Exhibition
Pépite & Josèphe
Creatures of the road
September 28 - November 2, 2025
Opening
Saturday, September 27, at 4 p.m.
Sound design
Xavier Madore
Adélard is pleased to host the exhibition The Creatures of the Road by Pépite & Josèphe. This artistic proposition, which takes the form of a fictional archaeological narrative, combines sculpture, installation, photography, sound art and video to offer a reflection on the lasting footprint of our modes of transport, on the planned obsolescence of technical objects, and on the legacy we leave to landscapes and future generations.
During long drives along the roads of the Eastern Townships and Montérégie regions, the artists collected fragments of abandoned vehicles, symbols of our car-centric civilization. Entrusted to artificial intelligence, these objects are reinterpreted as a fantastical bestiary. From these generated visions, Pépite & Josèphe compose hybrid artifacts that take the form of mechanical fossils. These creatures, both familiar and enigmatic, embody a technological mythology where the imaginaries of the living and the machine intersect.
The exhibition also opens a space for reflection on ecological grief, this diffuse and profound feeling in the face of the irreversible transformation of ecosystems and the loss of bearings in landscapes increasingly marked by the imprint of human development. Through this exhibition, Pépite & Josèphe invite us to contemplate the ruins of the present as the beginnings of a narrative yet to be reconstructed.
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In The Art of Walking , writer Rebecca Solnit traces the relationship between humans and walking throughout the ages: “If a history of walking is possible, it ends (…) where bodies, instead of inhabiting the world, inhabit only the interiors of cars and buildings, so anachronistic and puny has the apotheosis of speed rendered them.” But what happens if, rather than walking, it is cars that become archaic, having failed to adapt to the body’s natural rhythm? This is the central hypothesis of Pépite & Josèphe’s Creatures of the Road , an evolving project unfolding across different regions of the province.
The artists, whose practice is rooted in walking and collecting litter they encounter along the way, seek to circumvent the frenetic pace of society and the resulting abundance of waste. Walking, a natural and pervasive movement, encourages us to slow down and cultivate this precious capacity for wonder at our surroundings. Using various assemblage techniques, the duo revalues these discarded items—or “waste objects,” as they call them—by imbuing them with new meanings and new stories.
The first phase of the project began in the spring of 2023 in the Montérégie region. The duo undertook a 90-km walk, spending three days collecting old car parts along the roads between Saint-Hyacinthe and their studio in Sutton. A year later, Pépite & Josèphe embarked on a second expedition of the same distance, this time in the Eastern Townships, completing a five-day trek between Sherbrooke and Sutton. The materials gathered during each walk allowed the artists to produce bodies of work specific to each region, which are now on display here at their studio. Adélard .
By blurring the lines between the new—artificial intelligence—and the old—museum and archaeological codes—the artists present an alternate history, a different story of the road, in contrast to our era where walking as a mode of transportation is marginalized. This gives us back what the automobile has stolen: a genuine and profound connection with the land, informing our perception of time and distance, as well as our ways of understanding the ordinary and the extraordinary that punctuate the spaces between places.
Proceeding with the mapping of Québec Through walking, this slow and transformative action, Pépite & Josèphe mourn the loss of speed, of what was possible until now and which will soon no longer be so. Thus, Les créatures de la route exposes us to both a very old and entirely new path: returning to our essence, to better live our present and our future. Slowing down to move forward more effectively.
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* Rebecca Solnit, The Art of Walking , 2022 (original text: 2000), Éditions de l'Olivier, Paris, p. 13
Biography
Pépite & Josèphe is an artist duo formed by Vincent Biron-Chalifour and Josèphe Landreville. Pépite holds a BFA in photography (Concordia University) and Josèphe a MA in visual arts (UQAM). Since 2020, the duo has presented their work in solo exhibitions in Montreal (Atelier Circulaire, Galerie B-312), the Montérégie region (Centre Expression, Centre Zocalo), and Winnipeg (Maison des artistes).
Pépite & Josèphe has participated in group exhibitions and artist residencies in about ten cities in Québec Among his distinctions, he received the Art and Environment Award (2024) from the Conseil de la Culture de l'Estrie and has benefited from the support of the CALQ for three years.
Selected for the Estrie photographic mission, the duo presented their research in 2025 at the Sporobole Centre (Sherbrooke) and at the Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie.
His upcoming solo performances will be presented at La Bande Vidéo ( Québec ) and at the Vieux Presbytère exhibition centre (Saint-Bruno) next spring as well as at the 12th Trois-Rivières National Biennial of Contemporary Sculpture in the summer of 2026. Their exhibition Les galeries-logis will be broadcast during the year 2025-2026 in three Maisons de la culture in Montreal as part of the CAM en tournée program.
Practical information
autumn hours
The barn is open from Friday to Monday, from 12pm to 5pm.