Systems of Control and Acts of Resistance: Two Exhibitions and a Canadian Performance Premiere Open on March 26 at Contemporary Calgary
Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens. Ventilation Requirements for Solitary Workers Given the Available Volume of Room Air, 2016. Installation including a series of sculptures and texts: wood, bamboo, thread, metal, wire, ink, coloured gel and paper. Courtesy of the artists.
Systems of Control and Acts of Resistance:
Two Exhibitions and a Canadian Performance Premiere Open on March 26 at Contemporary Calgary
Calgary, AB [March 23, 2026]: Contemporary Calgary will open two new thought-provoking exhibitions that explore how systems – including scientific research, industrial labour models, and political ideology – attempt to measure and shape human behaviour. Opening March 26, solo exhibitions Stacking Crates to Reach a Banana by Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens and Wounded in Three Acts by Erdem Taşdelen will examine the tension between structures of control and individual agency through sculpture, film, installation, and performance.
“These exhibitions demonstrate how contemporary artists engage with some of the most pressing questions of our time, and how we understand ourselves within larger social, political, and economic systems,” says David Leinster, CEO of Contemporary Calgary. “By bringing together these distinct artistic voices, we invite audiences to reflect on their own experiences and consider the forces that shape the world around us.”
*More details of the two solo exhibitions and the live performance are outlined in the following pages.
The exhibitions will launch at Contemporary Calgary on March 26, from 6–9 PM, providing visitors with an opportunity to experience the new work at no cost. The evening’s event schedule will include remarks at 6:30 PM in the Atrium, followed by the Premiere Performance of A Long Dramatic Pause by Erdem Taşdelen and Cindy Ansah at 7 PM in the Grotto.
Contemporary Calgary believes that art is essential.
The gallery exists to create a place of wonder and belonging where everyone is invited to imagine, learn and understand one another and the world we share through the power of contemporary art.
As a non-collecting public art gallery, Contemporary Calgary presents local, national and international contemporary art in all its forms. Its exhibitions, public programs, educational activities and multi-disciplinary collaborations deepen the exploration of contemporary art and engage audiences in conversations around current ideas. Contemporary Calgary is located in the historic Centennial Planetarium and iconic cultural space in the Downtown West End.
Media are invited to contact: Jason Krell, Public Relations for Contemporary Calgary, jk@jasonkrell.ca | 403.862.7380
Stacking Crates to Reach a Banana
By Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens – artists will be in attendance on March 26
Theme: The Architecture of Productivity
Additional resources: Contemporary Calgary
Medium: Sculpture and video
Curated by Kanika Anand in the Flanagan Family Gallery
“Stacking Crates to Reach a Banana explores how systems developed to study behaviour often reduce bodies to units of labour, productivity, and measurable performance. In a post-industrial, post-digital world where efficiency is privileged in work and private life, these frameworks influence how value and success are understood. What makes this exhibition so compelling is how the artists’ free performance itself, allowing it to remain fragmentary, instinctual, unresolved, and innately natural,” says Kanika Anand, Senior Curator.
What Visitors Will See
Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens draw from the visual language of modern science to examine how systems translate lived experience into measurable labour.
The exhibition comprises four bodies of work: two sculptural series and two video series.
The Anthology of Performance Pieces for Animals and Each Number Equals One Inhalation and One Exhalation are abstract sculptures made from simple materials such as bamboo, string, paper, and acetate. They reinterpret systems of control and measurement, revealing both their fragility and their reductive approach to organizing labour and behaviour. Is There Anything Left to Be Done at All? and Taming Chance are video works that explore informal gestural actions, in which the artists work through composition, intention, and improvisation. The pieces embrace risk, failure, and experimentation, suggesting that action can exist independent of predetermined goals.
Things to Consider
In what ways do systems of measurement and instruction reinforce human authority?
What are the ethical consequences of reducing bodies to units of labour?
What happens if we uncouple goal from action?
Can systems designed for productivity ever encompass the full complexity of lived experience?
Wounded in Three Acts
By Erdem Taşdelen – artist will be in attendance on March 26
Theme: The Psychological Toll of Polarization
Additional Resources: Contemporary Calgary
Medium: Film, audio installation, graphic prints, and live performance
Curated by Mona Filip in the Flanagan Family Gallery
“Erdem Taşdelen’s work explores the emotional and psychological landscape of contemporary life through storytelling. By drawing on the visual language of theatre and cinema, he creates narratives that feel familiar yet unsettling, inviting audiences to reflect on the social and political forces shaping our perceptions of ourselves and others,” explains Chief Curator Mona Filip.
“The presentation of A Long Dramatic Pause extends the exhibition into an embodied, shared experience with the audience. The performance draws the viewers in to consider their own position and agency within the story being told, shifting them from observers to participants in the narrative.”
What Visitors Will See
Toronto-based artist Erdem Taşdelen uses the visual language of theatre and cinema as well as poetic and dramatic writing to explore social anxiety, political tension, and the emotional landscape of contemporary life. The exhibition brings together film, sound, printed imagery and live performance to create immersive narratives that blur fiction and reality. Through carefully constructed stories and characters, Taşdelen examines how political and social forces shape our collective psychology and interactions.
Things to Consider
What role do official and counter-narratives have in shaping the way we interpret social conflict and form strategies of resistance?
What role do storytelling and imagination play in our understanding of politics and identity?
How do we negotiate differences in a polarized world where we no longer recognize ourselves in others?
Canadian Premiere: live performance A Long Dramatic Pause
By Erdem Taşdelen & Cindy Ansah – in attendance March 26
Additional Resources: Contemporary Calgary
Performed by Calgary actor Cindy Ansah in the Grotto
Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The opening night also marks the Canadian premiere of Taşdelen’s live performance, A Long Dramatic Pause. This theatrical work invites audiences to consider their own role within collective political narratives. Borrowing from the languages of photography and theatre, A Long Dramatic Pause explores strategies of resistance against ultranationalism and far-right politics.
The narrative unfolds across twelve dramatic scenes in which a performer describes a photograph that is never shown. Through re-enactment and analysis, the performer gradually brings the unseen image to life.
At the centre of the story is a young woman whose dignified stance of defiance becomes a catalyst for collective reflection and solidarity. As the performance progresses, the audience is subtly implicated and moved to reconsider their own position within the social and political narratives being explored. Additional performances will be held throughout the run of the exhibition.
Things to Consider
As the performer moves between the role of observer and protagonist, where does the audience situate themselves within the story?
How does imagination impact the way we interpret events and understand perspectives other than our own?
How do acts of solidarity and resistance take shape through collective presence?
When does witnessing become participation?