Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work has gained international prominence and is regularly shown by major art institutions, but he has had few exhibitions in Montreal, where he lives and works (despite the city’s global reputation for its vibrant media culture).

More than a mid-career survey, the exhibition offers a new conceptual perspective on the artist’s work over the past decade, exploring its poetic and political dimensions from the standpoint of one of its central principles: the notion of co-presence. This concept refers first and foremost to the coexistence of voices, perspectives and singular experiences in Lozano-Hemmer’s works: to the interactions between strangers, to the situations elicited by the dialogic devices deployed by the work. However, co-presence also evokes other, more asymmetrical relationships, such as forced cohabitations and power relations, and speaks to the interplay of gazes and bodies subjected to contemporary techniques of surveillance and control. In addition to other major works, the exhibition will present Subtitled Public (2005), Vicious Circular Breathing (2013), Sphere Packing (2014), Pan-Anthem (2014), and Zoom Pavilion (a collaboration with Krzysztof Wodiczko, 2015).