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

The 2013 Rencontres brings together artists who are interested in representing the real in ways that are distorted, transformed or modified, and in so doing stimulating new perceptions in viewers. Any number of avenues have been made available to the creators to consider the way in which individuals live in their environment and the manner in which they comprehend it.

At the heart of the event, the Photographer Tour will run from August 15 to 21. Some 30 photographers will take part in public get-togethers on the subject of creation, in the form of projections or lecture-discussions. The event will open at the Quai des arts in Carleton-sur-Mer, and then the Tour will continue towards the north shore of the Gaspé Peninsula, making its way to among other places the towns of Gaspé and Percé, and then on to Baie-des-Chaleurs.

The public is therefore invited to visit the installations and exhibits from July 10 to September 11 in 14 host municipalities: Cap-Chat, Marsoui, Grande-Vallée, Gaspé, Murdochville, Percé, Chandler, Paspébiac, Bonaventure, New Richmond, Maria, Carleton-sur-Mer, Nouvelle and Matapédia.

In 2012, Louis Couturier and Jacky George Lafargue spent ten days exploring the Murdochville copper mine and photographing that astonishing landscape. In Murdochville and Bonaventure they are presenting, under the title Murdochville: la beauté de la destruction (Murdochville: Beauty and Destruction), a series in which those mining landscapes are incorporated onto buildings.

In Saint-Omer, Isabelle Hayeur is exhibiting Maisons modèles (Model Homes). Her photographs of modest houses as well as luxury homes are transformed by computer and relocated to a new context. The aggregate is a survey of today’s suburbs, but is also intended as a portrait of society.

Alain Paiement, known for his architectural works made up of images joined together to reconstitute a place, invites us to the Musée de la Gaspésie in the town of Gaspé to see Sous un autre angle (From a Different Angle), which presents laid-out residential interiors and housing. The photos will be presented on the ground, with an unsettling effect on the viewer.

Other Quebecers: Patrick Dionne and Miki Gingras in Chandler with the exhibit Mémoire (Memory), and Serge Clément in Carleton-sur-Mer with the photo installation Archipel (Archipelago).

For details on all guest photographers: photogaspesie.ca/en/photographes.

Photo : Jocelyne Alloucherie

In the same municipality, Evgenia Arbugaeva, from Russia, presents the project Tiksi, which was carried out in her home town, a former Soviet military base, now abandoned. Her images speak of memory, of transformation, of exile…

Armando Ribeiro, from the U.K., explores concepts in his work relative to the evolution of the landscape, the global environment and the human condition. He will be exhibiting his Depressive Landscapes in New Richmond.
The American Suzanne Opton, meanwhile, is presenting Soldier and Soldier+Citizen in Maria, projects undertaken with young men and women in uniform who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Opton photographed their heads, placed on a horizontal surface. The effect is striking.

For details on all guest photographers: photogaspesie.ca/en/photographes.

Photo : Michael Wolf

EXHIBITS AND INSTALLATIONS – July 10 to September 11 ::

Outdoors and indoors, everywhere in the Gaspé ::

- Over 900 photos

- 31 photographers from Québec and elsewhere, recognized or emerging

- 20 activities in the presence of photographers

- 26 sites and attractions in 14 host municipalities