La Montagne Magique
François Gagnon
May 1 to June 17, 2003
| UNESCO has qualified the air we breathe as the purest air of the Americas and has named Mont-Saint-Hilaire the first Biosphere Reserve in Canada. Miraculously protected from clear-cutting and the tourist industry until 1913, the mountain was purchased by Brigadier Gault. He bequeathed this natural treasure to McGill University, with a mandate that it be preserved for future generations. The mountain has served as the backdrop to various magical legends and has inspired such artists as Ozias Leduc, Paul-Émile Borduas and Jordi Bonet. |
François Gagnon was born in Rosemount, Montreal in 1958, and moved to Mont-Saint-Hilaire ten years ago. Just as Eugène Atget tirelessly photographed Le vieux Paris, Gagnon examines every aspect of the mountain that makes up his everyday landscape. The Magic Mountain is his sixth solo exhibit on the subject of his adopted home. At times spectacular, at times intimate, these zen-like photographic works reveal to us the secret gardens of an artist and his muse…Mont-Saint-Hilaire. |
