AWE – Rhythm of Remembering

The very final hours in a hometown before displacement begins are marked by decisions—what to carry forward, what to leave behind. Some belongings are taken, but not only those that seem necessary for a place yet unseen. What is left behind, and what is carried forward, shapes what comes next. The last day at home grows in significance only once you have left. Time moves forward, yet memory lingers—fragile, shifting, incomplete.

Behnaz Fatemi explores remembrance, grief, and the weight of moments that can never be reclaimed. Her work engages with the traces left behind, the intangible yet persistent presence of lost moments, drawing from memory to anchor them in the gallery. Fatemi uses performance, drawing, sculpture and installation to invite us into this liminal place, of choice and its consequence, of leave-taking and loss. As one place is left behind and another entered, time remains suspended, and memory becomes the only means of holding onto these shifting spaces as they evolve in our absence.

This exhibition forms part of Below the 6, a series of exhibitions that focuses on artists based in Southwestern Ontario whose practices are socially and politically minded.

The 2024-2025 Below the 6 series is curated by Niku Koochak. The exhibition is generously supported by TD Bank Group.