Programming

To suppose to the work of art a glance and, more still, a kind of pre-existence to its materialization, a "presence elsewhere", that the work of the artist makes appear: these propositions found the report of Pierre Bellemare to his work. According to the artist, there is in the act of creation a before and an after. Between these two moments, the pivotal stage corresponding to the "passage" of the work from its non-visible state to that of its visibility could be compared to a window that opens to the gaze and to intellection.

In the Hindu religion, the darsan is what refers to the reciprocity of the gaze between the divinity and the faithful who come to the temple. Bellemare compares the relationship between the work of art and the viewer to darsan, that is to say to an exchange of glances between the art object and the person who visits it. As a temple, the artist uses the premises of Usine C, on Panet Street in Montreal, a place that, with its cement and metal beams, wooden floors and black walls, constitutes an appropriate environment for the event of the gaze.

Omnipresent in Bellemare's work, black is discipline, concentration, silence, emptiness and veil. The masterpiece housed in Usine C is entitled L'autre autoportrait à la veste grise en forme de théâtre. Self-portrait that allows, says the artist, to send this story of looks back to himself, to the fundamental motivations of his activity and his identity as an artist and especially, to what constitutes the significant elements of his plastic vocabulary.

At the same time at DARE-DARE, some five hundred drawings will be exhibited. These are attached to the corpus of works included in Petit, a publication produced by the artist that brings together a series of his Indian ink drawings and texts. The launch of this publication will take place on October 19, 1996, at the DARE-DARE gallery. A meeting with the artist will also take place between 5 and 7 pm, at Usine C, Thursday October 31, 1996.

Pierre Bellemare has a diversified academic background (drawing and painting at the Sherbrooke Seminary, art history, philosophy, French literature at Cegep Bourgchemin), which can be seen in the concerns of his work. Since 1972, the artist has exhibited in Montreal, Quebec and France. At the head of the publishing house Le pois mange-tout, which he recently founded, Bellemare is launching this year, in collaboration with Hedwidge Asselin and Huguette Cloutier, a collection in which each work will publish the texts and drawings of an artist. Pierre Bellemare lives and works in Montreal.