SERGE CLEMENT, BAHAR TAHERI
Minéral
Serge Clément
Logos
Bahar Taheri
CURATOR'S TEXT
The pairing of Serge Clément and Bahar Taheri creates a dialogue between two artists whose works invest public space, architecture and urbanity in order to question masked power dynamics.
Bahar Taheri's work from her Logos series (photolithography and acrylic on paper, 2019) deconstructs the relationship to monumental buildings through the use of geometry and abstraction. In this work, Bahar Taheri shatters the structure of public buildings in which society's dominant imaginaries are invested. She reconstructs these monuments under a new abstract configuration that invites us to reformulate our relationship to what we see. The artist invites us not to take for granted the narratives that are offered to us without questioning them. By altering our relationship to the value of monumental heritage, Bahar Taheri's work allows us to examine the collective and political power dynamics that are embedded in architectural structures.
Serge Clément's work, Minéral (black and white photograph, 2017) also asks us to question our relationship to urbanity and public space. In this photograph, our gaze finds itself inside a scaffold and moves towards an urban exterior in the process of demolition. The scaffolding embodies change, construction, the new base of a building to come. From this metal frame, the work prompts us to ask: what must disappear to make way for a new urban structure? From the perspective of this construction fence, we see a small Montreal house, a classic duplex, in the process of disappearing under the weight of the scaffolding that surrounds it. Part of the building has already been razed, and we can make out, barely standing, windows, a balcony... Who owns this house? What is the history of the people who live there? Are these people being displaced from their anchorage to make way for the new structure that is being erected? What are the stories that are lost in this construction process?
The works of Bahar Taheri and Serge Clément both ask us to reflect on the dynamics behind urban structures. The architecture we experience in our daily lives, in public space, is not devoid of power dynamics. On the contrary, it determines which narratives are visible and which are invisible; it configures what we do and do not have access to. Through their respective practices, Bahar Taheri and Serge Clément invite us to question more globally our relationship to the aesthetics that surround us in order to decipher the politics that are invested in it. This deepening of our relationship to urbanity, to architecture, to the monumental, to the structures of the everyday incites us to develop a critical civic engagement with the status quo.
Photo: Bonnallie + Brodeur
SERGE CLEMENT - BIOGRAPHY
(he)
Serge Clément lives and works in Montreal. He has worked with photography since 1975, and focuses exclusively on artistic photography since 1993. His work was exhibited in solo exhibitions around Europe, in Hong Kong and in Canada.
His work was published in many photography books and in self-published books as well. He directed three short films based on photographs: L’envol suspendu (2014), d'aurore (Ottoblix, Mtl, 2012), Fragrant Light / Parfum de lumière, (ONF, Mtl, 2002). He further pursued the question of motion-picture/photography through an artistic residence at the Cinémathèque québécoise in 2018.
He was awarded multiple awards from the Conseil des arts du Canada et du Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ). In 2012, he won the Prix à la création artistique of the CALQ for his film d’aurore (2011). His work figures in important institutional and private collections in Canada, in Europe and in Hong-Kong. Also curator, Clément presents in collaboration with Alexis Desgagnés Constellations, the first exhibition in Quebec focused on photography books based on his personal collection, exhibited at the VU photography center in Quebec City in 2014.
Clément’s photography practice is one of questioning and researching. Through poetic and disconcerting images, his artistic process encompasses documentary, installations, social commentary, poetic storytelling and photographic essay. He is currently working on Escale Cinéma 2.0, which will be exhibited at the LUX national scene in Valence, France, in February 2022.
Photo: Camille Dubuc
BAHAR TAHERI - BIOGRAPHY
(she)
Bahar Taheri is an artist of Iranian origin (b. 1980 in Tehran). Since 2014, she lives and works in Montreal. She holds an MFA in painting from Soore University of Art in Tehran (2009). She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Iran, in Europe and in Canada. She is also a recipient of numerous grants, such as Vivacité, Recherche-Création (CALQ), Allianceartiste en arts visuels (MAI) and DémART-Mtl (CAM).
Her work can be found in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts collection, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran collection and in multiple private collections. In 2019, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) had selected a work by Taheri to mark the 20th anniversary of the Musée en Partage Program.
Living in a region torn by political and cultural conflict has galvanized her fascination with history. She has recently initiated a project that examines architectural structures and their relationship to power, religion and capital. Captivated by her origines and the evolution of the unstable conflict, Taheri seeks to define the necessary conditions that exacerbate these socio-political circumstances, while paying close attention to details and to the growth of her personal cultural baggage.
Her artistic practice combines different media such as painting, videography, performance and mixed media installations.