JAYCE SALLOUM

As if an itinerant geographer of conflicted territories (most everywhere), Salloum observes the world and creates/collects images/texts to re-make meaning with or comment on, a subjective archive of images that he either gleans or produces. Since arriving here - by no means of his own volition - he tends to go only where he is invited or where there is an intrinsic affinity, his projects being rooted in an intimate engagement with place. A grandson of Syrian or Lebanese immigrants he was born and raised on others’ land, the Sylix (Okanagan) territory in Kelowna, BC. After 21 years living and working elsewheres (San Francisco, Banff, Toronto, San Diego, Beirut, and New York he planted himself on the unceded stolen lands of Xʷməθkʷey̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) + Səíl̓wətaʔł (Tsleil-Waututh) - aka Vancouver - where has been for 23 years. Recognizing and acting on this is an everyday practice, but let’s face it, he could do a lot more. They say, his videotapes, photographs, installations, and other cultural projects engage the personal/subjective, reconfiguring notions of identity, community, history, boundaries, exile, (trans/inter/intra)nationalism and resistance. He’s found himself working in many places/spaces including, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, the former Yugoslavia, Europa, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Central America, Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Kamloops, Kelowna, Cumberland House, Vancouver, Aotearoa, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Philippines and Australia. In/out of this context not that it really matters, Salloum has lectured, published pervasively and exhibited peripatetically at the widest range of local and international venues possible and most improbable, from the smallest unnamed storefronts (and I mean small) in his downtown eastside Vancouver neighbourhood to institutions such as the Musée du Louvre, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, National Gallery of Canada, Bienal De La Havana, Sharjah Biennial, Biennale of Sydney and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. He is represented by MKG127, Toronto and Mónica Reyes Gallery, Vancouver. Instagram.com/jaycesalloum https://vimeo.com/salloum