Roundtable with Javi Fuentes Bernala, Robbie Madsen, and Noémie Maignien, moderated by Marcela Borquez
November 27, 2025 - 6pm
Free, no registration
Event in French
at SBC Gallery
Opening the public program Everything Still Resonates, this roundtable introduces the lines of reflection that will guide the program’s upcoming activities. Inspired by practices rooted in artistic and community contexts, the event proposes a dialogue on how collective creation can serve as a path for social, ecological, and relational transformation.
Joining the roundtable are: Javi Fuentes Bernal, member of Colectiva Polea, Colombian-Canadian social worker, artist, and community organizer, whose research focuses on the intersections of gender, migration, mental health, and art; Robbie Madsen, artist, writer, and Cree Two-Spirit community worker, whose creative and activist work explores healing, identity, and resilience through song, storytelling, and collective engagement; and Noémie Maignien, researcher, artist, and cultural mediator, involved in projects that combine ecological knowledge, participatory practices, and feminist perspectives. The roundtable will be moderated by Marcela Borquez, Head of Public Programs at SBC Contemporary Art Gallery.
This event is part of the program Everything Still Resonates
Co-created by SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art with Colectiva Polea, the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Intellectual Traditions and Self-Determination, and the Laboratory for Decolonial Art and Research (LabARD), this program brings together Indigenous, diasporic, and settler voices proposing alternatives to socio-ecological crises and sharing tools for healing, transformation, and resistance. From November 27 to December 12, workshops, gatherings, and performances invite participants to imagine new ways of making together.
PARTICIPANTS
Javi Fuentes Bernal is a transdisciplinary artist and mental health researcher-practitioner. Their work draws on critical fabulations and archival practices, situated at the intersection of trans*travesti, diasporic, and Indigenous thought. Through performance, video, and writing, Javi explores decolonial approaches to healing as well as the relationships between memory, territory, rematriation, and popular culture. Javi contributed to the exhibitions Unique en son genre (Musée de la Civilisation, 2023), Awera en Bakatá (Museo Nacional de Colombia, 2024), and Le Québec, autrement dit (Musée de la Civilisation, 2024). Their projects have been presented at 4th Space Concordia (Montreal, 2022), Revue Mœbius (2023), RIPA (2024), COHDS Concordia (2025), Œil de Poisson (2025), and the PHI Centre (2025).
Robbie Madsen is a Two-Spirit Cree healing expert and author based in Montreal, originally from northern Alberta. With deep expertise in addressing the impacts of the Sixties Scoop and homelessness among Indigenous communities, Robbie's spiritual journey has endowed him with wisdom he actively shares through his work and teachings. Adopted into a non-Indigenous military family, his personal quest for healing and cultural reclamation is captured in his book Insanity & Lies - Goodbye, Sixties Scoop. Robbie's contributions extend to the Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation, where he advocates for holistic wellness and supports cultural reunification and advocacy for Indigenous survivors.
Noémie Maignien is a cultural mediation researcher at Artenso. She began a PhD in Museology, Mediation, and Heritage at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Since 2012, she has been working in cultural and community sectors in France and then in Quebec. In both her research and her professional mandates, she focuses on cultural mediation practices, accessibility and inclusion in culture and cultural institutions, the development of cultural policies, as well as the implementation of participatory evaluations and research projects in the cultural field. She is a co-researcher member of the Observatoire des Médiations Culturelles (OMEC).
© Photo: Kim Vigneux
© Photo: José Manuel Duque
Marcela Borquez is a Mexican cultural worker based in Montreal, interested in the relationships between art and pedagogies, collective engagement, as well as questions of identity and belonging. She has developed public programs in collaboration with cultural and community organizations. As a member of the artist network Red de Pedagogías Empáticas, she coordinated the publication Bisagra: Pedagogías Empáticas/Indisciplinas Artísticas (2022).
PARTNERS
