallier / Dorchester stops)
• Parking Street parking available nearby (municipal rates)
• Accessibility Ground-level access through main entrance - Limited but accessible circulation for visitors with reduced mobility
• On-site logistics Part of the Méduse arts complex - Washrooms and common areas accessible