|
February 11 - 27
Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7PM
Renowned artist brings formidable touring exhibition to Place des Arts
 |
Place des Arts, in partnership with Le Village International de la Francophonie special edition of the Festival du Bois, presents the must see touring exhibition of renowned ethnographic artist André Michel. Michel's exhibition J'aurai ta peau/I'll have your hide exposes the impact of the early Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and its exploitative trading policies on Canada's First Nations.
J'aurai ta peau/I'll have your hide began its pan-Canadian tour in Québec City for the 400th Anniversary celebrations. It consists of 14 massive canvases depicting aboriginal figures robed in the brilliant colours of the iconic Hudson's Bay “point blanket.” Through these works, Michel seeks to remind us of the repercussions of the HBC's monopolistic trading practices on the way of life of the First Nations people. Paired with quotes from Peter C. Newman's authorized biographical trilogy of the HBC, Michel's exhibition speaks to the company's ultimate purpose: to make money through trade, if necessary to the detriment of the country's original inhabitants.
Says Michel, “My intention is not to put the trading company or its employees in the fur trade in the dock . . . . All the same, it seemed meaningful to bring into relief both the formidable cultural clash upon which Canada was founded and the contrasting image evoked by the dichotomy between aboriginal values and this company's establishment of a kind of precapitalism, which today we would call 'private enterprise.'”
|
Born in Avignon, France in 1945, Michel attended art school in his home town where he received a Premier Prix three years running. In 1964, he drafted a manifesto, published in French newspapers under the title “Positionism,” in which he outlined his vision for painting inspired by surrealism. A hunger for adventure and the exotic led him to travel throughout Europe and Africa and, in 1970 when he was invited to show his works in Montreal, to take advantage of the opportunity to visit much of Canada.
Michel was particularly taken with the wide-open spaces of St. Lawrence's North Shore and decided to spend a few months in Sept-Iles - a few months that turned into 18 years. This was where he met and developed a long relationship of friendship and respect with the Montagnais First Nation. Invited to accompany them, he learned of their culture and history, incorporating this knowledge into his works, which now hold, beyond their quality as exceptional works of art, an incalculable documentary value.
In the near 40 years that Michel has lived in Canada, his accomplishments are many. He is a founding member of the Musée regional de la Cote-Nord in Sept-Iles, the Musée des beaux arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire and most recently La maison amérindienne, for which he serves as volunteer director. This centre for discussion, sharing and encounter between peoples is the only mult-nation institution of its kind located off-reserve in Canada.
An opening reception at Place des Arts for J'aurai ta peau/I'll have your hide takes place on Thursday, February 11 at 7PM. André Michel will give an artist talk in French, with English translation by Joanne Dumas of the Société Francophone de Maillardville. The reception is free and open to the public.
|
|
.jpg)
.jpg)
