Rencontres welcomes photographer Guillaume D. Cyr on July 31 for a creation residency that will focus on the former employees of Smurfit-Stone in New Richmond (his home town). The outcome of his project, carried out to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the major paperboard mill’s closure, will be presented in 2016 as part of the 7th edition of Rencontres.
“My artistic approach is part of a desire to take a look at our surroundings and to bring out the formal and aesthetic point of view and a positive or critical vision,” explains the artist. “I am mainly interested in the man, his work, his lifestyle, his history and the track that it leaves in the landscape.”
He describes his approach as somewhere “between art and documentary, a humanistic work sometimes free humanity. Photography is an exploration of reality; it is interesting for me to reveal the unsuspected power of an aesthetic object or an abandoned and unsightly appearance so as to highlight, through my eyes, the people who come before the lens. I thus adopt whenever a singular perspective on how we perceive things as left by man and nature, man-made structures and the people around me. Through formal and often Cartesian simplicity, subjects I photograph show both a curiosity of form and light sensitivity in the footsteps of history and that of man. This human presence, although it may sometimes be hidden or absent, is also fundamental in my work.”
See the artist’s Website for more details.