Feu Mirabel
Views of the exhibition at Platform centre for photographic + digital arts Winnipeg, Canada November 22 - January 18 2014 |
Feu Mirabel
Vues de l'exposition à Platform centre for photographic + digital arts Winnipeg, Canada du 22 novembre au 18 janvier 2014 La version française du texte suivra |
Feu Mirabel
At the beginning of the 1970′s, the Canadian government expatriated over three thousand habitants (including many farmers) to build what was intended to be one of the most modern airports in the world. Mirabel airport rose from the most fertile soil in Quebec and covered it with kilometers of cement and bitumen. Ironically, the name Mirabel is in itself a travesty: it could be the masculinized version of a sweet yellow prune’s name, Mirabelle. Less than forty years later, Mirabel is no longer used as a passenger airport, and this modernist black prism is often cited as a perfect example of what a white elephant is.
Although Mirabel is not the literal subject of this exhibition, it hovers above it, somewhere in its hors champ – a notion in itself central to the artist’s work. The exhibition The exhibition Feu Mirabel is a poetic exploration of mutations – through reproduction, imitation, and transformation. It combines 3D animation, video, sound and black and white photography. Questioning the idea of progress, that paradoxically seems to be the motor driving human beings backwards, minimal science fiction here meets documents of the past to reflect on today’s world.
At the beginning of the 1970′s, the Canadian government expatriated over three thousand habitants (including many farmers) to build what was intended to be one of the most modern airports in the world. Mirabel airport rose from the most fertile soil in Quebec and covered it with kilometers of cement and bitumen. Ironically, the name Mirabel is in itself a travesty: it could be the masculinized version of a sweet yellow prune’s name, Mirabelle. Less than forty years later, Mirabel is no longer used as a passenger airport, and this modernist black prism is often cited as a perfect example of what a white elephant is.
Although Mirabel is not the literal subject of this exhibition, it hovers above it, somewhere in its hors champ – a notion in itself central to the artist’s work. The exhibition The exhibition Feu Mirabel is a poetic exploration of mutations – through reproduction, imitation, and transformation. It combines 3D animation, video, sound and black and white photography. Questioning the idea of progress, that paradoxically seems to be the motor driving human beings backwards, minimal science fiction here meets documents of the past to reflect on today’s world.
Stills from the videos in Feu Mirabel Images tirées des vidéos de Feu Mirabel