Felice Varini at Passages Insolites 2023, Quebec City, Canada – All photos by Stéphane Bourgeois, courtesy of Passages Insolites.
Urban, Art – Until October 9, Passages Insolites 2023 takes over Quebec City, Canada, with art installations by 40 artists from Quebec and around the world. On its 10th anniversary, the city’s largest international art event features a retrospective route and four distinct creative circuits across different neighbourhoods. The festival is conceived by EXMURO arts publics and presented by the Ville de Québec. We have selected five urban and architectural installations on show.
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Felice Varini’s installation.
Felice Varini is known for his large-scale, site-specific anamorphic paintings on historical monuments. At Passages Insolites 2023, the French-Swiss artist presents Double interlaced concentric circles, a monumental architectural urban installation blending into the iconic architecture of Place Royale. “Visitors enter the painting and wander around observing deconstructed fragments until a specific viewpoint resolves the optical enigma, providing a coherent view of the overall form.”
Little Quebec installation by AnonyMouse.
AnonyMouse is a Swedish street art collective known for its mouse-scale installations. Scattered throughout Place Royale and the Old Port, their minuscule mouse businesses and services include a radio station, a tavern, a travel agency, and a shelter for homeless rodents. “The Little Quebec series imparts a sense of magic to our urban experience, conjuring the enchanting world of children’s stories.”
Little Quebec installation by AnonyMouse.
Parisian artist Baptiste Debombourg presents the Radical Nature urban art project. Anachronistic vehicles are scattered throughout the neighbourhood between the Stone Age and our contemporary leisure society. You’re free to climb on, but good luck achieving forward movement: the Flintstones-style quad, personal watercraft, and all-terrain vehicle are literally set in stone. “This raw, inert mineral material lends a paradoxical monumentality to these vehicles that symbolise the human power to impose ourselves on the natural environment for recreational pleasure.”
Radical Nature installation by Baptiste Debombourg.
Pierre Brassard and Marie-Pier Lebeau have of Canadian artistic duo Pierre&Marie added emoji-like googly eyes to several buildings in the Quebec City centre. Their Big Other urban installation gives visitors the unsettling impression of being watched by a Big Brother-like presence. “This ostensibly benign yet oppressive form evokes our ambiguous relationship with social networks in the era of surveillance capitalism.”
The Big Other installation Pierre&Marie.
Quebecois artist Jasmin Bilodeau presents The Era of the American Dream. Made of aluminium, the spectral outline of a pioneer log cabin stands dialogues with the urban landscape. “The work pays tribute to the vernacular architecture of early settlers, celebrates our humble origins, and makes visible just how hazy our collective memory of the past may be.”
The Era of the American Dream installation by Jasmin Bilodeau.
All photos by Stéphane Bourgeois, courtesy of Passages Insolites 2023.
Radical Nature installation by Baptiste Debombourg.
The Big Other installation Pierre&Marie.
