Marie-Hélène Bellavance

Marie-Hélène Bellavance's practice focuses on human experience and its innate capacity for resilience. Through pictorial, videographic, performative, and installation works, she creates spaces that allow viewers to transform the face of various griefs and experiences. An artist of functional diversity, she has increasingly emphasized interactivity with the public in recent years, blending elements of performance art, installation, and contemporary dance. Her approach to the body in movement is deeply linked to the singularity of each individual and seeks points of contact and tension with the audience. During this residency, Marie-Hélène Bellavance dives into creating the installations for Dépaysement: les eaux intimes, which will be showcased at the Fonderie Darling in January-February 2025. This project forms a sensitive link between visual art and dance, inviting the public to witness dance performances and intertwining narratives in a space that feels both familiar and dreamlike. The artist reveals an intriguing, ever-changing ecosystem in which she and other performers interact with the installations and leave their marks. This inclusive, sensory work draws inspiration from cycles of natural transformation, intimate memories, grief, and community ties, all within a simultaneously ordinary and surreal context.

 

Biography

Born in Joliette in 1981, Marie-Hélène Bellavance graduated from Concordia University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a minor in psychology. She first studied abstract painting with artist François Sullivan, then developed an interdisciplinary practice combining painting, drawing, and movement. Based in Montreal, she has had several group and solo exhibitions, shown in various cultural spaces and museums across Quebec. In 2005, she joined Corpuscule Danse, a company dedicated to developing inclusive dance based on the encounter of artists with and without visible and invisible disabilities. She has performed in five productions and collaborated with choreographers such as Estelle Clareton, Benoit Lachambre, and Lucie Grégoire, among others. Currently, as co-artistic director and general manager, Marie-Hélène Bellavance continues to advance her vision of the contemporary body within the company and her practice. Through a variety of media, she offers insights into bodily and functional diversity.

 

Recent exhibitions

2024	Le grand bal, exhibition/installation in collaboration with ToutEs ou Pantoute: podcast queer-féministe indépendant et interrégional, Trois-Pistoles, CA
2021-2023	La grande dame : Changer la douleur en fleurs, horticultural and interactive installation, Maison et jardins Antoine-Lacombe, Saint-Charles-Borromée, CA
2022	La maison que j’habite, moi, installation for Les jeux du crépuscule, a play by Ariane Boulet, Agora de la danse, Montréal, CA