A Letter Condoning This Exhibition, A Letter Condemning This Exhibition

Handwritten letters, locking frame, leather, velvet, epistolary action, 2018.

Nemer wrote two letters when he learned that his aesthetics and artistic identity had been co-opted by artist Josh Schwebel as part of his solo exhibitions at the Fonderie Darling (Montreal) and the Tadeusz Kantor House (Hucisko).


The letters—one condoning, the other condemning Schwebel's actions—were framed and locked within a sculptural work designed to resemble a quodlibet painting, and displayed within Schwebel’s Montreal exhibition.


Shortly before the end of the exhibition's run, Nemer staged an unlocking of the frame and live reading of the two letters, returning one letter to the frame, disposing of the other. Schwebel was not present for the reading.

Critical writing about the action includes Farid Djamalov’s A Dream In Which I am You, in Issue 141 of C Magazine.

Photos by Hugo St-Laurent and Maxime Boisvert