Through a series of photographs taken in Montreal, the artist explores the slow passage of time, the transformation of urban landscapes, and the presence of silence.
The opening of Ali Ihtiyar’s exhibition The Weight of Silence will be held on Sunday, May 3, from 3 to 5 p.m. The exhibition runs from April 25 to May 26.
The Weight of Silence exhibition.
The exhibition is open from April 25 to May 26:
Ali Ihtiyar is a Canadian filmmaker and photographer, born in Turkey and based in Montreal. With a master’s degree in fine arts, film, and television production from Marmara University in Istanbul, he has been developing a practice at the crossroads of film and photography for over twenty years.
His work has been presented at numerous international festivals and exhibitions, including Paris Photo and the Montreal World Film Festival, and has received several awards, including the XMAGE 100 Grand Prize at the Huawei Next Image Awards (2025) and the Best Foreign Film Award at the Hollywood International Film Festival (2004).
At the heart of his artistic approach are issues of migration, exile, and cultural memory, particularly within the Kurdish, Alevi, and Armenian communities of Anatolia. His visual language, marked by a photographic sensibility, explores the relationship between humans, time, and space through slow, contemplative images imbued with silence.
Ali Ihtiyar