INSIDE OUT

The FOFA Gallery is proud to be hosting a pop-up exhibition this summer on our Ste Catherine Street vitrine: the latest edition of Indigenous Forced Displacement led by Nakuset.

The project consists of large portrait-style posters featuring members of the local Indigenous community, wheat-pasted on the outside of buildings across Montreal. On display at FOFA until mid-August, these black and white portraits highlight the strength and resilience of First Nations peoples, while drawing attention to Canada's colonial history and the displacement of Indigenous communities. Nakuset worked with photographers Craig Commanda, Vicki McDonald, and Martin Loft to create the Montreal portraits. While Indigenous communities in the Montreal area are diverse, each with their own specific experiences related to the effects of colonization, all have been impacted by historical and contemporary forced displacement. Dispossessed of their ancestral lands, forced to leave their communities to access health care and education and continually required to defend their territory from further encroachment and exploitation, displacement continues to impact Indigenous people throughout Tiohtià:ke.

This installation is part of the worldwide Inside Out participatory art project founded by internationally renowned French photographer and street artist JR, which invites participating groups to display large, public portraits of local community members. Another set of posters will also be installed at the Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom at 4100 Sherbrooke Street West.