[Summer 2021]

Le goût de la durée
Occurrence, espace d’art et d’essai contemporains, Montréal
15.09.2020 — 7.11.2020

Par Mona Hakim

On the walls of the smallest room in Galerie Occurrence are intriguing photographs of a bare, dingy hall. Captured by photographer Judith Bellavance, the basement of a Gaspé village church seems frozen in time. Bellavance is known for her poetic narratives created from collections of objects and traces of bodies, and so the choice to focus her lens on a closed space may seem surprising. When we take a close look, however, Le goût de la durée sheds additional and consequential light on the role played by memory, loss, and emotion in her work.

When she went to Douglastown for a first experience of working in thanatology, Bellavance was intrigued by the unique ambience of the huge church basement in which she was working. A charming town with Irish roots, Douglastown is situated in the heart of a region that today is coloured by new residents’ diverse customs and cultures – a transformation that contrasts with the conformism emanating from the village’s parish hall, with its community and multifunctional vocation…
Translated by Käthe Roth

 

See the magazine for the complete article and more images: Ciel variable 117 – SHIFTED