SYLVAIN LESSARD | UTOPIES ET PARADIGMES

From March 1st till April 1st, 2018.

In “Utopies et paradigmes” (Utopies and paradigms), Sylvain Lessard has focused his interest on the notion of utopia in architecture. Generally speaking, a utopia may be viewed as a futuristic proposition staging a model to be attained. Architects and artists sometimes use this language to put forward new defining paradigms that no longer fit into current normative frameworks. It is this work of pure and unconstrained exploration, expressed by means of drawings or models, that has been the wellspring of this exhibition.

Painted in acrylics in a hard-edge style, Sylvain Lessard’s new works frequently refer to utopian projects stemming from the Constructivist and Suprematist movements of early twentieth-century Russia. In a propagandistic revolutionary context, a powerful iconography meant to channel common emancipatory cultural and social values was then emerging. The works of architects Vladimir Tatlin, El Lissitzky or Yakov Chernikhov may be cited as examples.

In parallel to these past references, the pieces that round out the exhibition are more suggestive of representations of futuristic structures that might be considered contemporary utopias.

Opening on March 1st at 5 p.m.
Nuit Blanche à Montréal : open on March 3rd, from 9 p.m. to midnight.