Conversations Across Continents
Date: July 2, 2025
Time: 5:30 – 7pm
Cost: Free
With Salimata Diop, Ablaye Mbaye, Catherine Sicot and Adrian Stimson, moderated by Mona Filip
Join us for a panel discussion with Salimata Diop (French/Senegalese independent curator/artistic director 2024 Dakar Biennial), Ablaye Mbaye (Senegalese storyteller, drummer, and Wolof dancer), Catherine Sicot (French/Canadian director/curator of Elegoa Cultural Productions/member of Interwoven Futures Collective), and Adrian Stimson (interdisciplinary artist and member of Siksika Nation/member of IF Collective) introducing their major artistic initiative – X2027: Thank You For Coming! – currently in development between communities, organizations, and institutions in France, Senegal and Canada.
The late 19th century saw a surge in colonial exhibitions across western Europe; occasionally focused on certain thematics and framed as international displays of cultural objects and new technologies, they were intended to boost trade and bolster popular support for the colonial empires of the time. Among these exhibitions was the La Rochelle Colonial Exposition, held in the summer of 1927. To mark the centennial of La Rochelle’s Colonial Exhibition, X2027: Thank You For Coming! will organize a series of counter-performances, interventions, and exhibitions to upend colonial outlooks.
Salimata Diop, Ablaye Mbaye, and Catherine Sicot will be joining Adrian Stimson in Calgary/Mohkinstsis at the invitation of Shannon Bear Chief to visit and further deepen their collaboration with Siksika Nation. This conversation, moderated by Contemporary Calgary’s Chief Curator, Mona Filip, will offer audiences an overview of the panellists’ artistic practices and how they intersect to generate intercultural dialogue and decolonial actions.
For more information or to register visit contemporarycalgary.com.
The conversation will take place in English and French, with consecutive translation from French to English.
This panel is part of the speakers’ 10-day visit to Siksika/Calgary that is supported by Elegoa Cultural Productions through the Canada Council Strategic Innovation Fund – Cultivate program, in partnership with daphne, artist run centre in Montreal.
