Tashi Farmilo
LJI Reporter

Judith Bellavance’s exhibition, Le destin posthume des corps ( The posthumous fate of bodies ),
is currently on view at Galerie Montcalm in Gatineau, inviting visitors to consider the quiet
persistence of memory and the delicate process of disappearance. Through photography, video
works and carefully gathered objects, Bellavance constructs a gentle narrative of
impermanence, using funerary ornaments and found materials to trace the subtle marks left
behind by lives once lived.

Originally trained in painting, Bellavance approaches photography with a painter’s attention to
composition and surface, treating objects as intimate portraits that reveal layered stories. “I
started to observe the marks that life leaves on objects,” she says, “and I saw how people get
rid of things that are still living in a way. I began to work with these traces to tell stories of finality,
in a certain sense.”

Flowers, fragments of chairs and small discarded items become part of a living vocabulary in
her practice, speaking to the transient yet persistent nature of presence. “I think that even when
we disappear, we remain in the thoughts of those who loved us, in the mirror of those who loved
us,” she explains. “It’s a metaphor I want to keep alive, because I think eternity is as long as we
live in someone’s memory.”

The exhibition changes with each presentation, as Bellavance adds new materials while others
naturally fade, mirroring the transformation she seeks to honour. “This work has a relative
permanence,” she says, “because if I stop collecting flowers, it will eventually end. But each
time I present it, it grows, it changes, it breathes.” Visitors encounter a space that is quiet yet
charged, offering a reflective encounter with mortality that is tender rather than severe.

Bellavance’s work in the funeral sector intersects with her art practice, deepening her
commitment to exploring life’s impermanence with both care and clarity. She resists overtly
naming the work as political, describing it instead as a gesture of recognition and presence. “I
don’t like to label things,” she said, “but I know that my work opens doors in a gentle way, letting
people approach the idea of finality without fear.”

Her artistic approach, rooted in a fascination with traces and the beauty of what remains, is
ultimately an act of homage. “I think my work, in essence, is like a tribute to this fabulous life,”
Bellavance says. “It’s from the point of view of the end, but in truth, it is always about the stories
of our living.”

Le destin posthume des corps remains at Galerie Montcalm until August 7, offering visitors a
place to encounter the quiet dignity of transformation and the lasting presence found in what is
often overlooked. Admission is free.