Biography

Steven Smith Simard is a Montreal-based emerging artist working with photographic imagery and video. Member of the LQBTQ+ community and of the visible minorities. His projects are motivated by a desire to explore different spheres of theatrical and performative constructions to propose a personal and intimate queer discourse. He holds an MFA from Concordia University. He has participated in various solo and group exhibitions at the FOFA, the Centre exposition Art-Image, Projet Casa and the Darling Foundry, among others. He is a recipient of grants from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec and the Conseil des Arts de Montréal, as well as the Faculty of Fine Arts Fellowship and the Concordia Merit Scholarship FOFA. He will present a solo exhibition at the Caravansérail artist centre in Rimouski in 2023. Since 2022, he has been the artistic advisor of the Art Volt Collection.

Le silence des jours sans vent (2022)

Le silence des jours sans vent (The Silence of Windless Days) is an installation documenting – through sound, video and photography – a clandestine performative scene taking place on the site of Sainte-Marguerite Falls. This oasis hidden from the gaze of the heteronormative mass has been a favourite place for queer people for decades. However, since 2021, the municipality of Sainte-Adèle has been implementing a series of actions that make it increasingly difficult for the queer community to access. 
Friends and acquaintances were invited to participate in a gathering around music in order to reappropriate these places and make visible what the municipality tries to invisibilize, that is to say all the potential of the imagination and of queer living together. In the work, three musicians perform original music that was developed in collaboration between the artist and the musicians. The audience is invited to join in and experience the music.

Musicians: Lisandre Bourdages, Agathe Dupéré and Élise Paradis