Michel Lefebvre and Eva Quintas, From Digital Writing to Artificial Intelligence — Jean Gagnon

Ciel variable 123 – THE POWER OF INTIMACY | Interviews
Authors: Jean Gagnon

[Summer 2023] Michel Lefebvre and Eva Quintas, From Digital Writing to Artificial Intelligence An interview by Jean Gagnon [Excerpt] In 1993, Eva Quintas and Michel Lefebvre co-founded Agence TOPO, the original mission of which was to organize collective and multidisciplinary projects combining photography and literature. For a time, TOPO was distributing interactive and nonlinear literary […]

Jacynthe Carrier and Anne-Marie Proulx, Photography, care and community — Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 122 – NIGHT ROUNDS | Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon | Artists: Anne-Marie Proulx, Jacynthe Carrier

[Winter 2023] Jacynthe Carrier and Anne-Marie Proulx, Photography, care and community An interview by Jacques Doyon [Excerpt] Jacynthe Carrier and Anne­-Marie Proulx, co­ directors of VU, centre de diffusion et de produc­tion de la photographie since 2015, share a com­munity spirit that is manifested in how they have worked together in the roles of executive […]

Zoë Tousignant, The Continuing History — Michel Hardy-Vallée

Ciel variable 121 – WANDERINGS | Interviews
Authors: Michel Hardy-Vallée, Zoë Tousignant

[Fall 2022] Zoë Tousignant, The Continuing History An interview by Michel Hardy-Vallée [Excerpt] Zoë Tousignant is the curator of photography at the McCord Museum. She holds a PhD in art history from Concordia University and an MA in museum studies from the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary photography produced in […]

Paul Roth, Finding Purpose: Burtynsky’s Archive at RIC — Jérôme Delgado

Ciel variable 120 - FIGURES OF AFFIRMATION | Interviews
Authors: Jérôme Delgado | Artists: Edward Burtynsky

[Summer 2022] Finding Purpose: Burtynsky’s Archive at RIC An interview by Jérôme Delgado [Excerpt] The internationally renowned artist and environmental photographer Edward Burtynsky was born in St. Catharines, on the shore of Lake Ontario – just a few pulls of the oars from Toronto, where he went to Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (today Ryerson University), graduating […]

William A. Ewing, Photographs Are the Eyes of Our Civilization — Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 119 - AGAINST NATURE | Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon, William E. Ewing | Artists: Alejandro Cartagena, Francesco Zizola, Olivier Christinat

[Winter 2022] An interview by Jacques Doyon [Excerpt] Author, exhibition curator, professor, and longtime director of the Musée de l’Élysée (1996– 2010), in Lausanne, William A. Ewing began his career in Montreal; he was the founder of Optica, which he directed from 1972 to 1977. Ewing has been exploring the field of photography for some […]

Marie-Josée Rousseau, At the Crossroads of Photographic Practices — Jérôme Delgado

Ciel variable 118 - EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHY | Interviews
Authors: Jérôme Delgado

[Fall 2021] An interview by Jérôme Delgado [Excerpt] After a wide variety of experiences; studying sociology, psychology, management, and art history; jobs in finance and communications; and a trip around the world – thirty countries in three years – Marie­Josée Rousseau opened La Castiglione, the only Quebec gallery specializing in photography, in 2014. Through an […]

Bertrand Carrière, Learning photography from books — Serge Allaire

Ciel variable 117 - SHIFTED | Interviews
Authors: Serge Allaire | Artists: Bertrand Carrière

[Summer 2021] Bertrand Carrière Learning photography from books An Interview by Serge Allaire Over the last forty years, Bertrand Carrière has produced a personal and varied body of photographic work. His photographs have been exhibited in Quebec, Canada, Europe, and China, and he is represented by Galerie Simon Blain Montreal and the Stephen Bulger Gallery […]

Chuck Samuels. Gales, nez qui coulent et défaillances de garde-robe — Chuck Samuels

Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Interviews
Authors: Chuck Samuels | Artists: Chuck Samuels

[Hiver 2021] An Interview by Chuck Samuels [Extrait] 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 […]

Robert Walker, Griffintown / Montréal en mutation — James D. Campbell

Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Interviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Robert Walker

[Summer 2020] An Interview by James D. Campbell [Excerpt] 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 […]

Audrey Genois, MOMENTA 2019: Broadening the Field for the Biennale — Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Interviews
Authors: Audrey Genois, Jacques Doyon

[Fall 2019] An interview by Jacques Doyon [Excerpt] 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 […]

María Wills Londoño, MOMENTA 2019: The Life of Things — Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | 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…

Les Rencontres d’Arles. Warm and Sunny with Possibility of Showers! — Bruno Chalifour

Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | 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…

Louise Déry. Hosting and Presenting the Exhibition Uprisings – Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 110 - MIGRATION | Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon, Louise Déry

May 10, 2022 [originally published in CV110 in Fall 2018 ] — An interview by Jacques Doyon. Louise Déry holds a PhD in art history and has been director of the Galerie de l’UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) since 1997; previously, she was director of the Musée régional de Rimouski and curator of contemporary art at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts…

Helga Pakasaar, On the new Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver – Karen Henry

Ciel variable 108 - GOING PUBLIC | Interviews
Authors: Helga Pakasaar, Karen Henry

March 30, 2021 [originally published in CV108 in Winter 2018] — Curator Helga Pakasaar contemplates changes in Vancouver institutions and art practices at a significant moment of change for Presentation House Gallery, where she has been curator since 2003, as it is transformed into the new Polygon Gallery…

Claude Goulet, Les Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie – Mona Hakim

Ciel variable 107 - RUINS | Interviews
Authors: Mona Hakim | Artists: Lynne Cohen

September 29, 2020 [originally published in CV107 in Fall 2017] — Claude Goulet is the founder and director of Les Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie. This major event, has become an essential destination, with its outdoor photographic installations and its different thematic and pedagogical facets…

Luce Lebart, Canadian Photography Institute (CPI) – Carol Payne

Ciel variable 106 - TREES, ICE, AND CLOUDS | Interviews
Authors: Carol Payne, Luce Lebart

May 19, 2020 [originally published in CV106 in Spring 2017] — In late 2016, Luce Lebart was appointed the first director of the Canadian Photography Institute at the National Gallery of Canada. For the previous five years, she had been director of collections and curator at the Société Française de Photographie (SFP) in Paris, one of the oldest and most esteemed institutions devoted to photography in the world…

Hélène Samson, Exhibiting Notman – Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 105 – MONTREALITIES | Interviews
Authors: Hélène Samson, Jacques Doyon | Artists: William Notman

March 18, 2020 [originally published in CV105 in Winter 2017] — Hélène Samson has been the curator of the photography collection at the McCord Museum since 2006. She is interested in collecting vernacular Canadian photographs and updating nineteenth-century photographic archives…

Ami Barak, Photography Beyond Evidence
 – Claire Moeder

Ciel variable 104 - FROM ANOTHER ANGLE | Interviews
Authors: Ami Barak, Claire Moeder

[Fall 2016] Ami Barak is the curator of the next edition of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, which will take place in September 2017. Invited to create a se­­ries of exhibitions and activities devoted to contemporary photography, he decided to explore the theme of the document and the ambiguity of images, and to […]

Bénédicte Ramade, The Edge of the Earth, Climate Change in Photography and Video – An interview by Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 104 - FROM ANOTHER ANGLE | Essays, Interviews
Authors: Bénédicte Ramade, Jacques Doyon

March 3, 2020 [originally published in CV104 in Fall 2016] — The Edge of the Earth focuses on contributions by various artists and journalists to the recognition and consideration of issues linked to climate change, with a particular emphasis on the chal­lenges posed by recognition of the central role played by humans in the disruption of their environment in what is now known as the Anthropocene Era.

Gabor Szilasi, A Portrait in Interiors – Alexis Desgagnés

Ciel variable 103 - NATURE | Interviews
Authors: Alexis Desgagnés | Artists: Benoit Aquin, Gabor Szilasi

November 4, 2019 [originally published in Spring 2016] — Eighty-eight years old. Decorum would have us qualify this age as venerable. Anyone who divides this number into decades will better measure the span of a lifetime devoted almost entirely to photography. We know about the immense contribution of Gabor Szilasi, who was born in Budapest in 1928 and arrived in Quebec after leaving Hungary in 1956, to the history of Quebec photography…

Quentin Bajac, Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015. Photography at MoMA: 1960 to Now
 – Zoë Tousignant

Ciel variable 102 - FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE | Interviews
Authors: Quentin Bajac, Zoë Tousignant

August 21, 2019 [originally published in Winter 2016] — Quentin Bajac has been the chief curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, since 2013. In the fall of 2015, MoMA opened the exhibition Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015 (November 7, 2015, to March 20, 2016) and published the third volume in the Photography at MoMA.

Joan Fontcuberta, Discursive Issues of Post-Photography – Christine Palmiéri

Ciel variable 101 - STRATA | Interviews
Authors: Christine Palmiéri, Joan Fontcuberta | Artists: Joan Fontcuberta

June 3, 2019 [originally published in CV101 in Automne 2015] — Following up on a first interview with Catalan artist Joan Fontcuberta published in this magazine in 2013 (CV 93), Ciel variable is marking the fourteenth edition of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, of which Fontcuberta is the curator, by reprinting an interview by Christine Palmiéri…

Clément Chéroux : The New Photography Gallery at the Pompidou Centre – Rémi Coignet

Ciel variable 100 - REPLAY | Interviews
Authors: Clément Chéroux, Rémi Coignet | Artists: Ugo Mulas

April 1, 2019 [originally published in CV100 in Spring 2015] — In the fall of 2014, the Pompidou Centre inaugurated a new exhibition space devoted to photography. Beyond the strictly local consequences involved, such a decision by a world-class museum may be understood as unequivocal recognition of the legitimacy now granted to this medium within the contemporary art system and canonical institutions…

Vincent Lafrance ART SYSTÈME. Magazine d’art et d’idées – Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 99 - HABITAT | Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon, Vincent Lafrance

November 18, 2015 [originally published Winter 2015] — Vincent Lafrance’s work is permeated with the idea of the simulacrum – perception and its faults. Playing with photographic virtuosity and with randomness, he composes visual illusions with traditional photographic means. His body of videographic work uses language as a confusing effect; he produces fictions that fluidly meander between …

MaryAnn Camilleri, The Magenta Foundation – Jill Glessing

Ciel variable 98 – ABSTRACTION | Interviews
Authors: Jill Glessing, MaryAnn Camilleri | Artists: Adam Makarenko, Alma Haser, Evgenia Arbugaeva, Simon Roberts

November 12, 2018 [originally published in CV98 in Fall 2014] — MaryAnn Camilleri is the executive director of the Magenta Foundation. After completing her BA in photographic arts at Ryerson University, Toronto­ born Camilleri moved to New York, where she worked at Magnum Photo for ten years. In 2003, she returned to Toronto and, with the goal of publishing high­-quality art books and promoting Canadian photographic artists, she started up Carte Blanche…

Martha Langford, About Speaking of Photography – Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 97 - PORTRAIT GALLERY | Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon, Martha Langford | Artists: Clifford Owens

September 5, 2018 [originally published in CV97 in Spring 2014] — Martha Langford is the research chair and director of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art and a professor of art history at Concordia University in Montreal. Her books on photography include Suspended Conversations: The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums (2001); Scissors, Paper, Stone: Expressions of Memory in Contemporary Photographic Art (2007)…

Luc Courchesne, Around L’invention de l’horizon – Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 96 – PERFORMING FOR THE IMAGE | Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon, Luc Courchesne | Artists: Luc Courchesne

June 13, 2018 [originally published in CV96 in Winter 2014] — Luc Courchesne is a digital arts pioneer. From interactive portraits to immersive experience systems, he has created innovative and engaging works that have earned him prestigious awards such as the Grand Prize of the ICC Biennale in Tokyo in 1997 and the Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, in 1999…

Paul Wombell, Drone: The Automated Image – Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 95 – CYBER / ESPACE / PUBLIC | Interviews
Authors: Jacques Doyon, Paul Wombell

April 4, 2018 [originally published in CV95 in Fall 2013] — You have articulated the theme of Le Mois de la photo à Montreal around the title Drone: The Automated Image, and you have written, “The camera is a sophisticated instrument with its own laws and its own agency” and “The artists raise an important question: do cameras have a life of their own?” Can you elaborate on the implications of these statements? …

Bonnie Rubenstein, Field of Vision CONTACT Photography Festival – Jacques Doyon

Ciel variable 94 – PUBLIC ART | Interviews
Authors: Bonnie Rubenstein, Jacques Doyon | Artists: Erik Kessels

January 31, 2018 [originally published in CV94 in Spring 2013] — Bonnie Rubenstein has been a director at CONTACT since 2002, and the festival’s artistic director Originally from Toronto, she holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. As curatorial assistant for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, she worked on several groundbreaking exhibitions.

Joan Fontcuberta, Photography in the Era of Meteorites – Alexis Desgagnés

Ciel variable 93 – FORENSICS | Interviews
Authors: Alexis Desgagnés, Joan Fontcuberta | Artists: Joan Fontcuberta

November 6, 2017 [originally published in CV93 in Winter 2013] — After forty years of international recognition and numerous exhibitions, today catalonian artist Joan Fontcuberta is a major voice in the discourse on photographic issues in the era of Web 2.0. In 2011, he was co-curator of the controversial exhibition “From Here On,” presented at the rencontres d’Arles…