Critical Distance DIRECTORY Josée Pedneault

Josée Pedneault is a Montreal-based visual artist whose research-driven practice examines the belief systems that shape our understanding of the natural world. Drawing on philosophy, scientific inquiry, and traditional cosmogonies, her work investigates how abstract concepts, such as time, geography, and cosmology, take material form through maps, measuring devices, archives, and systems of classification. Working primarily through installation, Josée combines photography with objects, drawings, archival materials, and small-scale sculptural elements. Through fragmentation, layering, and shifts in perspective, she unsettles singular narratives and invites viewers to reconsider how knowledge is constructed, mediated, and internalized.

Josée holds an MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, including at CCA Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw, 2006), Cité internationale des arts (Paris, 2008), Museo Universitario del Chopo (Mexico City, 2014), Darling Foundry (Montreal, 2012), CONTACT Gallery (Toronto, 2015), Tokyo Wonder Site (Tokyo, 2016), and Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2018). Residencies have played a formative role in her practice, notably at Beta-Local (San Juan), Street Level Photoworks (Glasgow), SIM (Reykjavík), and Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin). Her book project Glazial-Kosmogonie, co-published by Künstlerhaus Bethanien and Revolver Publishing (Berlin), extends her investigation into cosmological imaginaries and glacial temporality through an expanded photographic and archival framework.

In addition to her exhibition practice, Josée has realized public art commissions for private and public institutions. She is a co-founder of the Montreal-based artist-run centre Les Territoires and has contributed to arts education through teaching in the Department of Photography at Concordia University.

Image: Josée Pedneault, Birdwatching, 2014, photography and drawing, 50 x 60 cm