The gallery Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is proud to present unpublished works from the Panoscopic Journal by Luc Courchesne, recipient of the Paul-Émile Borduas Prize (2019).
The Panoscopic Journal, undertaken by Courchesne in 1999, documents moments of his whereabouts as he travels to exhibit his interactive portraits and to develop immersive projection systems of his own. His goal with the Journal was, essentially then, to get familiar with the novel point of view offered by the catadioptric lens he was using. Throughout his expanding series of rotating panoramas, captured in still photography and now in video, Courchesne continues his Journal to question, more directly this time, the concept of place, the position of the observing subject, and the novel nature of the worlds one is now invited to step in. The works in the Panoscopic Journal can thus be seen as discrete and "switchable" micro-realities.
Luc Courchesne is a pioneer in the digital arts. From interactive portraits to immersive apparatuses, he has created innovative and engaging works that have earned him prestigious awards such as the Grand Prix of the ICC Biennale in Tokyo in 1997, several Honorary Mentions and an Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica in Linz in 1999 and the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas in 2019. His works are part of major collections including those of the ZKM | Karlsruhe, the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montreal, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. They have been presented in more than 150 exhibitions around the world, notably at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. A graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1974, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984, he was a student of Anthony Mann, Michael Snow, and Otto Piene. Artist, designer, and professor at the Université de Montréal, he is a founding member of the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Courchesne is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain (PFOAC) in Montreal.
