Although the notion of celebration touches on a great number of issues, those having to do with memorials are particularly complex. By virtue of their capacity to transform memory into stone, to petrify a fragment of the past in order to make it visible to a number of people and thereby to partake in the construction of their collective identity, \u00admemorials \u00adhighlight the work of selection and, by the same token, reveal the \u00adnecessity of consensual choice in such matters. What should we keep from the past? What should we safeguard from oblivion? And, as a result, what should we preserve for future generations, as the foundation of our future actions?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Such questions have arisen over the past few decades in the \u00adcontext of what French historian Pierre Nora has termed a \u201ccommemorative \u00adbulimia\u201d and its transformation into the \u201cduty to remember.\u201d In his book in which he studies \u201csites of memory,\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 1 <\/a> - Pierre Nora (ed.), Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past<\/em>, English \u00adedition ed. by Lawrence D. Kritzman, tr. Arthur Goldhammer, 3 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996\u20131998). Nora deals in particular with the case of France.<\/span> Nora observes that there is now a proliferation of commemorative events and objects of celebration, a \u00adtendency which has been accompanied by the belief that the future appears bleak. One of the consequences of such a phenomenon is that a \u201cwar of memories\u201d is being waged between communities; it is indeed not uncommon for such groups to evoke the horrors of the past\u2014be they part of actual experience or of a present set of claims\u2014as a means to gain attention for their cause and to argue for its importance.2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - These ideas were discussed on radio on the 8 August 2008 broadcast of France Culture\u2019s Mythographies<\/em>, a show that dealt specifically with the theme of \u00admemorials.<\/span> Thus, it would seem that we have reached a \u201cpolitical age of memory.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 3 <\/a> - Ibid.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City in 2008 revealed the \u201cknot\u201d that such celebrations of the past can give rise to.4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 4 <\/a> - Such tensions are addressed by Antoine Robitaille in \u201cAntimilitaristes et nationa-listes manifestent contre le 400e<\/sup>,\u201d Le Devoir<\/em> (Friday, 4 July 2008): A2. Another controversy surrounded the proposed reconstitution of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. The summer of 2009 was the 250th anniversary of the Battle.<\/span>  Although the case of Quebec City is not directly linked to the \u00adcrystallization of memory into stone, the event fostered certain political or ideological differences, thereby impeding the unification of the population around a single vision of the past. Acts of memory or of celebration can take shape by means of symbols or emblems, as Nora suggests in his broad definition of sites of memory. Be it as it may, the absence of consensus around a vision of the past proves the inexorable logic of exclusion that drives the notion of memorials. And when, in order to avoid division, commemorative events are not conceived around a clear choice they paradoxically become exercises in amnesia. As a result, they generate even more suspicion, insofar as they are soon reduced to becoming the sheer expression of the mercantile interests of the entertainment industry\u2014which feeds only on the now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contemporary art is replete with works that critically address the question of memorials and the latter\u2019s relations to the work of memory, despite the fact that such works are not sites of memory per se (like monuments or buildings that celebrate specific events, such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin by American architect Daniel Libeskind). Moreover, such contemporary artworks reveal the universal or community-oriented \u00adpretensions of the aforementioned types of commemorative activity. It is in this light that I would like to examine the work of the Quebec City-based collective BGL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Unifying Green Discourse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The BGL collective is made up of Jasmin Bilodeau, S\u00e9bastien Gigu\u00e8re and Nicolas Laverdi\u00e8re. It has been producing works that recurrently\u2014albeit indirectly\u2014address the theme of memory by staging situations and objects that either no longer exist or are slowly disappearing in light of the increasing commodification and exploitation of nature. For example, Jouet d\u2019adulte<\/em> (\u201cAdult Toy,\u201d 2003) is a work comprised of a quad pierced by arrows and leaking all its oil. Venise<\/em> (\u201cVenice,\u201d 2004) is made up of a pivoting stuffed moose that functions as a turnstile at the entrance of a shopping centre. Both these works reference the notion of \u00adendangered species while parodying male symbols of consumption or a certain \u00adutilitarian type of recycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is tempting, moreover, to regard some of the collective\u2019s works as ephemeral memorials, as in the cathedral in Se r\u00e9unir Seul<\/em> (\u201cTo Assemble Alone,\u201d 1999)5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 5 <\/a> - This installation was shown at the Maison de la culture C\u00f4te-des-Neiges in Montreal from 1 June to 21 August 1999.<\/span> and the abandoned house in Villa des regrets<\/em> (\u201cVilla of Regrets,\u201d 1999),6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 6 <\/a> - This project was produced in partnership with Granby\u2019s 3e<\/sup> Imp\u00e9rial, centre d\u2019essais en arts visuels, from 16 July to 30 September 1999.<\/span> two works in which the use of fragile materials expose the irremediable disappearance of sites constructed out of wood and paper. The cathedral, which is a space of celebration based on the \u00adrepetition of rites, is but a fa\u00e7ade with a rose window and ogival-shaped windows. The interior of the sacred space appears much like a desolate cinema that shows a sinister parking lot. The villa in Villa des regrets<\/em>, a \u00adtypical \u00adsuburban dwelling, is hollow if only better to fit in with the cornfield in which it is placed. Ultimately, it is the negative side of an individualist lifestyle that is made possible thanks to the standardisation of the means of mass \u00adproduction, including those of the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n