The setting of My Village is the little community where Jean-François Bérubé grew up and where there has been a high suicide rate for decades. A picture of his peewee hockey team after its victory in the regional finals is the starting point for the exhibit. Since then, several of his teammates and friends have put an end to their lives... My Village originates in the wounds caused by that sudden and often inexplicable loss of loved ones, but also in the memories of those who remain. The exhibit testifies as well to the resilience of life when confronted with death, and explores the impact of the limits of life on survivors.

Nick Kline’s participatory art project Meeting begins in May 2015 and will conclude during the exhibit. Participants in the Congress and the general public are invited to contribute to it – anonymously – by sharing a text, an image or any other form of content (drawings, doodles, mementos, etc.) with the goal of being part of the creation of an artist’s book. On each day of the exhibit, Nick Kline will transfer the contributions to a letter-size page and print out 100 copies. The more the contributions build up, the richer the exhibit will be and the more it will develop. Participants and the public are invited to visit the gallery every day to see, read and take away, free of charge, the printed contributions.

The public can visit the exhibit and take part in the project from June 11 to 16, 2015, from noon to 6 p.m.

The residency project is organized around a series of photo, video and sound recordings. The first work will be geared to a series of images and sounds relating to recordings made in Le Havre, France, with a view to a diptych (a two-part work), in particular in the territory of the town of Gaspé and around point of latitude 49.49 degrees north. The work will then continue in “road movie” fashion. The project will conclude with a triple exhibit:a return to the Gaspé for Rencontres in 2016, an exhibit at Joyce Yahouda Gallery in Montreal in 2016-2017, and an exhibit at Galerie Françoise Besson in Lyon, France, in 2017.

Saturday, May 16 and 30, 2015: events with the artist in attendance. The public can observe the melting ice of the letters ANTGCAC in the work Now Melting Here and chat with the artist.

The exhibit Middle of Nowhere, meanwhile, displays the photographs from the six phantom centers established by Laurent Mulot on the six continents, along with a large sculpture, Now Melting Here. The latter was created following the installation of the sixth phantom art center, in Antarctica. Connected to the completion of the project, the letters ANTGCAC (Antarctic Ghost Contemporary Art Center), molded in ice, melt above an oval mirror, referring to global climate concerns. Saturday, May 30, 2015, the public will have the chance to observe the melting ice of the letters ANTGCAC in the work Now Melting Here and to chat with the artist, in attendance for the occasion at the gallery.

More information on Laurent Mulot: mofn.org 

In the tumultuous events that we’re experiencing on a worldwide scale, the theme “Identities and Territories” aims to bring together different voices and photographic records that observe, and reflect on, these concepts. The world moves on. Societies evolve. Countries change. Populations travel or emigrate. Natural and artificial borders have never been so easy to cross, and yet, walls keep going up to physically keep people apart. How do we define ourselves today, in a world in perpetual movement? Some will do it by focusing solely on external qualities – physical, social, historical, economic or political. However, never has territory played so much of a role in the construction of the individual. We may forget it or deny, but the natural elements that surround us, the environment that bears us, these influence us, shape us and reveal us. To analyze the connection between man and territory is to inquire into our own identity, built up over time, the seasons, and change.

“Our associations with French and German organizations, as well as with events, artist centers and gallery owners from Québec and abroad, have all borne fruit,” states executive and artistic director Claude Goulet. “These activities have made it possible to inscribe Rencontres and, because of that, the Gaspé itself, in an enormous network at the service of artists and of creation.” Rencontres truly took its place this year among the great photography events, nationally and internationally. “We’re collaborating with among others the gallery C/O Berlin (Germany), FotoFest in Houston, Texas, the gallery Le Réverbère in Lyon, France, but also, in Québec, with Joyce Yahouda Gallery and Maison de la culture Frontenac in Montréal, and with Espace F in Matane.”

The artists, researchers and other professionals in the visual arts who took part in the roundtables of the Photographer Tour, which ran from August 15 to 19, also proved to be excellent ambassadors for Rencontres and for the region. More and more recognized artists from around the world have positive echoes of the event and are happy to travel to the Gaspé to take part in it. “Some of them carry out creation residencies here,” Mr. Goulet reminds us. “The result of their work is then disseminated not only in the Gaspé but elsewhere in the world as well.”

The standing of Rencontres was also heightened thanks to a broadened media coverage, notably in the major daily Québec newspapers, in addition to magazines and specialized websites like L’Œil de la photographie (Paris, France), Profession Photographe (Le Mans, France), Actuphoto (Paris, France), Ciel variable (Montreal), Vie des Arts (Montreal) and Photo Solution (Québec City). Moreover, record traffic was recorded on the website – with 34 percent of visitors hailing from abroad – as well as on the Facebook page and the Rencontres Vimeo account.

Towards the 6th edition…

The artist residencies held as part of Rencontres allow the Gaspé territory to be used in the service of creation all year long, above and beyond the summertime activities. From September 20 to October 3, photographer Bogdan Konopka – Polish-born, based in France – will carry out a residency in Gaspé territory. His work will be exhibited in the region during the summer of 2015 at the 6th edition of Rencontres, and the same season in France, at Promenades photographiques in Vendôme.

It will be recalled that for six years, Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie has undertaken, with artists and with their partners, the major project of establishing itself throughout the territory and creating each year a true circuit devoted to contemporary art. In championing photography, its language, its codes and its various esthetics, the event has put in place an organization stretching over 800 kilometers, in 21 sites distributed in 14 host towns.

At the heart of Rencontres, the Photographer Tour is a one-of-a-kind event that brings together visitors, photographers and the local population on the Gaspé territory. It offers public get-togethers on the subject of creation in the form of photo projections, lecture-discussions and roundtable discussions. Each day of the Tour will be an opportunity to meet artists at their exhibit sites in the presence of Rencontres personnel. The choice to act on five consecutive days ensures the attendance of all the guest artists on the Gaspé territory.

AVIGNON // The Tour will begin on Friday, August 15, at 4:30 p.m. at Parc du Vieux-Quai in Maria with a visit of the exhibits Pastoral Monuments and Inside the View by Helen Sear (Raglan, Wales, U.K.) and a get-together with the artist. At 6:00 p.m., the public will be invited to the Carleton-sur-Mer municipal beach (Carleton sector) to visit The Sensor by Bertrand Carrière (Longueuil, Québec) and to meet the artist. Afterwards, at 6:45 p.m., the official Photographer Tour launch evening will be taking place at the Vaste et Vague artist center in Carleton. On this occasion there will be a visit of the exhibit Ice by Flora (Paris, France), the result of a residency in the Gaspé in the winter of 2013, with the artist in attendance. Finally, towards 9:00 p.m. (after dark), the public will be invited to return to the Carleton beach, this time for a projection of the project “A Bridge over the Atlantic” and a get-together with the participating artists from Québec and France, as well as a visit of the video installation Volatile Slide and Other Disorders by Maryse Goudreau (Miguasha, the Gaspé) in the company of the artist.

On Saturday, August 16, at 10 a.m., the public will be able to attend, at the Vaste et Vague artist center, the roundtable discussion “Artwork acquisition: the market for photography,” hosted by Alexis Desgagnés (exhibition curator, artist and researcher). Guest panelists will be: Stéphane Aquin (curator, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), Jo-Ann Kane (curator, National Bank art collection), Joyce Yahouda (director, Galerie Joyce Yahouda, Montreal), Bertrand Carrière (artist) and Maryse Goudreau (artist). The roundtable will be followed at 12:30 p.m. by a visit of the exhibit Changing the World by Gilbert Garcin (Marseille, France) at Saint-Joseph school.

HAUTE-GASPÉSIE // The Tour will continue on the north coast of the Gaspé late in the day on Saturday. At 5:15 p.m. there will be a visit of Micronations by Léo Delafontaine (Paris, France) at the municipal rest stop in Cap-Chat, followed by a visit of the exhibits in Marsoui: Tiksi by Evgenia Arbugaeva (Yakutsk, Russia) at Parc A.-Couturier and Heliotropes #7. Northbound by Laurent Villeret (Paris, France) at the Couturier building. At &:00 p.m., a get-together with the two French artists and a projection of their work is scheduled at Parc A.-Couturier (or at the recreation center in case of rain).

CÔTE-DE-GASPÉ // On Sunday, August 17, at 11:00 a.m. there will be a visit of the exhibit 132 by the collective Kahem, made up of Québec photographers Charles-Frédérick Ouellet, Christian Lamontagne, Nicolas Levesque and Yoanis Menge, on the promenade towards the Galipeault covered bridge in Grande-Vallée. At 5:00 p.m., at the Musée de la Gaspésie in the town of Gaspé, the roundtable “Publications as a means of exposure” will take place with panelists Alexis Desgagnés (exhibition curator, artist and researcher), Serge Allaire (exhibition curator, researcher and autor), Rozenn Quéré (artist) and Bertrand Carrière (artist). In the same place, at 7:30 p.m., there will be a get-together with as well as a projection of the work by both Yoanis Menge (L’Étang-du-Nord, Magdalen Islands) of the collective Kahem and Linda Rutenberg (Montreal, Québec), who is exhibiting The Gaspé Peninsula: Land on the Edge of Time at the Museum.

ROCHER-PERCÉ // On Monday, August 18, at 3:00 p.m. the Tour continues in Percé with a get-together with artists Patrick Dionne and Miki Gingras (Montreal, Québec) near the dock and on the promenade along the sea, in the presence of the residents of Percé who took part in their project Story Gatherers, which resulted from a creation residency in the spring and summer of 2014. A visit of the exhibit Eyes on the Collection Loto-Québec, showing 35 years of Québec creation through the works of 23 photographers, is also scheduled at the same location.

BONAVENTURE // On Tuesday, August 19, at 3:00 p.m. the public is invited to Chandler, on the Parc du Souvenir road and the Circuit des bâtisseurs bridge, for a visit of the exhibit The Girl Who Sees the Verses by Rina Vukobratovic (Novi Sad, Serbia). That will be followed, at 6:00 p.m., by a visit of the exhibit Possible and Imaginary Lives by Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh and Rozenn Quéré (Brussels, Belgium) at the LeBoutillier & Brothers warehouse on the Banc-de-Pêche-de-Paspébiac historical site in Paspébiac and by a projection of the work of these artists. Rozenn Quéré will be on hand. Finally, at 7:30 p.m., at the Centre culturel in Paspébiac, there will be a projection and get-together evening with a number of artists: Jean-François Bérubé (Montreal, Québec), who is presenting Bonum iter Compostellam (Have a good trip to Compostela) in Bonaventure and in Gaspé; Michael Flomen (Montreal, Québec), whose project Higher Ground is on exhibit in Maria, Estelle Marcoux (Caplan, the Gaspé), who is presenting Tia’Mugwet (Moose Hunt) in Gesgapegiag (Maria); and Isabelle Hayeur (Rawdon, Québec), who is exhibiting Mirages at Paspébiac.

A reminder that Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie is an invitation to come out and meet artists in a region where photographs and landscapes come together around an artistic project. For more details: photogaspesie.ca.

Media relations in the Gaspé : Marie-Ève Forest, 581 886-1479, meforest@globetrotter.net

Media relations in Montréal and Québec City : Patricia Lamy,  514 912-7443, lamypat@videotron.ca

The theme also serves as a pretext for presenting the body of work of the different artists taking part in this year’s Rencontres.

Lovers of photography, the photo project #visibleinvisible wants you!

Send us your own interpretation of the theme. Here’s how.

1. Take a picture inspired by the theme.
2. Share it via Facebook, Twitter ou Instagram with the mention #visibleinvisible.
3. Follow-us on our social networks to enjoy the whole community’s photos.
4. Repeat the experience by sharing other photos!

Project Photo #visibleinvisible #photogaspesie

 In the course of that residency, which took place in the spring of 2014, the  two artists’ interest came to focus on Bonaventure Island and its history.  Seeking out former residents of the island, today transformed into a  national park, they examined the past based on the stories that people  related to them. Through those narratives they explored and interpreted the life of this circumscribed, limited and isolated space…

Last week they were back in Percé to offer a photographic interpretation of the accounts they collected. Rencontres wanted to let you take a look at these artists’ creation work by means of a video interview.

Production: Fleurdelise Dumais, graphic designer and in charge of video for Rencontres

Promenades photographiques will be opening on June 20. Over 20 exhibits will be waiting to be discovered in the town of Vendôme. During the opening weekend (June 20-22), a number of free activities are scheduled: a publishing fair, a photo promenade in town, lectures and a roundtable.

Claude Goulet, director of Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie, will visit Vendôme to be part of the launch of the festival, which will run until September 21. He’ll also be on the jury for the Prix Mark Grosset, an international competition reserved for photography-school students.

You can consult the program PDF.

The programming for the 5th edition of Rencontres took shape thanks to the joint efforts of Claude Goulet, executive and artistic director of Rencontres, and Jean-François Bérubé, photographer. Over 30 artists from Belgium, France, Russia, Serbia, the United Kingdom, the United States, elsewhere in Canada, and, of course, from Québec delighted us by responding positively to our invitation to join us on the Gaspé territory.

Discover exhibitions:

All exhibitions

Fleurdelise Dumais