The Idea of Territory
Curatorial project, Centre d’exposition de l’Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada, 2018
The 20th anniversary of the Centre d’exposition de l’Université de Montréal has provided an extraordinary chance to explore some of the numerous collections of the University with respect to some of the issues and notions communicated by the artworks themselves. Through painting, print and drawing, these artworks often depict actual sites, as much as imaginary and mental spaces. Participating artists and works presented include Edmund Alleyn, Kittie Bruneau, Maude Connolly, Stanley Cosgrove, Andrée S. De Groot, Yves Gaucher, Rita Letendre, Monique Mongeau, Kananginak Pootoogook, René Richard, Françoise Sullivan, the Marie-Victorin Archives and Herbarium, objects and tools used for seal hunting on ice provided by the Netsilik Inuits, an episode from the documentary series The Netsilik Eskimo, under the ethnographic supervision of Asen Balikci.
At the intersection of visual arts, design, anthropology and botany, this exhibition examines relationships with the territory and raises unique perspectives on aesthetics, culture, experience, knowledge, nature, and tradition. The Idea of Territory, then, or, for that matter, the mental representation of a territory characterized in large part by the cold. As such, perhaps also The Idea of North—an idea that, up until recently, has had an aura of permanence, of timelessness even, which has suddenly disappeared. Today, the North is a place where rapid changes are taking place, both from a climate perspective and from a human one, and in 2017, the inauguration of a new passageway leading to the Arctic has crystallized these transformations. The North defines a substantial part of Canada’s and Quebec’s biodiversity: it is at the core of the natural selection process of the bird, mammal and plant species that comprise our landscapes. The North inhabits the imagination of the First Peoples, particularly the Inuits’, whose way of life and culture have been deeply impacted by European colonization.
Author’s publication : “ L’Idée du territoire : une exploration des collections “. Montréal : Centre d’exposition de l’Université de Montréal. 22 p.
Photo credit : Guy L’Heureux