Author Description

With "Émoi & moi" the MAC/VAL has brought together works by fifteen artists for whom introspection is a creative force for its first temporary exhibition for 2013. These are artists who explore questions of existence and who hold distinct, critical perspectives of reality stemming from knowledge of oneself. Looking into the mirror and playing with the idea that art might be an expression of the interior landscape, this exhibition reflects upon what might be termed archaeology of the self. How can one give form to the impalpable, the irrational, the invisible, to emotions and to the passage of fleeting moments? If creating mental spaces is one of art's roles, how does one represent them? This dilemma, perhaps an impossibility, is at the heart of the fertile dynamic of the works in this exhibition, allowing us to pose a number of essential questions: What is a Subject? How is it constructed? What is a work of art? How do artists play with the interface between the self and the exterior world?--Press release.