As blue as our time

The forest has never been as much in demand as it is today. From a refuge coveted by city dwellers in search of fresh air, it is the subject of news reports from around the world, or a celebration of the essence of its trees. It has become essential to give a new name to this resource, which is being exploited and then, as best we can, protected. For others, from non-Western traditions, who make forests their living environment, forests are endowed with a capacity to think. In Andréanne Godin's childhood memories, the forest becomes a psychic space that her artistic practice revisits in depth. Tailor-made for two of AXENÉO7's rooms, the installation offers a nocturnal wander through a composite forest, born of fragments gleaned by the artist during residencies in Vermont and Finland, then in her native Abitibi. Life and death lurk in this invented landscape, whose concrete experience evaporates in a continuum of impressions suggested by the pigments of majestic drawings in Prussian blue and Van Dyke brown. As lights subtly enhance the chromatic nuances, each step echoes an existential quest with (in)discernible landmarks. - Marie-Ève Charron, curator (Editor's website)