Une île n’est pas l’autre exhibition for the 40th Anniversary of the Espace muséal Alfred-Pellan in Laval

On view September 20, 2026 – January 3, 2027 Pierre Bourgault, Andréanne Godin, Yen-Chao Lin, Fatima Zohra Ouardani, and Yann Pocreau offer a poetic exploration of insularity inspired by the territory of Laval. Curator: Emmanuelle Choquette Opening: Sunday, September 20, 2026, at 2 p.m. Free Admission Metro station : Montmorency Laval is an island. But is an island merely a piece of land surrounded by water? What does an island become when it is a place of memory, exile, longing, or resistance? To mark its 40th anniversary, the Espace muséal Alfred-Pellan in Laval presents five established and emerging artists who revisit the foundational idea of insularity through works that are as poetic as they are unexpected. The exhibition features 33 works — many never before shown, or rarely so — offering multiple ways of inhabiting, imagining, and representing the island. To celebrate Laval’s only visual arts museum institution, Espace muséal Alfred-Pellan gave carte blanche to Laval-based curator Emmanuelle Choquette, recognized for her work in Québec and abroad. She selected contemporary artists from Laval and beyond, each bringing a distinct perspective on what an island can be. Oscillating between physical territory and metaphor, the island recurs as a conceptual, visual, narrative, and practical motif across both artistic and scholarly discourse. Boldly looking toward the future, this anniversary exhibition celebrates what has united the people of Laval since the city’s founding in 1966: one island, one city. In our collective imagination, an island can take countless forms and meanings — far more than a shape on a map, it can shift, take flight, or become a horizon to reach. Whether real or imagined, the island serves here as both a poetic and political lens for examining our relationships to fictional, physical, and emotional territories. Together, the works explore our connections to places, to others, and to ourselves. Five Perspectives on Insularity The five artists present works that are compelling, generous, and tactile, blurring the line between the visible and the invisible. Like islands themselves, what appears on the surface offers only a glimpse of the deeper narratives unfolding within each sculpture, installation, video, and image. Une île n’est pas l’autre invites visitors to reflect on how we inhabit the world, connect with one another, and move across landscapes — whether surrounded by water or by dreams. An Anniversary Exhibition Looking Toward the Future Curator Emmanuelle Choquette invited artists whose personal journeys reflect diverse relationships to place and belonging: Yen-Chao Lin, originally from Taiwan, for whom Laval became home after arriving in Québec; Fatima Zohra Ouardani, born in Morocco and now living in Laval; Andréanne Godin, from Val-d’Or; Yann Pocreau, born in Québec City; and Pierre Bourgault, from Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. Together, this diverse group presents a thoughtful, multifaceted exhibition — a carefully selected body of work united by a common thread: our relationship to the island, literal or metaphorical. A First Look at the 33 Works on View, Half of Them Newly Created The exhibition brings together 33 works, including several new commissions on public view for the first time — half of them created by the artists in 2026. Sculptures, installations, photographs, drawings, videos, and glass works form a journey in which each artist offers a distinct interpretation of insularity, balancing intimate experience, landscape, and reflections on territory. ” We all have an island in mind. For some, it is a refuge. For others, a place to reach or to leave behind. An island is much more than a piece of land surrounded by water: it holds our memories, our dreams and our longing for elsewhere. The five artists featured in Une île n’est pas l’autre invite us to journey through these real and imaginary landscapes to discover that whilst each island tells a different story, they all speak to the way we inhabit the world.” — Emmanuelle Choquette, Curator of Une île n’est pas l’autre Each of the five contemporary artists offers a distinct interpretation of insularity. Yen-Chao Lin creates a suspended archipelago of glass and light that evokes both fragility and resilience. Yann Pocreau uses light and movement to reveal landscapes that appear and disappear before our eyes. Andréanne Godin dives beneath the surface of Québec’s waters to uncover their hidden mineral colours, while Fatima Zohra Ouardani explores memory, migration, and belonging through evocative everyday objects. Pierre Bourgault reimagines Greenland through a poetic cartography of anonymous islands, inviting visitors to reconsider familiar territories from a new perspective. Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays and performance evenings: until 8 p.m. FREE OF CHARGE Picture : Yann Pocreau : Archipel 1 & 2