Through the Walls, 2021
Collectif Tel quel (Quebec City, Quebec)
At the entrance to a tunnel into the Citadelle of Quebec, visitors are greeted by an astonishing multicoloured structure that seems to have come out of nowhere and stands in sharp contrast with its surroundings. A monumental weaving project of interconnected hoops rises organically upwards.
Its incongruous position on a site marked by martial grandeur and stark emptiness creates an unexpected focal point. An aesthetic and conceptual dissonance arises from the contrast between soaring synthetic art objects and the austere face of the stone wall. By evoking both the domestic sphere and the playfulness of childhood amid the rigid context of fortifications, Collectif Tel quel lets us momentarily break through the imaginary walls that keep military and civilian life apart.
Collectif Tel quel is Quebec City-based emerging artists Gabriel Gendron-Macias and Pascale Laliberté, both graduates of the sculpture diploma at Maison des métiers d’art. The duo shapes and combines various materials and textures into abstract assemblages with fluid forms, using the organic textures of stone and wood alongside industrial materials such as metals. In addition to collectively taking part in PASSAGES INSOLITES, Gendron-Macias and Laliberté-Martineau will both individually participate in the graduate exhibition for the 2021 cohort of the Maison des métiers d’art de Québec, in June 2021 at Materia gallery.
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