Salle des maquettes

Galerie de l’UQAM opens Salle des maquettes, an exhibition curated by Anne Philippon, assistant curator, that gathers more than 40 artists from Québec, Canada and overseas. Chosen from the Collection d’œuvres d’art de l’UQAM and from the Petite collection, the exhibited works aim to show the different modellings of artistic practice. They reveal the work of research and reflection that underlie the development of a work, a series, or even an entire career.

THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition Salle des maquettes brings together pieces from the Collection d’œuvres d’art de l’UQAM and the Petite collection that trace artists’ creative processes. Different clues and documents documents shed light on these methods by revealing the steps taken to produce an artwork.

The exhibition title evokes the experimental dimension of the maquette, often used in the art world as a tool to prepare a project’s visual representation. On the one hand, Salle des maquettes includes preliminary sketches, drafts, serial elements, little and singular objects also. On a small scale, these works stand for a concept developed to be set up on a larger scale, or, conversely, they account for a more substantial and already completed project. On the other hand, certain proposals incorporate recurring motifs with subtle variations from one version to the next. They become exploratory sites where formal and thematic repetition foreground the constant evolution of work. The pieces shown here translate different dynamics that enrich an artist’s process, sometimes giving shape to a synthesis of their work.

Finally, this multifaceted exhibition facilitates meaningful connections within the institutional collection, strengthening its fundamental role in research and knowledge development. In the wake of Raymond Lavoie’s thinking – the exhibition title is borrowed from him – the pieces in Salle des maquettes display various stakes crossing through a range of artistic practices. The works illustrate the many ways artists reinvest questions around the status of the art object, the figure of the artist, identity and history.

COLLECTION D’ŒUVRES D’ART DE L’UQAM

When it was founded in 1969, Université du Québec à Montréal inherited the École des beaux-arts de Montréal’s collection, made of art objects from different periods and sources, featuring, amongst other pieces, an Egyptian mummy and nearly 3,000 students prints from Albert Dumouchel’s workshop. In 1975, Galerie de l’UQAM first opened its doors and housed the Collection in a space on Saint-Urbain Street until in 1979, when the gallery was established in the newly built Judith-Jasmin Pavilion. Operating from there since, the gallery’s mandate includes fostering research, presenting exhibitions and educational programs, as well as consolidating the institutional collection.

Over the years, a series of steps have been undertaken to better document the Collection’s characteristics and to orient its development. Thus, a rigorous policy guides the acquisitions committee’s work, the inventory is updated every year and various dissemination projects are supported by a continuous process of reflection. These initiatives aim to build a greater appreciation for this collective good, as well as a broader recognition of the inherent value of visual arts for the university community, whether it be through research, education, UQAM’s cultural life or its national and international reach. To date, the Collection d’œuvres d’art de l’UQAM holds more than 4,000 artworks and objects.

PETITE COLLECTION

Since 2009, Galerie de l’UQAM has been building a cabinet of curiosities called the Petite collection, unique in Canada. It contains an assemblage of multiple objects produced by nationally and internationally acclaimed artists, most often numbered, signed and in limited editions.

The assortment invites us to consider objects of different statuses, to conduct research on a variety of active artists from around the world and to imagine new exhibition modes.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Anne Philippon holds a Master’s degree in Arts studies from Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Since 2016, she is the assistant curator at Galerie de l’UQAM where she manages the Collection d’œuvres d’art de l’UQAM and coordinates the presentation and touring of exhibitions as well as the production of publications. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including at EXPRESSION, Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe (Karine Payette. L’ombre d’un doute, 2017), at the Salle Alfred-Pellan of the Maison des arts de Laval (Sonia Haberstich. Se perdre est agréable and Nicolas Fleming. Et ce n’était qu’un commencement, 2015) and at Galerie de l’UQAM (La Petite collection. Grandeur et splendeur, 2013, co-curated with Pascale Tremblay). She regularly contributes to various contemporary art publications and has also been a member of several juries.

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