POUR UN INSTANT
An exhibition presented by Guy Rodrigue
at the Darling Foundry, from January 11 to 21, 2018
Opening on Thursday, January 11, 6 PM
On the initiative of art enthusiast Guy Rodrigue, works from artists Jacques Bilodeau, Manon De Pauw, Pierre-Marc Ouellette, Michel Piquette, Yann Pocreau and Maude Veilleux are brought together for a moment. Presented at the Darling Foundry from January 11 to January 21, this exhibition event proposes an unpretentious and open dialogue between different practices combining sculpture and image, light and darkness, poetry and dance. The exhibition Pour un instant is first and foremost a brief lapse of time dedicated to the pleasures of experiencing art in its many forms.
Since the early 1980s, Jacques Bilodeau has conceived ambitious architectural interventions in existing buildings with the aim of challenging the assumptions pertaining to domestic life. Alongside these site-specific works where art, design and architecture are combined, Bilodeau’s installations and sculptures are exhibited in art galleries and public venues. These works are tools to be activated and manipulated by viewers, thereby engaging their body and disorienting it. Their meaning unfolds in ways that are both performative and experiential.
Manon De Pauw’s artistic process takes shape in various media including video, installation, performance and photography. Her works stage visual intrigues and focus on manipulating materials that are both tangible and radiantly immaterial, thus reflecting upon the emerging process of an image. The projection Danse optique is a chromatic study and a choreography of geometric forms inspired by the formal codes of the Plasticien mouvement. It results from coloured acetates manipulations (specifically the translucent gel used for lighting) on the surface of a light table. This work is part of the research of the artist on the concept of the ‘’performed image’’ where the body is evident, even when muted, in the formal construction of the work. The work has been created during a creation residency at the Guido Molinari Foundation in 2015 and was part of the exhibition De Pauw / A.Tremblay – Études presented the same year.
Inspired by works from the exhibition Pour un instant, the performance Ombrer by Pierre-Marc Ouellette is an homage to movement in wich the interpret has, as a partner, the light conveyed by surrounding artworks and ambiant chiaroscuro. Relying on words from the song ‘’Gloomy Sunday’’, by Billie Holiday, the gestual is coming into being into free and sensible forms, live in front of a public.Pierre-Marc Ouellette completed his studies at L’École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal in 2005. Since 2007, he has been a performer and a collaborator of Le Carré des Lombes, a company led by the choreographer Danièle Desnoyers.
Through photography, Michel Piquette creates captures of time, animated by a paradoxical quest for an image preceding any technique. By weaving together aspects of geometry and abstraction, photography and experimental practices, Piquette creates a world suspended in time, where the trivial and the obvious become vectors of beauty and emotion.
For this exhibition, Yann Pocreau presents new photograms and experimentations with light and form designed as responses to painting. Although formalist and close to abstract painting – more precisely geometrical abstraction - this corpus is entirely photographic. It is for the artist a way to reflect upon the codes belonging to the pictural realm. Pocreau took part of numerous exhibitions in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and was featured in various magazines. His works can be found in numerous collections: National Bank of Canada, Hydro-Québec, Desjardins, Deloitte Toronto, City of Montreal, City of Longueuil, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d’art de Joliette, Collection Prêt d’œuvres d’art du Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec. He lives and works in Montreal and is represented by Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal.
Maude Veilleux evolves through different disciplines such as poetry, prose and performance. Her work plays with the concept of autobiography and intimacy; she mixes fiction with reality. Maude Veilleux was born in the Beauce region in 1987. She holds a bachelor degree in literature from Université Laval and is currently a graduate student at Université de Montréal. She has published two poetry books (Les choses de l’amour à marde and Last call les murènes), as well as two novels (Le vertige des insectes and Prague).