Michel Goulet

Goulet, Michel

Michel Goulet, sculptor (b at Asbestos, Québec 1944). Following studies at l'École des beaux-arts de Montréal in 1969, Michel Goulet made a name for himself through an exhibition at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 1980, (with Louise Robert), where he presented the series Édifications horizontals. These sculptures, made up of braided metal slats, appear as precarious, unstable structures. In the early eighties, still maintaining his manufacturing process, he produced works integrating familiar objects - rifles, toys, garbage, beds, chairs etc. He is a possible/ready critic of consumerism supporting recycling, transformation and changing the functional use of these objects.

This context stirred up much debate in 1990, around his public sculpture Les leçons singulières installed at la Place Roy in Montréal: several chairs cast in bronze scattered around a fountain representing the geographical map of Canada, completed by a series of chairs anchored on a panoramic viewpoint in front of Parc Lafontaine. Since the early 90s, Michel Goulet has collaborated with Théâtre Ubu producing several stage designs with director Denis Marleau, including Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltès, for which he received the prize for best scenography from the Quebec Theatre Critic's Association (1994).

Michel Goulet's theatrical experience led him to invite several contributors from the art world - writers, poets, art historians, directors and artists - at the time of his last exhibit (Galerie Occurrence and Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, spring 2000), to produce a common work. The heavy use of electronic tools in this exhibition, gave his artistic approach a fresh turn. He won the Québec government's prix Paul-Émile-Borduas in 1990, and in 1988, with Roland Brener was invited to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale. He has taught visual arts at the Université de Québec à Montréal since 1987.