Transmutations of Becoming with Each Other

artch – emerging contemporary art and Centre SAGAMIE are pleased to present the second exhibition of the Plein solo project, showcasing the very first solo exhibition by Cristel Silva. Titled Transmutations of Becoming with Each Other, the exhibition will be on view from April 24 to June 27, 2025, at Centre SAGAMIE, where the artist completed her creative residency.

Join us in celebrating the exhibition’s grand opening at the vernissage on April 24, 2025, from 5 to 7 PM!

Through Plein solo, six solo exhibitions will take place between January 2025 and March 2026, offering a captivating panorama of emerging contemporary creation across the province.

Beyond urban planning and its functional limitations, how do we intimately inhabit our cities—and how do they, in turn, inhabit us?

American author and activist Jane Jacobs writes: “In modern cities, we have forgotten that sidewalks and parks are more than just spaces: they are living rooms and ecological corridors for communities.”¹ To rekindle this promising vision, it is essential to pay attention to places that escape the rigid structures of urban planning. These liminal spaces—railways, abandoned wastelands—become fertile ground where dynamic, chaotic, and surprising interactions emerge between humans and non-humans, signaling a thriving ecosystem. It is these environments, fundamental to her relationship with urbanity, that Cristel Silva explores in her latest body of work, presented in Transmutations of Becoming with Each Other.

To engage with these reflections, Cristel Silva incorporates the practice of drifting into her methodology, inspired by Guy Debord and the Situationists. Avoiding predetermined routes, she roams the city freely, shaping her path in response to the intuitions of the terrain. These wanderings serve as a pretext for close observation, allowing her to connect intimately with the stories and sensibilities that subtly weave through the urban environment.

During her drifts, she collects fragments of the urban landscape: discarded tarps, plastic bags, images of fences overtaken by roots. These traces are integrated into the quilts she creates, making each piece a testament to chance encounters. Stitch by stitch, the assemblage forms a sensitive cartography of the places Cristel explores, revealing the vitality of these in-between spaces and non-places.

In this exhibition, Cristel Silva unfolds a rich reflection that intertwines the intimate and the political, exploring how narratives and struggles have the power to transform urban landscapes and shape new ways of inhabiting our cities.

¹ Jacobs, Jane (2012). The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

— Andy Maple, artist and collaborator