Artists and poets collaborate
Marc André Brouillette is a poet and a professor in Concordia’s Département d’études françaises. These days, he is also wearing a new: co-curator for an art exhibit that ends November 6.
He was recently asked to collaborate with well-known curator Gilles Daigneault for the exhibition, La coexistence des traits - 40 ans de dialogue entre les Éditions du Noroît et les artistes visuels at the Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal. The show features artwork that has been used to illustrate books by Éditions du Noroît, one of the most prestigious poetry publishers in Quebec. The publisher, founded in 1971, recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Brouillette explains, "Éditions du Noroît asked me because Gilles Daigneault is from the arts, and they wanted someone involved in literature to complement him. From the beginning, this has been a project with an interdisciplinary flavour."
Brouillette and Daigneault faced the daunting task of choosing 80 works of art — including photography, paintings, drawings and other media — from over 600 books of poetry over the past 40 years. Among those that made the cut are the works of three Concordia artists: Chair of the Department of Studio Arts Raymonde April, professor François Morelli, and retired professor Irene F. Whittome.
"Some of the Concordia artists already had a working relationship with the poets, as collaborators. In other cases, the poet asked for the rights to the artwork because they felt it was a good fit for their texts. Of course, none of the artists could know that, years later, they would be sharing an exhibition," he says.
The curators used exacting criteria to choose the works on exhibit.
"We chose them for quality, and to provide an historical perspective over four decades. We also wanted to present a wide diversity of artistic techniques, a complete artistic palette."
Éditions du Noroît has published four of Brouillette's books of poetry, and an essay about the interrelationship between words and images for a journal commemorating the publisher's 40th anniversary.
"The title of the exhibit," says Brouillette, "refers to the way in which lines of text and lines from a work of art together to create a dialogue. The artwork is not just there to illustrate the texts; these were collaborations, in which words and art create a more complex, rich vision."
What: La coexistence des traits - 40 ans de dialogue entre les Éditions du Noroît et les artistes visuels
When: Until Sunday, November 6
Where: Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal (465 Mont-Royal Ave. E.), Montréal
The exhibit is free of charge and open to the public.
Related links:
• Accès culture site
• Concordia Department of Studio Arts