In the studio of… Éliane Excoffier | Reveal the intimacy of Mount Pinnacle

Three public art projects in two years, an unprecedented exhibition in Frelighsburg, participation in the Rencontres internationales de la photographie in Gaspésie: photographer Éliane Excoffier has the wind in her sails. We met her in her studio in Sutton and on Mount Pinacle, where she revealed some secrets…

Text: Eric Clement
The Press

Photos: Martin Tremblay
The Press

Sutton Bend

After years spent exploring the female body, sensuality and rituals, Éliane Excoffier took a turn in 2015, when she came to live in Sutton. She then pointed her lenses to nature and animals, as shown in her series Fables (2015), Vie de Nuit (2018) and thousand leagues (2021). The Excoffier signature, however, remained the same. Imbued with intuition, a deep attachment to traditional photography and a style of staging reminiscent of the still lifes of great Flemish painting.

Passionate about art history, studied at the University of Montreal in the 1990s, Éliane Excoffier is a special “bug”! “I never got into the currents of photography,” she says. When the world was doing large color formats, I stuck to small black and white photos. I often felt a bit out of place! »

Keeping a low profile, however, it is collected by amateurs, companies and museums. “I’ve always had my own market, says the artist represented by Simon Blais. But I prefer my work to be exposed and I stay behind the camera. Fascinated by Gabor Szilasi, she feels a familiarity with the work of Yan Giguère, Alain Lefort, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Janie Julien-Fort and Michel Lamothe. And appreciates the steps of his colleagues Serge Clément, Geneviève Cadieux, Evergon, Michel Campeau, Bertrand Carrière, Normand Rajotte, Angela Grauerholz, Nicolas Baier or even Raymonde April.

Frelighsburg

This summer, with the support of the Adélard center in Frelighsburg, she presents Nightlife on Mount Pinnacle. Photographs resulting from an original experience. She fixed 11 infrared cameras fitted with motion sensors on trees on Mount Pinnacle, which operated day and night from April 2021 to April 2022. She obtained some 11,000 photos and videos of animals passing in front of the trees. cameras: deer, bears, beavers, pecans, porcupines, coyotes, raccoons, great blue herons, owls, foxes, etc. An experience that revealed the great animal diversity of this forest. “It’s one of the most beautiful projects I’ve worked on,” says the artist, born in Saint-Jérôme in 1971.

Five large photos and a video of the corpus are presented in the village. Eleven others have been integrated into the landscape, along a path on Mount Pinnacle, a place that cannot usually be visited because it is managed, with vigilance, by the Land Trust of Mount Pinnacle. The photographic route (a loop of approximately 30 minutes) is offered until October 9, on Saturdays and Sundays, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The workshop

When she is not surrounded by nature, Éliane Excoffier is in her darkroom. She carries out her tests there with film, in particular after having used her expensive 4 x 5 camera. She also works in digital, but prefers the artisanal and experimental side of film. “I like it when I close the door, when I find myself in the dark, like in a bubble, cut off from the world, cut off from time. For Mount Pinnacle, I had to work with digital. Film is too fragile and suitable for more confidential projects. »

Éliane Excoffier is also taking part this summer in the Rencontres internationales de la photographie in Gaspésie. She exhibits works in Percé, as does her good friend the artist Sophie Jodoin.

public art

Éliane Excoffier had to diversify during the pandemic. Touching public art for the first time, she won three competitions in two years! She installed two photographs at Fadette high school in Saint-Hyacinthe last May. And landed two contracts for two seniors’ homes. “In Châteauguay, this fall I will be delivering 10 landscape photos for the dining room walls, and in Longueuil, in the entrance hall of the house, there will be a view of the forest, a close-up of a fern and the photo of a delicate flower. »

Éliane Excoffier in six works