Pavillon du Musée, 27 rue Ambroise-Fafard or wander around town!
Ask our mediation team for details.
Thursday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
_Le trot The gist of the project is as follows: design and circulate Baie St-Paul aboard a whimsical vehicle cobbled together from a horse-drawn carriage whose wheels activate a mechanism imitating the sound of hooves on the ground. No motor, no electricity: this zero-horsepower vehicle has to be pushed to generate the tinkling sound of a trot.
This eccentric intervention covets urban areas often “spared” by contemporary art (residential neighborhoods, sports parks, shopping mall parking lots). These unusual contexts have the potential to generate works that tend to confuse art with the mundane. The ensuing uncomfortable ambiguity, the moment of incomprehension and potential amazement, is the marrow of the project.
May the intervention surprise residents and induce in them a state of curiosity where the time taken to observe details and try to understand the how and why can lead to a moment of intimacy and pleasure with a work of art.
The artist wishes to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for its support.
_Biography Behind Les oncles de l'artiste is Nicolas Laverdière; the ¨L¨ of feu BGL. This trio of artists, based in Quebec City from 1996 to 2021, is known for its varied practice, deeply rooted in materiality and often inclined towards installation. BGL represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and has exhibited in various national and international galleries and events. Laverdière's track record is brief and recent. Since 2022, he has participated each year in a 6-week residency at the end of which he presents an intervention: this was at Adélard in Frelighsburg in 2022, Vrille/Art actuel in 2023 and at Maison de la Culture Ahuntsic in 2024.
_Approach N. Laverdière's preferred medium is installation; space before form and image. Les oncles de l'artiste reflects his penchant for teamwork, where collaborations make the process a rallying one, and where shared creativity stimulates inventiveness. A lover of handmade work, his bricolages aspire to fascination through various visual phenomena and/or by diverting the function of objects. The subjects are familiar, popular; each element can be named, but the artistic gesture lends the work an unusual, elusive character (as in poetry, when words transcend their original meaning). Fond of the irrational aspect of the craft, these aunts and uncles of all ages organize their lives to allow time for experimenting with materials. Intuition and the trial-and-error method are put forward to provoke “discoveries”. To exhibit is to share the most conclusive.
