In the spirit of a museum’s art acquisition committee, the tenth Collectors Symposium, generously sponsored by National Bank Private Wealth 1859, was held on Tuesday, November 1st, in the galleries devoted to La Biennale de Montréal.
Co-chaired by Julie Couture and Sara Joli-Coeur, this fundraising event for the Musée Foundation brought together seventy guests who were invited to take part in selecting the next work that will enrich the Musée Collection.
Marie-Ève Beaupré, Mark Lanctôt, Julie Bélisle and François Letourneux from the artistic direction team, presented works by Moyra Davey (Seven and Seven Part 2, 2014), by Sarah Anne Johnson (Series Field Trip, 2015), by Celia Perrin Sidarous (Notte Corallo, 2016) and by Hajra Waheed (The Video Installation Project 1-10, 2011-2013)
Following their deliberations, our guests selected Sarah Anne Johnson’s five photographic works from the series Field Trip.
Sarah Anne Johnson was born in 1976 in Winnipeg. Her singular practice of photography reveals sensory experiences through the eye of the camera. By scratching, cutting, adding touches of paint or digital transformations to images, she consolidates her presence and leaves room for personal experiences rather than apparent staging. For her latest series, Field Trip, the artist revisits the music festivals she frequented in her youth and creates an archive of these contemporary bacchanals. During these collective rituals, the societal constraints are replaced by an intoxicated freedom. Wrapped in cloudy fog, saturated with gloss, and hidden behind the painting, the scenes of Field Trip combine euphoria and psychedelic aesthetics. The artist describes the porous boundaries between the experience felt and the desired expectations. The ephemeral nature of the experience reveals the futility of a certain utopia sought after by the festival-goers.
Symposium Committee: Marie-Eve Beaupré, Éric Bujold, Julie Couture, François Dufresne, Line D. Gagné, Eva Hartling, Sara Joli-Cœur, Danièle Patenaude, Vitale Santoro and John Zeppetelli