Née à Montréal, où elle vit et travaille, Andrea Szilasi a étudié la littérature française et le cinéma à l'Université de Toronto, ainsi que les arts visuels à l'Université Concordia de Montréal. Son travail explorant les divers aspects du corps humain et les qualités tactiles de la photographie a fait l'objet, au cours des dernières années, de plusieurs expositions individuelles, notamment au centre d'exposition Expression de Saint-Hyacinthe, au centre Vu de Québec, au centre Séquence de Chicoutimi et à la galerie Circa de Montréal. Szilasi a participé à de nombreuses expositions collectives, dont Shifting Sites au Musée canadien de la photographie contemporaine d'Ottawa et Le Cadre, la Scène, et le Site au Centro de la Imagen à Mexico.

Installation extérieure
Affiche photographique attenant à la buanderie Villeneuve.

Les images placardées sur les murs extérieurs de la ville sont souvent publicitaires ou politiques. L’œuvre de Andrea Szilasi y oppose un imaginaire poétique qui appelle à la rêverie. La facture énigmatique révèle une allusion au corps, par la reproduction surdimensionnée du génome humain ou par le contour imprécis d’une colonne vertébrale superposée à l’astre lunaire. Toutefois la proposition est suffisamment abstraite pour laisser au passant le loisir de compléter l’allégorie ou de construire sa propre signification.

Extrait du texte
Villeneuve revisité
de Sylvette Babin
Andrea Szilasi was born in Montreal, where she continues to live and work. After receiving a B.A. in Film Studies and French Language and Literature from the University of Toronto in 1988, she returned to Montreal and obtained a B.F.A. from Concordia University in 1991. Her work has recently been exhibited in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Mexico city, including solo exhibitions at Vox, Plein Sud and Circa galleries in Montreal and Séquence gallery in Chicoutimi. Recent group exhibitions include Le cadre, la scène, et le site, at the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico city and Shifing Sites at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa. A dossier of Andrea Szilasi's work has appeared in CVPhoto magazine and on CD-ROM in the Virtual Museum of Quebec Photography, as well as in several exhibition publications. Her work deals with various aspects of the human body as well as with the physical properties of the photograph. (Untitled)
Outdoor installation

The images that one encounters on the exterior walls of the city are often commercial or political. Andrea Szilasi counterposes this with a poetic imaginary that stimulates reverie. The enigmatic construction reveals an allusion to the body, be it through the oversized reproduction of a human genome, or the imprecise contour of a spinal chord superposed on the lunar sphere. However, the proposal is sufficiently abstract to give the passerby the leisure to complete the allegory or construct his or her own meaning.

Excerpt from
Villeneuve revisited
by Sylvette Babin
Translation by
Bernard Schutze

STATEMENT

My outdoor photo installation was a 5 x 6 foot photograph pasted on the exterior wall by the laundromat. The wall lines the alley where the neighbouring businesses put out their garbage. The photo had been crudely pasted on the cement wall in the same manner that posters are plastered to buildings.

The alley, set back from the movement of pedestrians and cars, and the lurid lighting provided by the safety light that makes visible what would otherwise be hidden in the dark, is a fitting context to represent the internal states in individuals that inform their daily interactions with others. It is this accumulation of little interactions that make up a larger community.

Andrea Szilasi