Montréal, May 26, 2009 –Philippe
Allard and Justin
Duchesneau are the winners of the 7th edition of
Place des Arts’ Ephemeral Artwork Competition, with
a work titled Rainbow,
an installation made up of 60 coloured steel barrels, which will be
on display in the Esplanade pool at Place des Arts over the
summer.
As socially engaged artists, sculptor
Philippe
Allard and architect
Justin
Duchesneau have designed a work whose goal is to liven up the
Esplanade and raise awareness at the same time. “The sound
made by water contacting sheet metal brings to mind the industrial
world, its rhythm and efficiency, but the use of barrels on a black
sea recalls our dependency on fossil fuels and the environmental
disasters that follow as a result,” explain the
artists.
For Marie Lavigne, President and CEO of Place des Arts, and
the initiator of the Ephemeral Artwork Competition held
since 2003, the 2009 artwork is both an incredible tool for raising
awareness and perfectly fulfils its role of entertaining visitors
and enhancing the beauty of the grounds. “This work reaches
us on several levels. Through its great presence, inventiveness,
and beauty that are well suited to the ambiance of the Esplanade
but also by providing food for thought,” stated Ms.
Lavigne.
The two artists, collaborating for the first time on this
project, are deeply committed to environmental causes. “We
study consumer society—which rejects wear-and-tear and fears
the passage of time—as well as the consequences brought about
by its spending habits,” explain Philippe Allard and Justin
Duchesneau.
The artists
Trained in graphic design,
Philippe
Allard has taken part in a number of artistic projects, both on
an individual and collective basis. His work has frequently been
exhibited in Montréal and in France. His installation titled
Se perdre, a labyrinth made up of recycled electoral signs
presented at the Maison de la culture Mercier in 2007, as well as
his installation of recycled plastic bottles rising five storeys
high in the Eaton Centre in Montréal, also in 2007, were
highly appreciated by the general public.
Justin
Duchesneau is an architect and a professor of architectural
technology at Collège Saint-Laurent in Montréal. He
has been involved in numerous architectural projects with the two
companies he co-founded—La compagnie Duchesneau &
McComber and Les architectes Duchesneau & McComber. The latter
is a finalist for a 2009 Excellence in Architecture Prize awarded
by the Québec Order of Architects in the residential
interiors category, for a design-and-build mandate carried out in a
loft located on the Lachine Canal. Justin Duchesneau was also a
guest architect at the Venice Bienniale International Architecture
Exhibition in 2006.
Supporting visual arts
The 2009 jury was made up of representatives of Place des Arts
and other cultural organizations. Each year since 2003, one artist
or group of artists is selected to create and install a work in the
Esplanade pool during the summer season. In establishing this
competition, Place des Arts wished to reaffirm its mission to
support and promote artistic creation.
Since 2003, works by the following artists have been selected:
Éric Sauvé in 2003, Jean-François Cooke and
Pierre Sasseville in 2004, Marc Dulude in 2005, Élyse
Lafontaine in 2006, Francis Montillaud in 2007, as well as
Éric Daoust, Jean-François Potvin and Donald Potvin
of BOSSES Design in 2008.
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