2018 | MICHEL DE BROIN
LA CONDUITE DES CONDUITES
MONTREAL
Sept 13 - Nov 17

LA CONDUITE DES CONDUITES

Sept 13 - Nov 17

This exhibition proposes an interplay between the modeling of behaviour (the French conduites meaning ‘conduit’ but also ‘behaviour’ – in this case of objects or bodies) and the channeling of emotional responses, flows and energy. Using common objects – furniture, pipes, flanges, and light bulbs – the artist complicates our understanding of familiar technical systems, deforming, rupturing or boring holes in otherwise recognizable forms and encouraging the viewer to untangle each object’s contradictions. The curves and sinuosities of his conduits pit dynamic circulation against resistance and dissipation. Defying our expectation that industrial systems be efficient, optimized, and innovative, de Broin imagines systems foreign to those we value in our daily lives. The works open gaps in the world, introducing flaws and spaces freed from the causality shaping our relationship with design. Sentient bodies lurk behind these ostensibly technical objects. While we expect them to function and produce, the unpredictable assemblages escape the world of things in search of new and sensitive possibilities.