vous avez l’œil j’en ai deux

Text by Bianca Laliberté
Translation by Béatrice Larochelle

vous avez l’œil j’en ai deux (you have a good eye, i have two) is the first solo exhibition Sylvie Laliberté has had in twenty years; twenty years during which she has never ceased to be an artist; twenty years during which her visual and literary work has continued to inhabit the public space, that is, just enough time for her to verify – somewhere next to the art world, its discourses and its habitus – what art is all about. Art, which holds on to her, to the almost nothing she is capable of, rendered it well to her. This exhibition is an opportunity for all those who want to know what a work of art looks like when it stands for itself by itself, on a table and a few walls.

Of course, there is also the paper. But it is a discreet paper, not artist’s paper, but animal paper, called “Cougar”. On this white paper, very white, the sentences and drawings are stated as directly as possible, as they came. It carries the memory that thought is a minimal surface that, however abundant, has the power to shrink, to cling to what remains of the delicate in the great game of language. It is this kind of small power of the mind that you will find here scattered with precision.

This series of works sees the words and says the images. It invents a form for art that thinks. That is why this exhibition is neither linear nor entirely constellar. The pieces present themselves as they wanted to: here as a block, sticking together, allying themselves; there, those others who preferred to remain alone settle in. If this exhibition is a system, it is as an airing system, prepared to leave you a lot of space, just for you, a little bit everywhere: on top, at an angle, in the middle, on the right, on the floor. In this movement, help yourself! It’s not heavy.

Special thanks to Atelier Circulaire with the assistance of Dominique Desbiens for the production of the prints