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 William Mora, originally from Bogotá, Colombia, spent his formative years in Quebec, Canada, where he navigated the intricate blend of two distinct cultures. This unique upbringing serves as the cornerstone of his artistic expression, a fusion of influences stemming from his Colombian roots and Canadian upbringing. As a multidisciplinary artist based in Montréal (Tio’tia:ke), Mora delves primarily into ceramics and graphic arts, reflecting his ongoing exploration of cultural identity. A recent graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Sculpture and Ceramics from Concordia University, Mora is deeply engaged in unraveling the complexities of visual communication and its historical contexts through his research studio, Memory Land Studio.

Mora’s artistic journey has taken him across borders, participating in residencies in France and Canada, where he immersed himself in diverse artistic communities and expanded his creative horizons. His exhibitions, ranging from Paris to Mexico City, serve as platforms for his thought-provoking creations, such as Attaches Parisiennes pour Poignées de Porte at Villa Belleville and Annihilation at Galerie Laroche/Joncas. Through his participation in international art fairs like Material in Mexico City (2024) and local exhibitions such as Plural in Montréal (2023)  and Paradis et Liberté in Québec City (2022), Mora’s work bridges geographical divides, inviting viewers into a world of visual exploration and cultural dialogue.

Mi nombre es «Latino» y mi apellido es «Americano» 2023Presented at Laroche/Joncas as part of exhibition,
Annihilation
Montreal, Canada
2023
    Mi nombre es «Latino» y mi apellido es 
    «Americano» 
    Differents sizes Stoneware, Terracotta, 
    Glaze, Underglaze and Fibres
    2023

Photo by Jean-Michael Seminaro
The main piece is a warrior who has the phrase no hay nada de imposible solamente hombres incapables on his shield, which translates to there is nothing impossible, only incapable men. A phrase that has stayed in my memory since childhood, a phrase my mother would repeat to us during difficult times. It reflects the mentality of our family, which we call la malicia indígena (indigenous malice), being resourceful, where an immigrant must fight every day to live his life and provide for his family in a world imposed on him as a refuge due to war, economic problems, political pressures, and other factors.

At the back of the wall, there are two hanging ceramics called Minga 1 and 2. The title of this work is inspired by a South American tradition: La Minga, which signifies collective work for social and political purposes, though the definition varies from community to community according to their customs. For these communities, minga is a cultural practice of putting communal work at the service of a community or social cause, village, or family at specific times when significant effort is needed. Thus, the text inscribed on this work is a fragment from the song Plastico by Willie Colon & Ruben Blades, which expresses a dream of a united Latin America. This aspiration cannot be achieved without collective work and the unity of Latin Americans.
Clay has always been a primary material used by humans to record and archive numbers, words, thoughts, and stories. Therefore, I use this medium to convey a fiction of a united Latin America, a single country. This installation thus takes shape as a place of information and encounter between modernity and tradition and contemporary immigration issues. Additionally, this installation aesthetically resembles a temple where information is transmitted and passed on to the next.


Photo by Jean-Michael Seminaro
Humankind was once, in Greek tragedy, the object of contemplation for the Olympian gods. Acting as puppeteers, they delighted in meddling with human affairs; for the ancient Greeks, divine intervention was the cause for joy and suffering, seasons and storms. Of course, since the time of Homer, science and technology have fundamentally transformed our relationship to the earth and the skies. Reflecting on the cultural and societal shifts that followed industrialization, Walter Benjamin wrote that humankind—in the absence of gods—has become an object of contemplation for itself: our self-alienation has reached a point where we can experience our own annihilation as a supreme aesthetic pleasure.[1] Alienated from human nature and deprived of destiny we became an object of our own contemplation. The forces of capitalism have diverted the forces of life, Eros, into forces of death. Spurred on by a compulsion for growth, capitalism has paradoxically deprived life of both life and death—but life that negates death negates itself.[2]

Aristotle wrote that tragedy purifies the passions; Anne Carson wrote that tragedy is born from grief.[3] In the story of Agamemnon, Kassandra knows that she will die; she has seen it. Cursed with the gift of prophecy, she cries: O river of home my Skamander / I used to dream by your waters / now soon enough / back and forth on the banks of the river of / hell / I will walk with my song torn open.[4] Like Kassandra, are we not at a moment of witness? We are already living on after the end: death has entered the frame.
Maybe the condition of our era is that we are sensing our finitude as a world-forming and world-destroying species.[5] This finitude is exacerbated by mutating and evolving systems of power and domination that have begun to exceed our control. Among the anthropogenic scars we leave behind will be the symbols, objects and sanctuaries we have built to protect ourselves in the present and future: apotropaic charms, grotesques and reliquaries, or dreams cast in bronze. Perhaps the division of life and death needs to be set aside. At the moment of our own loss, the interconnectedness that binds us to our milieu makes itself known.

-Kate Nugent

[1] Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media. Edited by Michael William Jennings et al. Translated by E. F. N Jephcott et al., Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.
[2] Han, Byung-Chul. Capitalism and the Death Drive. Translated by Daniel Steuer, Polity Press, 2021.
[3] Aristotle, and Michael Davis. Aristotle on Poetics. Translated by Seth Benardete, St. Augustine's Press, 2001.; Euripides. Grief Lessons : Four Plays. Translated by Anne Carson, New York Review Books, 2006.
[4] Aeschylus, et al. An Oresteia. Translated by Anne Carson, First paperback ed., Faber & Faber, 2010.
[5] Colebrook, Claire. Essays on Extinction. First edition., First ed., Vol. 1, Death of the Posthuman /, Open Humanities Press with Michigan Publishing - University of Michigan Library, 2014.

Link to the exhibition

Group show with :  Dante Guthrie, Lindsay Lion Lord, Andrew Rutherdaleand Cléo Sjölander


William Mora is a freelance designer and visual artist based in Tio’tia:ke / Mooniyang / Montréal.