santiago tamayo soler
Postales
(Video Installation, 2025)
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Postales is a video installation that celebrates the ever-growing Colombian diaspora in Québec and Canada, exploring liminality through postcard correspondence.
To propose a visual representation of the liminality often experienced in the migratory experience, I’ve created a series of 4 postcards, containing hybrid landscapes built with elements from the Colombian and Canadian landscape. For the Canadian elements in the image I used segments from works belonging to the permanent collection of the Montréal Fine Arts Museum. For the Colombian elements in the landscape, I used elements from my family archives, including painting, photos, and travel documents.
Accompanied by a video where these landscapes come to life, I had the privilege to collaborate with 8 first-generation diaspora members who arrived between 1957 and 2023. All of them have helped pave the way for the local Colombian community in Canada, through arts, culture, and education: Ligia Legault, Reina Victoria Vega Vega, Helena Martin Franco, Javi Fuentes Bernal, Ángela Sierra, Mauricio Hurtado, Myriam Delgado, and my aunt, Claudia Tamayo.
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This project was largely developed during the Empreintes Residency 2024 at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.
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Video Sound Design: Pascal Desjardins
Postcard Stands: Rafael Khoury, Atelier Bontrain, Montréal
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Exhibitions:
Regarde ! 2024 (Winter Postcard Only). Montréal, QC. June-October 2024.
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Press:
"Santiago Tamayo Soler: Transformer le paysage canadienne", Le Devoir.
"Le MNBAQ fait découvrir son exposition autour du Prix en art actuel 2025", Radio-Canada.
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“Primaveral Orquídeas au lever du soleil” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts:
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Francis Hans Johnston, The Gleaming Peaks, before 1926; Robert Scott Duncanson, Sunset Study, 1863; Sister Marie-Anastasie (Laura Tourangeau), Under a Bracken Sky, 1968; Marguerite Doernbach, Turning the Hay, about 1940-194; Margaret Marion McIntyre, plates, about 1894; as well as segments from a painting by my grandfather, Gustavo Soler Castro.
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“Mangroves de la Isla Saint-André” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts:
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Catherine Raby, Saint Catherine, about 1787-1788; Allan Edson, Deep in the Woods, 1870; Henry Nesbitt (Harry) McEvoy, Webster’s Falls, near Dundas, Ontario, 1908; Margaret Marion McIntyre, plates, about 1894; as well as segments from a painting by my uncle, Gabriel Tamayo Álvarez, and photos from the Tamayo Álvarez family archive.
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“Val-des-Ceroxylons” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts:
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James Wilson Morrice, On the Road, 1897; James Edward Hervey MacDonald, Little Turtle Lake, about 1923-1925; Lucius O’Brien, Mount Sir Donald (Mountain Landscape), 1886; Margaret Marion McIntyre, plates, about 1894; as well as segments from a painting by my grandfather, Gustavo Soler Castro, and photos from the Tamayo Álvarez family archive.
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“Espeletia Frailejones sous l’aurore boréale” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum
of Fine Arts:
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Tom Thomson, Northern Lights, about 1916-1917; James Edward Hervey MacDonald, Mountain Chaos, 1925; Margaret Marion McIntyre, plates, about 1894;as well as segments from photos from the Tamayo Álvarez family archive.
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Photo Credits: Louis Hébert, David Cannon. MNBAQ.
Images Courtesy of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec..
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