santiago tamayo soler
Postales
(Video Installation, 2025)
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.
This project was largely developed during the Empreintes Residency 2024 at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.
Video Sound Design: Pascal Desjardins
Postcard Stands: Rafael Khoury, Atelier Bontrain, Montréal
Exhibitions:
L’être en résistance, Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée, Montréal, QC. Sept - Nov, 2025.
Regarde ! 2024 (Winter Postcard Only). Montréal, QC. June-October 2024.
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.
“Primaveral Orquídeas au lever du soleil” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts:
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.
“Mangroves de la Isla Saint-André” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts:
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.
“Val-des-Ceroxylons” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts:
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.
“Espeletia Frailejones sous l’aurore boréale” contains elements of works from the Montréal Museum
of Fine Arts:
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.
Photo Credits: Louis Hébert, David Cannon. MNBAQ.
Images Courtesy of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec..
