Biography

Sophie Aubry completed her BFA in Visual and Media Arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2016. Her work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in Canada and abroad. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships from the Université du Québec à Montréal, including the Pierre Ayot Scholarship (2019), the Rolland-Guertin-Bussière Scholarship (2019), the Jacques-de-Tonnancour Scholarship (2016), as well as research grants from the CAC and the FQRSC. Sophie Aubry is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in visual and media arts at UQAM. In 2022, she will participate in the exhibition of the Triennale Banlieue at the Maison des arts de Laval, as well as a residency at Regart Centre d’artiste en art actuel.

Approach and works on display

Sophie’s work combines both research and artistic practice. It generally takes the form of multidisciplinary installation, site-specific intervention and self-publication. Her current research interests probe questions of identity, history (particularly women’s history) and feminism. Her approach differs and takes shape according to the project and its context. Sometimes, in the form of fieldwork, she develops creative projects in relation to micro-communities or under-represented individuals by soliciting their participation. With a proximity experience, she tries to reveal the possible metanarratives that emanate from a culture or a territory by exposing the material and immaterial links that make them unique. These various theoretical or experiential investigations underlie and nourish her mode of creation on the conceptual, formal and aesthetic levels. Thus, the materials and mediums are chosen according to the project, in an interstice between reality and fiction.

Accessibilité universelle (2010-2021)

Created in 2010 with a collective of artists, this projet is still just as relevant today. The principles of universal or accessible design are still little known and poorly used. Women with disabilities are at a disadvantage in terms of their living conditions and social participation, their issues being often underestimated and excluded from feminist struggles. Universal Accessibility is a work that encourages the participant to experience the visual and sound inaccessibility of women living with disabilities. The project was a collaboration with Action des femmes handicapées Montréal, involving a process of exploratory walks, meetings on critical incidents experienced by these women, commented itineraries and narrative scripting. The photographs were taken in collaboration with the women, who imagined scenarios related to the obstacles they encounter in places that are significant to them. These photographs are accompanied by an experiential audio guide, interpreted by the actress Pascale Bussières, allowing the viewer to experience and question the notion of universal accessibility.

Co-production : Conscience urbaine, Audiotopie, Action des femmes handicapées Montréal, Femmes et villes international
Réalisation et scénarisation : Yannick Guéguen, Édith Normandeau
Narration : Pascale Bussières
Coordination et recherche : Fanie St-Michel, Sophie Aubry
Photographies : Sophie Aubry, Fanie St-Michel
Conception sonore : Étienne Legast, David Martin
Masterisation : Thierry Gauthier
Production déléguée : Fanie St-Michel, Karine Chayer, Kathryn Travers
Processus participatif : Ginette Bélanger, Isabelle Boisvert, Gabriella Forcina, Laure Frappier, Wassyla Hadjabi et Françoise Taub, Célia Missigbèto, Laurence Parent, Khalil Telhaoui, Anna Tkaczewska, avec la participation de Michèle Blais, Barbara Chojnacka, Marie Fafard, Selma Kouidri, Julie Sanfaçon, Rosalyn Williams-Ness
Soutien financier : Conseil des Arts du Canada

Works by the artist