PROGRAM: 

ASHKAN NEJADEBRAHIMI, THE SANCTUARY, 2026, 4:14

Video by Ashkan Nejadebrahimi / Performance by Elham Shokri

Our bodies is the frontline for encountering with the outer world. Our bodies is the only true sanctuary we have...

ABBY FALVO, *666, 2023, SUPER 8MM, 3:04

Two curious women perform a ritual to make a call beyond the veil and discover that some calls are better unanswered.

OLANREWAJU VICTOR ABIOLA, LOST BEADS, 2023, DIGITAL, 02:47

co-directed by Francisca Chigozirim Ehileme

"Lost Beads" is an anthological reference to rediscovering once true roots. For me, the process of uncovering true history has been both painful and liberating, and I believe that there is immense value in confronting the uncomfortable truths that lie beneath the surface of our lives. What more can we make of these displaced and dispersed pearls?

BRONWYN LUTZ-GREENHOW & MADELYN GOWLER, A DAY IN MY LIFE, 2024, SUPER 8, 3:29

JUSTIN BEAR L'ARRIVEE, THE NEWCOMER, 2025, DIGITAL EDITS OF VHS ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE & BLENDER 3D ANIMATION, 5:54 

The Newcomer' is a critical re-editing of the 1951 film of the same name produced by the CBC that stars the artists grandmother Rose Chalmers Bear. The edits insert a malevolent bowling ball spirit bent on possessing good Indians.

DEREK BRUECKNER + MARK NEUFELD, FUTURE PROOF, 2026, 10:07

Music: Siri, Call Charon by Sfumato (Chris Albanese, Mark Neufeld, Olive Shakur)

This 10-minute video collaboration with Mark Neufeld and Derek Brueckner assembles a layered field of imagery drawn from obsolete science and geology books, cosmic diagrams, maps, and globes, alongside found imagery and personal documentary footage. Clouds filmed from an airplane window intersect with tabletop views of books and objects, brief appearances of a clock, and landscapes that move between intimate observation and expansive scale. Through sustained superimposition, the work collapses distinctions between archival material, mediated live feeds, and direct recordings.

IAN AUGUST & FALCO AUGUST, COLLECTION ESSENTIALS, 2026, 3:16

Each of the 200 pieces in the Soap Pump Project working collection are available for up close inspection on our 3D observation carousel. Please enjoy this sample selection of our COLLECTION ESSENTIALS. 

LOUIS WINTER, MELT. EARLIER AND EARLIER. 2025, DIGI CAM/SKATING, 3:30

the world is mighty & delicate. and delicate might melt earlier. what do we do when our deepest loves are slowly taken from us, when our future memories continue to be put in danger by those in power. how do you handle your climate anxiety?

MAHLET CUFF, DISCO LIVES FOREVER, 2026, DIGITAL, 1:22

The exploration of how disco and other forms of Black Queer music has been manifested in spite of disco demolition night.

NELSON FLATEN, FALL 2024, 2024, SCANNED DOUBLE 8MM, 3:35 

RAE SWAN, IF YOU AND I ARE DREAMING, 2024, SUPER 8, 3:27

Follow the Traveler into a dream where she meets the fates and time is still.

Shot + Directed by Rae Swan 

Featuring: 

Kitty Kerr as THE TRAVELER

Brooke Hess, Shanelle St. Hilaire, & Rae Swan as THE FATES

ANNIE DUPAS ROSSINGTON, CORN DAY, 2023, DIGITAL, 1:28

annual ritual on the cob

SÉAMUS GALLAGHER, ON THE GROUND, IN THE AIR, ACROSS THE WATER, 2024, RECORDED IN UNREAL ENGINE, 10:00

KRIS SNOWBIRD, FOR WHAT THEY DID TO US, 8MM DIGITAL TRANSFER

Kristin is a former competitive jingle dress and fancy shawl dancer. She performed for the camera by first drawing a Canadian flag in the sand at the beach. The flag, a potent national symbol, becomes the stage for Kristin’s act of reclamation: as she dances on the image of the flag, her footsteps gradually erase the maple leaf, symbolically undoing a legacy of oppressive nationalism that once threatened to

erase First Nations cultural forms such as dance.

Kristin wears a costume or regalia: an armor-like garment made from flattened, scale-like jingle cones, referencing the jingle dance’s traditional role as a healing act and evoking both vulnerability and strength.

HAMIDEH BEHGAR, FREE PLAY IN THE DREAMING LANDSCAPE 1  & 2, 2023, STOP MOTION ANIMATION WITH INSTALLATION DREAMY LANDSCAPE, 0:48 & 0:58 

To emphasize the interactivity and playfulness of Dreamy Landscape, stop-motion animations with free-play scenarios were made to highlight interactivity. Objects were shown fitting together, accumulating at various angles, and cooperating to form new structures and spaces. The resulting images evoke a bird’s eye view of a snow-covered landscape with naturally intermingling shapes, akin to a game board navigated without predefined rules. The sculptural spaces, open to interpretation, require no understanding of their underlying stories, allowing viewers to engage freely and form personal narratives inspired by the visuals.

MAHSA MERCI, LIMBO II, 2021, DIGITAL ANIMATION, 6:32 

SYDNEY CALDWELL, CHILDHOOD MEMORIES, 2025, SCREEN RECORDING & ATMOSPHERIC AUDIO RECORDING, 6:09

Using google maps I explore my childhood in Norwood Flats. Going up and down my most frequented streets. Visit childhood friends homes, my old k-8 school and what once was the community pool. I switch between the years that were recorded by the google maps camera. 

MANUFACTURING ENTERTAINMENT, CLOSER, 2026, DIGITAL VIDEO AND SYNTHESIZATION

"CL0SER" is an A/V composition by Manufacturing Entertainment (sound by Emma Hendrix, video by Julie Gendron). A portion of the audio was originally created for "Signals", a Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers' production. The video is created from drone footage as well as coding with digital synthesization. 

HEIDI BERGSTROM, FRONTIER - DECOLONIZING SMETS-SHOSIN, 2021, DIGITAL, 5:00

In 2021, I participated in a virtual residency at ‘ace Proyecto, Buenos Aires, Argentina with a cohort of 40 artists from around the world, who were all exploring the concept of Frontier. This short film “Frontier - Decolonizing Smets-Shosin” (2021) documents my process of exploration of what the idea of “frontier” means in relation to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. I wanted to go beyond performative reconciliation gestures and create a material form. So, I created a small book to document my research and personal learning about settler colonialism and decolonization in my local community on the unceded lands of the SC’IȺNEW Nation. 

Using maps, reversed orientations, folded pages, and annotations, the book challenges familiar ways of seeing land, history, and place names. It highlights how mapping, language, story telling and public records have often erased or distorted Indigenous histories. By forcing the reader to turn and unfold the book in numerous ways, the book structure reflects on how colonialism repeatedly turned Indigenous worlds upside down – and continues to do so - and invites ongoing reflection and unlearning rather than a finished conclusion.

RALF, NEBELMEER, 2025, DIGITALLY CONSTRUCTED IMAGES & COLLAGE, 3:33

“NEBELMEER” draws the wanderer into a grotto beneath a sea of fog. Within this immersive room world, a window serves as a guiding light, leading the visitor through scenarios that explore the acts and arts of bathing.

JULIA MARY LANGER, COVER, 2025, 5:54

a series of actions.

a series of false starts.

(shifting starless eternal darks,

wrapping,

impeding,

prompting)

it just exists.

THEO PELMUS, SHAMING PIETA, SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO

Pieta is a famous marble sculpture by Michelangelo. “Pieta” translates to “pity” or “compassion” and depicts the Virgin Mary solemnly contemplating the lifeless body of her son, Jesus, cradled on her lap. Pieta is a symbol of mortality, a mother losing her son, having a child who dies; it’s unnatural. This pain and mourning are reflected and juxtaposed with the suffering caused by religion. What Catholicism has done to many people in many places. It’s a work that’s conflicted.

The harms perpetrated in the name of religion and the punishments for defiance of authority are referenced in this video. The kaleidoscopic image breaks Theo’s figure into an unnatural creature, a kind of chimera with two torsos and two heads. There are somewhat confusing things taking place: Theo and a miniature reproduction of the Pieta sculpture are showered in feathered down and drenched in sticky, greasy fluid, like tarring and feathering, often a kind of vigilante punishment for perceived wrongs of a religious or nationalistic character. Theo describes these flows as glamorous sexuality leaking. Dreamy and grotesque

Shaming Pieta is not one thing. “Like all my work, it shifts like a pendulum from the grotesque to the beautiful, and refuses to stay in one place.” Like the chimera, it’s many things at once; it refuses to be pinned down.

DELF GRAVERT, AIRPORT LOUNGE, 2025, 3:13

feature players: Carol-Ann Bohrn, Cain Kiddell, Aria Evans, Delf Gravert 

music: Onion Prince Party by DG / Slipperbasket 

DAISY WU, THE FISH, 2025, 3:08

Daisy Wu (director, actor, voiceover), Zoë LeBrun (sound), Morgan Traa (videographer), Kris Regacho (lighting and actor), Tu Phan (Actor) 2025

SCOTT FITZPATRICK, BILLY WOODS - MISERY [UNOFFICIAL VIDEO], 2025, SD VIDEO, 2:13

Number one fan like misery, and misery loves company.

BIOGRAPHIES

ASHKAN NEJADEBRAHIMI 

Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Ashkan Nejadebrahimi is a Winnipeg based multidisciplinary artist with a BFA degree from the University of Tehran, and MFA degree from the University of Manitoba. 

As a multi-disciplinary artist, his works have appeared in exhibitions in Iran and Canada. Ashkan has also worked with filmmakers, Video and motion media artists as video editor and collaborator. 

Ashkan’s practice probes intersections and overlaps between imagination and reality in different contexts such as the connection between the Self and the Other, memory and nostalgia, and questioning the difference between original and replica. 

In recent body of works, Ashkan is exploring the quality of mark making and the social, psychological and cultural motivations that affect it. These works have been shaped during artist’s research on subjects related to the routes of mark making through the history of development of humankind, language, and unconscious.

DAISY WU

Daisy Wu is a photo-based artist from Nantong, China, currently based in Winnipeg, Canada, on Treaty 1 Territory. She graduated from the University of Manitoba’s School of Art in 2023, where she awarded an Undergraduate Research Award. In 2024, Wu participated in an Early Career Banff Residency at the Banff Centre of Arts and Creativity. Her work has recently been exhibited at MAWA and aceartInc as part of the FLASH photographic festival. Wu’s practice explores themes of family, belonging, and immigration through photography, installation, and video. 

HAMIDEH BEHGAR

Hamideh Behgar is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Iran, currently based in Winnipeg, Canada. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from the University of Applied Science and Technology in Kish, Iran (2019), and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba School of Art (2023).

Behgar’s practice merges organic and graphic forms, weaving her personal history into universal themes of belonging, play, and transformation. Her work combines narratives of land, identity, and creative freedom, reflecting her emotional journey and investigation of belonging from her homeland to Canada. Drawing on an upbringing within a society of rigid norms, she found freedom in rebellion, cherishing natural objects as conduits for imagination. 

Inspired by Manitoba’s snow formations and her personal journey of migration, Behgar transforms sculptural forms through photography and collage into abstract compositions evocative of Farsi calligraphy. These works evoke memory and home while encouraging open interpretation. Behgar’s art invites audiences to reflect on their thoughts and emotions, forging connections with imagination and celebrating freedom, creativity, and play.

Her work has been exhibited across Iran and Canada, including Nuit Blanche Winnipeg 2024. Currently, she is exploring self-discovery and resilience, questioning how new environments may foster creativity and identity. She is continually expanding her tactile, interactive approach through evolving installations and design projects.

HEIDI BERGSTROM

Heidi Bergstrom. Heidi (she/her) is Red River Métis citizen with a settler background of mixed Euro-Scandinavian (Sweden and Iceland). She is a multimedia visual artist located on the unceded territory of the SC’IȺNEW Nation, also known as Metchosin, BC a stunningly beautiful rural municipality of Victoria, BC, Canada.

Heidi’s education includes a Master of Arts, Political Science (2019) from the University of Victoria, BC; a Diploma in New Media (Internet Site Design, 3D Animation, and Multimedia Production) (2000) Victoria, BC, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours (1990) from York University, Ontario where she majored in studio arts and art history.  Heidi also studied visual arts full-time at the Toronto School of Art (1984-86).  Heidi’s early artistic background also includes dance (classical ballet) at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and Professional Program with Goh Ballet in Vancouver, BC and contemporary/modern in Victoria, BC. 

Since 2016 Heid has hosted artists of all disciplines from around the world at her studio program Studio H Canada International Artist Residency (https://studiohcanadaresidency.ca). 

IAN AUGUST & FALCO AUGUST

Ian August and Falco August maintain the Soap Pump Project Archives based in downtown Winnipeg. 

Julia Mary Langer is an interdisciplinary visual artist from Winnipeg, currently studying Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba. Her practice spans painting, drawing, photography, video, installation, performance, and writing. 

MANUFACTURING ENTERTAINMENT

Manufacturing Entertainment is the artist, curatorial and art production duo, Julie Gendron and Emma Hendrix. Focusing on art-making technologies, digital art communities, and working across genres and disciplines, they strive for meaningful collaborations and community building. Autonomous and forward-thinking, Manufacturing Entertainment thrives on new ways of operating, recombining art methodology and transforming status quo thinking.

In their artistic practice, they use multiple technologies and mediums, including video, sound, installation, analog/digital technologies, coding, the internet and performance. Together they create audio visual (A/V) performances, single-channel video, and interactive and immersive sound-based installations.

Since 2005, Hendrix and Gendron have worked together supporting a multitude of artistic visions through workshops, curation, exhibition and supporting the development of community-led practices. They believe in creative communities and building capacity through collaboration and active participation.

They have done this work independently and as employees of art-based non-profits. Their productions range from gallery exhibitions, online exhibitions/events, new media festivals, large-scale outdoor projections and performances, digital strategy and education, and community-building digital art-based products.

JUSTIN BEAR L'ARRIVEE

Justin Bear L’Arrivee (he/him/they) is a printmaker, new media artist, and curator. He is of mixed Cree and Scottish ancestry from Peguis First Nation (Maternal) and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (Paternal). He’s currently the Artistic Director at Urban Shaman Gallery and is a co-founder of the Indigenous DJ collective Nimi’idiwin. Justin is also a co-founder of Red Rising Magazine, worked as an arts facilitator with Art City Inc., Martha Street Studio, and Ndinawemaaganag Endaawaad Inc., and served in the community as a support & cultural worker. His practice is firmly rooted in community needs and informed by his work within the social service and artist-run centre sector.

MAHLET CUFF 

Mahlet Cuff is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, writer, filmmaker, film programmer, DJ, sound artist, community organizer and arts cultural worker based in Winnipeg Manitoba (Treaty 1). Through an ethnographic based practice they are interested in themes of memory and erasure in order to make sense of the Black Queer diasporic communities they are a part of and engage with. By using Black feminist citational praxis and interrogating their own personal familial archives, they create reimagined Black Queer Diasporic dance and music histories by visually and sonically collaging moving images and sound. Cuff’s work has been screened and exhibited in Winnipeg, Toronto, Windsor, New York, Paris and Brazil.Their video piece titled UTOPIA (an ode to the past, present and future) was shortlisted for the 2025 FluxusMuseum Prize for Experimental Video.

OLANREWAJU ABIOLA

Olanrewaju Victor Abiola (b. 2000) is a multidisciplinary visual artist and architectural designer hailing from Ibadan, Nigeria. His practice escalates across various mediums, from pencil drawings to digitally projected installations. Abiola’s experimental approach enables the dissection of domestic dialogues into simpler representations using illustrated metaphors, while reorienting the meaning of those familiar occurrences in the spaces they occupy.

Abiola’s practice has been greatly influenced by his constant collision between the

metropolitan and rural districts of Ibadan, one of the largest cities in west Africa. Being the last child of three, to middle class City planning Architect, and Banker parents, his early creative enthusiasm was summoned by being surrounded with architectural blueprints and sketches from the shelves in his father’s home studio, and computer gadgets provided by his mother. 

Abiola fulfilled his elementary and secondary education in Ibadan before relocating to Treaty 1 territory, in the country colonially known as Canada, for his tertiary education at the University of Manitoba. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts-Studio degree. and is currently completing his second degree in Architecture.

RAE SWAN

Rae Swan (she/they) is a queer, Métis-settler artist from Treaty 1 territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Their art-making spans across disciplines and forms, incorporating performance, mark making, movement, journaling, and research. Her interdisciplinary body of work explores topics of feminism, de/colonization, myth, and magic.

RALF

RALF (Ralph Gutierrez) is an interdisciplinary visual artist and designer based in Winnipeg. His practice seeks to reify identity and articulate experiential spaces through imagined and built interventions situated at the intersection of art and architecture. Working with collage, photography, found media, and installations, RALF investigates the spirit, character, and phenomena embedded within both natural and constructed environments. His work reflects an ongoing inquiry into how spaces carry memory, shape identity, and give form to cultural narratives.

SCOTT FITZPATRICK

Scott Fitzpatrick is a Winnipeg-based media artist, curator, and technician whose film and video work has screened at underground festivals and marginalized venues worldwide. His moving image practice spans handcrafted 16mm works, essay-style documentary, found-footage video jokes, and expanded cinema performance. He is a founder and co-director of the Winnipeg Underground Film Festival and a former Artist Director of the WNDX Festival of Moving Image. Scott has received prizes for his work from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Onion City Experimental Film Festival, and more, and was the 2018 recipient of the Winnipeg Film Group’s Manitoba Hot House Award.

ABBY FALVO 

Abby Falvo is a comedian, artist, and filmmaker from Winnipeg Manitoba. She created genre films that are based on fantasy, horror, and comedy.

SYDNEY CALDWELL

Sydney Caldwell is a Canadian queer artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba, whose work explores the intersections of identity, mental and physical health, and the complexities of life. Aiming to create raw, dynamic works that express their lived experiences. Through this fusion of materials, she crafts pieces that offer a deep, intimate window into her inner world, giving voice to experiences that are often invisible or overlooked. Drawing inspiration from traditional techniques. She works to incorporate these methods, giving them a fresh, contemporary perspective. Caldwell's work examines emotion, memory, and perception, seeking to capture the intangible aspects of human experience.