“Maternity realizes the ultimate destiny of women and marks the full development of their existence” — Doctor Ernest Couture, The Canadian mother and her child (1942)
Here is an extract from one of the many books that you can find in one of the sections of the rich exhibition The begetting, presented these days at the Gallery of the University of Montreal. An exhibition bringing together the works and reflections of four artists – Heidi Barkun, Caroline Boileau, Kimberley de Jong and Hermione Wiltshire – in order to achieve a “reappropriation of motherhood”.
It’s the mother’s fault
It must be said that motherhood has given rise to many more or less scientific hypotheses and multiple delusions aimed at enslaving women to supposedly natural, stifling values.
The begetting embodies a reflection resulting from “a cycle of residencies at the McConnell-University of Montreal Chair in research-creation” led by professors Marie-Marthe Cousineau, François-Joseph Lapointe and Vardit Ravitsky between 2019 and 2023. This event gives a voice to artists and, through them, to many other women, to their multiple experiences of motherhood. An intelligent exhibition, even if it does not avoid some pitfalls inherent to the subject, including that of “words which remain without filter”. But does there really exist an experience in direct contact with reality, without habitus, without internalization of acceptable social values? Let us not forget that in the name of absolute truth, of the nature of things, the idea of the maternal instinct was defended, a concept that the philosopher Élisabeth Badinter fortunately tore to pieces in her famous book of 1981. It was a a time when we also defended the responsibility of the mother in the autism or in the homosexuality of their children… Even recently, some – in the name of the objective and unfiltered truth of science – wanted to remove children under five years of daycare and bring mothers home to avoid attachment disorders!
The complexity of the links of generation
Nevertheless, here is an exhibition which judiciously continues the work of questioning received ideas, still repeated today, about motherhood. It also allows us to discuss the “contemporary problem of obstetric violence in a more general context of violence against women”. It starts with the video Actions for the repair of knowledge by Hermione Wiltshire, who wishes to denounce “invasive medical interventions” such as episiotomy, an incision in the perineum, at the bottom of the vagina, which would make the doctor’s work easier than that of the woman giving birth. In this video, women, including midwives, sew clothes they wore during their pregnancy. A sort of symbolic artistic repair where the scars do not disappear, but are integrated into the lives of these women…
The visitor will also be very touched by (M)other, a work which includes a video where we hear testimonies from colleagues of the dancer, but also choreographer and artist Kimberley de Jong. In a sort of verbal, but also literally physical and choreographic, exposure, the artist offers us access to the intimacy of these women.
The words of these mothers are also found in Their words by Heidi Barkun, a sort of recreation of a room in a fertility clinic. We can read testimonies from people who have used medically assisted procreation (MAP). The visitor will read how these medical treatments often put aside notions of intimacy, sensitivity and humanity in favor of objectifying the body…
Among the works of Caroline Boileau, the visitor will note These languages that women speak. Unfathomable seas, troubled, troubled and disturbing waters (2021-2024), drawings showing changing bodies…
An intelligent exhibition even if, sometimes, the explanatory and didactic aspect prevails over the artistic part. But — what do you want? — our time does a lot in the use of art for the purposes of teaching and social recovery. To continue the reflection, the visitor will certainly have to delve into the work Reconciling Art and Motheringunder the direction of Rachel Epp Buller, a book that can also be found in the documentation section of the exhibition.