Ciel variable 117 - SHIFTED | Portfolios
Artists: Franck Gérard, Steve Giasson, Vincent Lafrance
Three artists explore, each in their own way, the visible and the invisible: through erudition, autofiction, and subjectivity, their works reveal an ironic distance from the contemporary world.
Ciel variable 117 - SHIFTED | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
In the feature section of this issue, we encounter three artists, three aesthetic approaches that converge in a certain ironic distance. One, more erudite, draws on the layers of cultural history; another, more narrative, unfolds an autofiction through subtle touches and existential resonances; the last, more direct, affirms the subjectivity of a framing, of a gaze. What, in the end, of the visible and the invisible? What kind of knowledge helps us live better? And what do all these small things that go off track tell us about the state of the world?
[Summer 2021]
This issue features three artists, with three aesthetic positionings, who share an ironic distancing. One, more scholarly, builds on strata of cultural history; the second, more narrative, fashions, with small strokes, a self-fiction with existential echoes; the last, more direct, affirms the subjectivity of a framing, a gaze. What is it exactly about the visible and the invisible? What wisdom do we need to live better? And what do all these little things that are derailed say about the state of the world?
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Entrevues, Interviews
Authors: Chuck Samuels | Artists: Chuck Samuels
[Hiver 2021] An Interview by Chuck Samuels Chuck Samuels is an occasional freelance critic who lives and works in Montreal. This is the third in a series of interviews with Chuck Samuels appearing in Ciel variable. He has also published articles in such Canadian contemporary arts magazines as MIX, Fuse, and Vanguard (co-written with Moira […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Book Reviews, Readings
Authors: Jérôme Delgado | Artists: Bertrand Carrière, Geneviève Cadieux, Isabelle Hayeur
[Hiver 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Par Jérôme Delgado (En français seulement) Buy the issue
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Vikky Alexander
[Winter 2021] Nordic Rock Darling Foundry, Montreal February 27–August 29, 2020 By James D. Campbell Vikky Alexander’s Nordic Rock is a rare extravaganza of the literal and the metaphorical, the real and the surreal. It provokes a counterpoint to and reappraisal of the massive scale of the imposing Darling Foundry Main Hall in which it […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Gabrielle Sarthou | Artists: Laurence Hervieux-Gosselin
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Fenêtre oubliée Galerie la Castiglione chez Produit Rien, Montréal Du 3 au 26 septembre 2020 By Gabrielle Sarthou (En français seulement) Buy the issue
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Biennale de Berlin pour l’art contemporain Du 5 septembre au 1er novembre 2020 By Érika Nimis (En français seulement) Buy the issue
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Bertrand Carrière
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Dans les années – Photographies 1996–2019 Galerie d’art Antoine-Sirois de l’Université de Sherbrooke Du 8 septembre au 17 octobre 2020 By Sylvain Campeau (En français seulement) Buy the issue […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Jérôme Delgado
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Photographie et société : L’Autre Amérique Maison de la culture Claude-Léveillée, Montréal Du 26 août au 4 octobre 2020 By Jérôme Delgado (En français seulement) Buy the issue […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS
Authors: Alexis Desgagnés | Artists: Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Dédales d’almanachs Festival Art souterrain, Montréal Du 29 février au 22 mars 2020 Par Alexis Desgagnés (En français seulement) Buy the issue
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Nathalie Bachand | Artists: Virginie Laganière
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Derrière l’horizon Circa art actuel, Montréal Du 8 juillet au 22 août 2020 Par Nathalie Bachand (En français seulement) Buy the issue
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Charles Guilbert | Artists: Rachel Echenberg
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Conversations avec ma famille Galerie B-312, Montréal Du 3 septembre au 3 octobre 2020 Par Charles Guilbert (En français seulement) Buy the issue
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Essays
Authors: Bruno Chalifour
[Winter 2021] By Bruno Chalifour After months of a world pandemic, being surrounded by clouds may sound like a reprieve: fluffy, light, ethereal, and flying higher than the contemporary political discourse in the United States, clouds may provide temporary solace in our dark, sometimes ignorant, times. The exhibition Gathering Clouds, Photographs from the Nineteenth Century […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Essays
Authors: Edward Pérez-González
[Winter 2021] Par Edward Pérez-González The Single and the Multiple. Briefly, multiplicity can be defined as a condition that amplifies things and phenomena; a state of abundance, of potentialities, that enables us to perceive and comprehend the world through different and heterogeneous dimensions – from another dimension. This mode of the single and the multiple […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Essays
Authors: Zoë Tousignant | Artists: Ewa Monika Zebrowski
[Winter 2021] By Zoë Tousignant It stands to reason that much thought, time, and energy go into the making of a photobook. Fortunately, the work that it involves is usually shared by several individuals who, each expert in their own field, contribute to creating the end product. These individuals most often include a photographer, a […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Portfolios
Authors: Jeanne Randolph | Artists: David K. Ross
[Winter 2021] By Jeanne Randolph Vain Pillaging – I told him I was thinking, “Vain Pillaging.” – As in futile? my friend responded. – As in gall-darn hubris, I said. Any one of us can do what we want with names, even four-thousand-year old names. – And, said my friend, who is familiar with […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Portfolios
Authors: Dominique Sirois-Rouleau | Artists: Chloé Beaulac
[Winter 2021] Dominique Sirois-Rouleau Chosen to take part in the Missions photographiques des Laurentides project,1 Chloé Beaulac set herself the objective of finding the family cottage that had been part of her childhood. This quest motivated the month-long residency, during which her recollections tied to the Laurentian landscape were confronted with reality. For days, she […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Portfolios
Authors: Yannick Marcoux | Artists: Alain Lefort
[Winter 2021] Par Yannick Marcoux Looking back upon our origins, it was a long time ago – a very long time, ten thousand years in fact – that the last ice age ended on Earth. What remains of that epoch seems to fascinate Alain Lefort, who, after making his series Eidolôn on drifting icebergs, has […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Portfolios
Artists: Alain Lefort, Chloé Beaulac, David K. Ross
[Winter 2021] What do the most distant, wild, silent landscapes tell us? How do landscapes of our childhood, those that awoke us to the world, shape us? What reflections of our own future do we find in the chaos of urban sites? Landscapes are like mirrors, utterly shaped by human presence. The city is a […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
[Winter 2021] By Jacques Doyon What do the most distant, wild, silent landscapes tell us? How do landscapes of our childhood, those that awoke us to the world, shape us? What reflections of our own future do we find in the chaos of urban sites? Landscapes are like mirrors, utterly shaped by human presence. The […]
[Winter 2021]
What do the most distant, wild, silent landscapes tell us? How do landscapes of our childhood, those that awoke us to the world, shape us? What reflections of our own future do we find in the chaos of urban sites? Landscapes are like mirrors, utterly shaped by human presence. The city is a direct extension of the social body and, similarly, all of nature is a construction of culture that becomes meaningful only through the human gaze.
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Entrevues, Interviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Robert Walker
[Summer 2020] An Interview by James D. Campbell Robert Walker was born in Montreal in 1945. He graduated in visual arts from Sir George Williams University in the late 1960s. In 1975, he attended a workshop given by American photographer Lee Friedlander that would be transformative, and he embraced colour street photography as an aesthetic […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Book Reviews, Readings
Authors: Bruno Chalifour
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Une histoire française Françoise Denoyelle Paris, Les Rencontres d’Arles / Art Book Magazine 2019, 320 p. (ill. n&b) 50 ans d’histoire Françoise Denoyelle et Sam Stourdzé Paris, La Martinière, 2019, 278 […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Recensions de publications
Authors: Fanny Bieth
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Par Fanny Bieth (In French only) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Book Reviews, Readings
Authors: Pierre Dessureault | Artists: David McMillan
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Croissance et Dégradation Pripiat et la zone d’exclusion de Tchernobyl David McMillan essai de Claude Baillargeon Göttingen, Steidl, 2019, 262 p., 200 photographies Par Pierre Dessureault (In French only) Buy the […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Nathalie Bachand | Artists: Alexis Bellavance, Pascal Dufaux, Sarah Wendt
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Axenéo7 Du 18 septembre au 26 octobre 2019 Par Nathalie Bachand (In French only) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sophie Bertrand | Artists: Léa Magnien
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Parenthèse(s) Du 6 au 30 novembre 2019 Par Sophie Bertrand (In French only) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Clément Willer, Fanny Bieth | Artists: Andrea Szilasi, Gabor Szilasi
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Galerie Deux Poissons, Montréal Du 17 octobre au 23 novembre 2019 Par Fanny Bieth et Clément Willer (En Français seulement) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Jocelyn Philibert
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Dimension Lumière EXPRESSION. Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe Du 9 novembre 2019 au 26 janvier 2020 Par Sylvain Campeau (En Français seulement) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Mona Hakim | Artists: Normand Rajotte
[Summer 2020] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Sur les lieux La Castiglione, Montréal Du 2 octobre au 9 novembre 2019 Par Mona Hakim (En Français seulement) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Charles Guilbert | Artists: Monique Moumblow
[Fall 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Compositions | Pale Shadows Centre VOX Du 1er novembre 2019 au 29 février 2020 By Charles Guilbert (In French only) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Jill Glessing | Artists: Hito Steyerl
[Fall 2019] Art Gallery of Ontario October 24, 2019–February 23, 2020 By Jill Glessing Artist and cultural critic Hito Steyerl, widely recognized for her writing and video works, explores the mostly invisible relations among contemporary art, networked digital technology, and the power structures that aim to control them. In her exhibition This is the future […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Ariane Noël de Tilly | Artists: Isaac Julien
[Fall 2019] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Isaac Julien Frederick Douglass: Lessons of the Hour SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah Du 3 octobre au 15 décembre 2019 By Ariane Noël de Tilly (In French only) Acheter ce numéro
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Essays
Authors: Claudia Polledri
[Summer 2020] By Claudia Polledri The third edition of the Biennial of Contemporary Arab World Photography,1 curated by Gabriel Bauret, was held in Paris in 2019. Inaugurated in 2015 on the joint initiative of the Arab World Institute (AWI) and the Maison européenne de la photographie (MEP), the event is important because it showcases works […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Essays
Authors: Sophie Bertrand
[Summer 2020] By Sophie Bertrand For the last ten years, the Zoom Photo Festival been a mid-autumn feature in Chicoutimi, in Quebec’s Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region. La Pulperie de Chicoutimi, a national historic site and regular partner of the festival, serves as headquarters and hosts most of the exhibitions, with La Zone Portuaire, and other shows are […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Essays
Authors: Charles Guilbert
[Summer 2020] By Charles Guilbert For the second edition of Momenta | Biennale de l’image1 (it had fourteen editions under its previous name, Le Mois de la photo), co-curators María Wills Londoño, Audrey Genois, and Maude Johnson chose an evocative and seemingly paradoxical title: The Life of Things. It was a title that might bring […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Portfolios
Authors: Blake Fitzpatrick | Artists: Mary Kavanagh
[Summer 2020] By Blake Fitzpatrick Uranium is an unstable element. It breaks down over time – a very long time. Naturally occurring uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.468 billion years, meaning that it takes that amount of time for half of the uranium to transform into other elements in a radioactive decay chain. The elements […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Portfolios
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: William Kentridge
[Summer 2020] By Érika Nimis Interdisciplinary artist William Kentridge (born 1955 in Johannesburg) is internationally celebrated for his animated films composed of charcoal drawings and as a director of live shows. Born into an activist family intimately involved with the anti-apartheid struggles of the 1980s, Kentridge works in media as varied as printmaking, sculpture, performance, […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Portfolios
Authors: Alexis Desgagnés | Artists: Benoit Aquin
[Summer 2020] [Technology] is no longer opposed to human beings but is being integrated with them and gradually absorbing them. — Jacques Ellul By Alexis Desgagnés I was asked to write about Benoit Aquin’s La dimension éthérique du réseau par Anton Bequii.1 It’s not the first time that I’ve been asked. I haven’t said […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Portfolios
Artists: Benoit Aquin, Mary Kavanagh, William Kentridge
[Summer 2020] The works in this special section address dimensions of human activity that have considerable significance in today’s globalized society in view of the role of technology, the use of energy resources, and respect for human rights. These complex works combine multiple voices to reflect ethical issues and their impacts on individuals and communities. […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
[Summer 2020] By Jacques Doyon I’m writing this editorial at a time when, to general surprise, paralysis of a significant portion of human activity is gradually spreading across the globe (with some 2.5 billion people in confinement right now). Suddenly, the unthinkable has happened. The immutable rumble of economic activity spurred on by the desire […]
[Summer 2020]
The works in this special section address dimensions of human activity that have considerable significance in today’s globalized society in view of the role of technology, the use of energy resources, and respect for human rights. These complex works combine multiple voices to reflect ethical issues and their impacts on individuals and communities.
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Readings
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Cy Twombly, Ewa Monika Zebrowski
August 11, 2022 [originally published in CV114 in Winter 2020] — By James D. Campbell. Since 2014, noted Canadian artist Ewa Monika Zebrowski has been exploring the universe of artist Cy Twombly on both sides of the Atlantic…
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Jill Glessing | Artists: Alfred Martin Duggan-Cronin, David Goldblatt, Guy Tillim, Jodi Bieber
[Winter 2020] Ryerson Image Centre, Guest curator: Sandrine Colard September 11–December 8, 2019 By Jill Glessing Photography extends the gaze, making material its spectrum of desires and subject positions – whether violence, control, submission, negotiation, or resistance. Once etched as image – on plate, print, or screen – the momentary exchange circulates and is entrenched […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sophie Bertrand | Artists: André Kertész, Bruce Charlesworth, Ellen Carey, Kunihiro Shinohara, Paolo Gioli, Toshio Shibata
[Winter 2020] Le projet Polaroid – Art et technologie Musée McCord, Montréal Du 13 juin au 15 septembre 2019 Par Sophie Bertrand (French only) Purchase this issue
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Christian Roy | Artists: Andreas Rutkauskas, Gagnon-Forest, Hua Jin
[Winter 2020] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Galerie La Castiglione, Montréal Du 28 août au 28 septembre 2019 Par Christian Roy (French only) Purchase this issue
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Alexia Pinto Ferretti | Artists: Michel Depatie
[Winter 2020] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Ashu-Takusseu : la traversée photographique Centre d’exposition de Val-David Du 22 juin au 8 septembre 2019 Par Alexia Pinto Ferretti (French only) Purchase this issue
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Daniel Fiset | Artists: Isuma, Mari Katayama, Tamás Waliczky, Voluspa Jarpa, Zanele Muholi
[Winter 2020] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. May You Live in Interesting Times May 11 to November 24 2019 By Daniel Fiset Purchase this issue
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Stéphanie Hornstein | Artists: Yan Giguère
[Hiver 2020] Galerie La Castiglione May 15–June 15, 2019 By Stéphanie Hornstein The day that I first make it to Yan Giguère’s solo show at Galerie La Castiglione, Montreal’s construction season is in full swing. St. Catherine Street is a gaping trench and the jackhammer’s thrum hounds me all the way up four flights of […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Marie-Ève Leclerc-Parker | Artists: Janick Burn
[Winter 2020] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Plein sud, Longueuil Du 18 mai au 22 juin 2019 Par Marie-Ève Leclerc-Parker (French only) [See the printed or digital version of the magazine for the complete article. On sale throughout […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sophie Guignard | Artists: Rebecca Belmore
[Winter 2020] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Braver le monumental Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Commissaire : Wanda Nanibush Du 20 juin au 6 octobre 2019 Par Sophie Guignard (French only) [See the printed or digital version of […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Babacar Traoré (Doli), Boubacar Touré Mandémory, Bouna Médoune Sèye, Élise Fitte-Duval, Fatou Kandé Senghor, Ibrahima Thiam, KhéraBaba, Mabeye Deme, Malick Welli
[Winter 2020] Par Erika Nimis Dakar, a cosmopolitan capital city and crossroads on the Atlantic coast, open to all creative currents, has grown under the gaze of its photographers. An independent field of professional photography emerged in the 1990s, and the institution of the Mois de la Photo has contributed to legitimizing an increasingly engaged […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Essays
Authors: Laurie Milner | Artists: Geneviève Cadieux
[Winter 2020] Par Laurie Milner Is it the greyness of the April afternoon that makes the Rene Blouin Gallery seem so luminous as I enter Geneviève Cadieux’s exhibition Ghost Ranch?1 I had heard the buzz among artists and colleagues that this was a show to be seen – a virtuoso production by an august Montreal […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Essays
Authors: Alexis Desgagnés | Artists: Stephen Gill
[Winter 2020] Par Alexis Desgagnés On the threshold of my teenage years, my greatest passion was to observe birds. I spent countless hours, binoculars hung around my neck, prowling slowly, silently, through woods and meadows, looking out for a rare gem! When I was thirteen, a camera, a gift from my stepmother, replaced the binoculars, […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Claudia Polledri | Artists: Mélissa Pilon
[Winter 2020] By Claudia Polledri What is a crowd, and how can a photograph teach us about this protagonist of twentieth-century history? In her photobook Foules, Mélissa Pilon underlines the visual complexity of crowds as living organisms, casting an original gaze upon them. In this work, defined as photojournalism, Pilon aims to offer a new […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Gisele Amantea, Jacques Doyon | Artists: Gisele Amantea
[Winter 2020] An interview by Jacques Doyon Jacques Doyon: What is the origin of the work Aleppo, Syria December 17, 2016? How did the idea emerge? Why Syria? And what prompted you to work from an existing image of a disaster? Gisele Amantea: I was invited by curator Emily Falvey to participate in the group […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Alain Paiement | Artists: Alain Paiement
[Winter 2020] Demonstrations. From Occupy Wall Street to Extinction Rebellion actions, popular resistance demonstrations have become an integral part of international news over the last decade. We are almost accustomed to seeing, over and over, spectacular images of uprisings against dictators, altercations among citizens, identity-related confrontations, movements of crowds in war and in desperate migrations. […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Portfolios
Authors: Louise Déry | Artists: Dominique Blain
[Winter 2020] By Louise Déry As Dominique Blain’s exhibition Déplacements was being presented in Paris,<sup>1</sup> Venice was suffering a flood so terrible that we were once again anguished about the possibility of seeing this incomparable treasure of world heritage disappear. Not so long ago, it was Notre-Dame de Paris that was severely damaged, this time […]
[Winter 2020] In this issue’s thematic section, we look at collective action in society. Against a background of social conflict and war, the artists evoke the impact of collective actions on the common good by re-examining and recontextualizing images plucked from the mass of media images that form our relationship with the world. DOMINIQUE BLAIN […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
[Winter 2020] In the thematic section of this issue, we take a look at collective action in society. Against a background of social conflict and war, the artists evoke the impact of collective actions on the common good by scrutinizing multitudes of media images that help to form our relationship with the world. Through re-examination […]
[Winter 2020]
In this issue’s thematic section, we look at collective action in society. Against a background of social conflict and war, the artists evoke the impact of collective actions on the common good by re-examining and recontextualizing images plucked from the mass of media images that form our relationship with the world.
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Entrevues, Interviews
Authors: Audrey Genois, Jacques Doyon
[Fall 2019] An interview by Jacques Doyon Audrey Genois has been the executive director of MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image (formerly Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal) since 2016. She was assistant curator at the Galerie de l’UQAM from 2002 to 2016. Over fifteen years, she organized more than sixty exhibitions and ten national […]
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Book Reviews, Readings
[Fall 2019] [Excerpt] David McMillan, Growth and Decay, Göttingen, Steidl Verlag, 2019, 260 p. Guillaume Simoneau, Murder, Londres, Mack, 2019, 96 p. Greg Girard, Tokyo Yokusaka, 1976-1983, Toronto, Magenta Foundation, 2019, 160 p. Louis Perreault, Les affluents, Montréal/Québec, Les Éditions du renard/VU, 2019, 96 p. Kim Waldron, Une autre femme_ Another Woman, New York, Galerie […]
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Book Reviews, Readings
Authors: Guillaume Tomasi | Artists: Birthe Piontek
[Fall 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. New York, Gnomic Book 2019, 112 pages Par Guillaume Tomasi (French only) [See the printed or digital version of the magazine for the complete article.] Purchase this issue
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Franck Michel | Artists: Steve Leroux
[Fall 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Occurrence, centre d’art et d’essai, Montréal Du 9 mai au 15 juin 2019 Par Franck Michel (French only) [See the printed or digital version of the magazine for the complete article.] […]
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Jean-Michel Quirion | Artists: Michelle Bui
[Fall 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Parisian Laundry, Montréal Du 18 avril au 25 mai 2019 Par Jean-Michel Quirion (French only) [See the printed or digital version of the magazine for the complete article.] Purchase this issue
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Michèle Cohen Hadria | Artists: Barbara Breitenfellner
April 30, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Andrea Szilasi
April 23, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — By James D. Campbell. Intimate Portraits brought together works by four artists whose preoccupation with the human body is a longstanding one: Donigan Cumming, JJ Levine, George Steeves, and Andrea Szilasi. Their works interrogate the nature of portraiture itself…
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Clément Willer, Fanny Bieth | Artists: Denis Rioux
April 16, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Guy Tillim
April 4, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Charles Guilbert | Artists: Myriam Jacob-Allard
March 22, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Ariane Noël de Tilly | Artists: Ansley West Rivers
March 22, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Essays
Authors: Sophie Bertrand | Artists: Martin Bureau
March 7, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — Par Sophie Bertrand. “The number of walls has tripled since the Cold War, and it has kept growing since 2001; it now consists of almost 30,000 km of armed borders.”1 This observation, made in 2013 by the researchers of the Chaire Raoul-Dandurand en études stratégiques et diplomatiques at the Université du Québec à Montréal, during a conference on issues around walled borders, conveys much more than a malaise inherited from history…
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Essays
Authors: Jill Glessing | Artists: Carrie Mae Weems
February 28, 2023 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — By Jill Glessing. Violence runs through our lives, experienced directly or through media representations. We are subject to its power to varying degrees depending on our geographical location, race, class, gender, and access to high-speed internet. We are well acquainted with the variety of ways that humans inflict harm – whether physical, social, or psychological – upon one another…
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Essays
Authors: Pierre Dessureault
February 13, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — By Pierre Dessureault. In a body of work accumulated over more than sixty years, Dave Heath (1931–2016), a Canadian photographer born in the United States, challenged the qualities of the photographic medium and its techniques. He constantly probed, through images, Montaigne’s dictum that “every man carries the entire form of the human condition.”1…
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Essays
Authors: Stephen Horne | Artists: Luigi Ghirri
February 6, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — By Stephen Horne. The Map and The Territory is a large and intricate exhibition of colour photographs by the late Italian artist Luigi Ghirri at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.1 No doubt the curator of the exhibition, James Lingwood, adopted this title following up on a note that Ghirri wrote in 1970 in which he explained that “his aim was not to make photographs, but rather charts and maps.”2…
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Artists: Erasmus Schröter
November 15, 2023 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — By Andreas Höll. Our image of the world has always been very fragile, and it has severely jolted on several occasions. Sigmund Freud, for example, cited the three insults to humanity that overturned our view of the world: Copernicus expected us to believe that we weren’t at the centre of the universe; Darwin proved we were descended from apes and warned us not to assume we were the pinnacle of creation; and Freud himself revealed that, following the discovery of the unconscious, we were no longer master even in our own house…
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Authors: Charles Guilbert | Artists: JJ Levine
November 8, 2023 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — By Charles Guilbert. What strikes the eye in JJ Levine’s work is a unique way of challenging gender norms. But when we look more closely, we discover that Levine wants to erase many borders – in both photography practice and in addressing subjects such as family, time, and space…
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Authors: Dayna McLeod | Artists: Kent Monkman
October 25, 2023 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — By Dayna McLeod. Miss Chief Eagle Testickle is the muse and alter ego of Kent Monkman, a Cree artist who confronts the violent and systemic consequences of colonialism on Indigenous peoples in North America, with attention to Canada and Quebec.
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Portfolios
Artists: Erasmus Schröter, JJ Levine, Kent Monkman
[Fall 2019] The artists brought together in this issue’s thematic section explore different issues related to the boundaries of sexual identity and their transgression. Personas, transvestism, and role mutations are core to these artists’ approaches, as they address various issues fundamental to establishing a society based on inclusion rather than on narrow concepts of identities […]
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
[Fall 2019] By Jacques Doyon The artists brought together in this issue’s thematic section explore different issues related to the boundaries of sexual identity and their transgression. Personas, transvestism, and role mutations are core to these artists’ approaches, as they address various issues fundamental to establishing a society based on inclusion rather than on narrow […]
[Fall 2019]
The artists brought together in this issue’s thematic section explore different issues related to the boundaries of sexual identity and their transgression. Personas, transvestism, and role mutations are core to these artists’ approaches, as they address various issues fundamental to establishing a society based on inclusion rather than on narrow concepts of identities and, by extension, cultures…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Entrevues, Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon, María Wills Londoño
October 9, 2019 [originally published in CV113 in Summer 2019] — María Wills Londoño (Colombia) is a researcher and exhibition curator whose principal areas of expertise are the unstable nature of the contemporary image and innovative points of view of the urban face of Latin America…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Book Reviews, Readings
October 18, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — From June 2018 to September 2019, the project The Work of Wind: Air, Land, Sea is offering a series of exhibitions, publications, and public events in Mississauga, Ontario, based on the Beaufort Scale of Wind Force. Organized by Christine Shaw, director of and curator at the Blackwood Gallery, the undertaking challenges the complexity of the current environmental crisis through the prism of art practices and social, cultural, and political mobilizations…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Ariane Noël de Tilly | Artists: Martha Rosler
September 6 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Jill Glessing | Artists: Basma Alsharif
August 16, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Jill Glessing. Basma Alsharif asks a question for our time. Increasing human migration prompted by wars and climate change means, for many, an experience of cultural displacement. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents who had fled Israeli occupation, Alsharif migrated first to France then to the United States…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sophie Bertrand
August 2, 2023 — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Velibor Božović
June 28, 2023 — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Patrick Brian Smith | Artists: Thomas Kneubühler
June 21 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — Thomas Kneubühler has always been concerned with developing new ways of visualizing – and critiquing – power formations and their related infrastructures in the late-capitalist, globalized world…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Fanny Bieth | Artists: Denis Farley
June 14, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Vincent Meessen
June 7 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Claudia Polledri | Artists: Elena Perlino
April 26 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Julian Rosefeldt
April 19, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By James Campbell. Whether playing a senior CIA agent (Hanna, 2011), Elf Queen Galadriel (The Lord of the Rings, 2001 2002, 2003), or a formerly rich New York socialite on the move (Blue Jasmine, 2013), Cate Blanchett has demonstrated her acting chops and established herself as one of the wiliest and most brilliant chameleons in contemporary cinema…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Essays
Authors: Bruno Chalifour | Artists: Nathan Lyons
April 12, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Bruno Chalifour. Some two years after Nathan Lyons’s death, on August 30, 2016, the George Eastman Museum (GEM) is presenting an overview of the life’s work of one of the central influencers of American photography in the second half of the twentieth century…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Essays
Authors: Bénédicte Ramade | Artists: Edward Burtynsky
April 5, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Bénédicte Ramade. From the start it seems taken for granted: Edward Burtynsky’s Anthropocene at the National Gallery of Canada will be technophilic.1 At every opportunity…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Essays
Authors: Claudia Polledri | Artists: Daido Moriyama
March 28, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Claudia Polledri. Context. The 22nd edition of the Paris Photo international photography fair took place November 8–11, 2018, in Paris. During the four-day fair, crowds of artists, gallery owners, collectors, publishers, curators, journalists, and photography lovers bustled through the Grand Palais, which had become a labyrinth of images organized by Paris Photo director Florence Bourgeois and artistic director Christoph Wiesner…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Essays
Authors: Pierre Dessureault | Artists: Milo Rau
22 mars, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Pierre Dessureault. The International Institute of Political Murder was created in 2007 by Swiss director, artist, and filmmaker Milo Rau. Since then, Rau has produced more than fifty plays, films, performances, and video installations on social and political realities, most of them complex and controversial…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Portfolios
Authors: Colette Tougas | Artists: Nicolas Baier
March 15, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Colette Tougas. One purpose of the exhibition devoted to the Lazare collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was to highlight thirtythree photographs that have been donated to the institution by Montreal collector Jack Lazare…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Portfolios
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Bertrand Carrière
March 8, 2022 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Sylvain Campeau. Bertrand Carrière has had a long relationship with the film world. Before establishing himself as an artist, he took many pictures as a soundstage photographer. But such images must not be seen solely as the result of a professional practice that imposed frameworks and constraints on the creation of images…
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Portfolios
Authors: Alexis Desgagnés | Artists: Serge Clément
March 1, 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — By Alexis Desgagnés. In 2014 in Quebec City, photographer Serge Clément and I presented the exhibition Constellations, composed of a corpus of photobooks drawn from Clément’s impressive collection…
[Summer 2019] Three recent exhibitions offer a rare look at the act of collecting. In Archipel, Serge Clément presents a collection of all the photobooks that he has made – books that can be seen as sequencings of collections of his own images. Bertrand Carrière immerses himself in the collection of the Cinémathèque québécoise, focusing […]
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
[Summer 2019] By Jacques Doyon Three recent exhibitions, by two artists and one collector, offer a rare look at the act of collecting. The thematic section in this issue features different types of collections of images, all of which involve a rereading, a recontextualization: highlighting a way of working that traverses and structures an artist’s […]
[Summer 2019]
Three recent exhibitions offer a rare look at the act of collecting. In Archipel, Serge Clément presents a collection of all the photobooks that he has made – books that can be seen as sequencings of collections of his own images. Bertrand Carrière immerses himself in the collection of the Cinémathèque québécoise, focusing on film noir, extracting paradigmatic images and exploring the plays on temporality inherent to the crossfade. Finally, the collection of Jack Lazare represents a rare example of a collection patiently assembled over the years to reflect a melancholic vision of a world in difficulty.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Entrevues, Interviews
Authors: Bruno Chalifour
February 22, 2023 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — By Bruno Chalifour
A year from its fiftieth anniversary, Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie (the festival’s original name), now simply Rencontres de la Photographie, hosted its usual huge program, composed of more than fifty exhibitions in thirty-six sites, from July 2 to September 23…
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Book Reviews, Readings
February 15, 2023 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — This eighty page artists´ bookwork, Berlin Wall. Truro, Nova Scotia, was produced in collaboration with designer Bryan Gee and first presented as part of the installation “The Labour of Commemoration,” at Prefix ICA, in 2017. The authors examine the post-1989 history of a set of six Berlin Wall slabs that found their way to a vacant lot in the centre of Truro, Nova Scotia, in 2000. The book addresses the issue of the absence of post-1989 histories of the Wall, through interviews and newspaper articles…
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Book Reviews, Readings
Authors: Claudia Polledri
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Book Reviews, Readings
Authors: Erika Wicky
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Franck Michel | Artists: Pierre Blache
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Cynthia Fecteau | Artists: Jocelyn Robert
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Michèle Cohen Hadria | Artists: Taysir Batniji
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Ariane Noël de Tilly | Artists: Raqs Media Collective
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Claire Moeder | Artists: Maryse Goudreau
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Exhibition reviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Isabelle Hayeur
November 9, 2022 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — This compelling exhibition of the works of Isabelle Hayeur, Thomas Kneubühler, Jean-François Lemire, Valerian Mazataud, and Andreas Rutkauskas was notable for the trenchant criticality of its thematic engagement with sundry social and environmental issues…
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Daniel Fiset | Artists: Milo Rau
[Winter 2019] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Essays
Authors: Pierre Dessureault | Artists: Charles Gagnon
September 7, 2022 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — The exhibition Camerart, produced by Galerie Optica and presented in Montreal from December 16, 1974, to January 14, 1975, was a pivotal event in the photography/art debate in Quebec…
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Debi Cornwall
August 31, 2022 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — By Érika Nimis. Every summer since 2010, Les Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie has literally pushed art photography into parks and forests and onto beaches, inviting visitors to a true treasure hunt along the legendary Route 132…
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Essays
Authors: Laurie Milner | Artists: Marisa Portolese
August 3, 2022 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — By Laurie Milner. Kinship, broadly defined, is a core concept in Montreal artist Marisa Portolese’s photographic practice…
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Portfolios
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Bert Danckaert
June 21, 2022 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — By James D. Campbell. The photographs of Belgian artist Bert Danckaert have been likened to abstract paintings, but the family resemblance resides more in the facture than in the finished work of art…
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Portfolios
Authors: Stephen Horne | Artists: Jessica Eaton
June 21, 2022 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — By Stephen Horne. A number of Montreal artists are proposing ambitious responses to the dissolution of traditional artistic genres in what is clearly a “post-medium world.” Jessica Eaton is one of these, as evidenced by her recent exhibition titled Iterations (I) at Galerie Ertaskiran..