Caroline Monnet + Ludovic Boney

Hydro 2019
Multi-media installation / Installation multimédia
Site 21 – Union Electric Building, Port Union

Hydro is a unique collaboration between two highly regarded Quebec artists, and one of few pre-existing works in the Biennale, on loan from the National Film Board of Canada. Boney (Wendat-Haitian) is primarily a sculptor with over 20 large-scale public commissions across Quebec, while Monnet’s internationally-known work increasingly focuses on filmmaking. Hydro reflects shared interests: multiple media, industrial materials, a minimalist approach to content, reflection of their Indigenous heritage. With only three elements, 180 electric lightbulbs, sound, and mirror-polished aluminum, they created a compelling, immersive viewer experience appropriately sited at the circa 1945 Union Electric Building in Port Union.

Hydro references the global and the local, alluding to massive resource developments everywhere, with their potential damage to the environment and surrounding, often marginalized populations. It specifically refers to Hydro-Quebec’s 1970s-1990s multi-stage dam projects in James Bay, Northern Quebec, strongly resisted by nearby Cree communities. Electric lightbulbs perform a sound-responsive on/off dance, reflecting downward in mirrored floor panels. Because none of us can resist looking into mirrors, viewers were drawn directly into the work’s deep space, becoming participants in its content. The sound component uses a famous speech by Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come, leader of the Cree resistance. Coon Come’s words—still relevant today—called for collective, careful stewardship of water as an essential resource for all. Hydro’s specific sad resonance for Newfoundland and Labrador audiences is the Muskrat Falls hydro project. 

PG