This text is part of the special Christmas book at the museum
The Musée de la civilization de Québec and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec unveil a program of exhibitions and workshops that will appeal to everyone.
Shit (or shit, in the Quebec version), stool, feces, feces, and, more prosaically, poo or poo: give it whatever name you want, this lexical field refers to the same reality – our feces – and to the vague feeling of embarrassment that accompanies its evocation. Yet, what could be more natural?
Demystifying the taboo of our intimate droppings: this is what the exhibition is all about Oh shit!, presented at the Musée de la civilization de Québec (MCQ) until March 26, 2023. Without beating around the bush, it tackles the subject head-on by studying from a societal and anthropological angle the link we have with our excrement. Because this link has changed dramatically since the Bronze Age. The proof: these collective toilets, under the Roman Empire, which gave the opportunity to socialize while relieving oneself in society. “This collective intimacy may surprise us, because, today, intimacy is an individual notion”, underlines Coline Niess, in charge of exhibition projects at the MCQ. Earthenware chambers, pierced chairs, the first individual and domestic toilets, public latrines: the collection reviews the equipment made available to our most intimate needs throughout history and cultures.
My poop is worth gold!
The exhibition pushes the stopper much further by rehabilitating the poop in the personal apperception to the depths of the circular economy. In fact, the aversion that we all feel today with regard to the product of this organic function deprives us, alas, of taking all the advantage that it offers us to infinity: an inexhaustible source of energy and an incredible natural fertilizer. With a humor that yields nothing to scientific rigor, it shows that we would have everything to gain by focusing a little more on the “brown gold” represented by our excrements rather than looking up at our organic waste. “Managing our faeces is an ecological issue, but also an economic one,” says Coline Niess. Overconsumption of drinking water (ten liters per flush), drainage of wastewater in the river or rivers: the lack of treatment management can cause major pollution problems, and not only in India or Africa . The exhibition ends with a glimmer of hope with the stool recovery area, which explains the anaerobic digestion process, a source of energy and fertilizer with proven virtues (smoke). A solution that would, if adopted, reintroduce shit into the cycle of ecology. Are humans the perfect compost plant? Bad luck, when you think about it!
During the holiday season (from December 26, 2021 to January 2, 2022): the show A banquet in the kingdom of poop, or how to turn poop into gold (from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.); cookie decorating workshops led by King Omer (12 p.m. to 3 p.m.); and digital 2D animation workshops aimed at creating a thematic setting, given in collaboration with MLab Creaform (10:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.). Also on the program: Poo quiz, to check your knowledge of this thorny issue (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Information and reservations on the museum’s website.
Contemporary works in hockey colors
True to tradition, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) designs its holiday activities based on its flagship exhibition. This year is the retrospective Lemoyne. Hgold game, on display since this fall, which serves as the theme for a series of creative workshops. Known for its happenings and his committed style, the painter maintained a special bond with the children, inviting them to create within the framework of festive events, notably in his house in Acton Vale, whose decor served as much as a workshop as a dining room. exhibition reinvented. The playful dimension often infiltrates his pictorial art, in particular with his many references to hockey, from which he nourishes his Bleu-blanc-rouge period (in the colors of the Canadiens) and his Additional Period. As a tribute, the MNBAQ will organize a boot hockey match on the central square of the building (December 29 and 30, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.), in order to give this artistic performance its rightful play. “This is a great opportunity to democratize access to the museum, and to make it funny and accessible, even if it is on a grandiose historic site,” says Marie-Hélène Audet, mediation coordinator at the MNBAQ.
During the holiday season, the museum also offers in its new family gallery the exhibition The peninsulas, signed Camille Bernard-Gravel, the artist who sublimates nature with his multidisciplinary works: installations, sculptures and videos. “This exhibition illustrates the magic inspired by natural phenomena with several manipulations that will appeal to children; kaleidoscopes, puzzles, etc. », Summarizes Marie-Hélène Audet. Visitors operate devices representing waves, wind and light, activated or not by motion detectors, thus creating a universe in motion, at the crossroads of art and technology. Until October 16, 2022.
Finally, Inuit art is in the spotlight with the exhibition Inuit universe, from Raymond Brousseau’s collection, which he donated to the museum in 2005. Contemporary artist Manasie Akpaliapik, from Baffin Island, Nunavut, signs this magnificent exploration of nordicity, bringing together some forty sculptures large format forged in stone, but also in whale bones, caribou antlers and walrus or narwhal ivory. The entire mystical universe of the Far North is revealed through these monumental works. Until February 12, 2023.
During the holiday season (December 26 to January 2): workshops to create greeting cards inspired by the work of Serge Lemoyne (November 13 to 20 and December 4, 11 and 18, 2021, from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. h 15). Festive banner creation workshops (from December 26, 2021 to January 9, 2022, except December 31 and 1er January). Information and reservations on the museum’s website.