Yesterday I went to Trois-Rivières to the exhibition of contemporary jewelry “LE LABO” curated by Noël Guyomarc’h and the director of École de Joaillerie au Québec de Montréal, Mr Stéphane Blackburn. This exhibition is the gallery visualization of a project dedicated to creation, exploration, experimentation and reflection. “Le Labo” (the laboratory) takes place over two years on a monthly basis with small group meetings. The main goal of the workshops held by Noël Guyomarc’h is to break any traditional routines of jewelry imagining and creation. The first year is the exploration year, during the second one the participants create a collection with limited edition pieces.
The project is a magnificent road to open to the young artists from Montreal, Quebec City and Abitibi-Témiscamingue regions the world of contemporary jewelry with its creative and material challenges. And these challenges are not so easy! Even being at the expo for around 30 minutes I had someone asking me: “Why should we call jewelry something which is made of plastic and suspended on the rope?” It is, basically, the same reality as that of the modern art – you need to know what the artists is saying and why.
As a part of “Le Labo” the participants already took part in the events across Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia, won prestigious prizes and did a wide professional networking.
31 artists are featured in the catalogue, 16 artists are the participants of the exhibition at La Galerie d’EMA (802, rue des Ursulines, Trois-Rivières). The event is on hold up to March 26th, after that it will move to some other place.
To tell about the exhibition and not to show it would be a bit strange, so, of course, I am featuring some photos. However, I was not sure about the photo policy of the event – whether the artists and the organizers want to show the pieces publicly or not. So, I tried to stay very modest with the photos, mostly featuring panoramic views. Still, I could not stay totally out from the jewelry and I give you some (also, very modest and reserved) images of the catalogue. If any artist or organizer featured in the post does not want to see the images of particular works here, please, let me know.
Évelyne Bounadère
Gabrielle Désmarais
Karine Rodrigue
Karine Rodrigue