Rencontres and Pratiques et Usages de l’Image (Nantes, France) are partnering for the presentation of 12 videos featuring the work of French and Québec artists by way of photographic books. Those videos are released in advance of the 2nd edition of “L’espace du livre” (The Book Space), an exhibit, exchange and get-together project devoted to the photobook that will be held in 2021 in Nantes and in Montreal on the theme of “L’édition comme finalité” (The Publication as Objective).
“Like the ‘Snapshots with the 2020 artists’ that we posted on the Rencontres website this summer, in these short videos artists touch on their work by presenting photobooks,” explains the executive and artistic director of Rencontres, Claude Goulet. The selection of Québec works was carried out by curator Serge Allaire, while French books were chosen by Pratiques et Usages de l’Image. As was the case for “Snapshots,” Rencontres entrusted production of the videos to Émilie Beaulieu-Guérette.
The six “L’espace du livre” videos dealing with Québec artists show the work of Gaspesians Maryse Goudreau and Mélissa Longpré along with that of Benoit Aquin, Maude Arsenault, Judith Bellavance and Guillaume Tomasi. The six in the French selection have to do with the work of Chris Marker, Julie Hascoët, Nicolas Simarik, Agnès Geoffray, Arnaud de la Cotte and Hervé Guibert.
The “L’Espace du livre” event
The exhibit “L’édition comme finalité,” which will bring together more than 25 books from Québec and as many from France, will be held in Nantes, France. Because of current measures, dates remain to be determined.
The exhibition will then be restaged as part of Rencontres in the summer of 2021, and afterwards at Maison de la culture Janine-Sutto in Montreal if the context permits.
This initiative was set up thanks to the support of the Fonds franco-québécois pour la coopération décentralisée.