The Associated Designers of Canada in association with the University of Alberta, will produce the 2027 Canadian Exhibition of Countries and Regions at the Prague Quadrennial (PQ), alongside Quebec’s exhibition produced by APASQ. Following a national open call for curatorial visions and a month-long adjudication process, a jury of eight creative peers selected Mishelle Cuttler and Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen as curators for their proposal Co-Creating Alternative Futures: Using Sound and Somatic Design to Presence the Absent Matriarch.

From our curators; “In building an exhibition to represent Canada on an international scale, it feels urgent and essential to highlight the voices and stories of our nations’ most invisible, silent and essential figures – specifically, Indigenous women and other matriarchs.” Their curatorial starting point is The Seventh Fire, an immersive, audio performance drawing on oral Anishinaabe stories and societal roles as a way to evoke ceremony in the everyday. Importantly, it presences those who have been historically silenced in Canada. The goal is to create a somatic link to ancestral realms, with sound design as the primary activating force, while also incorporating a highly intentional spatial design and a focus on audience care.

For PQ 2027, the curators aim to expand this inquiry: How can design illuminate those who have been forgotten or unheard, particularly through sound—a discipline often overlooked in exhibition environments? Ravensbergen and Cuttler believe that Canadian designers excel at elevating voices that persist despite silence, and this exhibition seeks to demonstrate that resilience on an international stage.

In addition to the national exhibition, Gabriel Tsampalieros (National Theatre School), Ken Mackenzie (University of Saskatchewan) and Tamara Kucheran (Dalhousie University) will curate the Student Exhibition (Quebec & Canada), produced by Association des professionnels des arts de la scène du Québec (APASQ) and Associated Designers of Canada.