About —
An ephemeral encounter between past and present
The Reunited Islands is the permanent exhibit at the Musée d’art de Joliette. Bringing together more than 120 works of art from the collection, this presentation has no chronological or thematic constraints. The underlying idea behind The Reunited Islands is a vast succession of ideas and concepts bouncing off one another, connecting works from the 14th century with recent installations. Through different visual art disciplines, artists like Dominique Blain, Carl Beam, Marc-Aurèle Fortin and Marcelle Ferron are all represented and can reply to each other inside this space.
This new exhibit’s charm resides in how the works of art speak to one another. A detail in a sculpture could for example find a connection with a video nearby, making the finesse of the layout and the museological interplay something to admire. The Reunited Islands manages to convey to the visitor an ephemeral encounter between past and present, contrasting meanings and significance.
About the collection
The Musée d’art de Joliette’s collection consists of over 8,900 works of art divided into four axes : Canadian art, European art, contemporary art and archaeology. When the museum opened in 1976, the institution’s reserves contained over 700 works of ancient, religious and contemporary art. Throughout the years, the collection in its entirety has been enhanced notably thanks to acquisition policies and donations from generous sponsors. We must underline Maître Maurice Forget’s donation, who in 1995 offered to the museum a collection evaluated at over 1.1 million dollars. Made up of over 400 pieces, this legacy unites works from modern and contemporary Canadian artists. Today, more than 40% of the Musée d’art de Joliette’s collection consists of artwork produced after World War II.
Images in the banner:
Photo: Romain Guilbault.