An exhibition curated by Manon Tourigny
April 19 — June 22, 2024
Opening — April 18, 2024 — 6pm @ Artexte
In this spirit of transferring knowledge, that Manon Tourigny decided to examine the idea of food, while acknowledging that it’s a common art historical subject. Although its treatment differs from one century to the next according to evolving artistic practices, food has often taken centre stage […]. To her great astonishment, Artexte’s collection includes a number of recipe books, which convinced her to make this subject her main area of focus.
Numerous local artistic proposals demonstrate a collective need to share family stories, childhood memories, forgotten skills, flavours that bring us closer to our culture, or unforgettable moments. In keeping this, recipe books are clues to the evolution of society’s culinary customs. Each book allows readers to reconnect with the kind of pleasure that eating food can bring, whether cooked by oneself or by loved ones. It’s also a tangible way of caring for others. Setting the Table centres on sharing, hospitality, comfort, memories, pleasure, matter, and the transferring of knowledge. It’s Manon Tourigny’s way of introducing herself to the public as the Director of Artexte and to present what she wants to focus on for the next few years, but most importantly, to share it with us now in a spirit of openness.
With the artworks of: Pierre Ayot, Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf et Karen Tam 譚嘉文
Read the exhibition booklet HERE
Take a look at the exhibited document HERE
Manon Tourigny was born, lives and works in Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. She holds a master’s degree in arts studies from UQAM, and is a curator and author. She is interested in video art, photography, performance and artistic practices that take place in public space. She has written numerous articles for specialized magazines (Ciné bulles, CV photo, esse arts + opinions, Vies des arts, Espace et Inter), in addition to writing exhibition texts for various organizations (artist-run centers, exhibitions centers and museums). For more than 20 years, she has been involved in the visual arts community, notably with VIVA! art action, DARE-DARE, the RCAAQ and Centre CLARK as co-general and artistic director. She is a member of the Regroupement de pairs des arts indépendants de recherche et d’expérimentation (REPAIRE). In 2024, she will be publishing a storybook illustrated by Fanny Mesnard, which adopts an ecofeminist perspective and questions the ways in which we occupy the land.
Canadian multidisciplinary artist Pierre Ayot was born in 1943 and died in 1995. He played a significant part in opening the boundaries between modes of representation by bridging photography, printmaking, video, painting, and sculpture, thereby developing a unique and unclassifiable visual language. His work has been the subject of more than thirty solo exhibitions, and is included in most major public, private, and corporate art collections in Canada, as well as a few internationally. His most major exhibitions were held in 1980 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, in 1992 at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Pierre Ayot et son Museum Circus), in 2001 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Pierre Ayot Unlimited ), and in 2016 as part of a major retrospective (Pierre Ayot – Regard critique / Critical Insight) curated by Nicolas Mavrikakis and presented in five venues across Montréal. His work is part of The Pop of Life! exhibition on view at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until July 2024. The Prix Pierre-Ayot, created in his memory by the Ville de Montréal and the AGAC, is awarded annually in recognition of the work of outstanding emerging artists.
Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf is an artist, writer, and curator who studied art history at the Université du Québec à Montréal. His works represent collections, inventories, and classifications that examine popular culture, along with official and fringe contemporary narratives. Phaneuf has exhibited in many artist-run centres, galleries, and museums in Canada, including the Musée regional de Rimouski (2013); Optica, centre d’art contemporain (2015); Museum London (2015); la Grande Bibliothèque (2018); and the National Gallery of Canada (2023). The author of several literary works, such as Cavalcade en cyclorama (Le Quartanier, 2013), Carousel encyclopédique des grandes vérités de la vie moderne (La Peuplade, 2020), and Mauvaises herbes (Le Laps, 2023), he has also published numerous artist books, including Hockeyeurs (Musée ambulant, 2021). On stage, he has presented his narrated slide show Fins périples dans les vaisseaux du manège global (since 2015) throughout Québec and in France. Based in Québec City, he mostly follows recipes from the New York Times Cooking app, and has long considered getting a tattoo of a meat cooking temperature chart on his left forearm.
Karen Tam 譚嘉文is a Tiohtià:ke/Montréal-based artist whose research and installation work focus on the constructions and imaginations of cultures, communities, and sites of cultural encounters. Since 2000, she has exhibited her work and participated in residencies in North America, Europe, and China, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, and the He Xiangning Art Museum. Tam was the winner of the 2021 Giverny Capital Prize awarded by the Fondation Giverny pour l’art contemporain. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths (University of London) and an MFA in Sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the Adjunct Curator at Griffin Art Projects and is represented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau.