Since 2022, the artist duo Geneviève Matthieu’s evolving work Danseprophétiqueàl’îlebizarre has taken shape and transformed through research residencies and performances in Rouyn-Noranda, Bellecombe, Montréal, Matane, here in Joliette, and Paris. Presented at the Musée d’art de Rouyn-Noranda in spring 2025 as a performative exhibition, organized in collaboration with the curator Ji-Yoon Han, the work is returning to the Musée d’art de Joliette in fall 2025 in a new configuration.
“Danseprophétiqueàl’îlebizarre is our very own Noah’s Ark, signed March 23, 2024,” Geneviève Matthieu wrote in March 2022. “A place to gather in case of emergency. A rich and fertile sculpture. Outside the centre. A meeting place, a movement, a vision of what we desire. Of how we want to die, or not. Above all, not tense. Shouting with joy, let’s start again.”
In search of unprecedented languages, the work calls for its remodeling with every presentation. The exhibition reinvents the body of the work: whistles, silhouettes, staircases, poetry, music, incantations, found and accumulated objects, set props and workout equipment, packaging, books, amulets, candlesticks, a Phantom and an Observer – themselves in multiples. And a butterfly. A Presence. An Absence. A Forest of Symbols that has emerged from nameless matter and is transformed, here, into thing, sculpture, sign, energy, instrument of survival.
This—is an invitation to come together, dead and alive, to dance in spite of everything, to anticipate what is coming, to embrace the unknown, to metamorphose without end.
Curator : Ji-Yoon Han
Biographies
Geneviève Matthieu
Geneviève Matthieu is an artist duo formed in Rouyn-Noranda (Québec, Canada) at the end of the 1990s. Through performances, installations, videoworks, music concerts and poetry, the duo stages collective representations and social tableaux inspired by art and life. Geneviève Matthieu’s work was presented in numerous exhibitions and events in Canada and Europe, most notably at Musée d’art de Joliette, Usine C (Montreal), Fonderie Darling (Montreal), 7a*11d Festival (Toronto), Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (Paris), La Capella (Barcelone) and festival actoral (Marseille). The duo was longlisted for the Prix en art actuel from Musée national des beaux-arts de Québec (2018), and the Sobey Art Award (2023), the most prestigious award nation-wide, organized by the National Gallery of Canada. The duo was awarded the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec’s Paris residency at Les Récollets in 2024, and took part in the 2-12 residency program at Cité internationale des arts in Paris, in 2022. On February 4, 2025, Matthieu died from an aggressive cancer. The work of Geneviève Matthieu will still continue.
Ji-Yoon Han
Exhibition curator and independent researcher, Ji-Yoon Han (PhD) lives and works primarily in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montréal. Willingly interdisciplinary, her projects aspire to highlight the guiding force of art and artists in disrupted and disruptive cultural and psychological contexts. Curator of Mascarades. L'attrait de la métamorphose for MOMENTA Biennale de l'image (2023), she is a research associate for the project La compétition des bonnes images (2021-), with support from the Amis du Centre Pompidou. Deeply involved in her artistic and cultural community, she serves as chair of the visual arts committee and second vice-president of the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
Partners
This exhibition is presented by Ville de Joliette.
This project was generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Musée d'art de Rouyn-Noranda and the artist-run center l’Écart.
