Future Is Now
By Z Gallery
Future Is NowAug 07, 2023
A Conversation About Gentrification
In this episode of Future is Now, you’ll hear a conversation about gentrification that co-producers Shahrzad Arshadi and Caroline Kunzle had with two scholars, Aaron Vansintjan and Fred Burrill. Both Aaron and Fred have studied and organized around the question of gentrification for a long time. They share their thoughts on what it is, how it works and what we as artists -- and most importantly, as citizens -- can do to stop it.
The Future We Imagine!
In this episode , I am focusing on our Hopes and Dreams. What is the future we are wishing to live or wishing to leave behind for our children and grandchildren and the generations after us.
For that I asked different people to record their voices in order to share their hopes and dreams with us. A beautiful collage!
Many of us have experienced atrocities by living through wars, brutal fundamentalist revolutions, dictatorship, political repressions and corrupted regimes and unwanted migration.
I am one of those people…
Time passes whether I want to or not, I am getting old and it makes me so sad to think this is the world that I am leaving behind for my grandchildren. It makes me think more than ever that we must do something to stop this brutal machine.
And this episode is a little trigger, at least for some of us to think about the future and to dream!
Maybe by talking about our hopes and dreams we realize ( I mean our collective we) deserve a better life than what we have been offered by greedy capitalists and warlords.
Freda Guttman a Montreal based artist and educator is talking about her life, art and activism
**The interview with Freda Guttman was recorded in October 2017 at her home in Saint Henri neighbourhood in Montréal.
Freda Guttman has worked as a printmaker, photographer and as an installation artist. , her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and internationally
Her art practice and her political activism come together in a series of installations, in particular, one about the genocide of the Mayan people, Guatemala! The Road of War, and an installation concerning the global system of food production and distribution, The Global Menu,
She has also produced two installations having to do with Palestine/Israel: Diminish Your Cup and Two Family Albums: Canada Park.
Check her website for more; https://www.fredaguttman.com
Photo by: Thien V.
Woman Life Freedom: A Revolutionary Soundtrack / Interview with Kaveh Abbasian
A conversion about revolutionary art and most specifically revolutionary songs.
Kaveh Abbasian is an artist, filmmaker, university lecturer and political activist.
Interview with Babak Salari a Montreal-based photographer and educator
In this episode of Future is Now, listen to Shahrzad Arshadi's interview with Babak Salari, a Montreal based photographer and educator.
His documentary projects include: Iranian artists in exile; matriarchal, indigenous communities in Mexico; and gays and transvestites in Cuba. Recently, he documented those displaced and brutalized by war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. His interest in photography began as a teenager in his native Iran where he contributed to various publications. At the age of twenty-one, his political activities resulted in his imprisonment for six months by the Khomeini regime. Upon his temporary release from jail, he fled to Pakistan and, a year later, arrived in Canada where he resumed his study and practice of photography. His new documentary work Traumas and Miracles: Portraits of Northwestern Bulgaria is dealing with the sense of disorientation, loss, pain, and isolation. www.babaksalari.com
Indigenous Futures: A Conversation with Skawennati
In this episode of Future is Now, listen to Caroline Kunzle's conversation with Mohawk multimedia artist, Skawennati, in which she speaks about her work exploring Indigenous life in the future, about participating in a fashion show and about co-founding daphne, Montreal’s first indigenous-run artist centre. Skawennati also tells us about some of the ideas that went into her work, When Onkwehón: we Visit the Queen, an exhibit currently on at Ellephant gallery, in Tio'tia:ke (Montreal) until January 28, 2023. To find out more about Skawennati’s work, see her website .
Une conversation avec Catherine Boivin
Dans cet épisode, une conversation avec l’artiste multidisciplinaire atikamekw, Catherine Boivin, qui a présenté son œuvre, Nikotwaso au centre d’artiste autochtone daphne en juillet et août dernier. Elle nous parle des femmes autochtones, de la transmission culturelle des grand-mères, de l’importance de la langue, et des jeunes de sa communauté. Catherine Boivin s’exprime autant par la vidéo et la photo que par la sculpture, la peinture et la performance. Elle est aussi joggeuse et marathonienne et danseuse de Pow Wow. Pour plus de renseignements, voir https://otehima-atisokew.squarespace.com/about
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In this episode, a conversation with multidisciplinary Atikamekw artist, Catherine Boivin, whose installation, Nikotwaso was presented at the indigenous artist-run centre, daphne last July and August. She speaks to us about Indigenous women, cultural transmission from grandmothers, the importance of language and about the youth in her community. Catherine Boivin works with video and photography as well as sculpture, painting, and performance. She is also a jogger, a marathon runner, and a Pow Wow dancer. For more information, see https://otehima-atisokew.squarespace.com/about
* Photo: Mike Patton
"FORBIDDEN VOICES" is the story of female and queer singers whose voices have been forbidden in Iran after 1979 Muslim fundamentalists in power.
"This episode is dedicated to Zhina (Mahas) Amini"
What you’re going to hear, in this episode of Future Is Now, is what happened to Iranian women singers and Iranian women in general, after the 1979 Fundamentalist revolution.
We recorded this episode a couple of days before the brutal murder of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, who was brutally murdered by the Islamic regime’s “morality police”, in Tehran, on September 16th 2022. According to the Iranian morality police, she wasn’t wearing her hijab properly! Her hair was not fully covered !
Starting in Kurdistan and spreading to all over Iran, women have been walking in the streets in the thousands, every day since then, and removing and burning their hijabs (or veils) in public. Iranian women's bravery is unimaginable and beautiful.
They are shouting “Zhin Zian Azadi / Woman Life Freedom”, a slogan inspired by Kurdish women's struggle.
I am using Zhina, her Kurdish name, instead of Mahsa, because officially she couldn’t have a Kurdish name in Iran. It’s not allowed!
We dedicate this episode to Zhina Amini and all the brave women and men who are risking their lives to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran.
They say: Enough is enough!
Zhina has become the code name for the Revolution in Iran! A feminist Revolution!
JJ Levine: Queer Photographs
JJ Levine's exhibition at the McCord Stewart Museum, JJ Levine: Queer Photographs, questions the representation of traditional binary gender roles through staged photographs of queer subjects in intimate, domestic settings. In this episode of Future is Now, JJ Levine walks us through some of the photos and shares details of the process and motivations behind the work.
For more information on the artist, see www.jjlevine.com
Une conversation avec Nathalie Derome
Dans notre première épisode en français, une conversation avec l’artiste interdisciplinaire, Nathalie Derome. Une pionnière québécoise de la performance underground, et la directrice artistique et générale de la compagnie de production, Des Mots d'la Dynamite, Nathalie créé des spectacles pour les tout petits. Elle nous parle de son processus de création et de comment ces tout jeunes lui ouvrent les yeux sur plein de choses, y compris des questions de préjugés culturels et de racisme. Avec des chansons de son spectacle, C'est Ma Sœur!
In Future is Now's first French episode, a conversation with interdisciplinary artist, Nathalie Derome. A Québécois pioneer of underground performance and artistic and general director of the production company, Des Mots d'la Dynamite, Nathalie creates shows for very little ones. She tells us about her creative process and how these very young ones teach her about many things, including about cultural prejudice and racism. With songs from her show, That's My Sister!
Conversation With Razan Al-Salah
Welcome to Future Is Now.
In this episode you can listen to Shahrzad Arshadi’s interview with Razan Al-Salah, a Montreal based Palestinian multimedia artist, educator and poet. Razan’s work is concerned with investigating material aesthetics of dis/appearance of places and people in the context of colonial image worlds.
In this episode Razan talks about her life, love of community, art, image, home and most specifically about her family and Oum Ameen / Razan’s grandmother!
To Sleep At Night - A Conversation with Mona Sharma
A first-generation Canadian artist of South Asian descent, based in Montreal, Mona Sharma works mainly in soft sculpture and digital drawing, two mediums whose accessible exteriors lend well to subversive acts. In this episode, Mona speaks to us about her latest project, To Sleep At Night, a series of digital drawings imagining an ideal living space for people with autism. To view Mona Sharma's project, see tosleepatnight.ca
The Art of Dying by Forest V Kapo
Artist Forest Vicky Kapo, an indigenous person of Maori ancestry from Aotearoa, New Zealand, is a dancer, a musician and a visual artist. Forest also cares for the dying, working as a nurse in palliative care. In the Art of Dying, over a soundbed of original music, they share their reflections on art-making, on nursing the dying and on living in today's world. For more information about their work, see forestvkapo.com.
Conversation with Khadija Baker Part Two
Khadija Baker is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist, originally from Rojava, Kurdistan, Syria. To find out more about Khadija Baker, see: khadijabaker.com
*Songs and Music;
- EZ REWIME A Kurdish song by Bermal Viyan
- Armenian Lullaby sung by my beloved hero Arsine Attarian
- The spoken word piece, “Blue Beard Today's Tale” soundtrack for Khadia Baker;s animation , was performed and sound designed by Moe Clark
(courtesy of Khadija Baker)
**The original theme music for Future Is Now was composed by Corina MacDonald (See traktion.com)
Conversation with Khadija Baker Part One
Khadija Baker is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist, originally from Rojava, Kurdistan, Syria. To find out more about Khadija Baker, see: khadijabaker.com
*The Kurdish song at the beginning of this episode is “Jiyana Bê Deng” by Bermal
*The spoken word piece, “Blue Beard Today's Tale”, was performed and sound designed by Moe Clark (courtesy of Khadija Baker)
**The original theme music for Future Is Now was composed by Corina MacDonald (See traktion.com)