ProgrammingCall for SubmissionsNewsBecome a Member
Rentals + Services
About VIVO
Archive
Video Out Distribution
DonateBuy VIVO Totes
Co-presented with CURRENT Symposium.
Free, no registration needed.
September 12, 2024 | 7 pm
Soledad Fatima Muñoz and Nancy Lee
@ECUAD
ASL interpretation will be provided at this event.
September 17 — October 4, 2024 (Tue-Fri 12-6pm)
@VIVO Media Arts
September 20, 2024 | 6 pm
Soledad Fatima Muñoz, Rodrigo Suarez Madariaga, Alejandra Gómez, Lorelei Williams, Butterflies in Spirit, Laith
@VIVO Media Arts
ASL interpretation will be provided at this event.
This iteration of Woven Memory / Memoria Entretejida will be hosted by VIVO Media Arts Centre and co-presented with CURRENT Symposium. The exhibition features the release of a new three-channel audiovisual installation by Soledad Fatima Muñoz in collaboration with Media Artists Nancy Lee 李南屏. This piece contains footage and interviews captured during the installation of the project in La Veleidosa Mine in Tocopilla (2022), the former detention and torture center Sitio de Memoria La Providencia in Antofagasta (2022), Londres 38 in Santiago (2023) and the Centro Cultural Museo y Memoria in Neltume (2024).
Woven Memory / Memoria Entretejida is a series of site-specific installations built around large-scale copper wire woven portraits made by Chilean-Canadian artist Soledad Fátima Muñoz to commemorate the lives of the disappeared detainees and political executives of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990).
Each iteration was produced through a collaborative process in which the Woven Memory team worked with the family members of the disappeared detainees and political executees, ex-political prisoners, human rights organizations, public school teachers, and community members, to produce instances catered to the local history of each place.
The Woven Memory core team is composed of Soledad Fátima Muñoz, Rodrigo Suarez Madariaga, Nancy Lee, Matthew Asaminew, María Cristina Adasme and Hector Maturana Bañados. This project was made possible thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Toronto Arts Council.
The opening reception and catalog launch for Woven Memory / Memoria Entretejida will take place at VIVO Media Arts Centre on September 20th, 2024 from 6 to 9.30pm. This compilation printed by Moniker Press and designed by Paz Pereira Vega + Josefina Vera Toro is composed by printed works, interviews, and essays made by the Chilean team of Woven Memory Maria Cristina Adasme, Alejandra Gómez, Rodrigo Suarez Madariaga and Tamara Lagos throughout the project.
The catalog design aims to become a tangible resource of Woven Memory. Serving as a live archive, it invites readers to immerse themselves in each section through the stories, images, and voices of each project; allowing them to become active participants in the ongoing dialogue surrounding memory and resilience.
Woven Memory Team:
Soledad Fatima Muñoz - Artist, Weaver and Co-Producer
Rodrigo Suarez Madariaga - Sociologist, Communications and Co-Producer
Nancy Lee - Documentarist + Director
Matthew Asaminew - Software Engineer
Maria Cristina Adasme - Museography (La Veleidosa + La Providencia + Londres 38)
Hector Maturana Bañados - P.R and Social Media (La Veleidosa + La Providencia)
Matias Serrano Acevedo - Audio Engineer and Technical Producer (Londres 38)
Tamara Lagos - Researcher (Neltume)
Sebastian Muñoz - Exhibition Designer (Neltume)
Rowan Lynch - Curatorial + Documentation Assistant (Neltume)
Documentation Team:
Nancy Lee - Documentarist + Director
Johan Lopez Jeraldo - Sound and Film Assistant (La Veleidosa + La Providencia)
Carolina Toro Cortés - Photo Documentation (La Veleidosa + La Providencia)
Rowan Lynch - Sound and Film Assistant (Neltume)
Esteban Cabezas Silva + Diego Cabezas Silva - Camera Operator (Putaendo)
Chandra Melting Tallow - Original Score and Voice Over Narration
Aleksandar Zecevic - Audio Post-production
Fabricators:
Sergio Orrego - La Veleidosa
Luis Morgado - Londres 38
Pablo Ordoñez - Neltume
Weaving studios
Artscape Daniels Launchpad - Toronto
LMRM - Chicago
Praxis Fiber Workshop - Cleveland
Hosts:
Comisión Independiente de Derechos Humanos de Tocopilla
Agrupación por la Memoria Histórica Providencia - Antofagasta
Londres 38, espacio de memorias
Centro Cultural Museo y Memoria Neltume
Collaborators:
Agrupación de Familiares Víctimas de Tocopilla.
Agrupación La Veleidosa Tocopilla.
Profesores de Tocopilla.
The 8th grade class at the Escuela Bernardo O’Higgins and their teacher Dayyana González.
Agrupación de Familiares de Ejecutados Políticos y Detenidos Desaparecidos de Antofagasta.
Panel Participants:
Adriana Aránguiz - Marine Biologist (Dictadura y extractivismo. La Providencia)
Ignacio Barrientos - Lawyer (Dictadura y extractivismo. La Providencia)
Camilo Santibañez - Researcher (Londres 38 “Conversatorio Inaugural”)
Macarena Silva - Executive Coordinator, Londres 38 (Londres 38 “Conversatorio Inaugural”)
Alejandra Gomez - President, Agrupación de Familiares Víctimas de Tocopilla.
Rodrigo Suarez - Sociologist, Agrupación La Providencia (VIVO Publication Launch Panel)
Lorelei Williams - Founder, Butterflies in Spirit (VIVO Publication Launch Panel)
Laith - (VIVO Publication Launch Panel)
Special thanks to the ex-political prisoners, family members of the disappeared and political executees, who helped us all along and trusted us to tell their stories. Also thanks to our families + friends for their support throughout this journey and everyone who helped along the way.
Note from Soledad: this project is dedicated to my grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle and everyone in my family whose life was forever hurt by the worst manifestation of human hate and greed materialized in the Chilean civic-military dictatorship.
This project was made with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Toronto Arts Council.
CURRENT is an intersectional, multidisciplinary, music and electronic art initiative which began in 2017 as an annual multi-day event featuring artistic and educational programming for and by women, trans and non-binary people, and BIPOC artists. In 2019, CURRENT added a mentorship program to nurture more cultural producers in Vancouver and beyond.
Chapel Sound's mandate is to push creative expression forward without artistic boundaries or prejudice.Chapel Sound is devoted to offering platforms for local emerging artists to experiment in the field of multidisciplinary electronic art and music regardless of a person’s race, class, gender or orientation.
Banner image: Woven Memory: Copper Bodies, 2024, Three-screen audiovisual piece of documentation on the effects of the Chilean dictatorship, its repercussion in extractivist practices in the region and the works installed during Woven Memory along the territory from 2022 - 2024.
VIVO is located in the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in a warehouse space at 2625 Kaslo Street south of East Broadway at the end of E 10th. Transit line 9 stops at Kaslo Street on Broadway. From the bus stop, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight decline. The closest skytrain station is Renfrew Station, which is three blocks south-east of VIVO and has an elevator. From there, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight incline. There is parking available at VIVO, including wheelchair access parking. There is a bike rack at the entrance. The front entrance leads indoors to a set of 7 stairs to the lobby.
A wheelchair ramp is located at the west side of the main entrance. The ramp has two runs: the first run is 20 feet long, and the second run is 26 feet. The ramp is 60 inches wide. The slope is 1:12. The ramp itself is concrete and has handrails on both sides. There is an outward swinging door (34 inch width) at the top of the ramp leading to a vestibule. A second outward swinging door (33 inch width) opens into the exhibition space. Buzzers and intercoms are located at both doors to notify staff during regular office hours or events to unlock the doors. Once unlocked, visitors can use automatic operators to open the doors.
There are two all-gender washrooms. One has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The other is a single room with a urinal and is wheelchair accessible: the door is 33 inches wide and inward swinging, without automation. The toilet has 11 inch clearance on the left side and a handrail.
To reach the bathrooms from the studio, exit through the double doors and proceed straight through the lobby and down the hall . Turn left, and the two bathrooms will be on your right side. The closest one has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The far bathroom is accessible.
Soledad Fátima Muñoz is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher born in Canada and raised in Rancagua, Chile. Her work seeks to highlight the historical materiality of textiles and their role in shaping our collective memory. Through her large-scale weavings, sound installations, and audiovisual projects, she hopes to create instances that contribute to the construction of a more equitable society and the production of new archives of resistance.
In addition to her material works, she utilizes different forms of cultural production as part of her practice. In 2014, she started Género, a record label focused on the distribution of women's work in the sound field. Then in 2017, she co-founded CURRENT Symposium, which is an ongoing interdisciplinary multi-day music and electronic art symposium featuring free events, panels, exhibitions, and workshops. More recently, in 2019, she co-created "La Parte de Atrás de la Arpillera'' a collection of interviews with Chilean arpilleristas and textile workers, whose experiences tell the history of resistance in this country.
Muñoz is currently working on her project Woven Memory / Memoria Entretejida, a series of site-specific installations and exhibitions planned around large-scale copper wire weavings, which commemorate the lives of those still missing and murdered during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile.
Soledad received a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduated from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, has a diploma in Textile Arts from Capilano University and studied Film at the ARCIS University of Santiago in Chile. She is the recipient of several awards, including the City of Vancouver Emerging Artist Award, the New Artists Society Merit Scholarship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Emily Carr University President's Award, and the Textile Society of America's Student and New Professional Award.
Photo by Kati Jenson
Nancy Lee 李南屏 is a Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary media artist, curator, DJ and cultural producer. Nancy is a co-founder of Chapel Sound, an electronic music and art collective supporting emerging artists, and CURRENT Symposium, an intersectional and multidisciplinary initiative featuring artistic and educational programming for women, gender diverse artists and artists of colour.Nancy directed the first contemporary 360 dance VR film “Tidal Traces” in collaboration with Emmalena Fredriksson with the National Film Board of Canada. Nancy’s interdisciplinary works have been presented at Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, MUTEK, Berlin International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and more. They are an XR instructor at IM4 Media Lab at Emily Carr University, board director of Love Intersections Society and artistic mentor at Festival of Recorded Movement. They also run a small DIY studio in Vancouver Chinatown hosting cross-genre shows, workshops and residencies. As a Sundance Institute New Frontier Alumni, Nancy has been collaborating with Kiran Bhumber on a speculative sci-fi exhibition “UNION”, exploring 3D scanning/printing, XR, and multi-channel sound and video installation. Nancy recently finished an XR artist residency, SATELLITE, at Society of Art and Technology in Montreal and will be starting another residency in their Satosphere immersive dome theatre 2023 summer for MUTEK Montreal. They currently are co-directing a dance-sculpture-XR research series with Ralph Escamillan’s Fakeknot called HOLD_xyz.
Alejandra Gómez Díaz is the daughter of Luis Alberto Gómez Cerda, arrested and disappeared on September 13th of 1973 in Tocopilla. She is the president of the Agrupación de Familiares de Víctimas de Tocopilla.
Rodrigo Suárez Madariaga has a Master in Sociology, and is in charge of research at the Sitio de Memoria Providencia, Antofagasta, a former clandestine detention center during the dictatorship in northern Chile. He is a member of the Human Rights Center of Alberto Hurtado University and works researching the archives of political violence, the search for disappeared detainees, and in territorial organizations.
Lorelei Williams is a passionate advocate for Indigenous rights and a dedicated voice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Born in Mission, BC and raised in Vancouver, BC Canada, Lorelei is a member of the Skatin Nations tribe on her mother’s side and Sts’ailes on her father’s side. Driven by her own family’s experiences of loss and resilience, Lorelei has become a prominent figure in the movement for justice and healing. She is known for her tireless work with organizations and committees such as the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Coalition, the Sisterwatch Committee, West Coast Leaf, the National Security Transparency Advisory Group, Sovereign Bodies Institute in California and the National and International Brigades in Mexico. Lorelei is the founder of Butterflies in Spirit, a dance group that raises awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls through powerful performances. Her advocacy work has taken her around the world, across Canada, the United States, Latin America, and around Europe, more specifically, Austria, Rome, and France. Lorelei has gone as far as Mexico, Colombia, and Europe to speak at conferences, rallies, and events to shed light on the systemic issues facing Indigenous communities. In addition to her advocacy, Lorelei is a devoted mother to her two children and a loving partner. Through her unwavering determination and compassionate spirit, she continues to inspire positive change and amplify the voices of those who have been silenced.
Butterflies in Spirit, founded by Lorelei Williams, began as a dance group in 2012 with a deeply personal mission: to honor her missing aunt Belinda Williams and cousin Tanya Holyk. Initially conceived as a one-time effort to raise awareness, the group's traditional dances impact resonated far beyond Lorelei's expectations, inspiring other family members to join and continue the vital work. Butterflies in Spirit has performed and advocated across Canada, the USA, Colombia, and Latin America. Beyond raising awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 2 Spirit + (MMIWG2S+), they are actively involved in ground searches, putting up missing persons posters, holding candlelight vigils, and organizing rallies and marches, making a profound impact on their communities.
Laith is a Palestinian living in exile from his homeland and an undergraduate student specializing in Global Resource Systems. His academic and personal experiences are centered around the intersection of land, memory, and struggle, particularly within the context of resistance movements struggling to liberate their homelands and determine their peoples’ destinies. Laith is committed to understanding how resource control and land destruction are intimately tied to systems of exploitation and domination, with a particular emphasis on the global impacts of extractivism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism. Influenced by figures like Naji al-Ali, Laith sees art as more than expression; it is a potent force for popular resistance and radical change. Art preserves the collective memory of struggling peoples, while simultaneously challenging the forces that seek to erase them. Through his involvement on-campus, Laith underscores the importance of standing in solidarity with peoples struggling for sovereignty, justice, and liberation.
