home/base explores the geography of La Centrale over five decades, asking how archives can illustrate the spaces of La Centrale as a “home-base” for radicalized practice. Mapping the sites that this artist-run centre has existed in throughout Montreal since its founding in 1973 reveals the ways in which La Centrale as a physical space has moved, morphed and extended itself to suit the shifting needs of its communities.

Nodding to the form of a modular, movable documentation centre built by La Centrale in 1979 to house the archives that now make up a part of its institutional collection, the installation’s scenography alludes to the adaptability of the centre as it has resisted fixity. Exhibition posters, invitations, leases, meeting minutes and internal documents—along with other pieces of ephemera–reveal La Centrale’s ongoing dialogue with the geography of the city and its membership. Across its six sites, La Centrale has been a meeting place, an archive, a studio and its programming extended beyond the centre’s walls and windows through satellite spaces and public, often participatory performances. In reflecting on the public-facing nature of the vitrine on the occasion of La Centrale’s 50th anniversary, passersby are invited to engage with a speculative chronology of this material through the window. A mailbox holds prompts the passerby can collect, which contain a map and instructions to walk the centre’s spatial history. How might engaging with La Centrale’s geographies stimulate reflections on its future and current site?

Photo credit: Antoine Lussier

Ally Rosilio and Olivia Vidmar’s collaborative approach to exhibition-making stems from a shared interest in critical spatial practice and embodied, durational methods for learning about place. They both studied Art History at Concordia University, where they developed a curiosity for ways in which creative practices can be tools to shape and learn about the built environment. They have worked together for over three years as curators in residence at a community space alongside their respective cultural work and writing practices.

A new partnership between Concordia’s Art Volt and La Centrale galerie Powerhouse will support recent fine arts alumni through curatorial and cultural mediation opportunities.

The collaboration comes at a special time, with both Concordia and La Centrale marking 50-year anniversaries. The partnership will involve a Curatorial Residency, resulting in the production of a window exhibition inspired by La Centrale’s archives, and a Cultural Mediation Internship to develop and coordinate activities connected to La Centrale’s milestone celebrations in May 2025.

Curatorial duo, Ally Rosilio and Olivia Vidmar, have spent the summer in the archives of Art Volt, Concordia’s Special Collections and at Artexte, conducting research that will inform a window exhibition conveying La Centrale’s mandate to passersby.

- Felicity T. C. Hamer, October 16, 2024, for New partnership between Concordia’s Art Volt and La Centrale galerie Powerhouse brings residencies and internships to fine arts alumni