AIn
her first solo exhibit, local photographer and video artist Miriam Sampaio
has chosen to dig up her roots, tracing her family lineage back to Portugal.
Sampaio, the daughter of Portuguese Sephardic Jews, calls Murmur “an
archeological inquiry into the deepest reaches of my genetic memory.”
The artist went in search of the “secret Jewish communities”
in Portugal and parallels them with certain familial traits and history,
recalling childhood memories and complex relationships.
“I went to Portugal in ’98,” Sampaio explains. “I
grew up in foster homes and I had no idea who my family was, so I went
to where they live. It’s a nostalgic notion, a genetic or ancestral
memory.” The exhibit, which features a 13-minute video and 28 photos,
17 of which are archival (some nearly 100 years old), is “about
mapping out my identity, my obsession with anything that’s old,”
Sampaio sums up. At Galerie La Centrale (460 Ste-Catherine W. #506),
Jan. 12–Feb. 16, vernissage, Jan. 12, 3 p.m. :
AIn
her first solo exhibit, local photographer and video artist Miriam Sampaio
has chosen to dig up her roots, tracing her family lineage back to Portugal.
Sampaio, the daughter of Portuguese Sephardic Jews, calls Murmur “an
archeological inquiry into the deepest reaches of my genetic memory.”
The artist went in search of the “secret Jewish communities”
in Portugal and parallels them with certain familial traits and history,
recalling childhood memories and complex relationships.