Être jardin
Curated by Marie J. Jean, in collaboration with Dominique Mousseau and Claudine Roger
VOX, centre de l'image contemporaine, Montréal, QC
14 January - 4 March 2023
“The starting point for this exhibition was the photography book Le jardin d’après by Anne-Marie Proulx, loosely inspired by the journey of Flora Fontanges through a secular city, seeking to recover a suppressed past. Though it is never named, it is clearly Quebec City, the birthplace of this main character in the novel by Anne Hébert (The First Garden, 1988; English translation published in 2002), a theatre actress who returns there after a long exile, retracing the paths of women forgotten in spite of the historic roles they have played. In the book, Flora also summons the voices of the female characters she played on stage during her lengthy career. Taking up the same journey, Anne-Marie Proulx traversed the city and the history of theatre, in search of the fragmentary presence of that first garden that serves as a backdrop to this new exhibition. This no doubt explains why her book of photographs quickly drew our attention, in the manner of a theatre script heralding its eventual performance.” – Marie J. Jean, curator
Read “The First Gardin, Later (Cont’d)”, exhibition essay by Marie J. Jean.
Voice: Chantal Fontaine
Prints: VU et Version image plus
Support with sound: Avatar
Many thanks to the team at VOX, Céline Béland, Sylvain Ruest, Sophie Jodoin, Marie Tourigny, Chantal Fontaine, Dominique Mousseau, Claudine Roger and Marie J. Jean
Curated by Marie J. Jean, in collaboration with Dominique Mousseau and Claudine Roger
VOX, centre de l'image contemporaine, Montréal, QC
14 January - 4 March 2023
“The starting point for this exhibition was the photography book Le jardin d’après by Anne-Marie Proulx, loosely inspired by the journey of Flora Fontanges through a secular city, seeking to recover a suppressed past. Though it is never named, it is clearly Quebec City, the birthplace of this main character in the novel by Anne Hébert (The First Garden, 1988; English translation published in 2002), a theatre actress who returns there after a long exile, retracing the paths of women forgotten in spite of the historic roles they have played. In the book, Flora also summons the voices of the female characters she played on stage during her lengthy career. Taking up the same journey, Anne-Marie Proulx traversed the city and the history of theatre, in search of the fragmentary presence of that first garden that serves as a backdrop to this new exhibition. This no doubt explains why her book of photographs quickly drew our attention, in the manner of a theatre script heralding its eventual performance.” – Marie J. Jean, curator
Read “The First Gardin, Later (Cont’d)”, exhibition essay by Marie J. Jean.
Voice: Chantal Fontaine
Prints: VU et Version image plus
Support with sound: Avatar
Many thanks to the team at VOX, Céline Béland, Sylvain Ruest, Sophie Jodoin, Marie Tourigny, Chantal Fontaine, Dominique Mousseau, Claudine Roger and Marie J. Jean