Back to home > Camille Ratté · Mylène Michaud · Carole Baillargeon · Zou Desbiens

Camille Ratté · Mylène Michaud · Carole Baillargeon · Zou Desbiens

Date

January 28 to April 20, 2026

Location

Monique-Corriveau Library, Claire-Martin Library, Gabrielle-Roy Library

S’exercer

Description of the exhibition

S’exercer examines our complex relationship with materials and processes. Presented across four libraries—Claire-Martin, Gabrielle-Roy, Monique-Corriveau and Félix Leclerc—this project features works by Mylène Michaud, Carole Baillargeon, Zou Desbiens, and Camille Ratté, who work with glass and textiles, both long considered more craft than fine art. S’exercer showcases how such media are indeed part of contemporary aesthetic discourse. Whether they are glass sculptures that evoke freezing rain on buildings or textiles that revive marginalized craft skills, these works create a critical space in which environmental issues meet stories of resistance to demonstrate that the conventional art/craft divide is actually quite permeable. The exhibition also foregrounds acts of care, slow temporalities, and fragile media that may influence our appreciation of handiwork and materials.

Camille Biron would like to thank Quebec City's Première Ovation Program.

Artists' biographies

Carole Baillargeon

Carole Baillargeon is a multidisciplinary artist who is known for her two- and three-dimensional works and her textile-based installations. She received her master’s degree in fine arts (1996) and bachelor’s degree in set design and fibre arts from Concordia University. Her projects, which include Paysages-Vêtements and Ainsi…, have been presented in Québec, Canada, Europe, Brazil, and China. Baillargeon is recognized for her innovative practice in which she combines textile-based skills and contemporary critical reflection..

Zou Desbiens

Zou Desbiens lives and works in Québec City. After receiving a diploma in applied arts, majoring in glassmaking (2013), she honed her technique with several artists across Canada. She has received grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (2019, 2022) and has incorporated her exploratory research into her current work. She defines herself as an experimental artist who subverts the utilitarian function of glass to reveal its artistic and expressive potential.

Mylène Michaud

Mylène Michaud lives in Québec City and holds a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from Laval University and a diploma in textile construction from the Maison des métiers d’art de Québec. She specializes in digital knitting. Her large-format works blend new technologies with traditional knitting skills. Michaud has been included in numerous exhibitions, most notably at the Contextile Biennale (Portugal), Révélations (Paris), the Biennale internationale du lin in Portneuf, and the Centre d’art de La Sarre.

Camille Ratté

Born in Lévis, Camille Ratté lives and works in Québec City, where she is currently completing her master’s degree in visual arts at Laval University under the supervision of Jocelyn Robert. She was awarded an excellence scholarship (2021) and the Prix René-Richard (2023), and made her mark early on in her undergraduate studies in art education. In 2024, she received the Foire en art actuel Prize and took part in the Rencontres interuniversitaires des maîtrises en art du Québec.

Presented by the Quebec National Capital Commission

Commissaire

Camille Biron

Camille Biron is a cultural worker, exhibition curator, and artist based in Québec City. She holds a double bachelor’s degree in fine arts and art history from Bishop’s University and a master’s degree in art history from Concordia University, and her work has been exhibited in Canada and in France. In her practice she combines theory, research-creation, and curating while examining precarity in the field of art, institutional workloads, and the tension between gestures and the mediums.