2023 Residency : Benoit Aquin and Trevor Gould

Benoit Aquin

Benoit Aquin immerses himself in his daily life and that of the communities he encounters. He tries to convey this long time, which is foreign to the spectacularization of the exotic or the “on the spot”. Instead, the poetic rhythm of his work lies in the repetition of colored motifs, the superimposition of flat surfaces and the interplay of textures. A study of his photographic corpus reveals our environmental missteps, technological meanderings, and our remaining ability to commune with nature.

The series The Chinese “Dust Bowl” received the prestigious Prix Pictet. Among his exhibitions let us highlight the ones at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (1994); Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (1996); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2008); Musée de l’Élisée, Lausanne (2010); Museum of Photographic Arts, Sans Diego (2011); McCord Museum, Montréal (2013); Somerset House, London (2013); Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (2013 and 2015); FotoDock, Holland (2014); Mouravieff-Apostol House & Museum (2016); as well as his participation in Mois de la Photo à Montréal (1993, 1997, 2003); the Canadian Biennial of the National Gallery of Canada (2012, 2017); and the Rencontres d’Arles in France (1991, 2014).

Trevor Gould

Trevor Gould’s work teases out the intricacies and mechanisms at play in the familiar nature/culture dualism that structures our understanding of otherness. He also seeks to critique the performativity of the ideology of domination – still visible today – within artistic, scientific and historical institutions such as museums, zoos, botanical gardens and encyclopaedias. If Gould first considers himself as a sculptor, his thoughts upon history and culture are also transposed into installation, video, performance and through an important body of watercolour works.

Trevor Gould (b. 1951) born in Johannesburg, South Africa, lives and works in Montreal where he was for a long time a sculpture professor at Concordia University. The work of Gould is shown nationally as well as internationally: Hilliard Art Museum (USA) (2022), Centre Clark (Canada) (2018)FRAC Languedoc Roussillon (France) (2014), Non-Maison (Aix-en-Provence) (2013),Dunlop Art Gallery of Regina (2012), Museum of Contemporary Art Montreal, (2012, 2007 and 1998), XIII^thBiennale Internationale di Sculptura di Carrrara (Italy) (2007), Casino du Luxembourg (2006), the National Museum of Fine Arts Québec (2005), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2001), Biennale de Montréal (1998), Johannesburg Biennial (South Africa) (1995). Gould has realised public artworks in Canada (1993), in Germany (2008 and 2006) and recently in France (2013 and 2014).