EXMURO

The Museum of Bad Art brings together the best of "art too bad to ignore". The works in MOBA's collection, whether acquired at thrift stores or garage sales, represent sincere attempts at heartfelt creations. However, along the way, something has gone wrong with each of them. Here at l'Aire publique, these works are celebrated by Le Salon du Bad Art. This unique collection invites us to observe and reconsider our assumptions about art.

Isaac Cordal transforms urban space with Cement Eclipses, a series of miniature sculptures scattered around the city. He has designed a series of 45 installations integrated into the heritage of the Old Port, notably on Rue Saint-Pierre, the former financial heart of Quebec City. These figurines of businessmen, perched on cornices or nestled in facades, embody a subtle, tragi-comic critique of our society.

A multidisciplinary artist, Martin Bureau's works portray the Anthropocene as a foretold catastrophe, translating our excesses into a poetics of disaster. Here, he transforms EXMURO's Public Area into a false diplomatic forum, witness to a disastrous event. This video installation depicts power, from the mining and military industries to banking and religious institutions, and echoes the geopolitical conflicts that mark our times.

Open My Glade is a series of one-minute films imagined by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist and designed for large-scale broadcast on advertising screens. Competing with highly glamorized commercial images, the artist offers a disturbing performance in which she presses her face against the screen, distorting her features as well as her make-up. These facial deformations question the image of femininity conventionally projected in the media.

Ever is Over All is a provocative, pixelated video installation by internationally renowned artist Pipilotti Rist. Combining visual fantasy, social critique and a haunting soundscape, this cult work poetically questions the norms of femininity and everyday gestures of rebellion. The pixelated, saturated aesthetic of the images, combined with the symbolism of a flower turned weapon, reveals a bold critique of social conventions and contemporary femininity.

Follow the Leaders is a hard-hitting installation by Isaac Cordal that denounces the excesses of capitalism, political inaction and the environmental crisis. Through miniature sculptures of men in suits and ties, frozen in a ruined urban setting, the work illustrates the powerlessness of elites in the face of impending collapse. Presented in Galerie 2 of EXMURO's Public Area, the installation extends its visual impact outwards, with the Cement Eclipses public art trail.

This video installation by Pipilotti Rist transports the audience into a kaleidoscopic, hypnotic aquatic paradise, poetically exploring the contradictions of human desire. Presented in the historic vaults of the Aire Publique, this double projection is accentuated by the colonnade dividing the space, while the vaulted ceilings amplify the propagation of sound. The dark atmosphere of the space reinforces the surprise effect, plunging visitors into the depths of the sea.