September 21 – December 1, 2024
The Flatbread Library is a long-term research project focused on the political and social significance of the tandoor, a large clay oven used in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa for over ten thousand years. The project originated from an artist’s visit to Pakistan with his father.
Created in collaboration with the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the project includes a large-scale sculpture in the form of a flatbread library representing a diverse map of Toronto through a collection of flatbreads obtained from various bakeries across the city. Based on the different types of bread, the artist has shaped a work that reflects the migration histories that have contributed to the city and explores the cultural and political connections created by this staple food.
Co-commissioned and co-presented by the Toronto Biennial of Art and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, with residency support from the Stonecroft Foundation for the Arts.
Bio
Sameer Farooq (b. 1978; he/him) is a Toronto-based artist of Pakistani and Ugandan Indian descent. With a versatile approach that shifts between photography, documentary film, sculpture, and anthropological methods, he investigates strategies of representation to expand the ways through which museums have looked at the past. He works to redress the role of exhibition and collection-based practices by building community-based models of knowledge production. Farooq has held exhibitions at institutions around the world including Venice Architecture Biennale (2023), Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden (2023), Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff (2023), Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax (2023), Galerie Nicolas Robert, Toronto (2023), Fonderie Darling, Montréal (2022); Koffler Gallery, Toronto (2021); Lilley Museum, Reno (2019); Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2017); Institute of Islamic Culture, Paris (2017); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2016); The British Library, London (2015); Maquis Projects, Izmir (2015); Artellewa, Cairo (2014); and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2011). Reviews dedicated to his work have been published by Art Forum, Canadian Art, The Washington Post, BBC Culture, Hyperallergic, and Artnet.
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