In Praise of the Missing Image

MOMENTA Biennale d’art contemporain is proud to present its 19th edition, starting September 10, 2025. Curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi, the Biennale has partnered with Montreal museums, galleries, and artist-run centres to offer the public a series of exhibitions that explore In Praise of the Missing Image.

Presented in 11 exhibition spaces across the city, the Biennale’s programming will form a dialogue among the work of 23 Canadian and international artists, representing 14 countries, 4 provinces, and 5 Indigenous communities. From one exhibition to the next, artists will explore hybridization, fluidity, and fugitivity to create emancipatory images that reveal marginalized or erased narratives.

In Praise of the Missing Image, developed by guest curator Marie-Ann Yemsi, explores contemporary issues around images and the consequences of the complex dynamics that shape their narratives. Her observation is unequivocal: “In a world saturated with images, some, strangely, are lacking.” This edition of MOMENTA presents these absences in a historical perspective by examining their current significance and scope. The Biennale’s exhibitions, publication, and public programs will all be centred around this theme. Conceived as a gathering that will draw its strength from the active co-presence of many, the 2025 edition will open spaces for dialogue, hospitality, and the expression of struggles and solidarities wherein decolonial and feminist pedagogies and ancestral knowledge intersect. The narratives and gestures employed by these artists will evoke the vital necessity of bringing together diverse voices and stories, and will underline the transformative and healing experience of choosing consonant words and forms to speak of oneself.

This year MOMENTA celebrates its 19th edition, and also its first as a contemporary art biennale. Within this unusual blending of old and new is the most accurate expression of what truly sets biennales apart in the field of art. Biennales embrace the future while being firmly rooted in the present.

Exhibition program

Levitate
At Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Iván Argote
September 11, 2025–March 8, 2026

Twòn Kreyol
At Galerie de l’UQAM
Raphaël Barontini
September 4–October 25

Place Where the Waters Crossed
At Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery
Raven Chacon
September 3–November 1

Elegy – for two ancestors
At Galerie de l’UQAM
Gabrielle Goliath
September 4–October 25

Nuna Aliannaittuq
At Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Maureen Gruben
September 11, 2025–March 8, 2026

Underbelly
At Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Anique Jordan
Jul 29, 2025–Feb 1, 2026

Bêtise humaine
At Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Joyce Joumaa
September 11, 2025–March 8, 2026

Ne Karahstánion (Pictures)
At daphne
Martin Akwiranoron Loft
September 5–October 25

The Matriarch: Unravelled Threads
At Fonderie Darling
Mallory Lowe Mpoka
September 11–November 23

Must Every Step Touch the Ground?
At Galerie de l’UQAM
Caroline Mauxion
September 4–October 25

Dust
At Dazibao
Na Mira
September 5–October 25

River Water
At Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Niap
September 11, 2025–March 8, 2026

swell of spæc(i)es
At PHI
Josèfa Ntjam
September 10, 2025–January 11, 2026

The Fires Rekindled by Your Last Breaths (Movements I and III)
At Centre CLARK
Myriam Omar Awadi
September 5–October 18

On Lies, Secrets and Silence
At VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine
Frida Orupabo
September 10–November 29

Orchard Station Road
At Centre CLARK
OK Pedersen
September 5–October 18

Indigenous Archival Photo Project: Framing the Creator’s Game
At OPTICA
Paul Seesequasis
September 5–October 18

Rights of Passage
At OPTICA
Lou Sheppard
September 5–October 18

Being There
At Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Lee Shulman + Omar Victor Diop – The Anonymous Project
September 11, 2025–March 8, 2026

An Incomplete Calendar
At Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Sanaz Sohrabi
September 11, 2025–March 8, 2026

Rosa Luxemburg Resistant Herbarium
At Fonderie Darling
Paula Valero Comín
September 11–November 23

A community of bodies hosting migrating cells
At Dazibao
Anouk Verviers
September 5–October 25

Visit here to see our complete program including exhibitions, performances, talks, panels and workshops.

About MOMENTA
MOMENTA Biennale d’art contemporain is a flagship Montreal event that, every two years, invites artists and audiences to gather in the city’s museums, galleries, and artist-run centres. For 35 years, it has produced exhibitions, public events, and educational workshops that introduce participants to local and international artists whose works pique curiosity and stimulate reflection.