BICA – Biennale Internationale du Carnet D’Artiste – Quebec

Par Vannie Gama

What a pleasure to be part of the currently open-for-visitation BICA — Biennale Internationale du Carnet d’artiste in Québec, Canada. It was my second artistic appearance in the country, and it could not have been more interesting, especially through a medium I explored long ago in my early twenties. After many years, BICA was a place to develop a larger carnet. Conceptually, a carnet d’artiste occupies a broader workspace than an artist’s book, leaving room for more experimental and intimate notes, in the sense of unfinished creations and the mix of sketches and polished work.

It was also the perfect excuse to visit Québec City. I have to highlight that Québec City has the best aquarium I have visited so far. I literally cried in the jellyfish section, which will certainly inspire future work. As an activist, I do not appreciate all aquariums, since many lack ideal space for the species they host and are often weak on the educational side, which is inseparable from any space where children meet parts of nature. The Québec Aquarium is environmentally responsible, and that is the main reason it was the best aquarium I have been to. They have dedicated sections to marine conservation in Canadian fauna, scientific communication about most species, and excellent specialized staff to ensure meaningful interactions between visitors and families.

After visiting the aquarium I headed to the vernissage. It was the most creative vernissage I have attended in terms of display. What could be the best way to show les carnets d’artistes? Take a pair of gloves and dive into the hundreds of pages in front of you. The artworks were there to receive each person’s attention. It involves trust and awareness, but most importantly the intention to make the experience of perceiving art available to visitors, including us artists and the jury, members of the Société d’histoire d’art de Beauport, and others. Congratulations to the SAHB for such an amazing idea. I hope to see this as a growing movement: we do not need to label an exhibition “interactive.” It simply is, by design.

It was a pleasure to meet all the artists and, as always, to share our ideas about that art form and the world, constantly avoiding talking about our own work—simply because there were tons of other works to see and organically hear about.

For those who could not visit the exhibition (it will be available between June 12 and August 30), I made a PDF version, which unfortunately you will not be able to touch, but I tried not to edit the images and to crop them in the largest possible format so that, page by page, you can feel and remember that this was an artwork whose dimension functions as the polymer of a regular book.

Also, ‘Sur Place’ will be donated to the Société by the end of the exhibition.

To revisit soon, Québec.