Saint-Déluge-de-la-Consolation – Martin Bureau

FEBRUARY 21 TO MARCH 29 2020

Since 2017, Martin Bureau has been concerned with the notion of the anthropocene era, this geological epoch that ascertains the permanent impact of human activity on the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. With Saint-Déluge-de-la-Consolation, the artist offers a conceptual and technical synthesis of his research in addition to offering a shift towards sociocultural concerns fundamentally rooted in our immediate territory.

In the last year, the City of Quebec has seen several destruction sites of churches.  To observe the way we dispose of our religious built heritage without any regard, I have linked the notion of anthropocene to that of scorned memory. We destroy, accumulate rubble, extract resources and rebuild over this buried memory.

— Martin Bureau

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In the dozen works that punctuate this presentation, religious buildings, ancient monuments and contemporary architectures are subject to the vagaries of a raging nature or to the peak of the demolisher. These structures are built into metaphors of our collective memory, which is being undermined in favour of a constant forward flight and a glorified individualism. Resulting from these observations, are paintings showing images as fanciful as they are disconcerting, confronting us with our complicit indifference and inertia. Contrasting with the reflections raised, the meticulous watercolour work infuses an aesthetic and poetic finesse that gives the corpus a definite balance.

Martin Bureau uses the mediums of painting, video installation, and documentary film to examine the intersection of art and politics. Inspired by world events, his work offers a candid and critical statement on the social, economic, and cultural issues that surround us. Notions of colonialism, catastrophe, and entropy are recurring themes in his body of work.

His work is part of many institutional and corporate collections such as the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, the Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent, the National Assembly of Quebec, Desjardins, Loto-Québec, SSQ Financial Group, Librairy and Archives Canada, Bibliothèque et Archives nationale du Québec and private collections in Canada, The United States and Europe.

Martin Bureau lives and works in Quebec City.

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In the media :
Le Soleil
: Josianne Desloges – Martin Bureau : églises en chapelle ardente
MonSaintRoch : Jason Duval – Saint-Déluge-de-la-Consolation: une inspiration divine dans la désolation
Ici Première : Claude Bernatchez – L’impact de l’Homme sur notre patrimoine
L’Aérosptatial – CKRL : Myriam Le Lan – Saint-Déluge-de-la-Consolation à la Galerie 3
Québec Réveille : Marjorie Champagne – Entrevue avec Martin Bureau

À l’est de vos empires : Martin Bureau à la Galerie 3
Journal Autour de l’Ile : Claude Poulin – Quand la destruction du patrimoine inspire un artiste (p. 11)

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