Exhibition Archive
The body in question?
Collective Exhibition
Éclats Art Contemporain Gallery, Montreal
Presented as part of Pride and Diversity Month
From August 1 to September 21, 2025
General Presentation
The Body in Question?
Le corps en question ? is a group exhibition that interrogates the body as a space of representation, memory, and identity. Through diverse artistic practices, the assembled works explore the many ways the body is perceived, experienced, claimed, or transformed in contemporary contexts.
As a site of social, political, and intimate projection, the body emerges here as a territory in tension: between visibility and erasure, norm and singularity, vulnerability and assertion. The exhibition offers a pluralistic reading of the body—not as a fixed form, but as a fluid construction shaped by history, the gaze of others, and lived experience.
Curatorial Approach
Curatorial Statement – Le corps en question ?
This exhibition is conceived as a space for reflection and dialogue on issues of corporeality, the diversity of identities, and contemporary representations of the body.
Without imposing a single interpretation, Le corps en question ? brings together artistic proposals that consider the body as expressive material, symbolic language, and a site of resistance. The works encourage viewers to examine their own perceptions, confront biases, and reflect on their relationship with otherness.
By fostering engagement with the plurality of bodily experiences, the exhibition positions the body not as a fixed form but as a dynamic, evolving space—where social, political, and personal histories intersect and where the viewer becomes an active participant in the exploration.
Axes of reflection
The works presented are organized around several thematic axes:
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The identity body: self-affirmation, gender construction, uniqueness of experiences.
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The exposed body: social gaze, visibility, staging, and vulnerability.
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The political body: norms, marginalities, power, and resistance.
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The sensitive body: memory, intimacy, emotion, and presence.
These axes intersect and respond to each other, offering an open and evolving reading of the exhibition.
Participating artists
The exhibition brings together artists from diverse backgrounds and practices, whose approaches reflect the richness and complexity of the issues addressed.
Curatorship
The exhibition was curated by Professor Norman Cornett, whose curatorial approach emphasizes dialogue between works and the plurality of artistic voices. His work is rooted in a humanistic and inclusive reflection, attentive to contemporary social and cultural issues.
Le corps en question ? was presented at the Galerie Éclats 521 as part of the Pride and Diversity Month, highlighting the gallery's commitment to providing a platform for visibility and reflection on issues of identity, diversity, and representation.
Interview with Professor Cornett
on CIBL, July 31, 2025
Honorary Co-Presidents
Dorothy W. Williams is a historian, researcher, and educator. A specialist in Black history in Quebec, she has dedicated her career to documenting the Afro-descendant presence in Montreal and across Canada. Her seminal works, Blacks in Montreal 1628–1986 and The Road to Now, have helped uncover an often-hidden memory. By founding The ABC's of Canadian Black History, she opened up an essential educational space where history becomes a tool for recognition and transformation. Her rigorous and committed voice resonates with the aim of this exhibition: to restore the body's historical, political, and emotional significance.
H. Nigel Thomas, novelist, poet, and essayist, is one of the major figures in contemporary Quebec English literature. Author of novels such as Spirits in the Dark and No Safeguards, his works explore questions of identity, immigration, homosexuality, language, and race with rare psychological finesse. His commitment to teaching and his literary contributions have made him a key voice of the Black and LGBTQ+ diasporas in Canada.
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