Guest curator : Cheryl Rondeau
The exhibition Lieux contestés brings together the photographic work of Maïder Fortuné and Ève K. Tremblay to consider the dichotomy between reality and fantasy, the real and represented. The two photographic series presented seem to capture intimate moments between young girls but in appearance only.
In her series Éducation sentimentale, Tremblay depicts what appear to be girls playing before the backdrop of a private school. These seemingly intimate scenarios are however, constructed for a camera, and ultimately the audience. Everything within the frame is meticulously considered by the artist. These girls are both objects manipulated by Tremblay and co-conspirators in a game to seduce the spectator.
For her series Playing Dead, Fortuné invited two girls to play dead for the camera. Outfitted in colourful, pretty dresses these actors take their roles quite seriously. Consumed by the task at hand they seem to have developed a rapport beyond the frame of the camera. Does one personify the dead and the other a soul, perhaps as the photo Playing Dead N°1 seems to express.
Faraway glances, distant gestures and inexplicable actions isolate us from what seems in plain view. “Whatever it grants to vision and whatever its manner a photograph is always invisible: it is not it that we see.” [1] Here we are brought back to the surface of the photograph, a site at once transparent and opaque. Our gaze can not penetrate beyond its surface.
[1] Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida. Notes on Photography, Paris, Gallimard/Seuil/Cahiers du cinéma, 1980, page 18.
Ève K. Tremblay
Born 1972, Ève K. Tremblay grew up (en français) between Val-David and Montreal in Quebec, Canada where she lived most of her life and goes back to regularly. In 2019 she became a naturalized American. After studying French literature at the University of Montreal, she attended The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York in 1994-1995. The influence of literature and theater is still very present in her photographic and other visual art works. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts with a major in photography from Concordia University in Montreal. Over the last fifteen years, she has lived and exhibited in Montreal, Berlin, New York and has participated in numerous residencies artists such as IAAB (Basel), CEAAC (Strasbourg) and Residency Unlimited (New York). She was Long listed (Québec) for the Sobey Art Award in 2012, as well as many grants from the Canada Art Council for the Arts, and Le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec.
Artist ProfileMaïder Fortuné
Maïder Fortuné, studied literature and theatre (École Jacques Lecoq in Paris) before entering Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts, where she developed a performance-related practice of the technological image. With its great formal rigor, Fortuné’s work commands all the viewer’s attention for a genuine experience of the image and its processes. Recently, her practice turned to more narratives preoccupations. Lecture performances and films deeply rooted in writing, are the mediums she process to open up new narrative strategies. Her work has been exhibited internationally (Europe, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan). In 2010 she won the Villa Medicis fellowship in Roma, Italy. Recent shows and performances have been held at Gallery 44, Toronto, Centre Pompidou Paris, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Artist Profile