Cultural summer | Take the museum route

From Ottawa to Quebec City via Joliette, Sherbrooke, Saint-Hyacinthe and Rouyn-Noranda, exhibitions for the general public as well as original and specialized offerings will arouse curiosity and surprise visual arts lovers.

Pearl radically at the National Gallery of Canada

In Ottawa, the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) is offering a major exhibition, the largest to date, on the practice of beadwork in contemporary art. Until September 30, the public will discover no less than 101 works by 44 North American artists from the First Nations, Inuit and Métis who use this ancestral technique in their creation. While beads used by indigenous communities were used to celebrate loved ones and tell stories, artists from Pearl radically use it to shed new and critical light on decolonization and resistance, among other things. At the same time, the public will be able to experience the first retrospective of Mohawk artist Shelly Niro. Visitors will experience four decades of Niro’s photographs, films, installations, paintings and sculptures around themes dear to him, including indigenous matriarchy, the persistence of the past, and relational issues.

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Rajni Perera. Futures at the Joliette Art Museum

In addition to the exhibition by videographer Mark Lewis, END, not to be missed, you will also have to go to the Joliette Art Museum (MAJ) to visit the Rajni Perera retrospective. Through her works, the Canadian artist of Sri Lankan origin invites the public into invented futures inspired by science fiction, by featuring hybridized characters from dystopian universes. Visitors will learn about the various achievements that have marked Perera’s career, including those born from his last series, Phylogeny [Phylogénie], while discovering new productions created for the occasion. Particularly in the spotlight at the moment, Rajni Perera is a major artist who knows how to imagine fantastic worlds to charm everyone.

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Quebec, in other words at the Museum of Civilization

In Quebec, a first detour to the National Museum of Fine Arts will undoubtedly be necessary to come into contact with great classics, including Rembrandt – Engravings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen And Helen McNicoll – An Impressionist Journey. But the Musée de la civilization will certainly steal the show thanks to its new permanent exhibition on Quebec society, Quebec, in other words. Laid out like an urban park, with six pavilions, the event revisits the exchanges and meetings that took place over time in the region using 1,300 pieces from the collections of museums and archaeological sites. The exhibition revisits, among other things, a former horse-drawn tramway which was integrated into the first tram line in Quebec in 1865. If this vehicle then had a second life – it became a snack bar on the side of Route 132 –, the Museum of Civilization takes all the liberties to exploit this dual function: the public will be able to take different paths, using a touch screen, in order to learn more about its culinary origins which are part of its daily life. A fun exhibition that will undoubtedly please even the most discerning gourmets.

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Biennial of contemporary indigenous art in Sherbrooke and Saint-Hyacinthe

Among the nine places hosting the BACA for its 7th^e edition, the Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts and EXPRESSION, Saint-Hyacinthe Exhibition Center, open their doors to the event throughout the summer. You should know that the theme of the event, Stories of the creation of the world, is deployed in different axes depending on the participating locations. While the Sherbrooke exhibition is thought of from the angle of territory and medicine, that of EXPRESSION is guided by the question of the supernatural. From there, the works question scientific understanding, environmental laws and societal norms. They revisit the stories that bear witness to the past of indigenous communities. Of the sixty artists presented in total in this edition of the BACA, the work of Eruoma Awashish, Lisa-Maude Aubin-Bérubé, Haley Bassett, Jay Havens, Cheyenne Rain Legrande and Jesse Tungilik will be highlighted. Visitors will be able to take the opportunity to explore the other exhibitions on offer, including Plant relationships by Annie-France Leclerc, who raises public awareness of the properties of plants to create bonds. The installation will be held in the Jardin Daniel A. Séguin in Saint-Hyacinthe for the occasion.

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Consult the exhibition page in Saint-Hyacinthe

Mixed sounds at the Rouyn-Noranda Art Museum

For those traveling to Abitibi this summer, the Rouyn-Noranda Art Museum deserves special attention. Until next October, he is presenting a group exhibition drawing inspiration from the hubbub of Port-au-Prince. It is about exploring the urban cacophony in the heart of the Caribbean through artistic projects. From the exploitation of the hybrid electrovodou musical genre to traditional songs, the event allows you to see and hear installations, videos, as well as objects such as the Sacred Drums, in an atmosphere of sonic chaos.

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