A garden at night

UN JARDIN LA NUIT
Visual poem on nocturnal plant and animal life
2024–2025

Co-directed with interdisciplinary artist D. Kimm, UN JARDIN LA NUIT is a video installation for four multiple screens carried by the dreamlike music of Guido Del Fabbro. In its presentation at the Cinémathèque québécoise, the corpus presented in the Norman-McLaren Room is accompanied by a series of photographs exhibited in the Luce-Guilbeault Foyer.

Night falls and the garden, usually so peaceful and welcoming, is transformed into a mysterious place. Vegetation caressed by the wind, impromptu appearances of wild animals in the surrounding area. At night, the fauna and flora become active, have their own life, they take precedence over human presence.

Tour of the installation Un Jardin la nuit, Cinémathèque québécoise, Montreal, janvier 2025

A visual poem in black and white, UN JARDIN LA NUIT offers privileged access to a secret world, a world unknown to most of us. Deer, raccoons, cats, a fox and a rabbit appear in their natural intimacy while the vegetation continues its life cycle. Animals of various sizes, one will not forget this animated firefly – created by Claude Cloutier – and a few mischievous spirits. Suddenly, through this fully free menagerie, unexpected ghostly characters appear. They subtly disrupt the expectations of exhibition visitors. From documentary, UN JARDIN LA NUIT suddenly becomes a fable full of mischief.

Each viewer's experience is unique in their approach to the "cube." Each unfolds their own path, from a view at the entrance of the exhibition room, choosing to walk around the "cube" then, curiously, to immerse themselves inside the very "cube."

Cinémathèque québécoise, Salle Norman-McLaren, janvier 2025 © Caroline Hayeur

To conceive this installation, the artists filmed at night with infrared trail cameras over a five-year period, accumulating a hundred hours of photo and video data. The infrared camera allows capturing fauna and flora over long periods. It is programmed via an intervalometer that takes a photo every 30 seconds. The device is equipped with a motion detector that can trigger a burst series of images or short video sequences. Two other cameras are used for the staging of characters and object animations. The cameras were installed in the countryside near the village of Montcerf in the Outaouais and in a garden in Montreal.

Cinémathèque québécoise, Salle Norman-McLaren, janvier 2025 © Caroline Hayeur

This production is the third collaboration between Caroline Hayeur and D. Kimm. Since 2014, they have carried out various projects together combining photo and video.
ABRAZO [hyperlink] (2016) deals with tango with an insider's view beyond clichés. The corpus results from an artist residency conducted in Buenos Aires and with amateur tango groups in Montreal. The photo and video series was presented on tour in Quebec from 2016 to 2022.
PORTRAITS DE FEMMES SUR PAYSAGES IMAGINÉS, in the form of photographic exhibitions following mediation activities [hyperlink MÉDIATIONS] (2014, 2018, 2021). Their initiative takes place within various cultural communities and addresses issues of identity, transformation, and self-affirmation. It was developed in collaboration with Montreal community organizations.

Technical description:
– Photographs
12 textile prints (10 diptychs and 2 triptychs composed of 26 images), height 24 inches (61 cm), various widths between 72 and 124 inches (182 cm and 315 cm).

– Immersive videographic installation, sound, looping
Video, 17 min. 20, looping
The “cube” as presented at the Cinémathèque québécoise: 11 feet high by 16 feet wide (335.28 x 487.68 cm), projections on 4 translucent screens (allowing rear projection) mounted on an aluminum tube frame suspended by 8 steel cables from the ceiling.

Exhibition schedule:
2025 – Duo exhibition with interdisciplinary artist D. Kimm, Centre d’exposition du Rift, Ville-Marie
2024–2025 – Duo exhibition with interdisciplinary artist D. Kimm, Cinémathèque québécoise, Norman-McLaren Room (video installation) and Luce-Guilbeault Foyer (photo exhibition)

Publications:

La Presse +, Arts visuels, « La magie de la nuit sous un nouveau jour – Un Jardin la nuit à la Cinémathèque québécoise »
Karine Bouchard, 8 janvier 2025 (5 images)
Le Devoir, Arts visuels, « Se plier aux lois de la nature – Fable nocturne »
Jérôme Delgado, 18 janvier 2025 (3 images)
Actualités UQAM, Culture, « Le jardin de Caroline Hayeur »
Marie-Claude Bourdon, 19 décembre 2024 (6 images)

Les Filles électriques
La Cinémathèque québécoise

Caroline Hayeur remercie de son soutien Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec