In 2023, I coordinated and edited the publication Sans exposition : gulf war tv war, raw footage, cnn concatenated by curator and narrator Marie-Hélène Leblanc.
Featured image of the article: photograph of the publication.
Publication reference:
Marie-Hélène Leblanc, Sans exposition, Gatineau: Galerie UQO, ISBN: 978-2-9819793-9-1
A narrative framework addressing war
The publication Sans exposition: Gulf War TV War, Raw Footage, CNN Concatenated is an ideal exhibition in literary form, free of constraints. It’s the emancipation of the curatorial act through writing in which the curator is also the narrator of the exhibition. This chronicled exhibition features the following works: Gulf War TV War by Michel Auder, Raw Footage by Aernout Mik, and CNN Concatenatedby Omer Fast. This collection proposes three narrative approaches that are critical of the media’s war coverage. Juxtaposed to form the title of the exhibition, the works’ titles serve to locate the curatorial premise: the Gulf War as a pivotal moment in the media narrative, the development of a discourse on the use of war images rejected by the media, and a critique of CNN’s coverage, which relies heavily on the immediacy and repetition of war imagery.
A publication without an exhibition
In this publication, the narration appended to the exhibition proposal form, activating the curatorial experience so that the narrated exhibition can be considered as a medium. In fact, the project is based on the three foundational elements of an exhibition proposal as theorized by David Tomas, namely the conceptual framework, the exhibition plan, and the description of the works; the whole comprising the literary form of the exhibition. As Mieke Bal rightly stated, the museum is a discourse, and the exhibition is a statement within this discourse. If the curator considers this an ideal form of exhibition-making, it’s primarily because the narrative act could be used to summarize the exhibition’s components as a whole through writing. Additionally, this project stems from a desire to create exhibitions beyond the gallery space, and publishing is now one of Galerie UQO’s primary methods of producing and disseminating contemporary art knowledge.
In this way, the curator recounts an exhibition the same way war was recounted to her, with the asserted position of a curator-narrator who narrates a selection of works. In the appropriative narrative form of an exhibition proposal, she manages to dematerialize her curatorial approach, or at least liberate herself from the white walls of the gallery.
Published by Galerie UQO
This book is part of Galerie UQO’s editorial activities, which aim to generate reflection on the institutional and artistic issues about the exhibition. Galerie UQO’s mandate is to contribute to the advancement and diffusion of knowledge on contemporary art, and this publication contributes to the discourse on art.