MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image

What Does the Image Stand For?

Today, images capture the world at every instant. But what do they say at this point? Are they an objective framing of the world at a given moment? What has become of these markers of reality?

MOMENTA 2017 explores multitudinous facets of the idea of evidence for the prosecution, whether images are still or in motion, raising the question of images as avatars and focusing on the fantastical and sublimated aspects of the reality that they convey. The 38 artists in this biennale invite us not to accept their testimony uncritically.

These artists intercede between the state of things and their possible interpretations. They are “whistleblowers,” and they prefer transfiguration to replication. Determined to produce differentiation, using allegories as intermediaries, they are revitalizing figuration. Their images speak of the world in different ways, but they systematically sidestep the real.

The 23 artists presented at VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine and Galerie de l’UQAM – the event’s headquarters – explore and investigate the porous boundary between reality and imagination through complex issues such as identity, territory, history, and time.