BGL
LA SENTEUR DE MES MAINS /
THE MARKS OF MY HANDS
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery, 2007
Challenging the ways we define and experience art, Québec collective BGL invites us to relinquish preconceived notions and to question the boundaries between art and life. With their provocative, witty and unpredictable interventions and installations, Jasmin Bilodeau, Sébastien Giguère and Nicholas Laverdière aim to transform passive gallery visitors into engaged explorers. With each of their projects, they invite us to question the nature of conventional spaces for art presentation, as well as their relationship with and impact on both the art object and the viewer.
Provoking both enjoyment and uneasiness, BGL’s installations examine our social and economic values. La senteur de mes mains / The Marks of My Hands continues their pointed critique of our consumerist behaviours. As the title underscores, the collective’s practice is deeply rooted in a hands-on, sculptural approach and a commitment to material. Evoking metaphors of work, the artists take a stand in favour of the tangible in an increasingly artificial and virtual world. Hands carry the memory of touch and the marks of labour, becoming an ever-changing record of our experiences. The human imprint on these sculptors’ hand-made objects poignantly contrasts the generic nature of the mass-produced.
Generating plays of exchange and displacement between the worlds of art and commerce, BGL challenges the limits of the art-viewing process. The artistic gesture catches us off-guard, prompting us to slow down our pace and our gaze, to see things differently.
Generating plays of exchange and displacement between the worlds of art and commerce, BGL challenges the limits of the art-viewing process. The artistic gesture catches us off-guard, prompting us to slow down our pace and our gaze, to see things differently.
Artist Info
BGL, the Quebec City art collective, is renowned for its installations that take hold of exhibition settings and public spaces. Described as “provocative, critical, and explosive”, their pieces use humour and extravagance to draw attention to social and political concerns. The three artists, Jasmin Bilodeau, Sébastien Giguère and Nicolas Laverdière, began to acquire recognition when they finished their degree at Laval University in 1996. Their work was exhibited at Casino Luxembourg, Artists Space New-York, National Art Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, Galeria Toni Tàpies in Barcelona, Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver , and Mac-Val in France. They were part of Nuit Blanche in three different cities – Toronto in 2008, Paris in 2011, and Calgary in 2012 – and were also featured in the exhibition Oh, Canada at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, U.S.) in 2012.
BGL was nominated for a Sobey Art Award in 2006 and participated in several biennials including La Havane (2006), Ushuaïa (2007), and Montreal (2007), taking part in the Manifestation internationale d’arts de Québec on two occasions (2001, 2005). They won Maison symphonique de Montréal’s integration of art in architecture contest in 2011, a Pan-Canadian contest launched in Montreal-North in 2015, a commission for Toronto’s 2015 edition of the Pan-Am Games, and represented Canada at the Venice Biennale 2015. BGL’s work is part of the collections of such museums as National Art Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée d’art contemporain du Canada, Musée contemporain de Montréal, as well as several private collections.
