The theme invites investigations that delve into the peripheral realms of art – be they visual, literary, or performed.

Marginal Imagery: Quests into the borders of media and the edges of representation. How does marginalization manifest physically or figuratively? How do ambiguity and fragmentation function in creative gestures? How do artists mobilize the periphery as a space of resistance, tension, or transformation?

Neglected Narratives: Analyses attending to the politics of obscurity. What works, voices, or forms have been excluded or overlooked, and why?

The Aesthetics of the Abstruse: Explorations of the esoteric, the invisible, and that which is shrouded in mystery. How can the enigmatic reframe knowledge and perception?

Submissions are closed.

The symposium will take place in person in Montréal on February 21st, 2026.

Agnes Pelton. The Fountains. 1926.  Oil on canvas, 91.8 × 81.3 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu, Tale of the Rat (Nezumi zōshi emaki), Muromachi period, circa 1469. Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper, 16.7 x 431 cm

Jeanne Mammen, Masked Ball, 1928. Watercolour on paper, 11 x 17 cm.