November 18, 2014 – January 31, 2015
Curator: Mélanie Rainville
Raymonde April, Sophie Bélair Clément, Caroline Boileau, Tim Clark, Sorel Cohen, Brendan Fernandes, Leisure Projects, Paul Litherland, Kent Monkman, Adrian Norvid, Rober Racine, Larry Rivers, Philip Surrey
Opening
November 15, 4 – 6 pm
Part 1: November 18 – 29, 2014
Part 2: December 9, 2014 – January 10, 2015
Part 3: January 20 – 31, 2015
The evolving exhibition Speculations. Risquer l’interprétation comprises three parts, which present various interpretations and installations of the same body of works. Created by fifteen artists, these modern and contemporary works are part of the Gallery’s collection and include several recent acquisitions.
This methodology, which is atypical in a museum context, makes it possible to follow the exhibition creators’ interpretation of the works and the main issues involved in the process, i.e. the works’ coherence and intelligibility. The recurrent curatorial concerns it reflects are rarely addressed directly: What are the effects of interpreting a work? Is it possible to avoid instrumentalization? At what point does the interpretation become an over-interpretation or misinterpretation? This case study seeks to explore the shifting borders between the appropriate and inappropriate in order to develop a balanced discourse between the artists’ intentions and the curatorial interventions.
This mise-en-abyme of the highly polysemic activity of interpreting works also explores the notion of viewer memory in the face of a continually increasing information load. It invites viewers to evaluate their level of involvement in a dissemination site or a curatorial project, as well as their capacity to recall an exhibition content which has become inaccessible. Furthermore, it provides the opportunity to think about the ease with which it is possible to renew how one looks at a work, especially when it has been widely exhibited and documented, and to measure the credence that is given to the umpteenth interpretation of an artistic creation.
Speculations. Risquer l’interprétation reveals the complexity of the chosen works, the elasticity of the interpretations they are the subject of, as well as some of the consequences of assigning a set interpretation by way of the exhibition medium. The exhibition reminds us that there is no such thing as a single right interpretation of the works and that, consequently, exhibition curation is of a speculative nature.