In 2009, Raphaëlle de Groot began a long-term project entitled The Burden of Objects. She invited the residents of Lethbridge, Canada to donate personal objects they had shelved away, having lost their usefulness. In exchange, she promised to preserve them and to take care of them: this exchange became the purpose of her creation.
This unusual collection then grew when she issued her call anew to the people of Québec, Vermont and Italy. The project was presented in Québec City in 2009, but in an as yet nascent form; it returns to the MNBAQ in the form this time of The Summit Meetings. Today, her collection now complete, the objects have been brought together in a summit that mimics meetings of the world’s leaders.
Raphaëlle de Groot uses her objects to produce installations, performances, videos and photographs. The Summit Meetings is a large-scale installation in which every kind of art can be found in dialogue. The exhibition evolved over the course of presentations at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG) and the Art Gallery of Windsor (AGW). The exhibition at the MNBAQ will conclude the summit.
Coming full circle, it returns to Québec City to close the cycle. In addition to testing our attachment to objects, this exhibition shows objects as if they had been granted a life of their own.
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