Québec City Biennial
2026
Curator: Didier Morelli
Dates: February 28 to April 19, 2026
Theme: Splitting Ice
As the only winter biennial in North America, Manif d’art 12 seeks to commemorate, celebrate, and carry forward the intergenerational legacies of performance and its manifestations through embodied practices rooted in the land, particularly in water and its many forms across the world, seasons, and climates.
2024
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Curator: Marie Muracciole
Dates: February 23 to April 28, 2024
Theme: The Forces of Sleep – Coexistence of the Living
Manif d’art 11 – The Québec City Biennial draws inspiration from the Canadian winter and the earth’s slumber to reflect on human sleep and the nuances of awakening. Moments of latency, transition, and pause, the cold season and sleep both suspend productivity, resisting the principles of exploiting bodies and resources.
2022
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Curator: Steven Matijcio
Dates: February 19 to April 24, 2022
Theme: Illusions Are Real
This tenth edition's theme draws inspiration from magical realism, an artistic movement embracing the spontaneous appearance of seemingly magical, supernatural, and irrational elements within reality. Manif d’art 10 – Illusions Are Real explored artistic practices employing trompe-l'oeil, subversion strategies, and sleight of hand to challenge issues within our daily lives, flooded with illusions from artificial flavors to disinformation campaigns.
2019
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Curator: Jonathan Watkins
Dates: February 16 to April 21, 2019
Theme: So Small Between the Stars, So Big Against the Sky
Becoming aware of the greatness of nature also means recognizing with humility the scale of our society. Amid and against the vastness of our landscapes, we often forget that we are only a small part of the natural world. Yet, closing our eyes to the sky, stars, mountains, or oceans is to reject a rich potential for mutual learning and unexplored beauty.
2017
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Curator: Alexia Fabre
Dates: February 17 to May 14, 2017
Theme: Joy
Joy, a fleeting emotion filled with a zest for life. To be joyful is to free ourselves from individual and collective concerns. It is a right to wonder and to reach for aspirations, whether real or imagined, that give life its deepest meaning. To express joy is to challenge its temporal limits and to share it in all its strength, fragility, innocence, poetry, and art.
2014
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Curator: Vicky Chainey Gagnon
Dates: May 3 to June 1, 2014
Theme: Resistance
Resistance, an unwanted societal trait yet deeply tied to contemporary life. From one issue to another, we constantly face our own values, often resulting in categorical opposition to authority and a profound desire for change. To resist is to build inner strength and a life resilient to decisions or actions deemed immoral or unethical. Art, like the individual, is a vital vector for social change.
2012
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Curator: Nicole Gingras
Dates: May 3 to June 3, 2012
Theme: Machines – The Forms of Movement
Machines, complex inventions designed to simplify our lives. Their precise, coordinated movements align with a lifestyle driven by productivity that exceeds human capacity. Understanding these machines means demystifying their design, which, like a work of art, reveals a coherent and telling structure.
2010
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Curator: Sylvie Fortin
Dates: May 1 to June 13, 2010
Theme: Catastrophe? What Catastrophe!
Catastrophe, the constant backdrop of our daily lives. Its omnipresence and hypervisibility in the media have led to its normalized banality, becoming a state of being in contemporary life. Yet, catastrophe remains shocking and spectacular. Art immortalizes catastrophe in its mysterious and dangerous beauty, exposing its role as the soundtrack of our everyday drama.
2008
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Curator: Lisanne Nadeau
Dates: May 1 to June 15, 2008
Theme: You – The Encounter
To encounter is to communicate. Once strictly human, communication has adapted to technological advances, reinventing the nature of our relationships with others. New tools and communication modes, often involving distance and sometimes fiction, challenge our understanding of encounters and the legitimacy of our relationships. From couples to chance meetings, from real to fictional encounters, human communication becomes a significant subject for visual artists.
2005
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Curator: Patrice Loubier
Dates: May 1 to June 12, 2005
Theme: Cynicism?
In popular terms, cynicism refers to scorn and provocation. However, in its original sense, cynicism is not negative but recognized as free and rebellious wisdom. Cynicism and art are no longer an improbable mix; instead, they form a fertile playground where the joy of existence, freedom, simplicity, boldness, and marginality intersect in representing our world and its sometimes harsh realities.
2003
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Curator: Bernard Lamarche
Dates: May 1 to 31, 2003
Theme: Happiness and Simulacra
What is happiness? A widely discussed and studied question with no definitive answer. Does happiness truly lie in a single truth? Art, like individuals, seeks to find unique meaning within this complex concept. Unlike individuals, art illustrates and shares its reflections on happiness through tangible hints, feeding our collective imagination and questions.
2000
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Curator: Andrée Daigle
Dates: September 1 to October 15, 2000
Theme: Ornamentation
Ornamentation is inseparable from notions of beauty and symbolism. Its aesthetic, both superfluous and necessary, transforms blandness into a unique décor filled with life and meaning. This décor, both intimate and public, enriches our daily lives with the modern desire to assert and showcase individual and collective identity. In the hands of artists, ornamentation becomes a poetic or critical illustration of our behaviors and values.