November 1 to December 13, 2025
Tuesday to Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
OPTICA, centre d’art contemporain
5445 av. de Gaspé, espace 106
Montréal, QC
Tuesday to Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
OPTICA, centre d’art contemporain
5445 av. de Gaspé, espace 106
Montréal, QC
During his research-creation project as part of the Intersections residency, Alvaro examined the practices of immigrant artists who use their integration journeys as material for creation. By consulting the archives of the Optica center, he introduced an additional temporal layer spanning sixteen years, corresponding to the time since his arrival in Canada. This process sought to create a dialogue between institutional archives and his own personal archives. Two artistic approaches were particularly influential: Fragment-s de silence I (2020–2022) by Iranian artist Maryam Eizadifard, which explores the tensions between host and origin territories through landscape and exile, and The Novels of Elsgüer (Episode 4): Camouflaged Screams (2021) by Laura Acosta and Santiago Tavera, which uses camouflage as a metaphor for cultural integration and the visibility or invisibility of minorities.
Revisiting his personal archives, Alvaro rediscovered a series of official 2 × 3 inch photographic portraits produced since his arrival in Canada. Though originally intended for administrative use, these images—marked by institutional portrait conventions—became tools to explore identity across multiple representations of himself. Combined with GPS-generated urban maps of Montreal neighborhoods where he lived, the work investigates the reciprocal relationship between identity and territory. Technically, the project is guided by symbolic materials such as snow and sand, experimental approaches to color, and the use of both “humble” and “prestigious” papers. Finally, the circulation of images between institutional exhibition spaces and unauthorized public displays questions how images are seen, valued, and received inside and outside the gallery context.
Photos: Patrick Lafontaine et Paul Litherland
