Resolute Bay - The Daytime Journey in the Night

November 6, 2011 to April 8, 2012


Located in present-day Nunavut, the village of Resolute Bay was created during the height of the Cold War in 1953, following a decision by the Canadian government to settle a group of Inuit in an area then eyed by various foreign powers, with the aim of establishing Canadian territorial sovereignty over that part of the Arctic. Although its creation was politically motivated, in its somewhat more than half-century of existence Resolute Bay had developed a culture and way of life setting it apart from any other Inuit community.

Since their first stay in Resolute Bay in the summer of 2004, Louis Couturier and Jacky Georges Lafargue have maintained a unique artistic dialogue with the hamlet's community, of which this exhibition is the latest expression. Through the use of documentation, interviews, photography and land surveys, the artists have helped members of this remote community stamped by history give expression to the reality of their lives. In the winter of 2006, they set up in a public space in Resolute Bay ahuge outdoor screen made of snow upon which they projected images, taken in 2004, of the village's long summer days. The work on view at the Museum is the counterpart to that first presentation, since it brings Resolute Bay life right into the heart of an urban society. It's sculptural component is entitled Qausuittuq, the Inuit name for Resolute Bay, which means the “place with no dawn.” The qamutiik* (sled) comes from Inukjuak in Quebec's Nunavik region, just like the first inhabitants of Resolute Bay. It is loaded with twenty-four crates containing pictures of Qausuittuq.

As French art historian and critic Paul Ardenne explains: “The Resolute Bay project in itself constitutes a simultaneously factual, political, interpersonal and poetic approach to life in an extremely isolated community, far away from everything. Although it takes the form of an eyewitness account, this Louis Couturier and Jacky Georges Lafargue work also provides a way of paying tribute to a people on the world's periphery, as a number of its components - drawings or photographs of the place, depictions of social life as well as the atmosphere in homes, and so on - make a point of taking a careful look at the living environment and its actual organization.”

* The qamutiik belonged to Markoosie Patsauq, author of Harpoon of the Hunter (McGill-Queen's University Press). The artists would like to thank Avataq and, in particular, Louis Gagnon for having taken the steps enabling its acquisition.

Resolute Bay consists of three presentations in three museums. The two other displays are on view at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery in Saskatchewan and the Musée de Picardie in Amiens. The three displays are linked through the website created by the Musée de Picardie.

http://www.resolute-in-museum.net/fr/

 

Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion

 

Louis Couturier et Jacky Georges Lafargue,
Resolute Bay - The Daytime Journey in the Night,
2011,
Installation