The survey concerned the definition of Qu\u00e9bec, the differences between Qu\u00e9bec and Canada, and the possibility of another language being substituted for French and English. It also included the following question: \u201cIf a museum had to preserve the history of the differences between Canada and Qu\u00e9bec, how would you envision it?\u201d Blum\u2019s own answer to this question is an exhibition presented as a museum \u2014 or, more precisely, as two museums, one devoted to Qu\u00e9bec identity and the other to Canadian identity. The exhibition thus falls within the genre of \u201cartist museums,\u201d in which, Anne B\u00e9nichou posits \u2014 in a book recently written on the subject \u2014 \u201cthe artist is not so much a producer of objects, but a manipulator of signs.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 1 <\/a> - Anne B\u00e9nichou, Un imaginaire institutionnel. Mus\u00e9es, collections et archives d\u2019artistes<\/em>, Paris, L\u2019Harmattan, 2014, p. 27. <\/span>Blum\u2019s work consists in creating a narrative through which a vast array of objects (human remains, artworks, common consumer products, tools, archaeological artefacts, liturgical objects) intended to reflect aspects of Qu\u00e9bec and Canadian identity can be displayed. Visitors can discover this narrative through the wall texts that introduce each section of Blum\u2019s imaginary museum, and through the extremely detailed labels that complement each object, describing its origins and significance to \u201cour history.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Galerie de l\u2019UQAM published a book containing the views of eighty-six respondents who completed the survey questionnaire, as well as Blum\u2019s \u201cdiary,\u201d in which he explains the project\u2019s genesis. We learn that he first encountered the issue of a dual Qu\u00e9bec \u2013 Canadian identity as a bureaucratic reality, when as a new immigrant, he needed to renew his work permit. The administrative hassle caused by the two levels of government took on nightmarish proportions worthy of a Monty Python sketch. As months went by, Blum realized that the question of a dual Qu\u00e9bec \u2013 Canadian identity was taboo, and that the people he asked about it left him feeling that he was \u201cbeing inelegant, or downright impolite.\u201d So, to advance through this minefield, the artist chose humour<\/em>, a \u201cmood\u201d that has the ability to defuse tension and allows for the expression of contradictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The exhibition takes the form of two museums that turn their backs on one another, each devoted to expressing the exceptional character of its nation. The two opening galleries, dedicated to the respective nation\u2019s sacred foundational sites and placed under close surveillance according to the warning signs posted, set the tone. On the Qu\u00e9bec side, the founding act came from the sky in the form of a meteorite, La Roche sacr\u00e9e<\/em>, a genuine \u201cMecca for Quebecers\u201d (in fact, a cardboard rock, one of the few objects made for the exhibition). On the Canadian side, the nation finds its origin deep in the earth in the form of Holy Holes<\/em> (in fact, electrical outlets in the gallery floor), which have been providing Canadians with clean and renewable energy since prehistoric times. It is clear that beneath the mockery is a jibe at Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s obsession with heritage that raises every plot of land to the status of a sacred site of remembrance (such as the Perc\u00e9 Rock in Gasp\u00e9), on the one hand, and at the exploitation of Alberta\u2019s tar sands, seen as God\u2019s gift to Canada\u2019s economic growth, on the other. However, by humorously anchoring the foundation of the two nations in time immemorial, Blum also more soberly points out that the anxiety over identity shared by Qu\u00e9bec and Canada stems from the fact that these two \u201cyoung\u201d nations, evolved from settler colonization, cannot claim any historical and territorial roots that are beyond a few centuries old. This dual reading, at once comical and serious, is present throughout the exhibition. On the Canadian side, the exhibition continues with a large gallery in which the nation\u2019s most remarkable technical inventions are displayed \u2014 from the snow blower to the paint roller<\/em>, <\/em>from the egg carton to the plastic garbage bag. On the Qu\u00e9bec side, artworks and religious artefacts predominate (the artist relied mainly on the Galerie de l\u2019UQAM\u2019s art collection), giving rise to various and increasingly extravagant interpretations. Among the objects displayed are Synapse d\u2019Andr\u00e9 Breton<\/em>,a page bearing only a vague fingerprint, excerpted from a secret book that the founder of Surrealism is supposed to have written in Perc\u00e9, in the summer of 1944, while madly in love with \u00c9lisa Claro, and the skull of Iroquois Chief Donnacona, who was forcibly brought to France by Jacques Cartier at the end of his second voyage. In passing, Blum does not refrain from taking a swipe at the political timidity of Quebecers;homo quebecus<\/em>, as he writes on the label of the painting L\u2019attente chez le m\u00e9decin<\/em>, is characterized by the fact that Quebecers wait: they wait for the doctor, for the bus, for sovereignty. The last gallery in the Qu\u00e9bec museum is a large worksite full of rubble, whose main wall is covered by \u201cglorious achievement[sic<\/em>],\u201d hand-written remarks reflecting the large and small events of Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s contemporary cultural history (the Charbonneau Commission, the Champlain Bridge, Kahnawake, the laws of exception, Arthur Porter, fear of outsiders, and others). <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, the two nations turn their backs on one another, ignoring each other entirely, if only through the exclusive use of English on one side and French on the other. The only thing they share is the long, dark tunnel that visitors must take to exit the two museums, the tallest of whom will knock their heads against the tunnel\u2019s gradually downward-sloping ceiling \u2014 a fitting metaphor for culture shock. [Translated from the French by Oana Avasilichioaei] <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-HD2-IMG2-IM_Uzel_Blum_DSC8045_CMYK_esse_web_vignette.jpg\")
Exhibition view, Our history<\/em>,
Galerie de L\u2019UQAM, Montr\u00e9al, 2014.
Photo: L.-P. C\u00d4T\u00c9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/83-HD2-IMG4-IM_Uzel_Blum_DSC8542_SaintInconnu_CMYK_esse_web.jpg\")
Jean Tremblay, statue de saint-inconnu, 1780, art\u00e9fact dans l\u2019exposition | artefact in exhibition, Notre histoire<\/em> | Our history,<\/em> Galerie de l\u2019uqam, Montr\u00e9al, 2014.
Photo : L.-P. C\u00d4T\u00c9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n