Research Notebook #5Magali Baribeau-Marchand

During her stay at the BPS22, Quebecker artist Magali Baribeau-Marchand, a practitioner of the poetry of everyday life, developed a particular interest in the behaviour of birds. This notebook charts the journey of her residency.

After two months of research, she adopted a bird that is highly symbolic of the region’s mining history: the canary. The miners used to take the bird, which was extremely sensitive to gas fumes, down into the tunnels. It would become unusually agitated in the presence of methane, thus giving the miners a chance to escape before a disaster occurred.

Inspired by this history, Magali Baribeau-Marchand set up an artistic intervention space in Charleroi’s city centre, in the Passage de la Bourse. She invited passers-by to spend a moment conversing with the canary named Didi and confiding in him. Maybe his reactions could warn us once again?

Meanwhile, the artist continued her video, photographic and textual experiments.
The notebook charts the journey of this residency.

Texts by Dorothée Duvivier, Elise Anne LaPlante and Pierre-Olivier Rollin.

BPS22 Hainaut Art Museum Publications, 2024
Language: French - English
48 pages; colour illustrations.
Price: €5

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