IMMERSION RESIDENCE

Guillaume Saur

June 16 - July 26, 2026

End-of-residency review meeting: Saturday, July 25, at 4 p.m.

Guillaume Saur is an artist whose practice is rooted in the various alterations of the contemporary image. He dedicates his research to the way in which time and matter shape our perception of the world, focusing on the visual representation of typological imprints. By examining the materials that record, transform, or erase archaeological, geological, and ecological traces, he explores the relationships between the visible and the invisible, the stable and the changing, the living and the non-living.

The act of walking occupies a central place in his approach: it allows him to observe, capture, and interpret the links between the imprints left by nature itself and those that bear witness to human intervention. Through this approach, Guillaume Saur reveals an ecosystem of complex and interconnected transformations, where each trace becomes the sign of a memory inscribed in matter and of a constantly evolving territory.

During his stay at Frelighsburg Guillaume Saur will develop *What Plants Keep *, a project centered on the artisanal production of paper from native plants of the region possessing phytoremediation properties. From this material, he will create a series of contact prints from objects collected during walks in fields, streams, and forests, revealing the subtle traces left by human activity in the landscape.

• Ecologies of slowness

  
  Upstairs in the barn, Guillaume Saur presents *Ecologies of Slowness *, an installation composed of several pieces where plant matter becomes simultaneously subject, material, and agent of transformation. Poplar, willow, bentgrass, sweet clover, sunflower, fescue: these native plants, chosen for their phytoremediation properties, possess the capacity to absorb, fix, or neutralize certain contaminants present in soils and water. The work is thus anchored in a subterranean temporality, that of biological cycles and invisible repairs.

  The installation blurs the lines between material, residue, support, and artwork. It brings together colorful printed images using plant-based dyes, paper clay frames, poplar plinths, image-bearing concrete fragments, seeds, and dried sunflowers. The plants become, in turn, pigments, imprints, supports, fragments, volumes, archives, or promises of germination. Through these successive states, the work reveals a chain of metamorphoses where the transformation of matter recalls slow ecological cycles and becomes the site of regeneration.

  Guillaume Saur views his works as transfers, where the process reveals a trace and makes perceptible the active relationship between an organism and its environment. Echoing the thought of philosopher Baptiste Morizot, who invites us to recognize the silent diplomacy of living things, the artist does not consider plants as mere motifs, but as active presences, capable of inhabiting a territory and patiently modifying its conditions.

  Gauthier Melin

Biography

Guillaume Saur is a visual artist who lives and works in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montreal. He holds a BFA in Photography from Concordia University in Montreal (2020) and an MFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University in Vancouver (2022).

Her work has been exhibited in several galleries and festivals in Canada, including the Libby Leshgold Gallery in Vancouver, the Maytens Project in Toronto, and the Art Matters Festival in Montreal, as well as internationally in Japan and Tunisia. Her research is supported by the Research Fund of the Québec – Society and Culture (FRQSC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Arts and Letters Council of Québec (CALQ), as well as by the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA).