The Musée d’art contemporain is pulling off a major coup this summer with the inaugural edition of The Québec Triennial: Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed, scheduled to run from May 24 to September 7, 2008. This is one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever of contemporary Québec art, and one of the largest exhibitions in the museum’s history.
38 artists / 135 works / 3 years’ output
Resembling a vast research project, The Québec Triennial is the product of extensive fieldwork and deliberation by the museum’s team of curators, who combed countless exhibitions and artists’ studios to provide us with a group portrait of the current artistic scene in Québec. And for the first time in our history, all of the museum’s galleries will be devoted to a single show.
This inaugural edition presents some 135 works in various media—drawing, installation, painting, performance, photography, sculpture and video—by 38 artists and collectives, including a program of video spot artworks created and screened in collaboration with Télé-Québec that was launched this past May 14. Most of the artists are showing at the Musée for the first time. Featured in the exhibition are:
David Altmejd
David Armstrong Six
Nicolas Baier
Gwenaël Bélanger
Patrick Bernatchez
Valérie Blass
Anthony Burnham
Cooke-Sasseville
Patrick Coutu
Michel de Broin
Raphaëlle de Groot
Manon De Pauw
Julie Doucet
Doyon-Rivest
Louis-Philippe Eno
Stéphane Gilot
Cynthia Girard
Romeo Gongora
Charles Guilbert et Serge Murphy
Adad Hannah
Isabelle Hayeur
Bettina Hoffmann
Jon Knowles
Manon Labrecque
Emanuel Licha
Lynne Marsh
Michael Merrill
Tricia Middleton
Adrian Norvid
Jonathan Plante
Yannick Pouliot
Jocelyn Robert
David Ross
Carlos et Jason Sanchez
Karen Tam
Chih-Chien Wang
WWKA (Women with Kitchen Appliances)
Etienne Zack
Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed
Putting the exhibition together was quite a marathon. After an initial, exploratory phase, the curators drew up an exhaustive list of artists, covering all disciplines and generations. Then, over the summer and fall of 2007, they followed up with visits to studios and exhibitions, and numerous meetings as they refined their search for formally and thematically innovative practices that showed a high degree of mastery. Out of this process, 38 artists and artists collectives were selected. The showcased works all reflect an openness to the present in their approach to fundamental issues. They also attest to the vibrancy of Québec art, as well as its diversity and relevance.
Only when it came down to the final selection was the title chosen, inspired by the nature of the works included and Lavoisier’s famous maxim: “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed,” which was in turn borrowed from Greek philosopher Anaxagoras of Clazomenae.
Musée curators Josée Bélisle, Pierre Landry and Mark Lanctôt, and Chief Curator Paulette Gagnon organized the exhibition, while their colleague Lesley Johnstone acted as project coordinator.
A wide-ranging program of activities is planned around the event, to be held every three years