On the theme “Identities and Territories,” the 6th edition of Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie will begin in mid-July and run this year until late September. The work of some thirty artists from Québec and various countries will be presented by way of photo and video exhibits and installations, both outdoors and indoors, on 21 sites spread out among 13 host municipalities on the Gaspé territory.
“In the turmoil that we’re experiencing on a worldwide scale,” explains Claude Goulet, executive and artistic director of Rencontres, “this year’s theme of ‘Identities and Territories’ aims at bringing together various voices and photographic records that observe these concepts, that reflect on them.”
From June 10 to 16, before the Gaspé summertime event, a related exhibit with Rencontres. On the occasion of the International Association for Suicide Prevention’s world congress, photographs from the series My Village by Jean-François Bérubé, and the participatory creation project of the book Meeting by New York artist Nick Kline, will be presented.
The summer programming of the 2015 edition will be staging a first collaboration with Forillon National Park, a magnificent natural space at the outer tip of the Gaspé Peninsula. Jessica Auer, a documentary-style landscape photographer who explores themes that connect place, journey and cultural experience, will present a video and photo installation there. Yann Pocreau, meanwhile, who takes a special interest in the strong presence of place and subject and their intimate cohabitation, will mount the installation Marking the Night beginning at the Carleton-sur-Mer lighthouse, an emblematic maritime site. And Benoit Aquin, in Bonaventure, will present an exhibit on agriculture, which will evolve in the course of his artist residency in the Gaspé this summer. As for Alain Paiement, his video installation Irreversibles in Paspébiac will feature among other things the hypnotic ballet of jellyfish and ice bits on the St. Lawrence River. Also, an exhibition on the photographic book, with Serge Allaire acting as curator, will begin on August 17 in Carleton-sur-Mer.
French partnership
The results of the residencies in France of Québec’s Bertrand Carrière and Charles-Frédérick Ouellet will be presented this summer in the town of Gaspé and in Chandler respectively, while (Polish-born) Frenchman Bogdan Konopka will deliver the fruits of his 2014 residency on the Peninsula with Infinitely big, infinitely small… at the Art center Vaste et Vague in Carleton-sur-Mer. Relatedly, it should be noted that the partnership of Rencontres with France is expanding this year as we launch a new collaboration with Diaphane – Pôle photographique en Picardie.
Among the other international guests, worthy of note are Lais Pontes, originally from Brazil and now residing in the U.K., who with Born Nowhere will be exhibiting a research work in Marsoui based on the construction of our identity in the time of social networks. Italy’s Elena Perlino will be addressing the rights of human beings with Pipeline (exhibition site to be confirmed), while Poland’s Anita Andrzejewska contemplates what exists already and pays tribute to it through the lens of her camera in The Wink of an Eye in Percé.
Photographer Tour
From August 20 to 23, the Photographer Tour will offer a series of public get-togethers on the subject of creation (projections, lecture-discussions…) in the presence of artists from the 6th edition. The opening will take place at Quai des arts in Carleton-sur-Mer, and a roundtable on landscape will be held in the same spot on August 21. The Tour will also be visiting other towns in the Gaspé.
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. Complete programming at photogaspesie.ca.