Un Jardin la nuit
Night falls and the garden, so peaceful and welcoming, is transformed into a mysterious place. What do flowers and other creatures do at night? What does the moonlit garden look like? Thousands of insects are swarming around, and there's that strange sound... Is it a deer, a spirit or... the neighbor's cat?
The opening will take place on December 11 at 5:30 pm, in the presence of the artists.
Un Jardin la nuit is a creation by photographer Caroline Hayeur and interdisciplinary artist D. Kimm, who have been collaborating on various projects bringing together photos and videos since 2014.
The artists filmed at night with infrared cameras over a period of five years. Hunting cameras were set up over several nights in the countryside near the village of Montcerf and in a garden in Montreal. Other poetic scenes featuring objects and characters were also shot in nature. The result is an object of strange beauty and privileged access to a secret world. You can see deer, raccoons, cats, a fox, a rabbit and the vegetation living out its cycle in their natural intimacy. Not to mention an animated firefly and a few mischievous spirits. And all to Guido Del Fabbro's dreamy, festive music.
Header: Caroline Hayeur & D. Kimm
Caroline Hayeur
Resolutely optimistic, with over 25 years of in-the-field experience, Caroline Hayeur explores social issues that touch on conviviality, sharing and differences. Her quest includes different sites and forms of socialization—friends, filial relationships, plural communities—in the tradition of documentary and humanistic portrayals.
Movement, dance and gesture are recurring themes through which she attempts to capture the essence of our connections to each other and the land: Rituel festif, Portraits de la scène rave à Montréal (1997), Amalgat - Danse, Traditions et autres spiritualités (2007).
Hayeur has a knack for approaching strangers in intimate environments and earning their trust through genuine conversation. As a visual anthropologist, her approach could be called the ethnology of the everyday: Humanitas (2010), Adoland (2014).
In the early 2000s, Hayeur added video and media art to her practice, pushing her research process further and even broadening it to include animation and sound: Mapping Territories (2006), Dans la forêt (2010), Abrazo (2016), Le Poids du lieu – a virtual choreography in three acts (official selection for best Canadian short film FIFA 2024). With her latest work, Un jardin la nuit, she pursues her complicity with multidisciplinary artist D. Kimm.
Photo: Caroline Hayeur
D. Kimm
An interdisciplinary artist described as unclassifiable, D. Kimm is founder and director of the company Les Filles électriques (created in 2001), which produces the Festival Phénomena (created in 2012) and which produced the Festival Voix d'Amériques (2002-2011). Active on the cultural scene since 1987, she has published four poetry collections and three poetry music albums, and presented dozens of solo and group shows. She has also co-directed three short films: En attendant Corto Maltese (2007) and Si tu veux me garder, tu dois t'éloigner (2008), in collaboration with the late Patrice Duhamel, and Mlle Clara dompteuse de lapins (2010), in collaboration with Brigitte Henry; as well as the CD-ROM La Suite mongole.
D. Kimm benefited from the Studio du Québec in New York in 2010. Her interdisciplinary show La Mariée perpétuelle was presented in Montreal (2009-2011) and toured Spain (2012). Her show for young audiences, Comment j'ai appris à parler aux oiseaux, was presented at Festival Les Coups de théâtre (2016), Festival Petits Bonheurs (2017), Centre national des arts (2018) and on tour in Maisons de la Culture in Montreal (2019-2020).
D. Kimm was also artistic director of the Festival de littérature de l'Union des écrivains et écrivaines québécois (UNEQ) from 1995 to 1998, and has directed dozens of literary and interdisciplinary shows for UNEQ (1998-2005).
Photo: Rolline Laporte
