Interview with ​Benoît Tremblay

Meet NUNUM's Contributor: Benoît Tremblay

11/18/2023

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Benoît Tremblay

What was the first book you remember picking and reading yourself?
Le grand livre des trains, when I was around 7 or 8 years old.

What was the last book you read that made you say damn, that was a good book?
Rien n’est fini, tout commence by Raoul Vaneigem.

Which artists have influenced your current artistic direction?

Too many… Willem de Kooning, Gil Joseph Wolman, Lee Krasner, Anders Österlin, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Asger Jorn and Charlotte Park.

Is there an artist in your local community that you would recommend people check out?
The painter/sculptor Tournesol Plante and the experimental music band - Ce Qui Nous Traverse.

What advice would you give someone just starting to send their work to journals?
I hate to give advice because I hardly follow my own advice… But I’d say go ahead, send your work… The worst that can happen is they will say NO!

Do you prefer calm, tranquility, and silence when you create?

No … I tend to create with lots of noise surrounding me … especially loud and disturbing sounds. But, hey! Everyone knows that silence can be a disturbing sound as much as a guitar's continuous feedback and dissonance. Which I truly love.

Poetry or Novel?

Definitely poetry.

Paper or Canvas?

Definitely Canvas… But I do love to create on paper, also.

Can you tell us more about your pieces that appeared in NUNUM?

The 5 pieces you'll find here, except only Demain les Flammes, were all part of my last solo show, Confinitudes. It's a French poetic word that doesn't exist, at least not in a dictionary, but it meant so much to me because it is the result of both dramatic and still poetic words... Confinement and Solitude. It was one of my best solo shows... or my best solo exhibit... Because my blend of influences from abstract expressionism, passing by Dadaïsm and European postwar avant-garde era until the Situationist International, tend to blend slowly while fitting perfectly with where I am.

Benoît Tremblay was born in Montreal’s Southwest Borough in 1975. A self-taught person, he took a course in Art and Communications 3 years in a row in high school but still happily sees himself as an anti-academic artist. Highly influenced by abstract expressionism, he also took some influences from the post-war art avant-garde, Dadaïsm, and the situationist. The painter he is tries his best to create visual reflections to disturb life in abstraction and through visual poetry.