The MOMENTA Creative cultural mediation program offers different ways for you to explore the Biennale’s exhibitions. Enjoy, free of charge, our educational activities, guided tours, and creative and reflective workshops for the 19th edition, In Praise of the Missing Image. These activities, presented throughout the event, propose original and sensitive approaches to the ideas of silence, absence, and memory.

Activities designed for everyone

The activities are designed to adapt to a wide range of audiences. MOMENTA is particularly attentive to cultural, linguistic, and cognitive accessibility:

– Content modulated according to age, specific needs, and levels of familiarity with contemporary art ;
– Texts in plain language, visual supports, interactive and inclusive approaches ;
– Activities that can be accompanied by a Québec sign language (LSQ), or American sign language (ASL) interpreter upon request when you make your reservation.

Make the reservation for a sign language interpreter ideally 2 weeks in advance.

Find out about the program, and reserve your activity by filling out the associated form. For all questions about our activities, contact MOMENTA at mediation@momentabiennale.com.

DESMYSTIFYING "WEEDS"

See “weeds” in a whole new light! Learn to recognize fifteen urban plants that can be used as medicine or food, and explore their role in the ecosystem. In this workshop, which takes place outdoors, you’ll observe, touch, smell, and taste local flora. Activity offered by the Écoquartier de Ville-Marie as part of its awareness-raising program.

From the exhibitions Rosa Luxemburg Resistant Herbarium by artist Paula Valero Comín, and The Matriarch: Unravelled Threads by artist Mallory Lowe Mpoka

Participate in our workshops:
– Tuesday, September 16 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. (FULL)
– Wednesday, October 1, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Groups only
A reservation is required.
Register here.

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ALCHEMY OF THE UNLOVED: LEGACIES AND POWERS

This workshop is inspired by the works of Mallory Lowe Mpoka and Paula Valero Comín presented at Fonderie Darling. During an exploratory walk in the neighbourhood, the multidisciplinary artist Annie France Leclerc will introduce a few “weeds,” remarkable for their ability to grow in the most inhospitable places, to detoxify soil, and to provide care. In a writing workshop, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their relationship with plants in a process sensitive to extraction and waste. By working with materials found on site and with the parts of plants that speak to them, they will create a unique visual composition combining photography and writing.

From the exhibitions Rosa Luxemburg Resistant Herbarium by artist Paula Valero Comín, and The Matriarch: Unraveled Threads by artist Mallory Lowe Mpoka

Participate in our workshops, in collaboration with the artist Annie France Leclerc:
– Saturday, September 20, at 10:00 a.m.
– Saturday, September 20, at 2:00 p.m.
– Tuesday, October 7, at 1:30 p.m. (groups only)

For all
A reservation is required.
Register here.

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FROM EARTH TO CLOTH: A BOTANICAL DYEING WORKSHOP

This two-and-a-half-hour workshop, hosted by the artists Mallory Lowe Mpoka and Nadia Bunyan—founder of the NPO Growing ARC—explores natural dyeing of recycled textiles. Together we will weave narratives of heritage and transmission, linking together native plants of Canada, the Caribbean, and Africa. Participants will learn dyeing techniques, inspired by Lowe Mpoka’s work for her exhibition The Matriarch: Unravelled Threads, with materials such as sumac, red clay, hibiscus, and rose madder. Along with the practical aspects, the workshop will address the curative and spiritual properties of different plants used for dyeing, offering a deeper connection to ancestral knowledge and traditional practices. We will also explore tannins and resist-dyeing techniques, combining artistic expression, culture, and botanical wisdom.

From the exhibition The Matriarch: Unravelled Threads by artist Mallory Lowe Mpoka

Participate in our workshop, in collaboration with the artists Mallory Lowe Mpoka and Nadia Bunyan, founder of the NPO Growing ARC:
– Wednesday, October 8 from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m.

For all
A reservation is required (20 places available).
Register here.

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THE SECRET STORIES OF "WEEDS"

Explore misunderstood urban plants, often falsely called “weeds,” and discover their incredible resilience. During an exploratory walk, you’ll see these plants growing in cracks in the concrete, imagine their life, and invent evocative names for them. When you return to the workshop, you’ll make an illustrated herbarium, mixing drawing, collage, and writing, to describe the beauty and quiet strength of these survivors. It’s a playful, poetic, and sensitive workshop that invites you to cast a new eye on nature in the city and revive your capacity for being amazed at life.

From the exhibitions Rosa Luxemburg Resistant Herbarium by artist Paula Valero Comín, and The Matriarch: Unravelled Threads by artist Mallory Lowe Mpoka

Participate in our workshops:
– Saturday, November 1, at 1:30 p.m.
– Saturday, November 1, at 3:30 p.m.

For more flexibility, you may also reserve the date and time of your choice, from Monday to Friday between 9:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., between September 11 and November 1.

For all
A reservation is required.
Register here.