The First Solo Show of Jocelyne Alloucherie in China "Climates: Photographic Works" Opening at Times Art Museum, Beijing

TEXT:Sue Wang    DATE: 2014.3.6

Poster of Climates - Jocelyne Alloucherie Photographic Works

The exhibition will reunite various photographic works from "The Devoniennes" and the "Climats III" series that explore, in a conceptual and poetic way, notions relative to nature and climate. Alloucherie's last piece of art "The Devoniennes" reveals the dark and powerful Canadian cliffs bordering the Atlantic Ocean as testimony of the Devonian period of the earth, 400 millions years ago. According to the artist those cliffs seemed "to support the weight of the sky and to sink deep roots, through their shadow, to the heart of the Earth's history. Strange caryatids whose secrets crumble away slowly."

"Climates III" is a series of seven photographs extracted from Climates created from 2007 to 2012. Those composite pictures are made of photographs, sand drawings and scannophotographs that remind us of Chinese paintings. They explore shadows and light in representing tempestuous storms and nature strength. These close-ups referrer to a space between "the immediacy of the sensitive experience and the memory of somewhere else".

Whereas Alloucherie's work is anchored in the Canadian landscape, it's also reveal some affinities with Chinese culture through the use "of ambiguity as a quality rather than as a shortcoming" which allows her to move eccentrically between disciplines and mediums. Moreover, her work is built on "the counterpoints of antinomic values such as the ephemeral and permanent, familiar and unknown, presence and absence, appropriation and divestment" which are always deeply imbedded in Chinese culture. For all these reasons, Jocelyne Alloucherie's pieces of art are like open-windows on a chiaroscuro reality that reveal the image. Those windows produce a "presence feeling" toward fragmented appearance. Moreover, her photographs are linked with an anthropological fieldwork that aims to understand how the human eye conceives and perceives the climate and the earth's landscape.

Climates - Photographic Works, the first exhibition of Jocelyne Alloucherie in China, sets the idea of navigating between different strata of reality underlining the close conjunction between the image and the location. Here, we are becoming totally present. The twelve pieces of art illustrate unique art technics and make us enter the internationally recognized artist's dreamlike world.The exposition was made possible thanks to the funding's of the Canadian Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec and The Conseil des arts de Montreal. The Canadian Embassy in Beijing is also a supportive partner.

About Jocelyne Alloucherie

Jocelyne Alloucherie lives and works in Montreal. Through complex configurations, her work explores, in a conceptual and poetic way, notions relative to images, to objects and space. She has created a large number of installations that combine elements relying on sculptural, architectural and photographic concepts. Some permanent works, created for public spaces, demonstrate the same preoccupations. Jocelyne Alloucherie's career has been celebrated with many prizes, most notably the Martin Lynch Stanton Award from the Canada Council, in 1989, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) in 1997, the Louis Hebert Prize form the Societe Saint Jean-Baptiste of Montreal in 1999, the Governer General Prize in Arts and Media Arts from the Canada Council in 2000, Paul-emile Borduas Prize in 2002, and the Jean-Paul Riopelle Prize in 2007 from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec.

About Claude Gosselin

Claude GOSSELIN founded the of the Centre international d'art contemporain de Montreal in 1983 (CIAC). He has since been its general and artistic director and created the following events: Les Cent jours d'art contemporain de Montreal in 1985 and La Biennale de Montreal in 1998. Claude GOSSELIN has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the Prix Reconnaissance de l'Universite du Quebec a? Montreal (2009), the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for Outstanding Contribution, (2005), the Prix Carrie?re from the Societe des musees quebecois (1999), the Personality of the week, La Presse (1987), the Prix Louis-Philippe-Hebert from the Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montreal (1986). Claude GOSSELIN has been a member of the Order of Canada since 2006.

Le Centre international d'art contemporain de Montreal (CIAC)

Established in 1983, the CIAC is a non-profit organization, recognized by both the Canadian and Quebec governments. As its mandate, CIAC disseminates contemporary art from Quebec, Canada and abroad, by producing exhibitions of international caliber. On three different occasions, the CIAC was recognized for presenting the best visual arts exhibitions in Montreal by the Conseil des arts de Montreal (1985, 1992 and 2000).

About the exhibition

Duration: 8-21, March,2014

Venue: Times Art Museum-Floor 37

Opening: March 8,2014 Saturday 15:00

Curator: Claude Gosselin

OpeningHours: 10:00-17:00 (Closed Mondays) Free

Tel: 010-85679817

Add: No. 6A, Rue Jianguomenwai, Building CITC, bloc D, 37Floor, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Courtesy of the artist and Times Art Museum, for further information please visit www.timesmuseum.org.