2018-2019
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Les mondes
EXPRESSION, Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe, hosts Diane Obomsawin, an artist well known and appreciated in the domains of film animation, comics and the visual arts. Obomsawin’s first solo exhibition, The Worlds, brings together a body of new works composed of comics, installations and a few short animations from her filmography.
The Worlds takes us on a journey through stories that form a narrative path into Obomsawin’s imagination. Sustained by the poetry of each story, the originality of the spaces evoked, and the nature and delicacy of the forms themselves, the show explores the passageways and linkages that connect film animation, comics, drawing and installation. Obomsawin’s work is moving, and we are touched by its depth. It is impossible not to be affected by the ambivalent oscillation that emerges from the experience of each piece: between levity and gravity, a fragile movement calls out to us. Could this emotional quality stem from the philosopher’s gaze the artist brings to bear on the things around her? Or does it come instead from the sensual fluidity of her drawings or the guileless astonishment she transmits to her characters?
The Worlds deals with metamorphosis—the precondition for animated images. The works in the exhibition deal with transformations in the domains of dreams and symbols, drawing on mythological figures from Antiquity, such as those evoked by the Roman poet Ovid, and echoing the artist’s own mythology with its disconcerting terseness and disarming simplicity. With The Worlds, Obomsawin opens a new chapter in her art and affirms her concept of a world in motion.
Opening and guided tour on Saturday, May 25, at 2 p.m.
Diane Obomsawin, video of the exhibition The worlds presented at EXPRESSION, 1 min 56 s. © NousTV
Manœuvrer l’incontrôlable
Artist François Quévillon brings to EXPRESSION devices that apply various algorithmic procedures to scenes recorded using stationary, airborne and motorized cameras. Juxtaposing artificial intelligence techniques against the unpredictable nature of the world, and analyzing their data from this same perspective, the artist explores the ways in which such systems react when interpreting unexpected situations and phenomena. The works in the show, which mimic self-driving vehicles, drones, connected objects and the monitoring of potentially catastrophic events, are the products of in-depth research. They give us a clear yet serene and amused vision of the technological developments that mark the period in which we live.
Quévillon’s devices invite us to contemplate, or experience directly, a tangible chaos in ambiguous situations in which the unfathomable appears. The artist explores the ways in which technology affects or redefines our cognitive processes, our environment and our relationships to space, time and other people. Ultimately, it is up to us to do the work of reflection that his work encourages us to do.
Opening and guided tour on Saturday, February 9, at 2 p.m.
François Quévillon, video of the exhibition Manœuvrer l’incontrôlable presented at EXPRESSION, 41 s. ©NousTV
Ma langue est un sable mouvant
Born in São Paulo, Brazil, the multidisciplinary artist Giorgia Volpe has lived and worked in Quebec City since 1998. Looking closely at individual and collective “memory,” her work deals with the various realities of body and mind, her relationships with others and her immediate environment. Volpe’s attention to the fabric of society, tradition and the idea of knowledge transmission is focused more on how things develop than on finished products. “I elaborate, she says, “on things that develop, repeat and intrude upon one another.” The artist’s work invites us to reflect, to heal our wounds, and to break out of the cognitive constraints that we tend to impose upon ourselves without really knowing why or without taking the time to identify the sources of the one-sided visions that insidiously work their way into our lives.
For Volpe’s show in Saint-Hyacinthe, the EXPRESSION team has decided to take an intuitive approach and revisit her work by juxtaposing previous and new pieces. Guided by surrealism and the language of dreams, Ma langue est un sable mouvant (My Tongue is Flowing Sand) deliberately eschews the conventions of art museum retrospectives with paintings, sculptures and installation pieces that dwell in and on the exhibition venue. This collaborative effort attests to an art practice that has led Volpe to conduct many-facetted experiments using weaving, mixing, métissage, drawing, site-specific installation and action-oriented art alongside installation, video and photography. Much of this artist’s talent is devoted to the creation of links between these particles, components and objects.
Opening and guided tour on Saturday, November 17, at 2 p.m.
Giorgia Volpe, video of the exhibition Ma langue est un sable mouvant presented at EXPRESSION, 1 min 44 s. © NousTV
ORANGE 6th edition. Traceability
ORANGE, Contemporary art event of Saint-Hyacinthe – 6th edition
New projects and residences in farming communities
Venues
- EXPRESSION : 2e étage du Marché public, 495, avenue Saint-Simon, Saint-Hyacinthe
- Chapelle des Sœurs de Saint-Joseph de Saint-Hyacinthe : 2245, avenue Raymond, Saint-Hyacinthe
- Jardin Daniel A. Séguin : 3211, rue Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe
- Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe, La Verrière : 3000, avenue Boullé, Saint-Hyacinthe
With their combined expertise as agronomist and art historian, curators Isabelle and Marie-Ève Charron have planned an event featuring tangible alignments between the worlds of art and agriculture. Many of the works to be presented grew out of “blind dates” that the artists set up between artists and farming (agri-food?) partners to explore the concept of traceability, which is the guiding thread of the event.
Already a key element in many contemporary agro-food issues, the concept of traceability fosters fertile links with artists’ concerns. The desire to determine a product’s origin or uniqueness using tracing processes betrays a certain kinship with certain questions typical in the world of art. In agriculture, tracing systems make it possible to track a product back to its point of origin, to locate its position along the production and supply chains, and to map out its distribution network. A similar phenomenon can be observed in the world of art, where artwork is necessarily associated with its creator from the time of its creation through to its presentation. “Traceability” guarantees, authenticates and rates the monetary, aesthetic and qualitative values of products, acts, activities, and artworks. It even reassures buyers and consumers. In art, the artist’s signature and the attribution details of specific works influence how these works are received by the public, and put both markets and museums at ease. The 13 art projects in this event will take a wholly new approach to various facets of traceability. The artists will draw on examples from dairy genetics, egg production, pollination procedures, seed typology and grain and maple syrup production.
ORANGE 2018 will propose an itinerary between four venues related by their involvement with this year’s theme. The exhibition will place the populace at the centre of an event combining art and architecture, something that, in our era, is equally stimulating and necessary.
Opening and guided tour on Sunday, September 16, at 1 p.m.
Video of ORANGE, L’événement d’art actuel de Saint-Hyacinthe - 6th edition. © NousTV