The Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides welcomes Territoires imaginés, par les artistes de la Collection Loto-Québec

MONTREAL, March 28, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ – Thanks to its new L’art de partager cultural program launched to celebrate its 35th anniversary, the Collection Loto-Québec is pleased to present its travelling exhibition entitled Territoires imaginés, par les artistes de la Collection Loto-Québec. On the second stop of its tour, the exhibition will be at the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides until June 8, 2014. This visual arts event will be combined with a number of other activities.

The public is invited to explore our homeland, the real and the imaginary, through the eyes of artists whose works are part of the Collection. A total of forty works of art will be exhibited, including those of René Derouin, an artist from the Laurentians. “As the Collection acquires pieces from throughout the province, works featured in the exhibition are the creation of artists who were born or are living in different parts of Québec,” explained Louis Pelletier, Curator for Collection Loto-Québec.

Sophie Faucher, spokesperson for the Collection Loto-Québec’s 35th anniversary event, is enthusiastic about “sharing the beauty of Collection works across various regions and meeting artists from all over the province.” After first setting up in Sherbrooke, the exhibition will move on from Saint-Jérôme to Rouyn-Noranda and then to Jonquière.

Another edition of Repérage
An edition of the Repérage program of sales exhibitions will also take place in Saint-Jérôme, as will be the case in other regions hosting the Territoires imaginés exhibition. In fact, the original selection of Territoires imaginés works was reduced to make room for artwork produced by the 26 artists from the Laurentians who will be exhibiting with Repérage, presented simultaneously. Repérage is an extraordinary opportunity for up-and-coming artists to showcase their works and enable the general public to discover – or rediscover – local artists. The program’s selection panel, made up of Louis Pelletier and stakeholders in the arts scene in the Laurentians, will meet at the end of April to follow up on the acquisition process.

Visibility for our artists
Heading off to Saint-Jérôme at the end of March, Territoires imaginés, par les artistes de la Collection Loto-Québec will provide Collection artists with extraordinary visibility. This free event also facilitates accessibility to visual arts in many regions across Québec.

A wonderful text penned by Fred Pellerin describes his personal homeland, real and fictitious, that lays a backdrop for the exhibition:

“During a painting’s lifetime,
The imaginary may spill into what we know
Or landscapes may stretch to the other side of reality
To take on their full dimensions,
To be complete.”

In an excerpt of the text that accompanies the exhibition, the storyteller from Saint-Élie-de-Caxton describes how exploring our homeland is both literal and poetic, and a theme that can tie together, for example, a Hudson Bay landscape, an artist’s studio in Saint-Henri, a three-dimensional Medusa and an oil painting of an old pulp mill in the Saguenay region.

The title Territoires imaginés is the namesake of a painting by Giorgia Volpe, a Collection Loto-Québec artist, featured in this impressive exhibition that includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and photographs.

Whether they are artists from the Laurentians or anywhere else – including Frédéric Back, Judith Berry, Mario Faubert or Michael Smith, to name only a few -, they have created works that depict places, spaces or objects we all know.