Marie Ségolène Brault

A few months before the start of her residency, Marie Ségolène Brault found a 1989 article in the New York Times about a fishing expedition on the Matapedia River, a detailed account of water temperatures, currents, and the failure of salmon fly-fishing. This news clip sparked the artist's interest in Gaspesian fisheries and gave rise to the Fish Tail project: a performance and installation based on a series of unsent letters.

Inspired by the act of fishing, these confessions to old lovers explore themes of womanhood, aging, desire and alcoholism. Fish Tail mends in a collage fashion a variety of quotations and facts pulled both from conversations with locals of the Matapedia region, literature, cinema and personal memories.

 

Marie Ségolène Brault's artistic research is inspired by themes borrowed from psychoanalysis. She expresses her reflections through poetic fragments, theatrical displays of her desires, and sculptural installations. Like a confession, the artist shares the story of her losses, sorrows, and pleasures in the hope of suspending time. In this latent universe, she invites viewers to abandon themselves to the depths of their own subconscious, fractured by unspoken lacks and desires. Using everyday objects and organic ingredients, Marie Ségolène Brault explores these tensions, evoking momentarily forgotten memories in destabilizing, even cathartic compositions.

Fish tail follows this approach as a deep dive into any rhizomatic narrative that springs from the artist’s experience in the region of Matapédia. Searching for clues on site: household objects and clothes from Facebook marketplace or Craigslist ads, local vendor or thrift stores; old books from the town library, sound recordings, old photographs, recipe books, and foraged flora.

 

Biography

Marie Ségolène Brault is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator based in Montreal. She holds two bachelor's degrees from Concordia University in Creative Writing and Intermedia Cyberarts. She completed her Masters in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019. The artist has exhibited work and performed in the US, Canada, and Europe in spaces such as M.Leblanc (Chicago), No Gallery (New York), the CUE Arts Foundation (New York), EXPO Chicago, Extase (Chicago), Hauser & Wirth (New York), Pangée (Montreal), the Knockdown Center (New York) and more.

In 2022, Marie Ségolène Brault founded Espace Maurice, an apartment gallery located in Montreal, showcasing works by emerging local and international artists. Most recently, she has curated exhibitions at Dunkunsthalle (New York) with SARA'S (New York), on the second floor of Pangée (Montreal) and at Babayaga (Hudson, NY).

The artist’s writing has been commissioned by galleries such as TAP Art Space (Montreal) and Afternoon Projects (Vancouver) and has been featured in small presses and journals such as Dinner Bell, Glamour Girl, Ginger Zine, Desuetude, and The Wine Zine. She has authored and designed over five artist books as well as a poetry chapbook published by Grosse Fugue in 2021.

Recent exhibitions

2024	Bérénice’s stomach, curator, Pangée, Montreal Nadja, curator, Dunkunsthalle, New York City The Triumph of A Lonely Place, curator, Espace Maurice, Montreal Hypnos, curator, Espace Maurice, Montreal
2023	Calliope, performance series, Pangée Montreal, M.Leblanc, Chicago (IL), No Gallery,  New York, Honey's (BK, NY) and Espace Loulou, Montreal
2022	Opening event for Manal Kara and Oreka James, Pangée, Montreal A la folie ou pas du tout, at Jennifer Larkin Studios for Upstate Art Weekend, Woodstock (NY)
2021	Rouge Gorge, presented as part of “In Longing” group exhibition, CUE Art Foundation, New York City