PUBLIC INTIMACY | Sophia Hirsch & Johannes Mundinger

Inaugural exhibition of the museum's new Mile End location at 5220 St-Laurent Boulevard:

Public Intimacy | Sophie Hirsch & Johannes Mundinger

As established artists with over two decades of combined experience, Sophia Hirsch (b. 1987, Berlin) and Johannes Mundinger (b. 1982, Offenburg) have produced collaborative installations, murals, and exhibitions for a variety of Jewish arts organizations and sites of memory. Following a string of successful projects across Europe, North America, and Asia, their new body of work, Public Intimacy, will also be the first presentation of the artists’ work in Canada.

Public Intimacy takes its title from its opposing themes of public and private spaces. Playing on the idea of “pulling back the curtain,” Public Intimacy is an interactive photography- and textile-based body of work that teases the tensions between individual freedom and social responsibility. Composed of second-hand fabrics sourced throughout Germany, the textiles in Public Intimacy also carry stories of their own. “The curtain, practically and symbolically, points to the changeable line between the public and private. As much as it provides refuge from the outside world, the curtain also shuts us off from what may be happening on our doorstep,” says Artistic Director Alyssa Stokvis-Hauer. Connecting to broader issues felt internationally, such as bystanderism, the rise of xenophobia, racism and antisemitism, Public Intimacy provokes reflections on past and present, and how we choose to engage with the world around us.

Address + Opening Hours:
Museum of Jewish Montreal
5220 St-Laurent Boulevard
October 13⁠, 2022–March 5, 2023 (extended)
Thursdays through Sundays, 10AM–5PM