Remai Modern is pleased to present a new, multi-year project that convenes a group of artists with diverse practices living and working across the northern hemisphere, from urban centres to remote, rural, and reserve communities. In response to our location on the banks of kisiskâiwani-sîiy (the South Saskatchewan River), Carried by rivers, held by lands considers the museum’ connections to multiple elsewheres. Rather than a group exhibition, it is an exercise in creating connections and building alliances between artists, artworks, and locations over time—n attempt to create a context across distances, based on affinities and shared concerns, and a belief in the importance of staying with the trouble. As Donna Haraway writes, this means learning to be truly present in ‘ixed-up times’marked by both devastation and joyful resurgence, and cultivating situated relations of response and alliance rather than deferring responsibility to an imagined future.
Coalescing around land- and water-based livelihoods and knowledges, Carried by rivers, held by lands foregrounds the critical interdependencies and specificities that define our shared present and collective future, particularly considering the urgencies of the climate crisis and the inheritances and status of colonial capitalism. Enacting forms of creative expression grounded in the inter-relationship between community and land, the artist projects are a call to action. They propose alternative economic relations and offer acts of cultural and environmental restitution. By weaving together globalized connectivity and local articulations, Carried by rivers, held by lands builds and benefits from a network of shared relations. Grounded in dialogue and collaboration, the project seeks to harness art’ capacity for transformative collective change.
Flowing in and out of the institution, Remai Modern serves as a confluence of these varied practices, acting as a vital gathering place for the project’ upstream and downstream currents. A series of artist projects are being developed through commissions, exchanges, gatherings, residencies, and community-engaged processes, and will be presented in Connect Gallery and in the museum’ interstitial spaces, as well as taking place outside of the museum in relation to places and communities the participating artists are connected to.
The first two projects by Althea Thauberger and Joi T. Arcand open on November 14, with additional work being presented throughout 2026.
Carried by rivers, held by lands is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. Additional support for upcoming projects includes IASPIS – International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts.
Exhibition 14 November - 31 December 2025. Remai Modern, 102 Spadina Crescent East - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7K 0L3 (Canada).Hours : Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 10am – 5pm – Thursday and Friday 10am – 9pm. Monday and Tuesday closed.
De gauche à droite: Joi T. Arcand, ēkawiya nepēwisi, neon channel sign, 2017. Installation view, she used to want to be a ballerina, College Art Gallery, Saskatoon, 2019. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Carey Shaw. Althea Thauberger, Der Kleiekotzer, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and Susan Hobbs Gallery.
