Meurin became affiliated with SPAO after completing a photography program in Montreal in 2008, and being part of a group exhibition with Gabor Szilasi. The Ottawa Alliance Française contacted Meurin after seeing the group exhibition and viewing his website, and asked if he would be interested in doing some work in Ottawa, at SPAO, for Festival X. This is the first time the artist-in-residence program has been done at SPAO and Meurin said working as a SPAO artist in residence was great, because you didn’t need to worry about anything and that everyone was very helpful.
Meurin’s project is a body of work on veterans of World War II. The project is called Resistance, a play on the double meaning of the word: resistance in a conflict and the resistance of starving or being away from a family, and the resistance of the body through the years. The final work is “about body and memory” said Meurin. He plans to have a talk on the work during Festival X; some of the veterans he photographed may be a part of this talk. The opening of his show will take place on September 24th at the Alliance Française.
