Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago (MoCP) announces the opening of its fall exhibition Channeling: body ← Image → viewer on view from September 2 – December 20, 2025, guest curated by Joan Giroux and Alice Maude-Roxby.

This exhibition features eleven international artists whose work communicates through and with the body, positioning the viewer to a consciousness of their body and self, or how bodies channel and defy societal oppression and malevolence. Gestures such as crawling, lying, climbing, kneeling, pointing, running, and walking backward evoke memory, history, and rhetoric. This exhibition situates the body politic and ways in which history imprints upon us as a reminder that we are human, both in and out of the body.

Exhibiting artists include Laura Aguilar (American, 1959–2018), Pia Arke (Kalaaleq-Danish, 1958–2007), EJ Hill (American, b. 1985), Susan Hiller (American, 1940–2019), Ketty La Rocca (Italian, 1938–1976), Shari Rothfarb Mekonen (American, b. 1968), Gustav Metzger (German, 1926–2017), Paulo Nazareth (Brazilian, b. 1977), Anna Oppermann (German, 1940–1993), Gina Pane (French, 1939–1990), and Bridget Smith (British, b. 1966). 

In a statement, the curators relate, “at specific moments in the last half century, these artists have considered how performance and photography can break through overarching conditions, oppressions, rhetorics, and the confines of language. These communications position viewers to experience a heightened awareness of their self and body, and explore how bodies channel and confront societal malaise, oppression, transition, and vulnerability.”

Channeling: body ← Image → viewer includes photography, video, and installations that memorialize, witness, and bear tribute to our humanity. 

About the curators:

Joan Giroux (American, b. 1961) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and activist, whose work frequently provides context for community and personal reflections on loss, absence, and bereavement through active play and participation. Since 1987, she has performed and exhibited in the United States and abroad, and recently completed a Fulbright-British Library Eccles Institute Scholar Award in London. 

Alice Maude-Roxby (British, b. 1963) is an artist, curator, and writer based in London, England. Her early publications and exhibitions focused on performance and photography, and feminism included contributions to Art, Lies and Videotape: Exposing Performance, (London, Tate Publications, 2003) and her curation of the exhibition and book Live Art on Camera (John Hansard Gallery, 2007). Gina Pane: Actions Through Time, co-edited with Sophie Delpeux, will be published with Routledge, 2025.