Festival Art Souterrain
Exhibition place
Activities
Verticalités réappropriées (2025-2026)
Bronze, cotton string, wood, and leveling sand
Fundamental tool in the history of the construction of civilizations, the plumb line has
long been used to establish verticality, alignment and architectural stability. Simple but of great precision, it embodies the relationship between the body, human habitat, gravity and the laws of physics. In Verticalités réappropriées, her logic echoes that of Foucault’s pendulum, which allows for the perception of invisible forces and the way they influence our relationship to space, movement, and the world.
The artist made the production and transformation of the material elements a part of her work. Mixing the use of technology with traditional artisanal methods, the manufacturing processes of the parts that compose the work leave their successive traces in the materials.
Dagenais reclaims the plumb line in a feminist posture. The threads, which act as extensions of her body, are used through performative gestures to draw lines in the sand. By using gravity as a constraint, but also as a creative force, it questions the power relations related to gender, and claims labour, effort and verticality as modalities of affirmation, resistance and action.
Biography
Originally from the Laurentians, Geneviève Dagenais is a sculptor based in Montreal – Tiohtià:ke. Supported by the Dale & Nick Tedeschi Studio Arts Fellowship grant and the Graduate Studio Arts Advisory Committee Award, she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Sculpture and Ceramics at Concordia University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2022), where she received the Prix d’excellence Thomas Corriveau et Mario Côté, as well as a grant from the Fonds de la Faculté des arts. Her work was presented at Artch (2021) where she received the Prix Coup de cœur Loto-Québec, then at Arprim (2022) where she won the Prix pour la relève Albert-Dumouchel. Her work has been displayed in multiple group exhibitions. In 2025, she presented her most recent research as part of her first solo Ombre portée at the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul.
In collaboration with Concordia University
