La Bourrasque is a mural work composed of pieces of cut-out stainless steel slightly separated from the concrete surface to which they are attached, giving the sense that they are floating. The pieces portray more than 100 symbols referring to knowledge, which the artist has arranged as if they had been blown around by a strong gust of wind. Gwenaël Bélanger describes La Bourrasque as follows: “I imagined the poetic instant when everything that is contained in the different documents in the library escapes through the slot in the book chute. And so, outside, we see a big jumble of sheets of paper, images, lines, objects, letters, numbers, figures, drawings, and more taking flight pell-mell.” The artwork is typical of Bélanger’s work, as he is interested in falling, movement, and bursting as ways to challenge modes of representation.

Both outside and inside the building, the artwork is integrated with the wall perpendicular to the main entrance to the library. La Bourrasque welcomes visitors and guides them into the lobby, where the artwork seems to take flight upward and through the large clerestory.

This work was produced in the context of construction of the Bibliothèque du Boisé, which fell under the Québec government’s la Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement des bâtiments et des sites gouvernementaux et publics.