Ainsi passe la gloire du monde
Claudie Gagnon (QC/CA)
Installation
A mnemonic installation that draws on the language of 17th-century Flemish still-life, memento mori and vanitas, Ainsi passe la gloire du monde (Thus Passes the Glory of the World) allegorizes the ephemeral destiny of human beings and the emptiness of their commitments, like everyday burials and inventories of mythological heritages.
With nods to art history, the piece stages unusual encounters between the familiar and the wild, the organic and the everyday, weaving together personal elements and universal principles. Telling stories about the permanence of humans and objects through artifacts, this work questions the content of things that outlast us, emphasizing the fragility of existence, the fleeting nature and aging of Beings
The installation comes to life in subtle ways, generating in turn the rotation of objects or the pulsation of sound, in reference to the notion of time, routine mechanisms and cycles inscribed in perpetual recommencements.
Artists
Claudie Gagnon
Originally from Montreal, Claudie Gagnon is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist who has been active for over thirty years, and who now lives and works in Quebec City.
Her practice takes many forms: installation, living painting, sculpture, video, photography, food art, creations for young audiences, collage and art integrated into architecture. Her work is not only presented in art venues – artist-run centers, galleries, museums, theaters – but also in places chosen for their potential to stimulate the creation of in situ works (barns, gardens, factories, disused churches, apartments earmarked for demolition, etc.).
She recycles everyday objects as well as concepts and more or less notorious works from the history of art, in addition to taking an interest in the visual and sonic markers that make up our high and popular cultures. Her creations are imbued with playfulness and poetry, at once enchanting and disquieting, provoking delight and unease, vacillating between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Perishable elements, such as food and plants, express the life cycles and the effects of time on all things.
Her work has been shown in artist-run centers, galleries, museums and festivals in North America, Asia and Europe. Her pieces are part of the collections of the MNBAQ, MACM, MBAM, Musée d’art de Joliette and several private collections. She has held creative residencies in the Paris and Mexico City studios of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Credits & mentions
Design : Claudie Gagnon The artist thanks the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for its financial support. A co-production of Avatar and Productions Recto-Verso. Photos: Stéphane Bourgeois.
Ainsi passe la gloire du monde by Claudie Gagnon is a coproduction between Avatar and Productions Recto-Verso.
This exhibition is presented as part of CHRONIQUES – la Biennale des Imaginaires Numériques, in a coproduction between Friche Belle de Mai, Molior, Seconde Nature, and Avatar, with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec.
