Passages Insolites - Parade des imaginaires (2021)

A merry menagerie of hybrid people, animals, and objects unfurls on the walls of Côte de la Potasse. The dynamic composition is the result of a collective work of collage: the sharp-edged silhouettes that leap out of the background are made from magazine and newspaper cuttings remixed into vibrant compositions.

With its hybrid forms and unexpected associations, the mural creates a sense of disorder recalling the automatic methods of the Surrealists. But while these improbable arrangements may, at first glance, look like a happy accident, they were deliberately thought through and selected in a workshop for budding artists to represent multiple facets of their identity. The Parade of Imaginary Creatures thus becomes a collective self-portrait, a place where the images we entertain of ourselves and those we project onto others live side-by-side.

charles-fleury.com

Charles Fleury is an artist, art teacher, and cultural mediator who lives and works in Quebec City. He holds a BFA in visual and media arts, an MFA in visual arts, and a bachelor’s in arts education from Université Laval. This is his third time participating in Passages Insolites. Fleury has also exhibited in Quebec City and Lévis at VU and Regart artist-run-centres and at Université Laval’s Galerie des arts visuels. He is a past recipient of the Videre Relève award for emerging artists, the René-Richard bursary, and City of Quebec’s Première Ovation grant.

Route

Outreach project

This collective artwork is the fruit of the encounter between artist Charles Fleury and the Grade Ten and Eleven students at École Secondaire Vanier (Vanier secondary school). After being introduced to the technique of collage, students had the opportunity to create their own original work inspired by the guest artist. Using shapes, colours, and patterns from the popular imagination, each budding artist created a half-animal, half-human alter ego based on their imagination and personal tastes.

This project is made possible by the Entente de développement culturel, a funding agreement between the Québec government and the Ville de Québec.