Jacques Bilodeau, Claude Cormier
Au grand dam
2016
Jacques Bilodeau et Claude Cormier + Associés inc.
Crédit photo: Guy L'Heureux, 2016
Presentation of the artwork
Designed in tandem by Jacques Bilodeau and CC+A, Au grand dam, a monumental sculpture-landscape, is composed of an arrangement of forty sequential, juxtaposed, and inclined elements made of white marble and concrete. The usable artwork offers a linear, bumpy path 47 metres long, oriented toward the St. Lawrence River in Parc des Rapides. Visitors may sit on it, climb on it, or take a break and enjoy the variable intensity of the light depending on the time of day. Au grand dam is a luminous work: LED bulbs inserted in certain vertical planes project directional beams that delineate and amplify the shapes.Taking account of the historical and geographic aspects of the site, in the perspective of an in situ work, this sculpture-landscape refers metaphorically and metonymically to the presence of an old dam and the nearby rapids. It seems to have been created following an operation of compression and unfolding, reminiscent of the process of pack ice breaking up.
Associated events
In January 2013, the Public Art Bureau of the City of Montréal held a competition for teams formed of professional visual artists from Québec and landscape architects for the design and production of a public art project to be installed in Parc des Rapides in the borough of LaSalle. The artwork constitutes a bequest commemorating the creation of the former municipality of LaSalle 100 years ago.
Jacques Bilodeau
Jacques Bilodeau was born in 1951 in Garthby, Québec. Since the early 1980s, he has conducted large-scale experimental interventions in buildings that he recycles. In parallel with this work combining art, design, and architecture, he produces installations and sculptures for exhibition in galleries and public sites. The question of habitation – how to inhabit a site, or even an object – is central to his concerns. The “active” objects that he makes are offered as tools that mobilize the body and the mind.
Claude Cormier
Claude Cormier et Associés inc. (CC+A)
Since 1996, CC+A has offered landscape architecture services with a practice that extends well beyond the traditional sphere of the discipline by creating bridges among urban design, architecture, and public art. Known for its conceptual focus, CC+A’s capacity for innovation and savoir-faire enable it to address complex planning and design issues, notably in a context of multidisciplinary projects.
Since 1996, CC+A has offered landscape architecture services with a practice that extends well beyond the traditional sphere of the discipline by creating bridges among urban design, architecture, and public art. Known for its conceptual focus, CC+A’s capacity for innovation and savoir-faire enable it to address complex planning and design issues, notably in a context of multidisciplinary projects.
