The Manif d’art – the Québec City Biennial is one of the premier activities of Manifestation internationale d’art de Québec, whose mission is to promote research and experimentation in art through the presentation of cutting edge visual art from Québec, Canada and abroad. General and artistic director Claude Bélanger is pleased to count on experienced curator Nicole Gingras for the 2012 edition of the Manif d’art. In his words, “her contemporary and innovative proposals have given rise to exhibitions that are true instruments of reflection, enabling her to bring forward the characteristics that are specific to the Manif d’art. Her vast network, particularly in France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries and keen understanding of the Québec, Canadian and European scenes will contribute to the biennial’s continued ascension among major international events.” Ms. Gingras responded to the invitation to curate Manif d’art 6 with enthusiasm.

Machines – The Shapes of Movement
The main lines of the Manif d’art 6, as defined by guest curator Nicole Gingras will be developed around the word machine and the movements they make. Our world is inhabited by inventions designed to simplify, complexify, mask and transform our relationship to the world. A machine generates, exposes and documents movement. It makes the processes of creation and learning visible and perceptible. It introduces us to moving, this mobile aspect of the phenomena that stimulate humans and keep us alive.

The interests of participating artists comprise words, drawing, kinetic art, sound art, performance, cinema and video. The curator hopes to address the theme from various angles: the mechanical or technical (animation, reanimation, kinetics, recording, dissemination), the conceptual (reflection and the articulation of thought, the creative process) or metaphorical (viewing or listening machines, dreaming machines, utopian machines). She foresees uniting big and small machines: serious, absurd, useful, lucid, derogatory, eccentric, essential, discrete or sometimes even invisible. From one exhibition to the next, visitors will discover, among other things, works created through the use of simple mechanisms or amazingly complex setups. They will be able to observe the drawings or sketches of a machine or a future invention or consult real or fictional texts on the subject.

The entire event will be developed around works presented both in and out of galleries over a six-week period in various Québec City venues. The one-off events segment of the Manif d’art, comprising actions, sound performances and concerts, will be targeted to respect the singularity and specificity of artistic approaches based on the moment at hand, ephemeral manifestations or improvisation. The biennial’s program will becomplemented by meetings with artists and by conferences led by a philosopher, an historian and a researcher. The arts scene and the general public are warmly invited.<

Nicole Gingras

Québec City native Nicole Gingras has lived in Montréal since 1982. As an independent curator, or in collaboration with university galleries, artist-run centres, museums and festivals, she has signed several important monographic or thematic exhibitions. Ms. Gingras has been editor of several publications, including an anthology on sound, with an accompanying CD, published by Éditions Artextes. She has also developed numerous film, video and webart programs presented in Québec, Canada and Europe. Nicole Gingras has programmed the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) Experimental section in Montréal since 2003 and recently curated TraficART 2010, a contemporary art biennial organized and produced by [Séquence], Saguenay.

Nicole Gingras trained in visual arts, cinema and art history at Université Laval, Concordia University and Université de Montréal. In 2005, she won the Joan-Yvonne-Lowndes Award, given to an independent curator by the Canada Council for the Arts, and in 1997, the George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award, Art Librarians Society of North America (ARLIS-NA) for the catalogue “Raymonde April : Les fleuves invisibles.” Ms. Gingras teaches at Concordia University.