Image: Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal
Galerie de l’UQAM in Montreal will present ‘Gabrielle Turbide. Dystrophe’, an art-science installation that brings photosynthetic microorganisms, electronic components and a constructed salt marsh into the gallery. The exhibition, by a graduating master’s student in Visual and Media Arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal, will run from September 4 to October 17, 2026. Its opening is scheduled for September 3 at 5:30 p.m.
Turbide’s installation examines the relationships between plants and their environments through a combination of biological materials, photographic processes and technical systems. The work uses chlorophyll-printing devices, a photographic method that draws on the sensitivity of the green pigment chlorophyll to ultraviolet light. In the exhibition description, these devices are presented as part of an ecosystem in which living organisms and technology continuously affect one another.
The project takes its conceptual point of departure from eutrophication, the enrichment of aquatic environments with nutrients that can lead to algal blooms. The process, which the gallery describes as accelerated by human activities, can reduce oxygen levels in water, contribute to declining biodiversity and leave aquatic environments increasingly deprived of the conditions needed to support life.
The title refers to dystrophization, the degradation associated with this ecological imbalance. In Turbide’s installation, that transformation is not treated as a static condition. Instead, the work stages an environment in transition, where ecological change, loss and renewal are linked. The gallery describes the installation as revealing processes of transformation, adaptation and resilience, as well as forms of co-evolution between living organisms and technology.
The chlorophyll-based impressions function as “sensitive bioarchives” in the gallery’s description, responding to their surroundings rather than simply recording a fixed image. This emphasis on response and change extends to the materials listed for ‘Intertidal’, a 2026 work associated with the project: anthotypes, 3D prints, phytoplankton, rock, plastic, a peristaltic pump and electronic components. The combination places photographic images alongside organisms, geological matter, manufactured materials and mechanical circulation.
Galerie de l’UQAM is a university gallery dedicated to contemporary art and is located at 1400 Berri Street, in room J-R120 of the Judith-Jasmin Building at the Université du Québec à Montréal. During the exhibition, it is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m., with free admission. ‘Gabrielle Turbide. Dystrophe’ will be on view there from September 4 through October 17, 2026.
