Mika Benesh (Recipient 2024) is a designer-researcher working between unceded Gadigal + Dharug Country and Tiohtià:ke in the australian and canadian colonies. Mika's art and research traces relationships between cultural institutions and archives, Jewish material cultures, queer/trans lives & movements, white supremacy and settler colonialism. Across Mika's practice, he is interested in catching a small hold of many Jewish futures.
For the PCJA fellowship in 2024, Mika worked with and curated "A Collector's Passion" a dynamic collection of Judaica artefacts that was gifted to the Federation CJA and the Montreal Jewish Community by Irwin Tauben. The collection is housed in the hallway of the Gelber Conference Centre at Federation CJA and is dedicated to the memory of Julie and Morty Tauben. The collection has been lovingly shaped by Irwin's aesthetic apprecation and personal interest in the different objects that make up its composition. Photos of the collection can be found here: Irwin Tauben Judaica (howardkay.ca).