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Michel de Broin: Disruption from within

September 19, 2009 to November 21, 2009


Opening Reception: September 18, 2009 – 8:00pm
Monument Unveiling: September 17, 2009 – 5:00pm

Plug In ICA presents Disruption from within, a solo exhibition by Michel de Broin. Based in Montreal, de Broin has received international acclaim for his sculptural projects and installations, and won the Sobey Art Award in 2007.

De Broin’s work seeks to escape the constraining nature of modern utopian aspirations while playfully reenacting them. He uses everyday materials to create extraordinary, logic-defying constructions.Disruption from within includes works such as Shelter, in which numerous tables are joined together with their legs pointed defensively outwards, creating an inaccessible inner space. Keep On Smoking II is an alternative to high gasoline prices, whereby kinetic energy produced by riding a bicycle is turned into smoke. This piece suggests the marriage of two machines: one produces while the other consumes. Disruption from within will also include a new work by de Broin entitled Décolonnisation. In this triptych of paintings, the artist has reconfigured the architectural elements of Plug In’s gallery space, while playing upon the meaning of the French word décolonnisation.


In conjunction with de Broin’s exhibition at Plug In, the Winnipeg Arts Council presents the unveiling of Monument, a sculpture commissioned as the inaugural piece for the newly developed Jardin de sculptures at La Maison des artistes visuels francophones in Saint-Boniface. A national Call-to-Artists was issued last year seeking a French-speaking artist to create a permanent, contemporary artwork for the garden, located on public land in the French quarter of the city. About twenty permanent works will eventually make up the garden, as well as a number of temporary works and an in situ space for creation. In addition to being a place for viewing, the garden, above all, is meant to be a space for creation, and a gathering place, celebrating art and its creators.

In the words of de Broin, “Monument is a mystery that will never be entirely revealed. One can recognize its classical motif borrowed from the tradition of monuments, but disrupted from the passivity of the academy.”