Approach
Installation title: FONDRE [MELT]
The project FONDRE [MELT] that he is presenting at the 2022 NBCS emanates from a slow snowmobile journey which he took into the heart of the Québec boreal forest during the snowmelt period. Directly influenced by the contingencies of climate conditions and chance discoveries, the expedition ended, in time and in place, where the snow became runoff water, rendering impassable the forest trails and paths of this vast (sometimes altered) natural ecosystem where plenitude and peril coexist. Beaulieu was joined periodically by researcher and art historian Patrice Loubier during this fragile seven-day exploratory pilgrimage into the edge of winter, where the snow was about to disappear.
For close to twenty years, Patrick Beaulieu has collaborated with authors, geographers, historians, and philosophers to create performative excursions. Among other things, in these projects he has followed the trajectory of migrating monarch butterflies (Monarch Vector), chased American winds (Ventury) and travelled in search of places that do not exist (EL PERDIDO). His work has been presented in many countries, namely in solo exhibitions in the United States, Mexico, France, Belgium, and Singapore. In Canada, he has exhibited at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, the Musée de Lachine, and periodically at Galerie Art Mûr in Montréal, which has represented him since 2006.
