Souffles tombés (Fallen breaths)
Presented in the exhibition Passer l’hiver
Curated by Noémie Fortin
With Angela Marsh
In conjunction with the Young Curators program of Manif d’art
Espace )( Parenthèses, Québec, QC
22 February - 4 April 2024
From one shore to another, in relation with different environments Anne-Marie Proulx draws from our conversations with the land to create poetics worlds in which the winds on the river and the rhythm of tides intertwine with the presence of plants.
She had just moved to Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies when she came across a willow tree which lived on the riverside, its branches cut off and lying on the ground. Some of its branches were missing, but its roots were still very much alive and new limbs were growing from its severed arms. The willow was slowly regaining life, folded in on itself, forming a sort of shelter in which to find refuge.
Since that first encounter, Proulx has continued to visit the tree as we would visit a friend, to photograph as we would bring news from a relative. As seasons go by, she gets to know it and the beings around it, sheltering beneath its branches, breathing in the sweet clover scent, listening to the whistle of the plovers, and feeling the gusts of wind coming from the west. The intertwining of these forces of life inspires a reciprocal relationship with the living, a sort of letting go that incites her to create images in collaboration with the elements, with the wind that rustles the leaves and with the waves that mingle with her shadow on the foreshore.
Each visit binds new ties between the two, between two breaths, two gusts of wind, and nourishes her reflections on what we inhabit, and inversely what inhabits us.
Text by Noémie Fortin, curator (translated from the French)
Prints : VU
Pots : Found on the shores of the river
Grands mercis à Sylvain Ruest, Espaces Parenthèses, Manif d’art, Angela Marsh et Noémie Fortin.
