The Performance and Burden of Objects: Unpack and Display

The Performance and Burden of Objects: Unpack and Display

For the first time since its acquisition by the National Gallery of Canada in 2017, Raphaëlle de Groot will present The Burden of Objects – The Proceedings (2009–2016), a work that brings together 1,500 objects collected by the artist, and presents each step of their storage process to the public. This six-week performative exhibition will reveal the normally hidden activity of preserving objects in a museum context, while also expanding de Groot’s reflections around the care of vestiges.

Raphaëlle de Groot’s socially engaged art practice has evolved through performance, drawing, sculpture, and installation. Her interdisciplinary approach centres on the creative process, the body in action, the gathering of objects and stories or memories, and collaborating with different communities. A leading figure in Canada and Québec’s art scene, Raphaëlle de Groot conducts in-depth inquiries on the notions of trace, accumulation, memory, care, exchange, and precariousness. Among other projects, she has explored the revisionist potential of several historical collections, and her work is included in several museum collections. The institutional and critical relevance of her work has been widely recognized—she won the Sobey Art Award in 2012, and she has exhibited internationally.

This exhibition presents The Burden of Objects – The Proceedings (2009–2016), de Groot’s most ambitious project to date. This work, after which the exhibition is titled, features a collection of 1,500 burdensome objects that were given to de Groot by individuals who, for various reasons, had been reluctant to part with them. Offered in response to open calls across Canada and in other countries over the course of seven years, the objects where eventually packed away in a shipping crate, where they remained until the work’s acquisition by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) in 2017. Now, for the first time since then, this ambitious project is being presented at Galerie UQO. This is an opportunity for the gallery to not only exhibit the objects, but also to consider how they are documented and to develop a protocol for exhibiting them. From November 4 to 25, the objects will be gradually unpacked, examined, documented, and installed in the gallery during opening hours. This process will be led by the artist, staff from the NGC and Galerie UQO’s team, as well as the next generation of art museum professionals. At the mid-way point, the work will be activated by a performance, with contributions from the public, after which the objects will be repacked and crated between November 25 and December 12. In this way, the exhibition transforms gestures of care, documentation, and exhibition into a durational, six-week performance.

With each new acquisition it makes, the National Gallery undertakes a methodical documentation process. In the case of, that process is amplified by the unique needs of the project, and requires exceptional resources. In addition to conducting a condition report, staff from the NGC and Galerie UQO will document their process and devise a detailed protocol for displaying the objects which will serve as a reference guide for future exhibition opportunities. This protocol allows de Groot to delegate certain responsibilities to the NGC so that the work—which can be configured and contextualized in various ways—can be exhibited, performed, and live on in her absence. Complementary expertise from a national museum, a university art gallery, and a research chair were brought together for this purpose. Through this unprecedented collaboration between various Outaouais-based arts organizations, new constructive regional relationships were set in place, bringing together complementary skills that will help improve the preservation and appreciation of contemporary art. The innovation of this project is three-fold. First, it involves delegating responsibilities to the NGC, with whom the scope and limits of a particularly complex museum work are explored. Second, it relies on a partnership approach that enlists complementary skills to address this complexity. And third, it helps increase access to the work and, more broadly, renews the conditions under which contemporary art is preserved and promoted.

Partnership

This project is co-produced by Galerie UQO, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Institutional Research Chair in the Promotion of Artistic, Cultural, and Museum Transformations. It is being carried out as part of the “New Uses of Collections in Art Museums” Partnership activities of the CIÉCO Research and Inquiry Group, the National Gallery of Canada National Outreach Program, the Art and Museum Team, and the “Contemporary Art Documentary Requalification” Development Partnership. It was made possible through the financial assistance of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Fonds de recherche du Québec, and the Ville de Gatineau. The National Gallery of Canada’s National Outreach initiative is generously sponsored by Michael Nesbitt, with additional funding provided by the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.