Chosen as spokesperson for the 15th World Press Photo Expo in Montreal, Anishinaabe artist Caroline Monnet will also present an exhibition of photos of Aboriginal women in parallel with this event, which each year presents the best of world professional photography.
Born of an Anishinaabe mother and a French father, Caroline Monnet is a multidisciplinary artist who expresses herself through sculpture, painting, photography and film. We owe him in particular the film Bootleggerwhich garnered several nominations at the last Gala Québec Cinéma.
When the World Press Photo Expo in Montreal asked her to be its spokesperson this year, it was the photo that won the World Press Photo prize last April that prompted her to say yes.
Taken by Canadian photographer Amber Bracken, this shot shows red robes hanging from crosses at the site of a former Indian residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
It’s an extremely strong photo that appealed to me a lot, explains Caroline Monnet. This is a subject that touches me deeply.
The artist also sees the World Press Photo Expo in Montreal as a great showcase for his work and an opportunity to reach people from the general public for whom contemporary art remains a little-known milieu.
Convey positive representations of Aboriginal women
Caroline Monnet will introduce them to her new exhibition Ikwewak (Women)which aims to offer another representation of the Aboriginal woman than the romanticized one resulting from colonization.
The indigenous woman has always been presented in a very anthropological way, by a male and white gaze, showing her passively in front of the camera doing artisanal tasks, or as a victim in the mediashe laments.
It’s not at all what I want to show, because it’s not the strong, proud, eccentric or elegant women I know around me.
The artist explains that she wanted to photograph the indigenous women who agreed to pose for her in a modern and committed with subjects who look at the camera without lowering their eyes in order to take their rightful place.
It’s a way to contribute to changing the image of Aboriginal women in the collective imagination, to highlight the power of these women and to show them that they have the right to exist and that they are important.
” My desire is also to put the Aboriginal woman back on the pedestal she was on before colonization and to restore her royal status. “
The public will thus be able to discover portraits of Aboriginal women such as filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin or Swaneige Bertrand, who is both a costume designer and a chef specializing in Aboriginal cuisine. They are all strong voices in their community, women involved in arts and cultureshe says.
Caroline Monnet wanted all these women to be French-speaking, because there is still a big gap between Francophone and Anglophone Aboriginals, Francophone Aboriginal women are very underrepresentedshe says.
His work Stand up! at UNESCO
Last month, Caroline Monnet traveled to Paris to attend the permanent installation of her work Stand up! at UNESCO, whose headquarters are in the French capital.
Stand up! is a giant mural that features six Aboriginal women standing and looking straight ahead.
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It’s incredible to have a work that integrates the collection of UNESCO, it’s extremely prestigious, she rejoices. Seeing the struggle of Indigenous women go beyond our borders and be recognized with dignity was a very symbolic and powerful moment.
The exhibition Ikwewak (Women) will be presented at Bonsecours Market in Montreal from August 31 to October 22.
Radio Canada
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
