MONTREAL.- For one month only, renowned filmmaker, cinematographer, and screenwriter André Turpin, along with Léa Valérie Létourneau, art director and set decorator for cinema, have joined forces to present a series of large-format photographs that embody silent narratives that accumulate within the spaces we pass through daily.
This exhibit marks the debut collaboration between Turpin, an accomplished cinematographer and director, and Létourneau, a skilled art director, both hailing from the film industry. Clusters is born from the unique fusion of their ability, bringing a cinematic eye to still photography and creating a powerful visual narrative.
Clusters: a description
Shot on medium format digital cameras, each image is a composite of successive photographs. They present a richly textured construction of worlds where people come and go, leaving their mark on an already accumulated history. Like nests layered with deposits of matter and life, these spaces bear witness to dramatic events and mundane moments alike. The artists focus on these habitats that trigger in them a raw, immediate, and precise sensation, shaping each site into a visual archaeology of the quotidian, always on the brink of disappearance.
Through carefully staged mise-en-scène, Turpin and Létourneau privilege the spirit of place, transforming each location into a complex tapestry of human presence. Their work invites us to pause and reflect on the traces we leave behind in our transient passages through life, capturing the delicate balance between memory and materiality in these spectral locations.
André Turpin
André Turpin is a filmmaker, cinematographer, and screenwriter based in Montreal. He has written and directed three films (Zigrail, Un Crabe Dans La Tête, and Endorphine) as well as eight short films. As a cinematographer, he has worked on the visuals for about thirty films, including several directed by Denis Villeneuve, Xavier Dolan, Monia Chokri, and Philippe Falardeau.
Léa Valérie Létourneau
As an art director and set decorator for cinema, she has worked on a variety of Quebec productions (La Chasse Galerie, My Salinger Year, Gurov & Anna) as well as American productions (Pet Sematary, Moonfall, Scream VI). Trained as a scenographer, she collaborated with Lucion on shadow theater designs for light festivals in Moscow, Brussels, Medellin, and the United States. She has also exhibited in China, Lyon, Mexico, and Jerusalem.