Main-d'œuvre brings together six artists, who each develop their own individual artistic practice while dedicating several days a week to studio work as specialized technicians involved in the fabrication and installation of public art within Ludovic Boney's team.
The exhibition reflects a balance between individual creation and collective experience, where technical expertise also becomes a means of giving form to ideas. The works presented are characterized by a diversity of media, materials, forms, and concerns, ranging from the use of raw materials and hand tools to more specialized fabrication processes.
Ultimately, Main-d'œuvre [Work Force] offers a glimpse into what lies behind studio work: the artists themselves, their ideas, their research and their method.
Artists:
Kamille Cyr is an emerging artist based in Lévis, Quebec. She has been active in the visual arts since 2016. Working primarily through a sculptural approach, her practice draws inspiration from the composition of cities and suburbs, where the everyday collides with the absurd. Her work has been presented in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes, including at the Nocturne festival in Halifax in 2020, where she presented a work combining sculpture, social media, and urban infiltration. In 2021, she produced a series of screen-printed artist books during a residency at Engramme in Quebec City. In 2023, a temporary sculptural work was presented as part of Nuit Blanche in Saskatoon. In 2027, she will undertake a research and creation residency at the artist-run centre Atoll.
Thomas B. Bessette was born in Montreal and grew up in Quebec City. At the age of 11, he participated in his first symposium, a decisive experience that would shape his future. He later completed a diploma in visual arts at CEGEP de Limoilou (2012), followed by a technical degree in sculpture at the Maison des métiers d'art de Québec (MMAQ) (2016). Since then, he has quietly developed a drawing practice while also contributing to the fabrication of sculptures by Quebec City artists - who have chosen to remain anonymous.
Jean Ferschke was born in Trois-Rivières and lives in Saint-Philémon, in the Bellechasse region. Trained in mechanical fabrication and industrial drafting, he also devoted himself to the study of visual arts. For the past twenty years, he has independently developed expertise in the main 2D and 3D creative software programs. The boxes-the boxes into which I voluntarily placed myself a long time ago-include, among others, that of visual arts, and that of the visual artist working in digital media. It is from within this box, and through this series, that I draw my freedom. This freedom, rooted in the work of Arnulf Rainer, takes shape through photogrammetry and 3D modelling software.
Lucille Ganne lives and works in the Quebec City region. She earned a diploma in visual arts from CEGEP de Limoilou in 2022 and is currently pursuing training in sculpture at the Maison des métiers d'art de Québec. Since 2020, she has also been active in the arts community as a studio assistant and installation technician. Through her work, she seeks to offer a different perspective on the familiar, revealing the poetry, strangeness, or unsuspected beauty of things we encounter without noticing. She is particularly interested in ordinary details and everyday objects, which she reproduces while giving them a sensitive and poetic presence.
Dany Massicotte completed a Master's degree in visual and media arts at Université Laval in 2022. His thesis and creative project earned him a place on the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Honour Roll. In 2022, he presented Débris cosmiques as part of Mois Multi, an international festival of multidisciplinary and electronic arts in Quebec City. The work was subsequently presented in 2025 at the Centre d'exposition Léo-Ayotte in Shawinigan and at Salle L'Alternative in Baie-Comeau. His practice has also led him to participate in various exhibitions, residencies, and collective performances in Quebec and France. Massicotte has received several awards and grants, including support through the Première Ovation program, the Fondation René-Richard, and the École supérieure d'art et de design Marseille-Méditerranée. He currently lives and works in Quebec City, where he pursues a multidisciplinary practice encompassing sculpture, installation, video, and digital technologies.
Franziska Wadehn was born in Dresden, Germany, and lives in Quebec City. She holds a BAVM from Université Laval and a diploma in sculpture and wood gilding from the École Supérieure d'Ébénisterie d'Avignon in France. Her artistic practice encompasses sculpture, photography, printmaking, and performance. Driven by a fascination with the human condition, Franziska explores social and environmental relationships. Investigating themes such as the acquisition of knowledge, the framing of natural spaces, and the evolution of perceptions, she draws on traditional craft techniques to work with materials, favouring used and compostable materials. Through her practice, she seeks to recount the human experience, evoking fragility, transience, and absurdity. The sculpture presented here draws its substance from its own process of fabrication. The straight line, obsessive and necessary, escapes, suggesting movement and tension. Forms and materials complement and oppose one another, compelled into an improbable coexistence.