Muqarnas: Adaptive Architectures in the Diaspora

Curated by Nadia Kurd
Co-presented by Regent Park Film Festival

The Regent Park demolition Photography Project
By the youth photographers of Regent Park Focus

Regent Park Revitalization has begun a long process of urban renewal in the heart of Toronto’s downtown. Eight youth participants ranging in age from 13 to 24 years accessed the construction sites to photograph the building interiors. This photo exhibit bids farewell to the buildings as they are torn down and documents the momentous change in the life of Regent Park.

Fourth Annual Regent Park Film Festival
From Yellowknife to Charlottetown, Muslims across Canada have found new spaces for spiritual contemplation. Varying from storefronts to converted churches, these spaces highlight the special transitions of contemporary Muslim life.

Taken by local residents where the buildings exist, these images show how storefronts, office buildings, and converted churches are used to accommodate the new communities which congregate there. These mosques are equally striking as the conventionally aesthetic mosques; however, they articulate the transformative and adaptive nature of Muslim life in Canada. They challenge scripted notions of grandeur in Islamic architecture, and complicate ideas of any singular definition. Beginning to discuss and document the histories of Muslim spaces in the diaspora can inform us of this process.

SAVAC would like to thank Amir Afridi and Riaz Mehmood, for their help in this project.