Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis – Galerie de l’UQAM joins forces with MOMENTA to present solo exhibitions by the artists Marion Lessard, Émilie Pitoiset, and Naomi Rincón Gallardo

FRENCH VERSION

Curator: Ji-Yoon Han
Dates: September 7 – October 21, 2023

Montreal, August 21, 2023 – From September 7 to October 21, 2023, Galerie de l’UQAM will present solo exhibitions by the artists Marion Lessard, Émilie Pitoiset, and Naomi Rincón Gallardo, whose works activate processes of transformation, mimetics, and mutation through living beings.

Individuals are constantly recorded, formatted, fixed as same and identical, so how do we (re)set in motion our understanding of identities and differences? This question offers avenues for exploration and paths for reflection around the MOMENTA Biennale’s theme and the works of its artists.

The exhibitions
Marion Lessard (Canada)
The Roman de Remort, or the inhumane, villainous fabliaux of the Ultimate Carnaval

In The Roman de Remort, or the inhumane, villainous fabliaux of the Ultimate Carnaval, the Marion Lessard collective appropriates the medieval literary model to present the human character of Remort, who feels deeply remorseful for the centuries of harm that has been inflicted upon so-called Nature. Here, the blending of humans and animals is taken to extravagant and absurd new heights through disguises, split personalities, and theatrical reversals and turnarounds. Combining medieval satire with musical comedy, the exhibition takes the form of an immersive work in which gallant language masks and unmasks the exhilarating horror of the possible end of the human world.
marionlessard.com

Émilie Pitoiset (France)
MANIAC

At Galerie de l’UQAM, Émilie Pitoiset’s exhibition is driven by the human body’s will to never give up, to break the limits of its biological functions and to go beyond itself, to enter a mimetic trance that mirrors the societal upheavals. Since more than a decade, the artist has amassed a collection of anonymous photographs of dance marathons, these competitions that flourished in the United States during the Great Depression. Over these images, she draws lines that act like visible vectors of their depleted states, thus forming the photographic series Tainted Love. She then uses this intuitive geometry to choreograph sculptural installations: a line branches out into the gallery space to form stick figures that are frozen in moments of precarious balance.
emiliepitoiset.net

Naomi Rincón Gallardo (Mexique)
Agüeros: Masquerade for the End of Time

Naomi Rincón Gallardo’s exhibition is composed of a video trilogy of fables with non-conformist imagery. Cheap decor, papier mâché masks, DIY costumes and accessories lovingly crafted from recycled materials and electronic waste come alive in counternarratives of dissent, utopia, and desire where the human, the animal, and the divine intertwine. The activist work of the artist-researcher relies on a decolonial, feminist and plural re-reading of ancestral Mesoamerican mythology, combined with modern-day stories of the struggle to preserve land and biodiversity.
naomirincongallardo.net

Welcome activity
Back-to-school celebration at Galerie de l’UQAM
Wednesday, September 13, 2023, 5 – 7 pm
Galerie de l’UQAM
In collaboration with the UQAM Faculty of Arts
Free admission

On September 13, Galerie de l’UQAM invites the UQAM and artistic community to a happy hour to mark the start of the fall season. In addition to celebrating the opening of the MOMENTA Biennale de l’image exhibitions with the curator, this event will be an opportunity for the Galerie to launch its brand-new series of educational kits, L’art cultive.

MOMENTA Creative – Activities surrounding exhibitions at Galerie de l’UQAM
La Biennale includes the MOMENTA Creative program, a series of educational activities, creative workshops, and guided tours. Each activity, organized in relation to the Biennale’s theme, is free of charge and offered to groups, families, and individuals. Designed with a concern for inclusion and representativeness, our program conveys our desire to provide innovative cultural mediation.

Guided tours of the exhibitions for groups
Available any time
Reservations required at mediation@momentabiennale.com
Free of charge

(Re)invented Realities Workshop 
Available on reservation for groups at mediation@momentabiennale.com
Open to the public Saturday, September 30, 10 a.m. (no reservation required)
Free of charge

Join us for a collage workshop, offered in collaboration with author and artist Sara Hébert. Create anti-advertising posters inspired by the surrealist, punk, and kitsch aesthetic of Naomi Rincón Gallardo’s artwork. You will cut up magazines to take a fresh look at issues that touch and concern you. These subverted ads will be a form of critical reflection, combining humor and denunciation.

MOMENTA Conference
Roundtable
Saturday, September 16, 2023, 3 p.m.
Location: Artexte

The Marion Lessard collective will participate in a roundtable at Artexte with the artists Rémi Belliveau and Éric Simon, mediated by Hélène Brousseau and John Latour, as part of the launch of the book Qui était qui était qui dans l’art contemporain canadien, September 16 at 3 p.m.

Symposium
Friday September 29, 2023, 10 a.m.
Location: Centre Canadien d’Architecture

The Marion Lessard collective, along with the artist Rémi Belliveau, the author Dalie Giroux, and the MOMENTA curator Ji-Yoon Han, will join a conference organized by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, to be held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture as part of the Max and Iris Stern International Symposium.

About MOMENTA Biennale de l’image
MOMENTA Biennale de l’image is a flagship Montréal event devoted to contemporary art. For more than 30 years, MOMENTA has been inviting artists and audiences from the world over to gather in the city’s museums, galleries, and artist-run centres. Its activities include exhibitions, public events, and educational workshops that introduce participants to artists, both local and international, whose works pique curiosity and stimulate reflection.
momentabiennale.com

Support by

Upcoming exhibitions at Galerie de l’UQAM: galerie.uqam.ca/en/statut/upcoming/

Address and opening hours
Galerie de l’UQAM
Judith-Jasmin Pavilion, Room J-R120
1400 Berri, corner of Sainte-Catherine East, Montreal
Berri-UQAM Metro
Free admission

Tuesday to Saturday, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Free admission

Information
Tel. : 514 987-6150
galerie.uqam.ca / Facebook / Instagram / Viméo

Press Relations
Valérie Grig, MOMENTA
valerie@rugicomm.ca
Tel. : 514 812-3858

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Source :
Olivier Lapierre
Cell.: 514 583-3868
olivier.olpr@gmail.com