Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran is proud to present the latest solo exhibition by Dominique Blain entitled Blancs de mémoire (Memory Blank). This exhibition is at the core of a body of recent works developed from archival images and newspaper clippings kept by the artist for more than 20 years. Through videos, collages and photomontages, Blain explores different moments when human rights and the human condition are in peril.

In a message both political and poetic, she challenges the relationship between reality and our understanding of it. Playing upon, and subtly questioning, the tension between objectivity and subjectivity, perception and representation, the artist draws our attention to socio-political situations often forgotten but always making for disturbing news.

The video Blancs de mémoire, whose title refers to a book by Georges Anglade, focuses on a photograph of refugees facing an invisible border swept by the constant motion of waves. This image confronts us with the denial and the abandon suffered by whole populations where their predicament slowly disappear from western memory. This work echoes a video installation presented as part of a group exhibition, À Montréal quand l’image rôde (In Montreal when the image roams), organized by the UQAM gallery (curated by Louise Déry) and presented at Studio national des arts contemporains Le Fresnoy (France) until January 5^th, 2014.

Dominique Blain lives and works in Montreal. Her work has been shown in several cities in North America, Europe and Australia (Biennale of Sydney in 1992). Three major retrospectives of her work have been organized: Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 2004 (travelling at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina and at the Nickle Art Gallery in Calgary); Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in 1998 (travelling at the Ansel Adams Center of San Francisco and at the Sala 1 in Roma); Contemporary Art Center Arnolfini in Bristol organized in 1997-1998 an exhibition in five institutions in the United Kingdom: Belfast, London, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Cambridge. Many museums have shown her work such as the Portland Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kunstverein in Frankfurt, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, European Museum in Brussels, and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, UK. In Quebec, she participated in three editions of les cent jours d’art contemporain and presented her work at the Galerie de l’UQAM, Sherbrooke University art gallery, at the Musée régional de Rimouski and at the Musée d’art de Joliette.

Dominique Blain produced series of public art installations in Quebec, among them: Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Montreal (2011); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Bourgie Pavilion (2011); Adresse symphonique, Montreal (2011); Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, Montreal (2010); Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur, Montreal (2009); Jewish General Hospital, Montreal (2008); Jardins de Métis (2007); Quartier International of Montreal (2006); Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, Montreal (2005); Sinclair-Laird School, Montreal (2000); Maison des écrivains, Montreal (1991); and at the head quarters of Radio-Canada Society in Toronto (1994).