About
(english)
Victoria Carrasco is a Chilean-Canadian curator of contemporary art and moving image, born in Montréal. From 2008 to 2025, she held curatorial, managerial, and leadership positions at PHI (formerly known as PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art), where she played a key role in shaping the institution’s visitor experience strategy, developing internal professional growth initiatives, curating exhibitions, and expanding audiences by creating new exhibition formats of time-based media and performances programs.
Her curatorial practice is grounded in research and centers on practices in contemporary art, developed through close collaboration with artists. Her institutional experience reinforces an expertise of exhibition-making and the dynamics between artwork, space, and audience—emphasizing accessibility, engagement, and critical reflection. She remains attuned to the social, cultural, and spatial contexts in which art is produced and experienced, and is committed to its critical and transformative potential that lives on after outside of the art gallery setting.
Carrasco curated REMEMBER, PERFORM, FORGET: Binding Space Through Utopia - with Kerstin Honeit, The Society of Affective Archives, and Rodolfo Andaur in 2023, co-curated with Cheryl Sim, the exhibition Larry Achiampong: Relic Traveller in 2022, the performance Dora García: Two Planets Have Been Colliding for Thousands of Years in 2021, and have worked with international, national and local artists in Montreal and organizations on the presentation of screenings and performances, moderated roundtables, and hosted artist talks and podcasts.
Carrasco holds an MA in Performance Curation from the Institute of Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) at Wesleyan University, a BA in Environmental Design from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and a BFA with a Concentration in Photography from Concordia University. In 2019, she was awarded the Ford Foundation ICPP Leadership Fellowship by Wesleyan University. She is also co-editor of the bi-annual publication TURBA: The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation and is on the Board of Directors of VIVA! Art Action and Centre des arts actuels SKOL.
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(french)
Née à Montréal, Victoria Carrasco est une commissaire canadienne d’origine chilienne. De 2008 à 2025, elle a occupé les postes de commissaire, de gestion et leadership à PHI (anciennement Fondation PHI pour l'art contemporain), où elle a joué un rôle clé dans l'élaboration de la stratégie d'expérience des visiteurs de l'institution, la création d'initiatives de développement professionnel interne, le commissariat d'expositions et l'élargissement des publics par le développement de nouveaux formats d'exposition de programmes de médias temporels et performances.
Sa pratique curatoriale est ancrée dans la recherche et se concentre sur les pratiques de l'art contemporain, développées en étroite collaboration avec des artistes. Son expérience institutionnelle renforce son expertise en réalisation d'expositions et la dynamique entre l'œuvre d'art, l'espace et le public, privilégiant l'accessibilité, l'engagement et la réflexion critique. Elle demeure à l'écoute des contextes sociaux, culturels et spatiaux dans lesquels l'art est produit et expérimenté, et s'attache à son potentiel critique et transformateur qui perdure au-delà du cadre des galeries d'art.
Carrasco a été commissaire de SE SOUVENIR, PERFORMER, OUBLIER: relier l’espace par l’utopie - avec Kerstin Honeit, La Société des archives affectives (Fiona Annis and Véronique La Perrière M) et Rodolfo Andaur en 2023, co-commissaire avec Cheryl Sim de l'exposition Larry Achiampong: L’explorateur de reliques en 2022 et de la performance Dora García: Two Planets Have Been Colliding for Thousands of Years en 2021. Elle a également collaboré avec des artistes et des organismes internationaux, nationaux et locaux à Montréal pour la présentation de projections et de performances, animé des tables rondes et animé des conférences et des balados.
Elle est titulaire d’une maîtrise en commissariat de la performance de l’Institute of Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) de l'Université Wesleyan, d’un baccalauréat en design de l’environnement de l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) et d’un baccalauréat en beaux-arts avec concentration en photographie de l’Université Concordia. En 2019, l’Université Wesleyan lui a décerné la bourse de Leadership ICPP de la Fondation Ford. Elle est également co-éditrice de la publication semestrielle TURBA: The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation et siège au conseil d'administration de VIVA! Art Action et du Centre des arts actuels SKOL.
Acknowledging This Place
Kìzis, Meagan Musseau with Jenelle Duval, Michael Snow, Jacob Wren
Video Program and Performances, May 10, 2022, PHI Foundation.
Michael Snow, ONE SECOND IN MONTREAL, 1969. Courtesy of The New American Cinema Group, Inc./The Film-Makers’ Cooperative
What began as a search into where we live, became a collision between celebration and critique. Stemming from the implementation of the National Anthem, where nature is characterized by political territory, this program questions the ritualistic embodiment of transmission, adding and suggesting other references to a place.
Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, Québec, Canada as a singular and multiple entity is unruly and confusing. Language and space partition identities and references, distinguishing one person from another. The representation of this place (in the sense of the term as used by author Lesley Johnstone in the text “Art Made in a Place”) is an open task that has forged personal and collective memories, allowing ever-changing versions and definitions to exist and accompany us.
What makes this place different? Nothing and everything. [1] Politics, language, nature, and territory manifest themselves in our everyday lives. The politics of the anthem make palpable the politics of Québec and the rest of the country in relation to its position and language. Singing “O Canada” is a required component of schools' daily opening ceremonies in certain provinces. Power and identification emanate from the musical arrangement, whether it is heard, sung, or broadcasted on TV at the beginning and end of the day. The televised renditions change from one province to another and the imagery includes everyone who makes up the population, as well as the country’s many urban and rural landscapes.
In his text French is the Most Beautiful Language, Jacob Wren properly exposes the everyday reality and problematic of how French and English coexist in the city of Montréal from his perspective as an artist, immigrant, and existentialist. The presence of nature, divided between territory and class (making us who we are) is represented by the slow wintery experimental images captured by Michael Snow in 1969, and the strength of marking through a performance by Meagan Musseau and Jenelle Duval. Finally, Kìzis will perform her version of an anthem for where we live and where she comes from.
This program sequences archival documentary images, videos and live contributions as references to a place that is simultaneously national and sovereign, provincial and federal, local and global, artistic and political.
1. Lesley Johnstone, “Art Made in a Place” in Oh Canada (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 236-237.
This program was conceived and presented at PHI (formerly known as PHI Foundation) in conjunction with the exhibition Revealing Narratives by Stan Douglas, from February 19 to May 22, 2022.
Program
1 Introduction by Victoria Carrasco
2 Screening | O Canada Broadcast (1983) 1 min 29
3 Reading | French is the Most Beautiful Language by Jacob Wren (2012)
4 Film Projection | One Second in Montreal by Michael Snow (1969) 26 min, 16 mm
5 Screening | Ta’sik Amujpa Iknmaulek (how much do we have to give you) by Meagan Musseau with Jenelle Duval (2021) 7 min 29
6 Performance by Kìzis
Biographies
Jenelle DuvalJenelle Duval (she/her) is a Mi’kmaw woman from Seal Rocks, NL who currently lives and is working in St. John's as an Advisor in media and content growth. She has been creating artistic spaces and opportunities for community and arts professionals since beginning her career in community in 2012. She was the Artistic Director of Spirit Song Festival, an annual celebration of Indigenous Arts and Culture in St. John's for almost 10 years. Jenelle is the recipient of YWCA's Women of Distinction Award (2019) for her work in Arts and Heritage, a founding member of EMCA-winning group Eastern Owl, and a tireless advocate for the preservation and revitalization of cultural arts and music. In 2019 Jenelle was acknowledged with her nomination for Indigenous Song-Writer of the year through the Canadian Folk Music Awards and was awarded the annual Achievement Award from the Atlantic Presenters Association for her contribution to Indigenous arts presentation in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2020. She is a gifted songwriter and is currently composing a series of works that embody a lands-based narrative through her interactions with territorial attachments and interpersonal relations. Jenelle is rooted in her home territory of Ktaqmkuk, where she shares her life with her amazing daughter Kassidy.
KìzisKìzis is from fields of manoomin; tended, harvested and unforgotten.
Meagan MusseauMeagan Musseau is L’nu from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk territory (Bay of Islands, western Newfoundland). She nourishes an interdisciplinary practice by working with customary art forms and new media, such as basketry, beadwork, land-based performance, video and installation. She focuses on creating artwork, dancing, learning Mi’kmaw language, and facilitating workshops as a way to actively participate in survivance. Musseau’s work has been exhibited nationally at Open Space, Victoria; grunt gallery, Vancouver; Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre, Edmonton; AKA Artist-run, Saskatoon; Ace Art Inc., Winnipeg; VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine, Montréal; and internationally at Canada House, London, UK. She has performed at Spirit Song Festival (2019), Bonavista Biennale (2019), #THIRDSHIFT (2017), as well as in landscapes across Turtle Island. Musseau’s practice has been supported by awards such as an Aboriginal Arts Development Award, First Peoples’ Cultural Council (2016), Atlantic Canadian Emerging Artist, the Hnatyshyn Foundation (2018), and she was on the Sobey Art Award longlist, Atlantic region (2021).
Michael SnowSnow was born in 1928 in Toronto, where he lives and works today. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Toronto (1999), the University of Victoria (1997), the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1990), and Brock University (1975).
Snow has received several prestigious awards including: the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2011), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1972), the Order of Canada in (1982), and the Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres, France (1995, 2011).
Jacob WrenJacob Wren makes literature, performances and exhibitions. His books include: Polyamorous Love Song, Rich and Poor and Authenticity is a Feeling. As Artistic Codirector of the Montréal-based interdisciplinary performance group PME-ART he has co-created performances such as: Individualism Was A Mistake, The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information, Every Song I’ve Ever Written and Adventures can be found anywhere, même dans la mélancolie. Most recently PME-ART has presented the online conference Vulnerable Paradoxes and the related free PDF publication In response to Vulnerable Paradoxes. His internet presence is often defined by a fondness for quotations.