About —
In the exhibition In the name of matter. The imaginary museum of Louise Warren, the walls of the museum are blank pages onto which artworks are arranged like a poem.
The Lanaudière-based poet and essayist Louise Warren opens the doors of her personal collection to illustrate the close relationship between art and literature. The exhibition highlights the links between her literary work and the work of visual artists, and reveals the aesthetics of her essays and poetry: erasure, repetition, attachment, form, memory, collage, among others.
Most of the works are of small format, as they belong to her daily life. They reflect the atmosphere of the studio where they are hung. By unfurling her writing studio in the museum, Warren shares an art of living with forms, materials, and sensations.
By reproducing artworks in her books, or by quoting artists in her texts, she puts forward a community of artists who have accompanied her. Suzanne Dubuc, Stéphanie Ferrat, John Heward, Alexandre Hollan, Krochka, Denise Lioté, Monique Mongeau, and Sylvia Safdie, among others, aptly constellate on the walls and in Warren’s writings.
For many artists, form is matter. This also applies to poetry. Louise Warren sees a poem as a painting, or an exhibition: a stroll through imagination.
Wherever I am, I am my own studio, continually working with my material. I am committed to it. I speak in its name. In the name of matter.
– Louise Warren
Read wall labels
Artists presented in the exhibition: Suzanne Dubuc, Stéphanie Ferrat, Richard Gravel, Philippe Hélénon, John Heward, Alexandre Hollan, Krochka, Hugo Lamarre, Judith Lamarre, Sophie Lanctôt, Denise Lioté, Arié Mandelbaum, Monique Mongeau, Sylvia Safdie, Béatrice Sokoloff, Samuel-Charles Warren
The exhibition will be accompanied by “Rencontre du musée imaginaire” [The imaginary museum encounters], a convivial exchange about the exhibition and the relationship between Louise Warren’s work and the visual arts (in French). The exact date is to be announced.
View of the exhibition In the name of matter. The imaginary museum of Louise Warren,, Musée d’art de Joliette, 2020. Photo credit: Mélanie L. Dion.
Curatorial Text —
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Louise Warren lives in the Lanaudière region. Engaged in writing for 35 years, she has published numerous books of poetry. Her essays address the experience of creation and the encounter with art, including a trilogy titled Archives.
She has participated in many international events in Europe, South America, New Zealand, and Japan. In May 2010, she was the guest of honour at the Montreal Poetry Market. In September and October 2015, she was writer-in-residence in Lisbon, resulting in the publication of Le livre caché de Lisbonne by Éditions du Noroît.
Louise Warren received the Littérature award for La vie flottante. Une pensée de la création, as well as the Télé-Québec Ambassador award from the Grands Prix Desjardins de la culture de Lanaudière 2016. This essay was selected as a finalist for the 2016 Governor General’s Awards in the Essay category. In 2018, she received the Créatrice de l’année dans Lanaudière award from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.