Programming

The starting point of the artwork is to locate urban furniture elements that are damaged in order to perform «repairs» on them. This operation initiates an artistic gesture where the repairing partly dictates the choice of shapes, scales and materials. The objective is to position my sculptures as prostheses replacing the missing or broken parts of selected objects.

However, as each repair/sculpture is distinguished by colors, treatments, textures, materials and anomalies stemming from my subjectivity, a hybrid effect emerges from the intervention. Despite this ambiguity, as the objective is also about restoring some kind of functionality to the repaired elements rather than deteriorating them, the overall project is positioned as reverse vandalism. My work transforms the elements on which I intervene and these elements end up with abnormalities that become positive assets.

I hope that these gestures of repair made in broad daylight will encourage meetings and discussions with the public as well as allow a sculptural research into the possibility of a work of art becoming part of another object.

Program

June 6 to 10, 2017 : 1^st group of public space interventions
Saturday June 10, 2017, 2 to 5 PM : opening at DARE-DARE
September 26 to 30, 2017 : 2^nd group of public space interventions

PRACTICE

I am particularly interested in the issues associated with the presentation and perception of visual art. All that is part of the experience of my work such as where the work is located, the position of the viewer, the temporality in which the action takes place and the physical encounter with the exhibition space are my principal research subjects, from both a conceptual and technical perspective. These parameters, usually located outside the physical structure of the art object, are literally embedded in my work as a material. I consider the whole context of presentation as an inherent plastic element of the work that can therefore be transformed or modified just the same as could be any other component of the work.

By applying the sculptor's gesture, my works extend beyond the limits of the object to deploy into the fields of architecture, space, body and action. In this regard, for me, the creation process always begins with the elaboration of a presentation strategy that seeks to deconstruct the visual mechanics that normally occurs between the object being looked at and the parameters of the observation context. My work consists of staging the exhibited object as well as its immediate environment according to the incongruous situation that I invent. This produces a work whose symbolic value about the positioning of things becomes the discursive anchor point.

Born in Saint-Hyacinthe in 1978, Guillaume La Brie lives and works in Montreal. Through the creation of sculptures where space organization strategies take a prominent place, he seeks to combine the notions of place, object and viewer. He received his B.A. and completed the post-Graduate program in Fine Arts at UQAM in 2007. His work has been supported by the Conseil des Arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts and exhibited in several artists’ centres and museums, most notably: Circa, Galerie B-312, Centre Clark, Darling Foundry, Language Plus, Musée Régional de Rimouski and Axenéo7. Guillaume has participated in several site-specific projects, exhibitions and international residencies such as: the Quebec studio in Barcelona, Les Perles residency in Barjols, France, the exhibition «los palabras y los cosas» in Can Ricart in Barcelona, and «The Teleportation Project» in Tokyo. His work has been presented in the public space via personal interventions as well as through the Art and Architecture Integration Policy of the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications. He is one of the founding members of the Pique-Nique Collective that specializes in ephemeral street art events.

http://www.guillaumelabrie.com/