Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ)

José Luis Torres present D’entrée de jeu (Let the Games Begin) in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ)

In December 2017, the artist José Luis Torres created D’entrée de jeu, an artistic project designed especially for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ).

This project offers a progressive immersion in a captivating visual and tactile experience that stimulates the interest of the younger ones for art. It is a playful, interactive space in which children, with their families, sharpen their visual perception of creation through fun and exploration. 

Colors, textures and touch play an essential role in this stimulating project. The whole sculptural elements allow children to discover Torres’ universe and share his creative process and practice. The colorful exhibition invites visitors to observe, create, and take center stage. Its walls covered in optical illusions and three-dimensional effects offer families a unique environment designed to stimulate exploration and foster the reinvention of new play rules. 

All the while, in an iconoclastic use of recycled materials, the exhibition catches the children’s attention and shows them how to become more responsible towards our planet. Chairs, kayaks, wheelbarrows, lifesavers, plastic bins, watering cans, traffic cones and doors, among other objects, are a source of discoveries and wonders, but also offer a second-degree reading, questioning our relationship to objects, our consumer habits.

With D’entrée de jeu, the MNBAQ’s central pavilion comes to life in a vibrant four-act experience:

LE PASSAGE (THE PASSAGE)

Between the walls of the Riopelle Passage, strange, soft, yet troubling shapes have appeared. Playfully, with a touch of irony, tubular shapes covered in fake green, orange, blue, and pink fur face passersby with notions of diversity. Offering a visual, tactile stimulation as well as a moment of questioning, the whole experience becomes an exchange between a poetic abstraction and the reflections of an ever changing society.

L’ARCHIPEL (THE ARCHIPELAGO)

Designed as a giant puzzle with infinite possibilities, modules on wheels are at the participants’ disposal. Painted in orange, all components of these modules form an archipelago of shapes, or an inspiring creation work site. Manipulation and creation are the key words in this section of the Family Gallery.

LA FUGUE (THE ESCAPE)

Torres’ works in the public space are truly distinctive, surprising sculptures created from multi-shaped, multicolored objects. D’entrée de jeu features a splendid jumble, La fugue (The Escape), a cascade of objects in balance, overflowing from the Family Gallery. It impresses visitors, makes them smile, carries them away… and sparks reflection.

LA CABANE RÉINVENTÉE (THE REINVENTED CABIN)

Spaces devoted to silent contemplation are as important as those for active play. In another area of the exhibition, several gateways lead children to a dream cabin with soft pillows and captivating books. There, they can rest, observe, discover multiple perspectives and spatial interpretations, invent treasure hunts or secret places. 

The exhibition D’entrée de jeu is open until October, 2018.

José Luis Torres was born in Argentina and has a Bachelor's Degree in visual arts, a Master's Degree in sculpture and training in architecture and integrating art with architecture. He has been living and working in Quebec since 2003. His work has been showcased in many solo and group exhibitions, in public interventions and artist residencies in Canada, Argentina, the United States, Mexico and Europe.

For more information: www.joseluistorres.ca

MNBAQ: https://www.mnbaq.org/en/exhibition/d-entree-de-jeu-1254​