November 2023
International Digital Miniprint Exhibition 18
Symbiosis
Curator: Doris Lamontagne
From November 3 to December 12, 2023,
the Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle hosted
the 18th edition of its International Digital Miniprint Exhibition, curated this year by
artist Doris Lamontagne. The opening of the exhibit was held on Thursday, November 9,
at 5 p.m.
Presented at the gallery as well as in virtual mode on its website, the exhibition entitled Symbiosis highlighted 82 works by 48 artists from the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, and Ukraine.
Symbiosis
Since the beginning of time, artists have drawn inspiration from nature. From prehistoric works found in the Lascaux caves to medieval bestiaries, from Renaissance still life to modern times, non-human species have been represented in artistic works and by different means.
This desire to evoke other species in images is driven by different intentions: whether purely aesthetic, magical, religious, or scientific, these representations lead us today to examine the impact of human beings on the planet as well as its relationship with the microbial, fungal, plant and animal agents that live there.
If the thought of Descartes separated nature from humanity, the sciences of our century highlight the interdependence between different organisms including humans. The interspecies entanglements that give shape to our world are revealed to us. By understanding that humans are part of an interconnected planetary system, we can describe the various forms of relationships between the organisms of our biosphere. By revealing these entanglements that give shape to our world we can recognize our place in nature and thus put an end to our anthropocentric push towards the extinction of species and consequently that of humanity.
Beyond the Anthropocene, what will nature look like? What can we expect from a planetary system that has regained its vital balance? It’s up to you to imagine it…
Doris Lamontagne, curator
Participating artists:
A. Dworzak-Subocz, Poland | A. Canau, Portugal | C. Reyes, Belgium
C. Garcia-Cournoyer, Canada | C. Dahan, Canada | C. Diedericks, South Africa
C. Bezirgiannidou, Greece | C. Lemay, Canada | D. Robinson, Canada | D. Leclerc, Canada | D. Collet, Canada | D. Wimalaratne, Canada | F. Gauvry, Argentina
F. Ikonomidou, Greece | F. Caswell-Routhier, Canada | G. Vallée, Canada | H. Pouillon,
Belgium | I. Kobayashi, Japan | J-P. Brazs, France | J. Aird-Bélanger, Canada | J. Hénen, Canada | J. Graham, Canada | J. Muscat, Canada | K. Seshie, Canada | L. Finet, Canada
L. Daigle, Canada | M. Benhamou, France | M. Brunet, Canada | M. Périat, Canada
M. Des Aulniers, Canada | M. Lapointe, Canada | M. Handfield, Canada | N L. Legris, Canada | N. Ross, Canada | O. Golub, Ukraine | O. Thiland, Canada | P. Csaba, Hungary
P. Walty, Canada | P. Cavale, Canada | R. Aubin, Canada | R. Jodoin, Canada
R. Kempen, Netherlands | R. Chevalier, Canada | R. Robesco, Canada | S. Mandla, Canada | T. Ueda, Japan | V. Tytor, Canada | W. Pinet, Canada
Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the City of Ottawa, AGAVF, Marcil Lavallée and Desjardins Ontario for their support.
September 2023
Komi Seshie
Are you ready for the trip? I am ready for the trip.
From September 8 to October 10, 2023, the Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle hosted the exhibition “Are you ready for the trip? I am ready for the trip.” by Komi Seshie.
Hundreds of thousands of human beings deploy incredible strength every day to brave dangerous, upsetting, and catastrophic situations. In search of refuge, those who manage to do so find themselves between two worlds: that of their country of origin, their loved ones, their identity, and their mother tongue; that of the host land which offers the possibility of being able to recreate oneself in order to take on one’s true part of humanity.
In his artistic approach, the artist pursues a reflection from different media sources that address socio-economic and geopolitical issues as well as issues relating to the environment. In addition to a short experimental video, he shares with us here an album of photos from his last trips to Ireland, Africa, and Nunavik (Quebec). Two styles of images make up the exhibit: some are vivid and clear, featuring people dressed in bright, colorful colors waiting for a train or bus, while others are blurry, like if they were caught from a moving train.
Born in the Gulf of Guinea region, Komi Seshie, is a self-taught artist in visual art and multimedia. He is also a sculptor. From 1995 to 1999, he studied woodworking and graduated in carpentry and cabinetmaking. He arrived in Canada in 2010 and quickly became involved with the arts community of the National Capital. He has been a representative of BRAVO-Est since 2013. His work has been seen in several exhibitions in the region, including at the Art-Image gallery (Maison de la culture in Gatineau) and at the TRINITY Art Gallery (Shenkman Center) in Ottawa. He has also participated thrice in the ARé Performing arts Festival, Yerevan, Armenia. His works have been selected three times to be added in the City of Ottawa Art Collection.
Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the City of Ottawa, AGAVF, Marcil Lavallée and Desjardins Ontario, for their support.
June 2023
Curator: Manon Condamin
Voix Jeunes Talents | Génération Visuelle
From May 30th to June 30th, 2023, the Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle hosted the “Voix Jeunes Talents” exhibition, 10th edition.
Digital art is a recent discipline that includes all creations based exclusively or inclusively on the use of digital tools.
This art continues to evolve in space and time:
With a new surface, a changing perception and modern tools, digital works today are multiple and very varied. Their appearance underlines new reflections on the identity of a work: passing from a material nature to immaterial (and vice versa) and from a single character to multiple… Ultimately, this discipline disrupts the codes of traditional art.
On the other hand, this new language — digital —- is easily tamed by the new generations cradled to the rhythm of technological advances. These young artists are the carriers and protagonists of this recent artistic discipline. It is easy for them to give free expression to their imagination in a constantly evolving field, allowing them to push back the limits of creation.
The opening of the exhibition took place on Thursday, June 1st, 2023 at 5 p.m. at the Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle. In order to respect health measures and to avoid crowds, those who wished to attend the opening had to register here, where 1 hour visit slots could be reserved.
Curator: Manon Condamin
The Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the City of Ottawa, Caisse Desjardins, AGAVF and Marcil Lavallée for their support.
Participating Artists :
G. Arbuthnot | S. Baylor | A. Bergbusch | A. Bidal | A. Blundon | G. Bouchereau
A. Bourque | C. Charette | J. Charron | Chauve | D. Cornel | G. Dawe | E. Desjardins
L. Douchant | Emile | S. Eclou Johnson | D. Elas | A. Fathi Fazl | C. Freire
C. Garcia-Cournoyer | M. Gilbert | M. Glaude | H. Gray | A. Hoskyn | V. Houle | R. Kaddir
A. Kuelz | M. Lachapelle | E. Laeer | E. Laliberté | C. Lapoujade | O. Lascelle
E. Levesque | E. Levesque | E. Martin | Martina | M. Lewis Milan | C. Melki
A. Morency | A. Morrisey-Robichaud | E. Prévost | P. Pribylovsky | M. Provençal
A. Prud’homme | J. Roussel | J. Saccoh | R. Shams | S. Shragge | P. Sirois | Z. Sirois
M. Skabar | C. St-Cyr | M. Thoer | D. Truong | M. Turmel | A. Vaillancourt | A. Williams
L. Williams | Ydo
Avril-mai 2023
Thierry du Bois
L’Édification de la lumière
From April 15 to May 23, 2023, the Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle hosted the exhibition L’Édification de la lumière (Edification of the light), by Thierry du Bois. The opening of the exhibit was Thursday, April 27, 2023, at 5 p.m.
Two and a half centuries after the end of the Middle Ages, the Age of Enlightenment began this passage from obscurantism to an era of knowledge. But what about our knowledge of light, the one that floods urban nights and illuminates today’s castles? What discourse can we draw from the illumination of office towers? Prestige or vestiges in the making?
Thierry du Bois’ field of exploration is inspired by the language of light expressed by buildings in the absence of their occupants. A language that the camera lens reveals as if it were a form of Morse code, short or prolonged lines of light, whose meaning must be deciphered through its undeniable plasticity. This discourse also opens the door to extra-pictorial documentary research that links images to the energy and social issues of buildings.
Through a refined plastic research that makes the very structure of the buildings disappear, the artist wishes to reveal this construction of light as a subject. A subject that is not enlightened, but illuminating, producing a discourse whose scope we do not always measure, and which disappears behind its obvious character: the buildings light up the cities at night. However, beyond this reassuring aspect of the light, the way in which the luminous flux is organized through multiple interspersed individual sources, which are superimposed without touching each other, produces a visual code imbued with mystery, a sometimes more disturbing language than comforting, since it induces separation and imposes hierarchy. Is this layering of lines and luminous points a metaphor for the pixelation of the social? So, what is hiding behind this debauchery of lumens in the absence of humans?
Born in 1984 in Belgium, Thierry du Bois began an artistic career after working as a freelance press photographer in Europe. Inspired by conceptual art, surrealism and dadaism, he photographs everyday objects, playing on the loss of reference points and scale to create another reality. His work questions the environmental impact of human production and new technologies. His projects have been exhibited and awarded several times in Canada, including the one presented here, which won a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2019.
Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the City of Ottawa, AGAVF, and Marcil Lavallée for their support.
January 2023
Sylvie Readman and Denis Rioux
Porosités
From January 17 to February 21, 2023, Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle hosted the exhibition Porosities, by the artists Sylvie Readman and Denis Rioux.
The opening of the exhibit was Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 5 p.m.
Porosities was born of the meeting of two artists who, each in their own way, are interested in materiality, space, and light as primal conditions of photographic experience. Conjoining their voices, this project aims to relate their reflective territories and to create points of contact from which the images allow themselves to be permeated by a seemingly analog spirit of openness and balance between what is given to see and to think.
Sylvie Readman’s contribution revisits and updates the classic pictorial theme of vanitas, in the context of which photographic elements make up a reflective fable. Made up of evanescent landscapes, of memorials or funerary spaces, and references to long temporal cycles, this fable, haunted by the imaginary of the camera obscura, conjures up a set of open meditations on the passage of time, on the finitude of human existence, and on the complexity of our relationship to nature.
Denis Rioux explores the photographic as a distinct form of appropriation, along with the nature of the experience it involves. Is works are an operator that fosters thinking about space, the visible, and materiality, outside of what enables the naming of things. They give an account of the primal, tautological experience of the appearing in light, highlighting the contexture of objects in favor of their complex and entropic materiality.
Le Centre d’artistes Voix Visuelle would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, the City of Ottawa, AGAVF, Marcil Lavallée, and the Caisse Desjardins Ontario for their support.