Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie

RENCONTRES – 2014 EDITION

Visible. Invisible. is an opportunity for viewers to interpret photography, and consider what it represents in their daily lives, in their connection to the real world and the way they see the world. It is also a pretext for presenting the body of work created by each artist participating in the fifth edition of Rencontres.

Installations and exhibits will be on display from mid-July to mid-September in the 13 host municipalities: Cap-Chat, Marsoui, Grande-Vallée, Gaspé, Percé and Bonaventure Island, Chandler, Paspébiac, Bonaventure, New Richmond, Maria and Gesgapegiag, Carleton-sur-Mer, Nouvelle (Miguasha) and Matapedia.

At the heart of the event, from August 15 to 19, is the Photographer Tour, where over 30 photographers will participate in public get-togethers (such as projections or lecture-discussions) on the subject of creation. The Tour will get started at the Vieux-Quai Park in Maria and the Quai des arts in Carleton-sur-Mer. It will then move on to four other towns around the entire length of the peninsula.

Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie

Rencontres is the foundation that makes it possible to carry out cultural activity throughout the year for which the photograph is the leitmotiv. In inventing Rencontres it was our duty to break ground and to stand out from other contemporary arts events. To champion photography, its language and its various esthetics, we have put in place an arrangement on over 800 kilometers (500 miles), which comprises 21 sites (indoor and outdoor) in 13 host municipalities. The exhibits and installations that we stage in the open air are integrated into the territory, into the places and the buildings. We take part in the identity of the territory while presenting a unique way of visiting it.

The concept of Rencontres resides in the interdependence of the artists and our territory, in the mutual encounter of the population and the artists, but also in the interaction among the works, the territory and the public. Each of these different players thus participates in the process of creation that we aim to foster.

By way of an original and diversified programming, Rencontres seeks to communicate the work of established professional as well as emerging photographers through exhibits, artist residencies, projections and audience-development activities both with a school-age public and the general public. Well established in the environment thanks to extensive cultural mediation work with school boards and the municipalities hosting the event, Rencontres works towards discovering the image in all its forms.

The goal of Rencontres is to carry out essential work in the matter of artistic dissemination and education. We have a deep-seated belief in the idea that get-togethers and discussions between the public and the artists foster, in the long term, a better understanding of an artistic approach and, in the process, of photography itself. Rencontres is the foundation that makes it possible to carry out cultural activity throughout the year for which the photograph is the leitmotiv.

The vision of Rencontres is to be a photography reference point on the world scene and to position the Gaspé as a leader in terms of cultural development, in this case in photography.

BACKGROUND

The realization of Parcours du point de vue – Gaspésie and the success the event achieved bolstered the idea of establishing, in the region, an annual rendezvous dedicated to the photograph. And it was in that light that the first edition of Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie came into being, from August 12 to September 19, 2010. The 11 host municipalities for the event welcomed more than 14 projection-lectures, 24 photographers from Québec and elsewhere, and 26 exhibits over that five-week period.

At Rencontres, which estimates having reached 20,000 people in 2010, we’re proud to have won our first wager: quickly positioning Rencontres and the Gaspé as an event and a region to be reckoned with. The more than encouraging reception for the 1st edition on the part of photographers, the public, and partners – including the host municipalities – provided the event with the strength and the desire to carry on with the dissemination of photographers’ work.

The event had highly positive results – with figures to support them – for its 2nd edition. According to the Étude d’achalandage, de provenance et de retombées économiques (Study of Patronage, Origin and Economic Repercussions) carried out by SEGMA Recherche, the 2011 edition attracted 113,062 visits to photographic exhibits and installations in the 13 host municipalities. The event generated total direct expenditures of $9,668,456 in the Gaspé.