The winter garden 2020

The first edition of the Winter Garden took place from February 7 to March 9, 2020. Viewers encountered six art works dotting the path from Place d’Youville to the Old Port. The works were by Mathieu Labrecque, Estée Preda, Pierre&Marie, Élise Simard, Lei Lei, and Diane Obomsawin.

Illustrations variées de Mathieu Labrecque

Created between 2017 and 2020, Mathieu Labrecque’s shapes and colours recall cartoons from a bygone era. The works come in series often deriving from each other, borrowing patterns and altering them. The images combine plants, animals, objects and human figures in order to form unlikely pairings that appear both sympathetic and unsettling. They give viewers the freedom to imagine the provenance and adventures of the staged elements.

© Mathieu Labrecque. Photography, Place D’Youville. Photo : Renaud Philippe

Illustrations variées d’Estée Preda

Inspired by tales and legends from stories for children, Estée Preda creates works where half-human and half-animal characters poetically come together with nature. Illustrating universal figures drawn from folklore and original fantastical creations, the artist urges the viewer to devise new stories that unite the characters, animals and nature, fostering reimagined symbolism through hypnotizing dreamlike images.

© Estée Preda. Photography, Place D’Youville.

Vertiges et autres douceurs de Pierre&Marie

Marie-Pier Lebeau and Pierre Brassard have formed the Pierre&Marie collective since 2008. Their multidisciplinary practice explores the beauty within the banal as well as the sublime. Self-taught artists, they have more than thirty exhibitions to their name at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Musée régional de Rimouski, among others. They participated in the 8th edition of Manif d’art – The Quebec City Biennial.

© Pierre&aMarie. Sculpture, Église presbytérienne St-Andrews. Photo : Renaud Philippe

La forêt de Diane Obomsawin

Who’s ever been a victim of their own imagination, transforming a simple stroll through the forest into a fantastical journey and deciphering mysterious forces emanating from shadows, branches and sounds? In her animated video, Diane Obomsawin challenges us to spot the souls, beasts and characters inhabiting an enchanted forest where various myths and creatures emerge straight from our collective consciousness.

© Diane Obomsawin. Animated Video. Photo : Renaud Philippe

Dissiper la magie de Pierre&Marie

Marie-Pier Lebeau and Pierre Brassard have formed the Pierre&Marie collective since 2008. Their multidisciplinary practice explores the beauty within the banal as well as the sublime. Self-taught artists, they have more than thirty exhibitions to their name at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Musée régional de Rimouski, among others. They participated in the 8th edition of Manif d’art – The Quebec City Biennial.

© Pierre&Marie. Photography, Parc Jean-Pelletier. Photo : Renaud Philippe

Magic cube and Ping-Pong de Lei Lei

Inspired by popular culture – imbued with video games and rock music – Lei Lei embarks us on the quest of a ping-pong player living in a strange futuristic world. Blended into the softness of paper fibres and the vivid colours of the digital universe, the urban landscape permeates the Rubik’s Man’s adventure. Lei Lei also evokes the beauty of love at first sight and the joy of playing, in a world of troubling conformism.

© Lei Lei. Animated Video. Photo : Renaud Philippe

La Traversée d’Élise Simard

A child and his rabbit explore a forest over a melodic backdrop by Claude Debussy. The silhouettes of animals and plants take on a certain strangeness after dark. The work softly illustrates the anguish that takes over our imagination until dawn, both vaporous and luminous, returns. Élise Simard’s technical mastery is impressive: it transports us into these atmospheres ++

© Élise Simard. Animated Video. Photo : Renaud Philippe