Quebec Biennale | Waking up, beyond winter

It’s on the theme The forces of sleep. Cohabitation of the living that the 11 is deployed^e edition of the Manif d’art – Biennale de Québec. Until April 28, visitors are invited to experience states of sleep and wakefulness through multiple tours.

Current and historical works, a section for the next generation, public art, in Quebec, but also at the Joliette Art Museum and the Baie-Saint-Paul Contemporary Art Museum; the Quebec Biennale marks the occasion. Difficult to grasp in its entirety due to its scale, the event offers itineraries in the national capital to cover the components presented, from the central exhibition to outdoor and public works, including art galleries. Just like the theme, you have to take the time to visit these exhibitions, which cannot be done in a single day.

From winter to political awakening

If the entire visual arts community of Quebec beats to the rhythm of the Manif d’art currently, the aspects of The forces of sleep. Cohabitation of the living resonate and respond to each other in remarkable coherence. The biennial is the only one in North America to be held in winter, and curator Marie Muracciole exploits all the facets of this condition.

From there came his proposal to the artist Yann Pocreau (parc de la Francophonie) to work with ice.

Winter refers above all, for the curator, to the elements of sleep: “It produces this idea of ​​sleep which is a question that runs through all of history. » It is thus a question of rethinking slowing down, isolation, phases of latency and hibernation. From there, we can question something other than the performance demanded in our society: “This idea of ​​moments of weakness interests me in sleep. How can human weakness be of service to us? How can it help us find a fairer place on earth, when it is so devalued in our Western culture? », Lists the one who has worked for more than two years in the preparation of this biennial.

Back to warmth

The central exhibition is spread over three floors at Espace Quatre Cents and presents these reflections in a contemplative setting, between darkness and light. The drawings of the Inuit artist Tuumasi Kudlik, chosen specifically for the occasion by the curator, allow us to focus on a description of the gestures of daily life using an economy of means. The 25 photosensitive works of Eveline Boulva, for their part, refer to the archiving of icebergs. Like these mirrors, the works will disappear by the end of the event. The living moss that makes up Elodie Pong’s work reminds us of the capacity for adaptation, resilience, but also resistance of this plant in the face of climatic transformations.

Resistance is a word well chosen by the curator who emphasizes that a biennial “is a position taken”. For her, “major artistic events are moments to think about ourselves in the entire world, today”.

So while the central exhibition presents different iterations of the act of falling asleep and phases of waking up, the theme also raises thoughts about whether one can be asleep from a political perspective. “The West is called upon to take into consideration the consequences of its actions. We can no longer ignore them. We have to wake up politically. We cannot be indifferent to what is happening. » These reflections of the curator are reflected in several works by committed artists.

Politics and rights

It is first of all the monumental installation of the Quebec artist François Morelli concerning the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen which sets the tone for the exhibition. A pile of beds and large hanging prints stands out at the entrance to the Espace Quatre Cents building. Catarina Simão’s film creates bridges between Canadian politics and that of Mozambique, while the work of Palestinian artist Nour Bishouty revisits the relationships between the body, rest and territory. Yto Barrada presents a raft as a place of precarious floating to reflect on the migration from one bank to the other and the renowned artist Kapwani Kiwanga uses ceramic grains of rice to underline the circulation of the living marked by the exploitation. Mounira Al Sohl’s tent invites us to rethink this place of sleep in a war situation and it echoes Liz Magor’s installations which refer, among other things, to the idea of ​​confinement.

Certain works by already well-recognized Canadian and international artists, to be discovered or by emerging artists, offer counterpoints to these angles and are worth the detour. This is the case of the series of meditations Insect Silver Black by Joachim Koester and Stefan A. Pedersen or even Song for Lupita (Mañana) by Francis Alÿs who create spaces where time is paralyzed or at least slowed down.

The central exhibition takes place at Espace Quatre Cents and Exmuros

Visit the central exhibition page

Visit the Joliette Art Museum page

Visit the Manif d’art website

Art in centers, galleries… and elsewhere in town!

The Manif d’art offers a large number of new works and several residencies have been created for the occasion. “I had a lot of artists work on the context. The work of Barbara Manzetti (Maison de laliterature), Xavier Le Roy… There were real collaborations,” underlines Marie Muracciole. Most of Quebec’s galleries and artist centers, including L’Oeil de Poisson, La Chambre blanche, the Ahkwayaonhkeh Artist Center, but also the Morrin Cultural Center and Regart join the program and present original creations .

If, for the curator, a biennial “is an exchange” and, above all, “an exchange with the outside world”, we must remember the importance of the public art program which reaches users of Quebec. The work of Félix Gonzalez-Torres is part of the city without comments or indications. It thus appears in people’s daily lives, sporadically, on advertising panels, in six different locations. “There have already been reactions from people who were very surprised, who did not understand, but who loved this intrusion into the contemporary world, with a gesture that was both spectacular and intimate,” explains the guest curator. Other works, however, are less visible and will appear more clearly in the exhibition catalog which will be published in the coming weeks. This is the case of Without birds, by Abbas Akhavan; a film by the artist is also part of the central exhibition. The term is written on the roof of the Kaméléon building in the Saint-Roch district and it is impossible to access it directly.

Discover the participating art galleries

Discover the artists in the public art section