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Manif d’art 9 – The Québec City Biennal

Manif d’art 9 – The Québec City Biennal Small Between the Stars, Large Against the Sky

February 16, 2019 to April 22, 2019
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The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) is pleased to announce the official launch of the ninth edition of Manif d’art – The Quebec City Biennial. 

This year's biennial, orchestrated by guest curator Jonathan Watkins, director of the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England, raises essential questions about the relationships between humans and nature, their environment, each other, and even about their very future on Earth. The notion of excess, very much in keeping with the theme of Small Between the Stars, Large Against the Sky*, will find expression in sites all over the city of Quebec. 

A STRIKING CENTRAL EXHIBITION AT THE MNBAQ

Assembled under Watkins’ forceful theme, the works of nearly 20 international, Canadian and Québec artists in the central exhibition of the biennial event in the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion at the MNBAQ offer a sweeping panorama of singular perspectives. Among the artists presented, mention should be made of Manasie Akpaliapik (Nunavut, Canada), Vija Celmins (Latvia), Caroline Gagné (Québec, Canada), Jim Holyoak and Matt Shane (British Columbia, Canada), Krištof Kintera (Czech Republic), Cornelia Parker (England) and Tomas Saraceno (Argentina). Our relationships with the natural world and the exploration of the bounds of human nature have never been as vividly illustrated. To round out the exhibition, a unique international symposium on current art will be held on March 22 and 23, 2019 at the MNBAQ under the theme “Current art, everyday life and nature at Manif d’art 9 – The Québec City Biennial.” The special event will be open to the cultural and artistic communities.

SPOTLIGHT ON TALENT FROM HOME

In addition to well-established artists from abroad – such as Christiane Baumgartner (Germany), Haroon Mirza (England), Rika Noguchi (Japan), Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnam, United States), Cornelia Parker (England), and George Shaw (England) – Manif d’art 9 –The Quebec City Biennial is proud to fulfil its mission by placing a special emphasis on Quebec talent. Whether emerging or emeritus, more than 40% of the artists taking part in the biennial are from the province of Quebec. They include, to name just a few, Patrick Bernatchez (Montreal), Daniel Corbeil (Val-d’Or), Caroline Gagné (Quebec City), Fanny Mesnard (Quebec City) and Reno Salvail (L’Ange-Gardien) in the main exhibit at the MNBAQ.

FALLING IN LOVE WITH INDIGENOUS ART

The international curator of the biennial has fallen in love with Indigenous art, and visitors will reap the benefits. The artists from Indigenous culture, with the special relationships they perpetuate with nature, land and the environment, are a perfect fit with the theme of Manif d’art 9. In the main exhibit, 25% of the works are by Indigenous artists, including Manasie Akpaliapik (Arctic Bay, Nunavut), a well-known artist whose work is featured in the Art inuit. La collection Brousseau - Ilippunga collection in the Pavillon Pierre Lassonde at the MNBAQ, Britta Marakatt-Labba (Sami, Sweden), and Meryl McMaster (Siksika, Ontario), as well as Shuvinai Ashoona (Kinngait, Nunavut), recent winner of the prestigious Gershon Iskowitz prize recognizing established Canadian artists

participating artists

MANASIE AKPALIAPIK

Arctic Bay, Nunavut

Carved out of whale bone, the works of Manasie Akpaliapik use the organic forms of the material to reveal complex representations of the interrelations of the living. Manasie Akpaliapik, L’Homme et le hibou, vers 2000. 

SHUVINAI ASHOONA

Kinngait, Nunavut

Dense, meticulous, and radiantly chromatic, Shuvinai Ashoona’s drawing compositions create a singular iconographic universe combining everyday life with myth. 

CHRISTIANE BAUMGARTNER

Germany

Resulting from a long process of wood engraving, Christriane Baumgartner’s monumental prints The Wave and Phoenix confront the elemental forces of nature. © Christiane Baumgartner, The Wave.

PATRICK BERNATCHEZ

Montreal, Quebec

Aphélie 1 by Patrick Bernatchez is a post-experimental installation. It refers to the daily recordings of a natural phenomenon: the luminous variations of the Sun. Patrick Bernatchez, Aphélie 1, 2016.

VIJA CELMINS

Riga, Latvia

Whether they depict starry skies or spider webs, Vija Celmins’s hyperrealist drawings are attempts to grasp the universe’s immensity, one detail at a time. Vija Celmins, Untitled (Large Night Sky).

DANIEL CORBEIL

Val-d'Or, Quebec

Inspired by environmental sciences and utopian architecture, Daniel Corbeil’s Cité laboratoire is an inventive model of urban solutions in preparation for impending climate change.   Daniel Corbeil, La Cité laboratoire  © Guy L’Heureux.

MICHAEL FLOMEN

Montreal, Quebec

Michael Flomen lets the creative forces of nature act on photosensitive paper during night performances under the moonlight. Michael Flomen, Double Trouble, 2001, printed 2014.

CAROLINE GAGNÉ

Quebec City, Quebec

Visual, sonic, and tactile, Caroline Gagné’s installation The sound of icebergs translates and shares the sublime experience of approaching a drifting iceberg. © Caroline Gagné, The sound of icebergs, 2016.

JIM HOLYOAK ET MATT SHANE

Aldergrove and Vancouver, British Columbia

The gloomy worlds of this artistic duo create phantasmagorical ecosystems on the verge of reality. The Who’s Haunts immerses the viewer in a house engulfed by the entropic forces of nature. © Jim Shane Holyoak et Matt Shane, The Who’s Haunts, 2018.

KRIŠTOF KINTERA

Prague, Czech Republic

Krištof Kintera’s sculptural accumulations come across as absurd and disturbing testimonies of excess in the era of hyperconsumption and planned obsolescence. © Krištof Kintera, Postnaturalia, 2017.

DINH Q. LÊ

Vietnam, United States

The Colony is a video installation transporting the viewer to the Chincha Islands on the Peruvian coast, an emblematic place of international geopolitical tensions generated by the exploitation of rare natural resources.

BRITTA MARAKATT-LABBA

Sami, Sweden

Dense, meticulous, and radiantly chromatic, Shuvinai Ashoona’s drawing compositions create a singular iconographic universe combining everyday life with myth.  

MERYL MCMASTER

Siksika, Ontario

Meryl McMaster performs in front of the camera to celebrate the land and its historical anchor points by portraying allegorical characters freely inspired by the Indigenous imagination. © Meryl McMaster, Dream Catcher, 2015.

FANNY MESNARD

Quebec City, Quebec

anny Mesnard’s visual universe is peopled with hybrid characters evoking the animistic beliefs and fabrications that inhabit and condition human relationships with nature. Fanny Mesnard, Jeux de rôles, 2016.

HAROON MIRZA

London, England

Haroon Mirza’s technological installations utilize natural energy sources such as electricity and light to reflect on the complexities of today’s world through multisensorial symphonies. Haroon Mirza, Solar Symphony 10 (Transverse Waves for Wayne), 2016.

CORNELIA PARKER

Cheshire, England

Cornelia Parker explores the poetic resonances of matter disintegration. Composed of scrapwood, the sculptural installation No Man’s Land is dynamized by its suspension in space. 

RENO SALVAIL

L'Ange-Gardien, Quebec

Fascinated by cartography and astronomy, Reno Salvail fashions his relationship to the visible world by amalgamating the natural landscape with his inner worlds, whether psychic or corporal. Dive into the depths of the starry sky reflected on a river in Le souffle de Pégase. © Reno Salvail.

TOMÁS SARACENO

Argentina

Tomás Saraceno’s sculptural installations put viewers into perspective, plunging them into a vertiginous vision of the cosmic universe.  

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