Caroline Gagné: Embodying the Intangible

Published by OBORO, Caroline Gagné: Donner corps à l'insaisissable / Embodying the Intangible takes a retrospective look at the career of this Quebec artist, whose practice is nourished by the tension between the fascination of digital media and the inescapable need to deal with the materiality of things. Caroline Gagné co-wrote a foreword with Tamar Tembeck, OBORO's Artistic Director and co-director of the publication. Richly illustrated, the 94-page bilingual book includes three essays that situate Gagné's approach in the contemporary history of media art. Viviane Paradis offers a look at the "sensitive testimony of the barely perceptible" in Gagné's work, while Nathalie Bachand discusses the bodily posture of listening as a "modality of connection to the world" in her work. Valérie Litalien highlights the filiations that run through her production between web art, installation art, virtual reality and sound art, while underlining her important contributions as a cultural worker. Through these essays, as well as the exhaustive documentation of six works that have marked the artist's career, the publication puts Gagné's work in the spotlight and places her in her rightful place in the landscape of current Quebec art.