Yto Barrada is recognized for her multidisciplinary investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives, with a focus on Morocco. Her practice encompasses photography, film, sculpture, painting, printmaking, and publishing. Engaging with the performativity of archival practices and public interventions, and often comprised of both original work and found objects, Barrada’s installations reinterpret social relationships, uncover subaltern histories, and reveal the prevalence of fiction in institutionalized narratives. Her work has been the subject of over twenty monographic exhibitions, and has featured in over 150 group exhibitions and biennials throughout Europe, North Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. Interested in developing a platform for cross-cultural dialogue and exchange, Barrada co-founded the Cinématheque de Tanger in 2006, She is a recipient of numerous awards and honours, most recently including the 2019 Roy R. Neubeger Prize, Neuberger Museum of Art, and she was shortlisted for the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco’s 47th edition of its Prix International d’Art Contemporain.
Scott Benesiinaabandan is an Anishinaabe intermedia artist that works primarily in experimental photography, image-making, and audio. Scott has completed international residencies at Parramatta Artist Studios in Australia; Context Gallery in Derry, Ireland; and University of Lethbridge/Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology iAIR residency; along with international collaborative projects in both the UK and Ireland. Scott is currently based in Montreal, where he is completing an MFA in Photography. Most recently Scott has been engaged with various projects around issues of Artificial Intelligence. Benesiinaabandan has taken part in several notable exhibitions across Canada and internationally, Harbourfront’s Flatter the Land/Bigger the Ruckus (2006), Subconscious City at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (2008), GHOSTDANCE at Ryerson Image Centre (2013) and solo exhibitions unSacred at Gallery 1C03 (2011) and, in Sydney, Mii Omaa Ayaad/Oshiki Inendemowin (2012), Melbourne with Blood Memories (2013), little resistances at Platform Gallery (2015), Fifth World (2015) and Insurgence/Resurgence (2017).
Formed in 2014, Black Quantum Futurism is an interdisciplinary creative practice between Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips, based in Philadelphia. BQF weave quantum physics, Afrofuturism, and Afrodiasporic concepts of time, ritual, text, and sound to present innovative works and tools offering practical ways to escape negative temporal loops, oppression vortexes, and the digital matrix. In 2016, BQF founded Community Futures Lab, a community arts space in North Philadelphia. BQF is a 2018 Velocity Fund Grantee, 2018 Akademie Schloss Solitude & ZKM Web Resident, 2017 Center for Emerging Visual Artists Fellow, 2017 Pew Fellow, 2016 A Blade of Grass Fellow, and a 2015 artist-in-residence at Neighborhood Time Exchange, West Philadelphia. BQF has presented, exhibited and performed at Red Bull Arts, New York; Serpentine Galleries, London; Philadelphia Art Museum; Open Engagement; MOMA PS1, New York; Bergen Kunsthall; Le Gaite Lyrique, Paris; and Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo, among others.
Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother, part of Black Quantum Futurism) is a musician, poet, visual artist and workshop facilitator, and has performed at numerous festivals, colleges, galleries, and museums around the world, sharing the stage with King Britt, Roscoe Mitchell, Claudia Rankine, bell hooks, and more. Camae is a vocalist in three collaborative performance groups: Irreversible Entanglements, Moor Jewelry, and 700bliss. In late 2016, she released her debut album Fetish Bones on Don Giovanni Records, and in 2017 she released The Motionless Present, commissioned by The Vinyl Factory x CTM. Recent festival performances include Borealis, CTM Festival, Le Guess Who?, Unsound Festival, Flow Festival, Rewire, and Donaufestival.
Rasheedah Phillips, Esq., is a Philadelphia-based public interest attorney, artist, cultural producer, and writer. Rasheedah’s writing has appeared in Keywords for Radicals, Villanova Law Review, The Funambulist Magazine, and other publications. Rasheedah is the founder of The AfroFuturist Affair, a founding member of Metropolarity Queer Spec Fic Collective, co-founder of Black Quantum Futurism, and co-creator of the award-winning Community Futures Lab. Phillips is a recipient of the National Housing Law Project 2017 Housing Justice Award, 2017 City & State Pennsylvania 40 under 40 Rising Star award, and 2018 Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity. She is the self-published author of Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel Tales) (2014), and the editor of the anthologies Black Quantum Futurism: Theory & Practice Vol. I (2015) and Space-Time Collapse I: From the Congo to the Carolinas (2016).
Erdem Taşdelen is a visual artist based in Toronto. His practice is rooted in conceptualism and involves a range of media including installation, video, sound, and artist books. His diverse projects bring structures of power into question within the context of culturally learned behaviours, where he often draws from unique historical narratives to address the complexities of current socio-political issues. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions internationally, at venues including Mercer Union, Toronto; AKA Artist-Run, Saskatoon (2020); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen; Untitled Art Society, Calgary (2019); VOX Centre de l’image contemporaine, Montreal (2018); Pera Museum, Istanbul; Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg (2016); Stacion CCA, Kosovo (2015); Kunstverein Hannover; ARTER, Istanbul; Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; and MAK, Vienna (2013). He has been awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Visual Arts by the Canada Council for the Arts (2016), the Charles Pachter Prize for Emerging Artists by the Hnatyshyn Foundation (2014), and was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2019.