Exploring the theme Visible. Invisible., the fifth edition of Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie is an invitation to contemplate the artistic endeavours of some thirty photographers from the Gaspé and around the world who will be showing their work in 13 host municipalities in summer 2014.
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.
The Photographers Tour, from August 15 to 19, will be central to the event and see more than 30 photographers participating in public activities such as screenings of images and presentations or lectures that explore the creative process. The Tour will kick off at the Quai des arts in Carleton-sur-Mer and then move on to five other towns around the peninsula. As for the installations and shows, they 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 Matapédia.
Invited Québec artists notably include Bertrand Carrière (Montréal, Québec) with Le Capteur. Using motifs and symbols that recur time and again in his work, Carrière builds a territory, atlas-style, in which the ordinary and the unusual appear side by side. Michael Flomen (Montréal, Québec, and New York, United States) offers us his Higher Ground, works that depict things we know exist but do not see. Using only photo-sensitive paper as a photographic tool, the artist makes a darkroom of the night to create unique images, whose visual effects challenge the imagination of the viewing public.
A bridge over the Atlantic
Seeking new creative and promotional platforms for its artists, Rencontres has joined forces with Promenades photographiques de Vendôme, in France. As part of this partnership, which builds bridges between communities, regions and photographers by organising artistic residencies and shows on either side of the Atlantic, Rencontres will notably welcome Gilbert Garcin (Marseille, France) and his Faire de son mieux. Garcin’s images reveal ambiguous incarnations of the artist, falsely burlesque glimpses of himself that he calls “small philosophies”, somewhat like the great Hitchcock did in his films. The spell works because the artist speaks to us of things that are self-evident: of the ebb and flow of life, of time slipping through our fingers, of the tenacity we need to go on…
Other international guests include Rozenn Quéré (Brussels, Belgium) and Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh. Their installation, Vies possibles et imaginaires, is a staging of photos and sounds that tell the story of four strong, earthy Palestinian-Lebanese sisters who experienced the 20th century as exiles around the world. Not quite documentary and not quite delusion, part biography part theatre, the story is told via family photos and sound recordings, a tale of true and imagined events gleaned in Cairo, New York, Beirut and Paris.
Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie is an invitation to come meet artists in an area where photos and landscape join together around an artistic project. The full program will soon be posted at photogaspesie.ca.
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