Summer Arrival Exhibition
Summer Arrival Exhibition
La Guilde presents Quand les oiseaux reviennent – Summer Arrival
July 31st to September 13th, 2025
In partnership with the Festival International Présence Autochtone, La Guilde is proud to present the exhibition Quand les oiseaux reviennent – Summer Arrival, on view from July 31 to September 13. Featuring works by over 25 artists from Inuit nations, the exhibition centers on the theme of birds and delves into their spiritual, ecological, and cultural significance in the North. It sheds light on the role of birds in Inuit cosmology while revealing their importance in everyday life.
Winters in Nunangat are long and cold. The polar nights and extreme temperatures have shaped the ingenuity of the people who live there. From February through June, as migratory birds gradually return, they signal the thawing of snow, the awakening of plant life, and the arrival of warmer, and brighter, longer days. Their return brings joy, excitement, and hope.
Birds symbolize renewal. They captivate with their colours, graceful flight, and song. They also represent the return of abundant and varied nourishment—ptarmigan, geese, and eggs gathered from cliff sides. Closely tied to the summer season, birds are seen as messengers of all the opportunities that come with it. Their significance has ensured them a place in Inuit spirituality and cosmology, where they appear in both creation stories and rituals. Many artists hailing from across Nunangat have taken birds as a central theme in their work.
This summer exhibition invites you to encounter snowy owls, ravens, loons, and other winged beings—some rendered realistically, others playfully or imaginatively. These selected artworks celebrate the beauty of birds, but also reflect on their ecological importance, their spiritual dimensions, and their enduring connections with human life.
This exhibition is a collaborative curatorial project developed by La Guilde’s staff and led by France Cantin.
ABOUT LA GUILDE
La Guilde is a non-profit arts organization devoted to art research, education, preservation and the creation of a sustainable art market Our gallery is devoted to the representation of artistic experimentation with a focus on artwork that pushes the boundaries of materials and questions art and cultural histories. La Guilde has a combined focus and commitment to art that uses handmade techniques and draws on craft making histories, and a questioning of the place of art within a decolonizing present. It offers a space of sharing and exploration through a wide range of exhibitions, cultural activities, educational programs that support artistic creation and knowledge exchange. Since 1906, La Guilde has preserved and continues to develop a permanent collection of art with a focus on histories of handmade artmaking.
ABOUT LAND INSIGHTS
LAND InSIGHTS is the driving force behind the Montreal International First Peoples Festival, a multidisciplinary artistic and cultural event that makes Montreal the nerve centre of Indigenous creativity from the three Americas for ten days in August. Three strategic objectives were set upon their foundation in 1990: create a major First Nations festival in Montreal, commemorate and remember the Great Peace of Montreal 1701 upon its tricentennial, and secure a permanent home for First Cultures in Québec’s metropolis. Mission: Link the artistic and cultural renaissance of First Peoples to the cultural dynamics of a major metropolis within a sustainable development perspective based on friendship between peoples, diversity of sources of expression as a collective
cultural wealth to share and recognition of the specificity of First Nations.
