This monograph presents the work of the artist Philippe Allard. More than 15 years of creation and wandering to conceive large-scale works. In his research, Allard diverts the architectural function and the accumulated scrap object without neglecting the poetry of space and light. He has created monumental installations that point out our environmental concerns with aestheticism and irony. Through an essay by the author Cynthia Fecteau, the path of these projects becomes philosophical and opens up to a poetics of space.
"There is no shortage of paths, and many of his works share the same quest : to reveal, bring to light and disseminate the transversal narratives, the layers of history and the invisible realities that crisscross the territories we inhabit, cross and fabricate, individually or in society. In analyzing his journey, I also have in mind all the objects that the artist collected and accumulated to create his works : plastic bottles, wooden pallets, milk crates, satellite dishes, car parts, dumpsters and even abandoned trailers. This process of collection and storage, at the origin of each of his installations, forms a vast inventory of artifacts, like those places that travel and the effort of discovery open up in us, like a philosophical reading, a vision of reality recorded in an author's pen or the poetic potential inscribed in an object].
Philippe Allard
Philippe Allard was born, lives and works in Montreal. He holds a bachelor's degree in graphic design from Université du Québec à Montréal. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in Canada, France, Portugal and South Korea. His work has been shown at the Articule Centre, the Darling Foundry, the Atoll Centre, the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown and a special project recently completed with the Dare-dare Centre. He has also participated in several group exhibitions, including the 5th Marrakech Biennale in March 2014 and Conversations in Lyon in 2018, an exchange between Montreal and Lyon artists initiated by gallery B-312. He has also commissioned several public and private works, with a focus on In situ interventions. He was, with Justin Duchesneau, winner of the Place des Arts de Montréal competition in 2009, recipient of the AGAC public art prize for their installation Courtepointe in 2014 and author of the permanent public work Le Joyau royal et le mile doré for the City of Montréal's public art office. He created his first five permanent works under the policy of integrating the arts into architecture. His works can be found in the Cirque du Soleil collection as well as the collection of the Baie-St-Paul Museum. In August 2019, he will be part of the international publication Thames & Hudson Hundred sculptors of tomorrow.