Perspective is central in art history. The art historian Daniel Arasse reminds us that it was invented in Florence in the 15th century (France culture, 2019).

 

But let's think about it, perspective directs our gaze into the work, dictates to us what to see, how to look... What if we tried to see beyond what is suggested, and even beyond the frame? For one of the MAJ's flagship exhibitions this season, Awakening: seeing beyond the frame, the MAJ's curator of contemporary art, Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre, has invited seven artists to present works that offer an interesting perspective on what we see less of, or find difficult to see, in a work of art and in society.

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For Marie-Claire Blais, painting bursts the frame, thus evoking the concept of the out-of-frame in a material way. For Lorna Bauer, the works composed of blown glass and enclosed by "metal cages" may bring to mind what is constrained within a frame or mold. Nadège Grebmeier Forget's works underline how much the codes of the feminine can be in tension with the representation that we make or should make of beauty. The American Alicia Henry's mural breaks down the masks and shows the threads and seams of what we too often choose not to look at. For Eve Tagny, the rose becomes the symbol of uniform and controlled beauty and of the colonialist construction of an ideal, the workings and reversals of which are not well known. Michaëlle Sergile also proposes an engaged work in this exhibition with as a starting point a poem by Maya Angelou and the idea of the smile as a strategy of survival rather than as a demonstration of joy. Finally, Tau Lewis' masterful work defies codes of gender and beauty representation and is a springboard for building a new world that ignores the usual frameworks.

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With this call for creations in April, we propose you to think about the framework within which you accept to see certain elements of life and society. And to try to go out of this frame. What is a frame? What are the frames you impose on yourself? Do these frames help or hinder you? What are your biases, your prejudices? What could you build as a bridge to deconstruct the frame or push those boundaries? What dialogue does art allow you to create with the unattainable and with all the layers of your identity? How does art help you step outside the frame? How do you represent this metaphorical frame in a material way?