Indigenous art enjoys a renaissance

A new book edited by UdeM's Louise Vigneault surveys the diversity and vibrancy of Indigenous artistic expression in Quebec. The last few years have seen a resurgence of Indigenous artistic expression in many disciplines: music, film, photography, painting. In her new book, Créativités autochtones actuelles au Québec : arts visuels et performatifs, musique, vidéo , Louise Vigneault, a professor in the Department of Art History and Film Studies at Université de Montréal, paints a panoramic portrait of this creative vibrancy. Indigenous artists such as Virginia Pésémapéo Bordeleau and researchers such as Indigenous music specialist Véronique Audet and Michèle Garneau of UdeM's Department of Art History and Film Studies are featured in the book, which took over 10 years to put together from a variety of sources: artistic, historical and sociological analyses, interviews with artists, and essays on art shows. What emerges is a mosaic of voices on the richness of Indigenous arts and the strategies of reconstruction and self-affirmation that support the process of decolonization. The book opens with a conversation between Vigneault and Guy Sioui Durand, a Wendat art curator and performer. The two worked together for more than 10 years researching the Wendat painter Zacharie Vincent.