Ikumagialiit – ᐃᑯᒪᒋᐊᓖᑦ (those that need fire): Aatooq (full of blood)

Artists

Ikumagialiit – ᐃᑯᒪᒋᐊᓖᑦ

The quartet Ikumagialiit – ᐃᑯᒪᒋᐊᓖᑦ (translated as “those that need fire”) is an egalitarian collective of Cree/Mennonite, Welsh/English, and Inuit artists who live and work (independently and together) in Nunavut and Toronto. Ikumagialiit is composed of four women, each representing a different generation and artistic discipline: Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (poetry, performance, dance, and choreography), Cris Derksen (music composition and sound production), Jamie Griffiths (film), and Christine Tootoo (vocals). The ensemble is fueled by the power of collaboration, the celebration of women’s voices, and incorporates Inuit practices of meditation and spiritual skill-building into their art, drawing on the metaphor of a bowhead whale learning how to breathe in the depths.

Curator

Dominique Fontaine

Dominique Fontaine is a curator, joining the TBA team in December 2022 for its third edition. She graduated in visual arts and arts administration from the University of Ottawa (Canada), and completed De Appel Curatorial Programme (Amsterdam, the Netherlands).

Dominique’s recent projects include Imaginaires souverains, Le présent, modes d’emploi, Maison de la culture Janine-Sutto; Foire en art actuel de Québec 2020; Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art; Dineo Seshee Bopape: and- in. the light of this._ _ _ _ _ _ _, Darling Foundry; Repérages ou À la découverte de notre monde ou Sans titre, articule; Between the earth and the sky, the possibility of everything, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Toronto 2014. Dominique is co-initiator of the Black Curators Forum; is a member of AICA-Canada, the American Association of Museum Curators (AAMC,) and of the International Contemporary Art Curators Association (IKT); and is also part of Intervals Collective. Dominique Fontaine is laureate of Black History Month of the City of Montreal 2021.

Curator

Miguel A. López

Miguel A. López (he/him) is a writer and curator, joining the TBA team in December 2022 for its third edition. In his practice, he focuses on the role of art in politics and public life, collective work and collaborative dynamics, and queer and feminist rewritings of history. Prior to joining TBA, Miguel worked as chief curator, and later co-director, at TEOR/éTica (Costa Rica) from 2015 to 2020.In 2019, he curated the retrospective exhibition “Cecilia Vicuña: Seehearing the Enlightened Failure” at the Witte de With (now Kunstinstituut Melly), Rotterdam, which traveled to Mexico City, Madrid, and Bogota. For 2023-2025, he is preparing a new, more comprehensive retrospective entitled “Cecilia Vicuña. Dreaming Water,” that will first open at Fine Arts Museum of Chile, and then travel to MALBA – Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires, Pinacoteca Museum of São Paulo, Brazil, and other venues.

Other recent curatorial projects include “Sila Chanto & Belkis Ramírez: Aquí me quedo / Here I Stay” en el ICA-VCU, Richmond (2022), “Hard To Swallow. Anti-Patriarchal Poetics and New Scene in the Nineties” at ICPNA, Lima (2021), “and if I devoted my life to one of its feathers?” at the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2021), and “21 Bienal de Arte Contemporânea SESC_Videobrasil. Comunidades Imaginadas” at SESC, São Paulo (2019). He is the author of Ficciones disidentes en la tierra de la misoginia [Dissident Fictions in the Land of Misogyny] (2019), and co-editor of The Words of Others: León Ferrari and Rhetoric in Times of War (2017). His texts have been published in journals such as Afterall, Artforum, e-flux Journal, Art in America, Journal of Visual Culture, Manifesta Journal. He was a recipient of the 2016 Independent Vision Curatorial Award.