Boiling Point started amidst the global uprising of Black Lives Matter in the summer of 2020. The first edition aimed to outline the crisis of representation of BIPOC creatives within the Montreal community. We are restlessly searching for new grounds of confrontation on visual languages, experiments with new forms of collaboration, analysis and research. Boiling Point is founded in the will to create a reciprocally stimulating exchange with younger generations working in the realms of visual arts, sound & design. Autonomy & independence are at the core of such an artistic collaboration, while offering the opportunity to re-shape the expressions of Montreal’s cultural commitment and the language of the collective utopia. The keywords of the upcoming edition of Boiling Point are rooted in concepts of love, space, exchange, ecology, community and physicality of the body. We are open in working with all groups that are striving for positive change within our personal, social and environmental climate. Visual arts, sound exploration and cinema are at the center point of this exploration
Written by Venessa Appiah
we believe
in the
recognition
of our
inherent
intersectionality
Our viscerous expression withstands constructed understandings of self. Why does one attempt to put order into the chaos that is the infinite and shapeless condition of being ? A shift must be imposed. A tone must be set. We will not accept these tools of othering. Challenge yourself to recognize our creative output beyond concepts of identity. We are to be conceived above lines of our positionality . Understood, beyond, yet balanced in hyper-visibility and invisibility. We are expansive in our Indigeneity. We are expansive in our Blackness.We are expansive in concepts of racialisation. We are expansive in our queerness.
we believe
in the
upholding
of our
presence
and space
Why must we reach a boiling point in order to obtain social acknowledgement of our eminence? It is solely following race-based social unrest [often rooted in violence] that we are reminded of the importance of our voices. The dissociation of those who hold societal power has led us to a normalization of this cycle. Our enabled ubiety mustn’t come at the cost of our struggle. The multiple forms of suffering and destruction of our bodies aren’t exhibitionistic sacrifices to liberation.We are not asking for permission. We don’t need to plead for respect. We are no longer justifying our presence. We hold in amplitude because we belong. Our practices of art, within themselves, are articulations of protest. Our inhabitance of space, within itself, radical.
we believe
that virtue
belongs to
the artist
not the
institution
Though Indigenous and Afro-centric understandings of the world have been erased throughout art history; We jubilate in them. Our artistry triumphs in their legacies and eulogizes our histories. Their holistic approaches reveal hidden knowledge that ensures our innovatory viability. Systems of artistic conception and conservation have been based on a constructed capitalist and White spectrum that has long profited off BIPOC expression. Discourse on the artistic agency of racialized peoples treads through a Euro-centric lens. We destroy the cult of the past. We are de-centering the gaze. We give power back to those who exude it.
we believe
in fostering
inner dialogue
recognizing its
cruciality to bipoc
sustainability
We acknowledge unification as essential to our artistic liberation. Active discourse within communities has historically been at the heart of the journey towards the emancipation of marginalized people. We maintain these networks and strengthen them in preservation of our mental, spiritual and physical existence. Our expression goes beyond the individual and dismisses the insidious illusion that art exists for art’s sake. We recognize ourselves through each other’s artistry. By means of radical love, we are present for each other when the world isn’t. We deserve impervious care .We deserve places to hide. We need spaces of tender shelter.
we believe
in a
renewed
and
self-defined
agency
Our concerns are that of Indigenous viability, of racialized futurity and of queer livability. We create our own senses of power. We mold our own structures .We redefine the status quo. We are displaced peoples defining our own barriers. Contriving our sovereign ideals of ownership and reattributing them back where they belong. Our contributions aren’t accessories to mainstream narratives. Our concepts of pluriculturalism aren’t a performance. We stand absolute and self-defined. We are here to break patterns where repetition without progress dwell.This [the boiling point] is not the beginning, nor is it the end. It is the space of transformation; that of rebirth.
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