{"id":57825,"date":"2018-10-05T11:37:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T16:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artmur.com\/ou-allons-nous-un-ptit-bilan\/"},"modified":"2018-12-01T14:04:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-01T19:04:16","slug":"where-are-we-heading-a-quick-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/artmur.com\/en\/exhibitions\/2018-exhibitions\/where-are-we-heading-a-quick-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Are We Heading? A Quick Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
November 3 \u2013 December 20, 2018
\nOpening reception: Saturday, November 3, 2018 from 3-5 p.m.
\nFinissage: Thursday, December 20, 5 \u2013 7 p.m.
\nPierre Laroche: Where Are We Heading? A Quick Review<\/em>
\nCurator: Louis D\u00e9ry
\nArt M\u00fbr, Montreal, QC<\/p>\n

Curator : Louis Dery
\nText by Louis Dery. Translated by Rosalie Tellier<\/p>\n

Humour is the courtesy of despair1.
\n\u2014 Chris Marker<\/p>\n

Pierre Laroche\u2019s interest delves into established codes and symbolic constructions associated with the history of art. The decision to coordinate the current retrospective exhibition came from a desire to emphasize Laroche\u2019s mischievous look onto conventions. In his paintings, the observer will come to discover the fortuitous meeting places of Krieghoff scenes and of anachronistic and imaginary elements. Mansions\u2019 balconies filled with zombies and artists from here and around the globe, sleds being deviated by road signs. These illusory worlds are presented into glass balls, bottles or falling canvases.<\/p>\n

Laroche qualifies his approach as self-oriented and he explores different ways to allude to the idea of deviation. Sometimes, the divergence is politically anchored and hazardous as in Arpeur, other times it is simply mentioned through road detours that have no particular motive or end as in O\u00f9 allons-nous and qui sommes-nous?<\/p>\n

The ones familiar with Laroche\u2019s artistic proposals will discover his new tendency and interest toward notorious Arts Museums\u2019 exhibitions merchandise. Indeed, the artist created a whole series of objects informed by his own practice, such as touring exhibition promotional t-shirts and smoke flavored air-freshener for cars. These items are at once collectible artworks and tools of propaganda: \u201cHowever subversive the artwork is, it invariably ends up as a consumer good. I chose here to become the conductor\/commander and to speed up the diversion process!\u201d It is during a dialogue with the artist that I opted for a presentation of the \u201crelated merchandise\u201d throughout the exhibition layout itself in order to \u201cdisrupt the established order\u201d that usually differentiates the \u201cgift shop\u201d from the exhibition space. The artist and I wished to create a tension between the market world and artistic delight, to reflect on the object\u2019s status and symbolic value.<\/p>\n

An active member of the Cabanist movement2, Laroche is a pragmatic individual: \u201cI do not believe that art can change the world, but I can try.\u201d He prefers having fun before everything falls apart. Satirical and elegant, he blends criticism with humor and poetry. Recognized for his visual parodies, Laroche finds inspiration in Krieghoff paintings, traffic signs, media and the art world, all of which he reactivates via his own perspective.<\/p>\n

To muddy the waters, I invited another Cabanist artist, \u00c9ric Lamontagne, to infiltrate this retrospective exhibition. As an illusionist image maker, Lamontagne presents two paintings of distorted sceneries. The numerous cuts in the canvas were reused and transformed into painted objects. These optical illusions paintings are in fact real sculptural objects and found scattered in the gallery space as tools to produce an exhibition. Lamontagne\u2019s witty gesture adds a conceptual link to Laroche\u2019s fantastical and critical fictions. The visual dialogue between the works of these two artists establishes a narrative frame that creates another layer of fiction, the one of the artist figure itself. In the era of post-truth and alternative facts, Pierre Laroche fascinates the public with his relevant and fanciful comment and with his unlikely existence.<\/p>\n

1. Citation reassigned to Chris Marker by Dominique Noguez in La V\u00e9ritable Origine des plus beaux aphorismes (Payot), but also inappropriately associated to Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Boris Vian and even Winston Churchill (\u2026)
\n2. Pierre Laroche confided me in a talk that he is in fact an angry member of the Cabanists.<\/p><\/div>\n

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