Experiments by biologists being carried out in the middle of nature will not only serve to adapt our habits in times of climate crisis. They will inspire artists. Through an astonishing and perhaps not so unusual rapprochement between science and art, realities such as the “respiration of soils” or the presence of “allochthonous materials” in lakes will become works — those that end up in museums.
The place has everything of a resort site. Popular site in the Laurentians, given the number of cars. Near them, a volleyball court serves as a reception area and very useful washing lines bear witness to the long stays. The signs at the doors of the many buildings are not misleading: here, in this vast territory of forest and lakes, we are at the University of Montreal.
Inaugurated in 1965 in a protected environment, the Laurentian Biology Station (SBL) serves as a field school and research laboratory. However, doctoral students, all disciplines combined, come to isolate themselves there on occasion. And in this first week of July, a cohort of artists is beginning a process that will lead, in a year and a little, to two exhibitions aimed at demonstrating that art and science can be one.
“Artists and scientists: same fight”, proclaims Gabriel Lanthier, the “manager” of the place, who had the proof in front of an out of order projector, in the company of the artist Laure Bourgault. “We spent too much time on an old machine trying to figure out why it wasn’t working,” says the fish specialist, who left the university campus in Montreal seven years ago to take up management of the SBL.
Laure Bourgault has also fallen in love with old books just as out of use, which she photographs and films. His “time capsule” — the site’s small library — provides him with valuable material for a project on the beginnings of hydroelectric dams in Quebec.
I am not only interested in practices [environnementales], but also those in molecular biology, cells, bacteria, parasites, viruses… I want to probe the meaning and the role of art through these links with science, she says. A work is not just a result, it is a process. What about when this process begins during the exhibition?
Curiosity and sharing a point of view bring the two worlds together. For Ana Rewakowicz, used to collaborating with scientists, it is the sum of knowledge that is stimulating. “The exploration of different perspectives: I’m interested in that”, says the one for whom coming to the SBL was ideal.
Four artists, out of the forty who responded to the invitation intended for professionals in the visual arts, digital arts and fine crafts, took the road to Saint-Hippolyte – and will return for a second time in September. These research-creation residencies, endowed with grants of $4,000, are the result of a partnership between the Laurentian station, the Center d’exposition de l’Université de Montréal and the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides (Saint-Jérôme). The project is led by curator Anne-Marie Belley, whose expertise revolves around practices related to nature, as evidenced by her cycle of exhibitions art is alive (2013-2018).
“I am not only interested in practices [environnementales], but also those in molecular biology, cells, bacteria, parasites, viruses… I want to probe the meaning and the role of art through these links with science, she says. A work is not just a result, it is a process. What about when this process begins during the exhibition? »
Invent a protocol
“This dome, this controlled environment, is interesting”, recognizes Diane Morin in front of the device left in the forest by the team of geography professor Nicolas Bélanger. This is where soil respiration or, in other words, “the acclimatization of forest species to climate change” is studied. Heated areas allow comparison of variables such as nutrients, moisture, insect emergence or leaf bud burst.
Diane Morin does not yet know how this will translate in the workshop. But for this author of kinetic installations, who has already reproduced the human breath, the small dome that opens and closes is a source of inspiration. “The approach involves inventing a protocol. We observe phenomena and we make them happen, ”she gets carried away.
The experiences of geographers also challenge Ana Rewakowicz. Her interest in what is visible and invisible — like breathing — and in touch is echoed here. “The skin, our largest organ, allows us to experience touch. This proposition [concerne] more the skin of a forest”, notes the one who is known for her immersive and inflatable installations.
The research-creation residency allows artists to meet scientists on their playground. A terrain that is sometimes unstable, like Charlie Sarran’s floating platform. The researcher in experimental biology analyzes the impact in aquatic ecosystems of plant or animal matter — “allochthonous matter”, in his scholarly and colorful language. Climate change multiplies new contacts and water offers a good case study, he believes.
Placed on Lake Triton, the most accessible among the 16 of the SBL, the “semi-controlled” basins of the biologist attract like a magnet. Félix Bernier, in particular, is attached to it.
“Nothing is controlled, observes the artist. The variability of the project, its results… It goes in opposite directions. Based in Halifax, the Montrealer enjoys exploring the impact of digital technologies on physical environments. This time he will use the data collected by Charlie Sarran, without knowing how “it will be represented”. Félix Bernier nevertheless wants to create an algorithm and “bring noise” – a random element – to the scientific quest. “Allochthonous views are always interesting”, comments the biologist, without however specifying to what extent he would be ready to let the artist interfere.
We must give art a role that also allows us to understand the planet and its upheavals, believes Anne-Marie Belley. The exhibitions she has planned for the fall of 2023 will at the very least be the playground of artists, which scientists will, in turn, be asked to visit.