AUGUST WALLA

The exhibition runs from October 21 to November 21, 1999
The exhibition include the film Gugging, directed by Anne-Marie Rocher
Richard-Max Tremblay giving a talk on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition’s on Thursday, October 21

Painter, photographer and calligrapher August Walla has created his own mythology of invented creatures, gods, signs, words and languages. The symbols and figures of his polytheistic universe can be found throughout his work. August Walla is particularly known for his method of intervening directly in his environment, leaving his mark everywhere. In projecting a personal symbolism on his surroundings, particularly on functional elements, August Walla gives them an autonomy and life of their own.

August Walla has documented the result of his land art interventions and installations, collecting them in a sort of personal photographic journal. Over time, this journal has grown to be an accurate and lively reflection of the continuum of his work. Dazibao is showing a section of this photographic journal, covering the period between 1980 to 1983.
Not only do the works of August Walla offer us a singular language and an unusual world view, but they question the very notion of creation, the nature of the artistic act.

Born in 1936, August Walla has lived in the Gugging artists’ residence since 1983. The house, located near Vienna in Austria and founded in 1981 by the psychiatrist Leo Navratil, harbours several well-known artists of the Art Brut movement, of whom August Walla is one of the more versatile representatives. His work has been shown in a number of major European and American museums, and has greatly influenced many artists, including Julian Shnabel.

Anne-Marie Rocher is a filmmaker. She has produced more than one hundred and fifty videos, documentaries and television programs for, among others, TV Ontario and Hydro-Quebec. In 1997, Anne-Marie Rocher directed Gugging, which won the prize for best video of the year at the Rendez-vous du Cinéma québécois and was nominated for best video (arts section) at Hot Docs: The Canadian International Documentary Film Festival.

Richard-Max Tremblay is a painter and photographer. In 1994, the Musée d'art de Joliette and the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts jointly organized a retrospective exhibition of his work. His works are regularly shown in Montréal as well as Europe, and are part of many museum collections. Richard-Max Tremblay is the co-scriptwriter, photographer and co-editor of Gugging.