Monique Régimbald-Zeiber, Les dessous de l’histoire (2) : vider les lieux, 2011-2013, site-specific installation, courtesy of the artist.

 

Les dessous de l’histoire (2) : vider les lieux is a polyptich work composed of 810 small works. It was exhibited in full for the first time at B 312 Gallery in Montreal from December 2011 to January 2012.

 

Referencing the archival and biographical directory of the Filles du Roi compiled by Yves Landry (Léméac, 1992), Régimbald-Zeiber copied and painted the listed information at hand. Each of the 810 paintings reproduced the most essential information from this register listed on index cards about each of the women’s lives.

 

Each woman has her own card, each card becomes a painting, each painting becomes a kind of portrait between the pictorial and bureaucratic, the private and the public.

Copied onto them are: the names of father and mother, parish of origin, years of birth, arrival and death, assets and knowledge. Marriage(s): date and place of the contract, spouse(s): state, assets and knowledge.

 

The key phrase that Régimbald-Zeiber chose to place at the heart of the copied text is inscribed at the center of the small painting. According to the artist: “Using uppercase letters, is, in my opinion, the nucleus of thinking about any construction be it identity, history, women, art. The question being: KNEW HOW TO SIGN or DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO SIGN.

 

Through painting serves and her reflections on the construction of images of collective and individual identities, her work attempts to examine the practices of writing history. This specific work, exhibited for the first time, intended to put forward issues relating to the end of history, the end of writing, the end of painting, and the end of a nation as these terms are largely understood and accepted. However, this work’s presentation has also raised, in unexpected ways, a set of questions on life spans, the modalities of conservation and the act of exhibiting paintings. 

 

Having been asked to present « Les dessous de l’histoire (2)» again, and accepting the proposition to show this work in a new way and under a revised titled, Les dessous de l’histoire (2) : vider les lieux, Régimbald-Zeiber extends and deepens the project for the open framework of STAGE SET STAGE, allowing for new experiences of exchange.

 

Monique Régimbald-Zeiber

 

 

 

List of women in the paintings

 

- Marguerite Provost, Elisabeth Leconte, Madeleine Després, Marguerite Housseau, Marie Deschamps, Marie Lafaye, Catherine Dupuis, Cécile Valais, Jeanne Bourgeois, Jeanne Languille
- Marguerite Andrieu, Marguerite Éloi, Marie Gravois, Marie- Marthe Geoffroy, Marie-Madeleine Prunier, Jeanne Crosnier, Barbe Ménard, Françoise Huché, Anne Blainvillain, Marie Deachamps,
- Marie Rémy, Marie-Madeleiene Canard, Marie Sainte Vié dite Lamotte, Nicole Legrand, Catherine Bureau, Marie De Brétigny, Barbe Duchesne, Madeleine Boucher, Gilette Savard, Marie Lépine 
- Marguerite Robineau, Marguerite Pelois, Marie Vara, Catherine Debelleau, Jeannne Lecomte, Antoinette Bluteau, Renée Chanfrain, Jeanne Gruau, Marie Vigny
- Martine Tavrey, Françoise Desjardins, Élisabeth Lequin, Marie-Madeleine Philippe, Marie Halay, Catherine Migneault, Marguerite Lamireault, Noëlle Gossard, Louise Chiasson, Madeleine Auvray,
- Anne D'Esquincourt, Renée Labastille dite Martin, Marguerite Berrin, Hélène Damours, Françoise Loiseau, Anne Lemaître. Joachine Lafleur, Marguerine Richer, Marie Bouillon, 
- Catherine Ballié, Marie Guyet, Esther Dannessé dite De Longchamps, Marie Magnier, Jeanne Cantin, Marie Meunier, Anne Pelletier dite Passavant, Jeanne Amiot (doyenne) , Antoinette Lamoureux
- Catherine Suret, 1663 précédée par sa cousine, Madeleine Olivier, Marie Major, Marie Bourgeois, autre anonyme  violette qui savait signer, Claude De Chevrainville dite Lafontaine, Marie Masseron, Françoise Guillin.
- Catherine Durand, Anne Seigneur, Louise Gargottin, Marie Martin, Françoise Bause, Denise Leclerc, Marie Targer, Marie-Anne Métru
- Catherine Basset, Jeanne Tellier, Charlotte Roussel, Antoinette Lefebvre, Marguerite Dusson, Henriette Cartois, Jeanne Beauveau
- Élisabeth Blais, Marguerite Raisin, Isabelle Fressel, Jeanne Fressel, Catherine Dessenne, Marie Hubert, Marie Vaiblin, Jeanne Groisard, Madeleine Carbonnet, Charlotte Pequet.
- Marie Mullois, Noëlle Tireont, Madeleine De Roybon D'Allone, Jeanne Dubincourt, Catherine Lalore, Madeleine Vallée, Catherine Topsan, Marguerite Tesson, Barbe Lefebvre dite Lacroix, Louise Lecontre
- Anne Méry, Geneviève Laurence, Jeanne Bilodeau, Renée Rivière, Marie Bouet, Geneviève Leclerc, Catherine Bruneau, Catherine Pillat, Marie Prévost, Marguerite Laverdure
- Marie-Rigère Lepage, Marguerite Lecomte, Marthe Quitel, Anne Poitrand, Marguerite Foy, autre anonyme violet/ aucun contrat/père
pâtissier, Anne Collin, Marie- Madeleine Cuache, Luache ????' Marie Carlier, Élisabeth Deschatelets, 
- Françoise rayé rouge ?, Suzanne Fru, Antoinette Éloy, Marie Veger, Nicole Chandoiseau, Françoise Brunet, Jeanne De Mérinne, Madeleine Gaumond, Barbe Baron, Barbe Raveau dite Laumonnier,
- Élisabeth De Laguêpière, Françoise Charron, Louise Landry, Marguerite Jaisselin, Jeanne-Claude Deboissandré, Renée Chanvreux, Marie-Anne-Blain, Marie Couet
- Jacqueline Aubry, Michelle Charlier, Élisabeth Roy, Marie-Reine Charpentier, Anne-Françoise Richard dite Martin, Leclerc Françoise, Rousseau Henriette, Isabelle Salé, Marguerite Moitié, Pérrine Lapierre,
- Catherine DeValois, Marie-Madeleine Deschamps, Catherine Relot, Jeanne Léonarde Genest, Catherine Marchand, Catherine Billot, Marie Fouquet, Catherine Clérice, Élisabeth Renaud, , Marie Roy
- Suzanne De Licerace, Apolline De Lafitte, Françoise Duval, Catherine Veillot, Marie Charpentier, Marguerite Moreau, Anne Leblanc, Anne Arinaet, Catherine Lainé, Marie-Françoise Dubié,
- Anne Mabille, Marguerite Itas, Louise Desgranges, Jeanne Repoche, Autre viollette anonyme, Jeanne Raimbault, Charlotte Joly, Anne Lépine, Claude Laval, Jeanne Hardy
- Marguerite De Laplace, Élisabeth Doucinet, Catherine Bourgeois, Éléonore Mouillard, Marie Blanchard, Marie Pasquier dite Defranclieu, Marie Chauvet, Marie-Anne Fleuve, Madeleine Haneton, Catherine Luclos
- Marie-Elisabeth Marchand, Catherine Lemesle, Françoise Moisan, Jeanne Barbier, Antoinette Legrand, Françoise Tierce, Isabelle Aupé, Marie-Charlotte DeCoppequesne, Françoise Michel, Marie Mesuré.
- Louise Bouchard, Jeanne Chartier, Élisabeth Durand,Marie Charebert, Denise Collin, Marguerite Montrachy, Catherine Humelot, Mathurine Goard, Madeleine Rentier dite Courcoul, Fleurance Asserin
- Françoise Pednel, Denise Anthoine, Marie-Catherine Renouard, Antoinette Compagnon, Louise Faure dite Planchet, Catherine Deboisandré, Marie Charron, Jeanne Roy, Marie Angelier, Françoise Barbery.

 

 

 

CV

 

Monique Régimbald-Zeiber lives and works in Montreal. Since the beginning of her career she has been interested in the writing and politics of art. In 1980, she obtained a PhD in literature proposing a cross reading of written and pictorial practices of the Russian avant-garde. She was a professor at the School of Visual and Media Arts at UQAM from 1992-2012. By combining painting with writing she has developed an approach that interrogates the construction of the gaze and of history, particularly in relation to feminist studies. This has led her to be specifically interested in the skin as the ultimate record of lesser known histories, often undocumented and silenced through time. Her work is housed in multiple collections such as in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Québec, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, and the UQAM Gallery. Régimbald Zeiber has shown her work in Quebec, Canada, and Europe. Her most recent exhibitions were ÉCLATS DE ROME at La Nube di Oort gallery in Rome in 2008 and LES DESSOUS DE L’HISTOIRE (2),  at the B 312 Gallery in Montréal in 2011-2012. In 1996, she founded - with Louise Déry, director of the UQAM Art Gallery – the publishing house “les petits carnets” where most of her texts are published.

 

 

For recommended readings by Monique Régimbald-Zeiber, please consult the Research Station.