Rétrospective Pierre Ayot
RES IPSA LOQUITUR : les faits parlent d'eux-mêmes
Curators—Marthe Carrier and Nicolas Mavrikakis
- Exhibition
Galerie B-312 thanks all its members and donators, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Canada Arts Council, Ville de Montréal and ministère de la Culture et des Communications, for their support. The gallery extends its gratitude particularly to those who made the recreation of Pierre Ayot’s La croix du mont Royal possible: over 200 donators, the Mount Royal Plateau borough, Ville de Montréal, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Caisse Desjardins du Plateau-Mont-Royal, UQAM’s faculty for the arts, la Fabrique culturelle, Infravert, RCAAQ, RAAV and Succession Pierre Ayot. Nicolas Mavrikakis and Marthe Carrier would like to thank Madeleine Forcier, Yan Romanesky, Isabelle Guimond, Yuri Tremblay, Francyne Lord, Julie Boucher, Mayor Luc Ferrandez, France St- Jean, Christine Gosselin, Louise-Hélène Lefebvre, Lyne Olivier, Nathalie Saindon, Joanne Germain, Emmanuel Galland, Bastien Gilbert, Bernard Guérin, Olivier Lapierre, Laetitia Leclerc and Jean-François Belisle.
As part of a major retrospective of the artist Pierre Ayot organized by Nicolas Mavrikakis and bringing together several venues, Galerie B-312 presents Res Ipsa Loquitur: the facts speak for themselves, an exhibition designed by Marthe Carrier and Nicolas Mavrikakis. This exhibition stems from Pierre Ayot's project to re-create La croix du mont Royal, a work presented at the Corridart event, a public art exhibit stretching several kilometers on Sherbrooke Street as part of the 1976 Olympic Games, but which had been destroyed by Jean Drapeau, the mayor of the time.—This exhibition allows to see the collection of silkscreens of Corridart. Pour la liberté d’expression (1982) created by Graff to finance the appeal filed following the defeat of the lawsuit initiated by Corridart artists against the City of Montréal. This box, including silkscreens and texts, is accompanied by the exhibition of the surprising verdict made by Judge Ignace-J. Deslauriers in 1981. In 1988, twelve years after the events and before the appeal was heard, Mayor Jean Doré proposed an amicable settlement to compensate the artists. In 2016, forty years later, a new controversy spreads around the recreation of La croix du mont Royal, this time fueled by Mayor Denis Coderre. Curators Marthe Carrier and Nicolas Mavrikakis refuse to comply with the requirements of the City Centre.—The exhibition presented at Galerie B-312 includes a documentation of recent events and pays a tribute to Pierre Ayot and all those who support freedom of expression, a large poster displaying the names of the individuals and organizations that supported the project to re-create the cross.—Silkscreens by Pierre Ayot, Marc Cramer, Laurent Gascon, Michael Haslam, Bob-Kevin McKenna, Guy Montpetit, Jean Noel, Kina Reusch, Jean-Pierre Séguin, Françoise Sullivan, Jean-Claude Thibodeau and Bill Vazan are on display as well as texts by Anne Trueblood Brodzky, François-Marc Gagnon, Claude Gosselin, Laurent Lamy, André Ménard, René Payant, Léo Rosshandler, Fernande Saint-Martin.—On Saturday, November 12, the documentary produced by Bob McKenna, À propos de l’affaire Corridart, will be screened.
Res Ipsa Loquitur : les faits parlent d’eux-mêmes… (the facts speak for themselves)
—Original text in French by MARTHE CARRIER AND NICOLAS MAVRIKAKIS
