Boomtown Holy Void
Marie-Raphaëlle LeBlond
The state of our built heritage expresses a profound unease, difficult to grasp — and deeply felt across the regions of Québec. In Boomtown Holy Void, Marie-Raphaëlle LeBlond casts an oblique eye on the last great colonization effort in North America: Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Northern Ontario — the final Canadian frontier.
Between 2020 and 2023, the artist traveled through dozens of abandoned sites — decommissioned mines, ruined churches, ghost towns — scattered along the Cadillac Fault. The photographic series that emerged, influenced by her field documentation of the arsenic crisis in Rouyn-Noranda (2022), questions the origins of our living spaces, our relationship with the land, and the lasting impact of extractivist mindsets on the rural landscape.
The window installation extends this reflection through a play of thresholds and overlays. It blurs the boundaries between image and material, inside and outside, fiction and trace. Conceived as a passage space with unstable bearings, it is haunted by a persistent notion of loss.
The full series is accompanied by an artist’s book, Boomtown Holy Void: Epigraphy of the Disposable City, published in September 2025. Sponsored by VU, this project was made possible with support from the Première Ovation program.
Biography
Marie-Raphaëlle LeBlond is a photographer and field researcher. Her practice is rooted in lived spaces, documenting the intimate realities of women and men who shape our territories, especially in abandoned places of life and labor. With an immersive approach, she captures gestures, objects, and stories — revealing what settles at the bottom of each era.
Her work explores migration stories and religious heritage, reflecting on the ruptures, continuities, and filiations that shape our collective identities. Oscillating between irony and tenderness, she creates a living archive that reveals the voids and splendors that make us who we are.
Born in Québec City, she studied international relations and journalism before moving to Lebanon. Upon returning, she began collaborating with Anicinabe communities in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, developing projects at the intersection of digital arts and documentary research.
l’est de vos empires
Boomtown Holy Void is presented in collaboration with À l’est de vos empires, a territorial initiative led by the Réseau Art Actuel. The program supports contemporary creation beyond major urban centers by encouraging mobility, cross-disciplinary exchange, and alternative modes of circulation.
This particular work also forms part of Marginale, a collective exhibition on artist books, taking place from September 12 to October 12, 2025, at La Charpente des fauves in Québec City. The exhibition explores hybrid forms at the intersection of visual art and literature, with a focus on the book as a material space of creation.
