if you lived here, you’d be home by now, is an immersive multimedia installation exploring Ontario’s housing shortage, and the growing tension between development, farmland preservation and environmental protection. Combining documentary video, sound, projection mapping, sculpture and animation, the work draws upon the experiences of communities directly affected by land-use change. Premiering at Gallery Stratford, it invites audiences to consider what is lost, and what is displaced as rural and near-urban landscapes are rapidly transformed.

Common Collective, “tells rural stories, because this is where we live and where we grew-up together.” Common Collective consists of Simon Brothers (Stratford), Jeremy Cox (Stratford), Nick Kuepfer (Montreal) and Luke Mistruzzi (Ottawa). The collective grew out of a shared interest in filmmaking, sound and building things, with roots in Stratford, Ontario. Since the early 2010s, they have worked together to create installations combining video, sound, animation and sculptural elements, exploring how people share the land and how those changes affect the places we live.

Major works include Train Dreams, Land/Line, Controlled Burn and 40-Tonne Viewfinder, presented in public galleries across Canada, alongside projects in Europe. Each project brings together documentary storytelling and experimentation, inviting people into spaces where they can experience familiar landscapes in different ways.