Espaces fictifs is a piece inspired by several works by Guido Molinari (1933-2004) and the fruitful exchange of ideas between the painter and the art theorist Fernande Saint-Martin (1927-2019), who was his close interlocutor from the very beginning of his creative activity. I was particularly interested in reversibility, juxtapositions and superimpositions of simple motifs that are constantly reconfigured. I was also interested in rhythmic intervals, which refers to variable distances separating an element and its reoccurrence. Similarly, I drew inspiration from the dynamism of very stark contrasts or, on the contrary, extremely subtle transformations; from horizontal, vertical, and diagonal orientations; from kaleidoscopic continuums that play on the mobility of backgrounds, middle grounds and foregrounds; as well as from the vibrations, mutations and energy of colors.
The title, Espaces fictifs, is derived from an expression often used by Molinari. For example, in a 1995 interview with Sandra Grant Marchand, he stated: “Through sufficiently intense chromatic contrasts, we arrive at a dynamic space, and the concept I posed is that in perception, this space becomes a fictitious space,” before specifying that “the painting is a construction, and the viewer is in a state of creation himself.” Fernande Saint-Martin, as a writer and art theorist, has also worked extensively on this “fictitious” dimension of perception.
Espaces fictifs was composed during the winter of 2019-2020, with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).
Maxime McKinley