Crève Cheval
Presented at the artist-run centre Caravansérail in Rimouski, Crève Cheval was conceived in direct dialogue with the architecture of the former cinema that houses the centre. Rather than trying to correct the constraints of the space—its unusually high ceiling and sloping floor—I used them to completely transform the exhibition space.
The natural slope of the room allowed me to create a large basin containing more than 2,000 litres of water. Above it, a large tilted mirror takes advantage of the height of the space. Six photographs submerged in the basin and presented as light boxes extend into the reflections of the water and the mirror, blurring the spatial boundaries of the room.
Crève Cheval is rooted in an experience that took place in 2017, when an exceptional flood caused the waters of Lac Saint-Jean, on whose shores I live, to rise to dangerous levels. In the aftermath of the flood, the body of a large wild animal was found washed ashore in front of the home of one of my former teachers. When I went there to photograph it, she told me that she saw it as a bad omen, as though this body cast up by the lake were foretelling her own death. A few months later, she died suddenly from a ruptured aneurysm in front of her students.
This event revived questions for me about what the lake preserves, buries, and sometimes eventually returns to us. Its waters themselves carry the memory of a historical tragedy: in 1926, a planned flood transformed Lac Saint-Jean into a hydroelectric reservoir, submerging inhabited lands and permanently disrupting communities. I came to imagine this collective memory as a presence that persists beneath the surface and, at times, seeks to break back into the present.
Crève Cheval thus explores an uncertain realm where the dead, memories, and submerged stories seem to continue circulating between two worlds. A kind of afterlife in which images seem to resurface, as though rising from a place where the lake had kept them for a long time.
2026
In memory of Suzie and her psychopomp
Scenography: Critérium and Cédric Delorme-Bouchard
Conception: Evens Émond, Jean-Marie Benoit, Simon Gauthier, IC Events, Extenzo, Infravert
Technicians: Evens Émond, Jean-Marie Benoit
Printing: Groupe Têtu, Deschamps
Graphic design: Critérium
Text: Michel Lemelin
Click here to read the story accompanying the exhibition (in French only)
