Tête à tête avec Gilbert Boyer

In this article, we offer an open conversation in which three authors talk to Gilbert Boyer about his work. In dialogue with Boyer’s creations, fragmented and dispersed in the space, are the thoughts and words of an art historian and a poet, as well as a son’s intimate view.

On the Fly

Serge Allaire: Gilbert, as I was preparing for this encounter, I found a short piece that you wrote in the catalogue for the exhibition Inachevée et rien d’héroïque, presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1999. Knowing your work, I quickly surmised that this text aptly summarizes the broad lines of your approach. You mention the fundamental aspect of text and speech—bits of conversation, fictional accounts, quotations – engraved for perpetuity in materials such as granite, glass, or brass, and then scattered throughout the city more or less anonymously. Can you talk in greater detail about where this fascination with words comes from, about the expression “paroles gelées” (frozen words) in air, and about how words resonate in you?