EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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MEXICO CULTURAL EXCHANGE

This digital project is meant to document many of the historical connections between London, Ontario, and Mexico. One of the earliest contemporary connection was when  Duncan deKergomeaux travelled to San Miguel in 1958 on a Canada Council grant. ECH co-founders Ron Benner & Jamelie Hassan have had, over the years different connections with Mexico, as have many cultural workers & activists base in London. One exchange was with three artists in Merida, Mexico. Ron & Jamelie did solo exhibitions in Merida. In the early 1980's, Jamelie frequently visited the Casa de Montejo - while it was still in the hands of the family & was given permission to do some watercolours inside the house. Most recently Jamelie and Ron were based in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2012 and 2013 when they did their first exhibition together. 

Oaxaca, Mexico

Photo credit for all the above photos: Marnie Fleming

​A Garden of Resistance

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A Garden of Resistance

Read a text by Marnie Fleming that she wrote in 2015 for our visitors to Oaxaca which describes the history and developments of 
Jardin Etnobotánico de Oaxaca. It is included with the watercolours from Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner's The World is a Garden. the watercolours are the result of a 3-month residency/fellowship at the Jardin Etnobotánico de Oaxaca. Working in this place over time, each of the artists was able to become familiar with the gardeners themselves and exchange ideas about the principals that ran parallel to their own interests, sensibilities and beliefs.
A Garden of Resistance

Interncambio/exchange

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Interncambio/exchange

Canadian curator Bob McKaskell and Oaxacan artist Lissette Jiménez 
Díaz​ collaborate on a intercambio/exchange. 
Bob McKaskell was known across Canada as a leading art historian and curator. He first visited Oaxaca in early 1993 and eventually made it his second home starting in 2012.  In 2019, he set out to restore a rarely-used room in his Oaxacan apartment, with the intent of turning it into a contemporary gallery space for emerging artists. There was never any doubt that Lissette would be his first commission. Bob intended to have her installation work in his new space for one year. He was making plans to commission six Oaxacan artists altogether, over as many years.
INtercambio/exchange

Tribute to Francisco Toledo

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Photo by Marnie Fleming
Paulina in Oaxaca provided the following update regarding this poster of Toledo produced by the graphics collective Gran OM. Sensational posters! Here is the catalogue.
 
“OM is a 38 year old artist who wanted to denounce injustices to his compatriots and wanted to make these injustices visible beyond protest marches. What began as an intuitive exercise that led him from the audiovisual world to the graphics of poster design, is today Gran OM, a visual studio that emerged in 2006 that has focused its work on supporting social struggles through graphics. With the aim that graphic production would be greater and more effective when it comes to causing an impact on Mexican and Latin American society, Gran OM became a collective initiative in which Kloer currently participates, which operates in the State of Mexico.  , Chauiztle, who works from Puebla, and Boer, Richard and OM, whose center of action is between Oaxaca and Mexico City."
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Ron Benner, enawendewin/relationships: in memory of Francisco Toledo.
Work by Ron Benner as a tribute to Francisco Toledo. The work showed at Artspace in Peterborough. It was a group exhibition curated by William Kingfisher. Title of exhibition: enawendewin/relationships. Nov. 1 - Dec. 14, 2019.  Ron Benner also did a corn roast. The exhibition included work by Anong Megwans Beam, Lisa Myers, David Deleary and Jennifer Cole and a  performance by Kingfisher and gardens of First Nations plants throughout the city.

The title of the work was enawendewin/relationships: in memory of Francisco Toledo. The work consisted of photographs Ron took of the Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca in 2012 with photos of the Guardian newspaper's obituary of Toledo. Included in front of the images on a plinth is the limited edition box set (10) of a selection of watercolours we did in the Ethnobotanical Garden produced in 2012 for the exhibition The World Is A Garden: Ron Benner and Jamelie Hassan, 2013 at the Biblioteca Henestrosa. Three box sets were donated to the Biblioteca Henestrosa, Biblioteca Jardin Etnobotanico and Biblioteca Grafica(Toledo's family home).


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou Smoke, and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Jared Hendricks-Polack, Jessica Irene Joyce, Ira Kazi, 
Shelley Kopp, Jenna Rose Sands, Mireya Seymour, Venus Tsao, Diana Tamblyn, and Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the mentorship program established by Western University's Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
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Our Partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.

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  • Home
  • Recent News
  • Community
    • Advisors & Editorial Team
    • Contributors
    • Governor General Laureates
    • In Memoriam
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About