Cultural Mediations, Attention and Embodied Knowledge
What forms of attention can we experiment with in cultural spaces? What alternative approaches to accessing knowledge and the sensory realm can we formulate through the current re-reading of our ways of seeing the world and practicing mediation? Organized jointly by OMEC and SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art in connection with the exhibition NOT CONFORMED: Four Women Carving Time curated by Art/Around, this workshop series is conceived as an experimental space in which organizers and participants contribute equally. It will be an opportunity to exchange on our modes of attention and the possible "embodiments" of our knowledge through the arts and in the spaces dedicated to them.
INFORMATION
February 9, 10 AM - 12:30 PM
February 16, 10 AM - 12:30 PM
March 4, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Free workshops
Mediation through the arts and attention devices.
Running from February to March 2026, this cycle will unfold in three stages:
Monday, February 9, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: discovery of the exhibition, accompanied by a reading circle
Monday, February 16, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: design of an exploratory mediation device or activity
Wednesday, March 4, 2026, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: experimentation, in a real setting, of the mediation device during the open workshop for all Gestures of Attention.
These three stages will take place at SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art. Participants may express themselves in French and English.
Who is this for?
It is open to all students in the OMEC network, across all disciplines. This activity is accessible regardless of your theoretical and practical knowledge about the arts and cultural mediation. Would you like to participate but are not yet a member of the OMEC student network? To become a member of the network, you simply need to be a student and have research interests related to cultural mediations. If this profile fits you, you can complete the form available from this link.
Event organized and facilitated by:
Marcela Borquez, Head of Public Programs and Institutional Development, SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art
Catherine Duchesneau, General and Scientific Coordinator, OMEC
Sophie Herrmann, Student Network Coordinator, OMEC
MARCELA BORQUEZ
Marcela Borquez, a Mexican cultural worker residing in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal, is interested in the relationships between art, alternative pedagogies, and collaborative practices. She is the Manager of Public Programs and Institutional Development at SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, an exhibition center dedicated to artistic and curatorial projects that critically examine contemporary issues in art and society. There, she develops an approach rooted in collaboration, weaving connections between the different aspects of programming, artists, audiences, and partners. In this context, she is a member of the Laboratory of Decolonial Art and Research (UQAM) and co-curated the public program Writing through the Body.
CATHERINE DUCHESNEAU
Catherine Duchesneau has been working in Montreal's cultural milieu for 15 years, as a researcher and artistic and editorial advisor. She holds a PhD in sociology from UQAM. Her thesis focused on sensitive knowledge and attentional and relational devices in dance, to explore the ways they can work on methodologies and epistemologies in social sciences. In the field of mediation, she notably contributed to the project Dance Against Violence (movement workshops in shelters and women's centers). She teaches at UQAM in cultural action, feminist studies, and sociology programs, and she is the general and scientific coordinator of OMEC.
SOPHIE HERRMANN
Sophie Herrmann has been working in the cultural sector since 2012. She has been responsible for cultural mediation for contemporary art events and has been working in the visual arts sector for 13 years. She has been teaching at UQO for several years (cultural action and territorial interventions, museum and society). At the same time, she is also a coordinator at OMEC and coordinator of the Fernand-Dumont Chair on Culture. Holder of an undergraduate degree in philosophy and several master's degrees (contemporary art history, museology, cultural mediation), she is interested—as part of her custom-designed PhD in cultural studies and museology—in attention and temporalities in visual arts dissemination venues, at the crossroads between phenomenology and social sciences.
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