Curating "Pizandawatc": Talk and Tour with Mona Filip

Experience Caroline Monnet's "Pizandawatc" with curator Mona Filip as she shares her curatorial process and insights

Join Mona Filip, Curator of Caroline Monnet’s Pizandawatc as she leads us through the exhibition and her curatorial process.

Mona Filip is a contemporary art curator and writer now based in Calgary, formerly in Toronto. Originally from Bucharest, where she began her artistic education, Filip received her BFA from the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, and her MFA from SUNY at Buffalo. Most recently as Curator at the Art Museum of the University of Toronto and previously Director/Curator of the Koffler Gallery, Toronto, Filip’s curatorial practice spans almost two decades and over forty exhibitions and sitespecific projects, collaborations with guest curators, a broad range of public programs, and innovative educational initiatives. With an idea-driven and dialogue-focused approach, she collaborates with artists to produce experiential and immersive installations that transform the familiar gallery space, meaningfully respond to unconventional sites, and engage the public on sensorial, emotional, and intellectual levels. She developed first public gallery shows in Toronto of prominent Canadian artists such as Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Sameer Farooq, Karen Tam, and José Luis Torres, and first Canadian exhibitions of acclaimed international artists Raphaël Zarka (France) and Christian Hidaka (UK), Sigalit Landau (Israel), Esther Shalev-Gerz (France), Isabel Rocamora (UK/ Spain), Iara Freiberg (Brazil/ Argentina), and Joshua Neustein (USA).

Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) is a multidisciplinary artist from Outaouais, Québec. She studied Sociology and Communication at the University of Ottawa and the University of Granada before pursuing a career in visual arts and film. Her work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial, New York City; Toronto Biennal of Art; KØS Museum, Copenhagen; Museum of Contemporary Art, Montréal; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Solo exhibitions include Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Arsenal Contemporary, New York City; and Centre d’art international de Vassivière, France. Her work is included in numerous collections in North America as well as the permanent UNESCO collection in Paris. Her films have been extensively programmed at international film festivals including TIFF and Sundance. In 2016, she was selected for the Cannes Festival Cinéfondation residency in Paris. Monnet is recipient of the 2020 Pierre-Ayot award and the Merata Mita Fellowship of the Sundance Institute, and she was recently named Compagne des arts et des lettres du Québec. She is based in Montréal and is represented by Blouin-Division Gallery.

I mages:
Talk and Tour with Caroline Monnet and Mona Filip at Esker Foundation, Saturday 24 May, 2025. Photo by: Wayne To.
Courtesy of the artist and Blouin-Division Gallery. Installation view: Pizandawatc / The One Who Listens / Celui qui écoute , January 17–March 23, 2024, University of Toronto Art Centre. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid, courtesy of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.
Ikwe origami (Portage de la Femme) , 2023, maple wood, oil, 25” x 4’5” x 12”. Courtesy of the artist and Blouin-Division Gallery. Installation view: Pizandawatc / The One Who Listens / Celui qui écoute , January 17–March 23, 2024, University of Toronto Art Centre. Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid, courtesy of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto.

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