Unfolding Desire Assembly
Sat Sep 26, 2026 | 10 AM–7 PM
Ofri Cnaani, Out of Order, A Workshop, 2026, for Unfolding Desire Project, Center of Documentation, Oltre il Giardino, Photo by Michela Coslovich, Courtesy of the Artist
Unfolding Desire Assembly is a one-day curatorial program presented as part of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Art of Wellbeing initiative, in collaboration with Griffin Art Projects and Empty Space Art Studio Society.
Bringing together Vancouver–based and international artists, curators and researchers, the Assembly features talks, panel discussions, a studio visit and a performance that explore the relationality between mental health, desire and artistic labour.
The Assembly extends Unfolding Desire, a project co-curated by Francesca Lazzarini and Elham Puriya Mehr and presented in Trieste, Italy, in 2025. Conceiving desire as a force capable of imagining and enacting alternative futures, Unfolding Desire explored the significance of Franco Basaglia’s psychiatric reforms and their enduring commitment to collective practices of care. Extending this inquiry into Vancouver—a city increasingly shaped by economic precarity, rising living costs and diminishing artistic infrastructures—the Assembly foregrounds the affective and relational dimensions of mental health and artistic labour.
From this lineage arises a set of interlinked questions that structure the Assembly: What does it mean to understand the relationship between mental health and artistic creation as a shared field in which subjectivity, affect and expression are continuously co-constituted? How might artistic desire be reclaimed from neoliberal regimes that reduce creativity to perpetual production, competition and self-exposure? And what forms of collective care, social infrastructure and institutional support are required to sustain artistic life under such conditions?
This one-day event is free for Circles of Giving Members, $5 for Experiences Members, $10 for Ideas Members and $15 for Access Pass Holders and the general public.
Lunch will be provided. Capacity is limited. Advanced registration is required.
This hybrid program is being presented in-person and online.
If cost is a barrier to you or if you have any questions around accessibility at this event, please email learn@vanartgallery.bc.ca or call 604 662 4700.
Program Schedule
Saturday, September 26, 2026
10 AM–12:30 PM: Morning Session
Courtroom 302, Vancouver Art Gallery
- Welcome Remarks
- Introduction: Elham Puriya Mehr
- Presentation: Francesca Lazzarini | Unfolding Desire Project
- Presentation: Ofri Cnaani | Archiving Proximities [Online]
- Presentation: Pantxo Ramas | From Trieste to Barcelona: Infrastructuring Care [Online]
- Q&A
12:30–1:30 PM: Lunch
1:30–4 PM: Afternoon Session
Courtroom 302, Vancouver Art Gallery
- Introduction: Elham Puriya Mehr
- Presentation: Erika Dyck | Finding Creativity in Mad Archives: Discovering Desire Amidst Deinstitutionalization
- Presentation: Cathy Busby | I Wonder: An Art / Care Project
- Presentation: Sol Hashemi, Gallery Gachet | Reclaiming the Conditions of Realization: On Picnic For a N(n)ervous System
- Panel Discussion: All Presenters
- Q&A
5–7 PM: Evening Session
Studio of Evann Siebens
(Address to be provided upon registration)
- Artist Studio Visit and Reception
- Performance: Studio Visit, Interrupted
Organized by Elham Puriya Mehr, the Unfolding Desire Assembly brings together local and international artists, curators, directors and practitioners across art and mental health to collectively imagine new futures through shared imaginaries and evolving ecologies of care.
The Unfolding Desire Assembly is presented as part of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Art of Wellbeing initiative, in collaboration with Griffin Art Projects and Empty Space Art Studio Society. The Assembly is generously supported by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy) and the Canada Council for the Arts, whose ongoing commitment to artistic research and creation in Canada we gratefully acknowledge.
We also acknowledge the organizations that supported the Unfolding Desire project in Trieste (2025), with special thanks to the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region for its generous contribution. The project was realized by AiR Trieste and Cultural Inventory, in partnership with La Collina Social Cooperative, Trieste Contemporanea, and Griffin Art Projects.
