Art and wellness

Attention Laboratory – This is a Body

Experimental guided tour

  • Adults
  • On sale soon
Louis Fortier, Déroutes quotidiennes (programme long, dit de la reconstruction). Avatars, angles, moules et fuites (detail), 2005-2007. Mixture of paraffin and microcrystalline wax, plaster, latex, cement, textile fibers, plywood and glass, 100 × 300 × 300 cm (various dimensions). MNBAQ, purchase with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts as part of its acquisition assistance program (2010.09) © Louis Fortier

This experimental guided tour will take you through the Hyperrealism: This Is Not a Body exhibition in a completely novel way—using not just your eyes, but all of your body’s senses. The experience invites visitors to explore physicality, sensations, and self-awareness through sensitive mediation practices.

Hosted by Marina Gross-Hoy as part of her Attention Laboratory project, the encounter will begin with a sensory exploration involving light movement to ground your attention in your body and anchor your presence in the moment.

This will be followed by a guided tour of the exhibition, where the hyperrealistic sculptures will stimulate deeper thought on perceptions, resonances, and lived experience.

At the end of the tour, there will be an opportunity for intuitive writing as a space for reflection, where you can freely express what you felt without worrying about performance.
This is a Body is an invitation to slow down, hone your attention, and fully embrace the encounter with the works and with yourself.

The only prerequisite is the curiosity to experience a museum visit differently.

Marina Gross-Hoy has a Ph.D. in museology, mediation, and heritage from the Université du Québec à Montréal. She creates experiences that encourage people to perceive attention and the senses in new ways. Through participatory workshops, lectures, and literary essays, she explores alternative approaches to inhabiting and recognizing lived experience.

The Attention Laboratory is her combination of research and creative work, involving artistic activities inspired by sensitive mediation, embodied attention, contemplative practices, and trauma-informed approaches.

This collaboration with the Musée is the first time this practice has been formally deployed in a museum setting, opening up an unprecedented space for exploration between creation, research, and audience experience.

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