ILLUMINATE – Un/Covering Memory – Personal Reinterpretations in the Polaris Cover Sessions (Exhibition Opening Party)
ILLUMINATE – Un/Covering Memory – Personal Reinterpretations in the Polaris Cover Sessions (Exhibition Opening Party)
September 3rd, 2026 | 6 PM – 9 PM | Remote Gallery, 568 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 1Y9 | RSVP | All Ages
In celebration of the 2026 Polaris Festival, presented by SiriusXM Canada, Polaris presents Un/Covering Memory – Personal Reinterpretations in the Polaris Cover Sessions, an exhibition and listening experience exploring how artists use cover songs to reshape memory, identity, and the meaning of Canadian music.
The 2026 Polaris Festival is a month-long celebration of Canadian music as art, bringing together concerts, salons, listening sessions, conversations, artist development initiatives, and the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony at Massey Hall. Through the Festival, Polaris creates space for audiences to listen differently, gather around important Canadian albums, and explore how music shapes culture, identity, memory, and belonging.
Curatorial Statement
Music functions as both a collective archive and a deeply personal artifact capable of evoking new forms of memory. As a platform, the Polaris Cover Sessions challenge pre-established narratives of Canadian music; rather than merely replicating songs, artists unsettle the boundary between origin and interpretation by asking what it means to reconstruct a track through their own lived reality. These works center on the act of translation, as these artists also explore how a song etched in public memory can become a sonically pliable tool for subjectivity and inclusivity.
Through gestures ranging from Pierre Kwenders’ electrifyingly upbeat cover of Jean-Pierre Ferland’s “It Ain’t Fair,” to the airy and intimate alterations of Kaia Kater’s take on Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl,” Polaris Cover Session artists imprint their own identities and histories onto public memory. Far from erasing the original compositions, and while still maintaining an act of homage to the original artists, these radical shifts and subtle distinctions enrich and transform nostalgic resonance into a living, breathing dialogue.
Un/Covering Memory – Personal Reinterpretations in the Polaris Cover Sessions asks us to consider how collective memory is negotiated, proving that a song’s meaning and produced memory is never static; they are continuously reshaped by the voices who seek to reimagine it.
Reserve your Spot for the Exhibition Opening Party
Un/Covering Memory – Personal Reinterpretations in the Polaris Cover Sessions brings together selected Polaris Cover Sessions as a way to explore how Canadian music moves through memory. The exhibition will run from September 3rd until the closing party on September 6th. Be sure to stop by and check it out over the weekend
Featured Artists and Works
Curator: Geoffrey Webster, Artist & Curator
Geoffrey Webster is a Montreal (Tiohtià:ke)-born artist and curator who’s about to start his MA in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University. Lately, his work – both artistic and curatorial – has been focused on Black identity and how it continues to be misrepresented in media. His newest artwork, How Sleeps The Beast, draws on Black and Afro-centric dance while navigating meme culture and critiquing modern forms of minstrelsy. He is also the curator of Broad/Cast: Reclaiming Representation, a group exhibition currently on view at the Dalhousie Art Gallery that shines a light on identity and what it means for the Black body to exist in media and digital spaces.
Featured Polaris Cover Session artists and works to be announced.
About Polaris Music Prize
Polaris Music Prize is a Canadian charitable arts organization honouring music as art. Through its Album, Song, and Heritage Prizes, Polaris amplifies Canadian artists based on artistic merit — not genre, sales, or algorithmic popularity.
The 2026 Polaris Festival is presented by SiriusXM Canada and made possible through the support of Experience Ontario, Ontario Creates, the City of Toronto’s Cultural Festivals Funding Program, FACTOR, the Government of Canada, Canada’s private radio broadcasters, and the Festival’s many community and venue partners.
