National Gallery Of Canada officially unveils a donation by Mexico of a major artwork by renowned Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
- Ottawa Festival Network
- May 6
- 3 min read
The extraordinary gift, now on view, was made to the people of Canada on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) will celebrate Mexico’s gift to Canadians, Listen to the World, Volute 2 by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, at a public event on May 8, 2025 at 6:30 PM. This gift was made on the occasion of Canada’s sesquicentennial and commemorates over 80 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The artwork was donated by the Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo. It is currently on view in the NGC’s Rotunda.
This is the second work by Lozano-Hemmer to enter the NGC collection. Listen to the World, Volute 2 is a three-dimensional model of a laser-tomography scan and represents the air exhaled from a person’s mouth when saying the words “listen to the world.” This is the first cast sculpture created by the Montreal-based artist known for his complex and often interactive media installations and digital artworks. This unprecedented project is the first of its kind in materializing the spoken word through a scan and rendering of speech bubbles, images of which appear in a didactic video next to the piece.
Listen to the World, Volute 2 acknowledges Canada, Lozano-Hemmer’s adoptive country, and takes its title from a musical composition by the late Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. Schafer was best known for his concepts of acoustic ecology and soundscapes that have been an immense influence on the artist.
“We are grateful for this gift from Mexico, and on behalf of all Canadians, thank you for entrusting us to present it in our building. Our countries share diplomatic relations since 1944, characterized by deep people-to-people ties, rich cultural connections and growing trade and investment; Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is the perfect artist to embody this fruitful bilateral relationship,” said Jean-François Bélisle, Director & CEO, National Gallery of Canada. “In these unprecedented divisive times, Canada and Mexico come together to recognize the strong relations between the two countries with the unifying and transformative power of art.”
“In honour of Canada’s 150th celebration and to commemorate the longstanding 81-year-old bilateral relation between Canada and Mexico, this donation is a testament of the friendship that binds both nations and an enduring reminder of our common values and our mutual understanding through art and innovation,” added Carlos Manuel Joaquín González, Ambassador of Mexico to Canada.
“My work strives to make tangible the invisible, materializing natural, turbulent phenomena in a sculptural format,” said artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. “The unrepeatable capture of the human voice, an homage to the great R. Murray Schafer, invites us to think about the atmosphere as something that is ever-changing and never neutral.”
Public Programming
On Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. ET, the public is invited to a lecture by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer about his artistic practice, with a special focus on his work Listen to the World, Volute 2, in the NGC’s Auditorium. The free event is presented by the NGC in collaboration with the Embassy of Mexico in Canada and the Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo. Visitors are encouraged to reserve their seats due to considerable interest.
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