Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation awarded a $20,000 grant to Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen, in support of the Art / Nature Symposium: Moncton 2016 which took place from September 22 to October 2, mainly at the Millennium Ecological Park of the Université de Moncton, with incursions elsewhere, notably at the Aberdeen Cultural Center, the Art Gallery Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen and at the Department of Visual Arts at the Université de Moncton.
For ten days, nine non-permanent artistic projects were designed and arranged in the public space and were made in various parts of the park. Apart from these in situ interventions, the event hosted lectures, exchanges and discussions, poetry readings, and other interactive activities posing the question of negotiating the interstice between nature and culture. The event allowed the public to get acquainted with the artists and follow their creative process, especially during numerous guided tours.
Three components were on the agenda:
Creation
Nine artists and collectives, have created the following works within the framework of the Symposium: Cette vague originelle,by Camille Bernard-Gravel (Québec, QC.); La cache, de l’autre côté de la route, dans la friche by Gilles Bruni (Clisson, France); Visible / Invisible, by Daniel H. Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc (Moncton, NB); Méandre, by Sonja Hébert (Vancouver, BC); La face cachée du Soleil : métamorphoses duales by Denis Lanteigne (Caraquet, NB); Kiss & Fly, of the M + M + M Collective (Mathieu Boucher-Côté and Marika Drolet-Ferguson, Tracadie, NB, and Marie-Ève Cormier, Moncton, NB); Sowing Rubbish Les semailles de détritus / Douglas Scholes (Montreal, QC.); Pulsations, from Scenocosm (St Etienne, France) D’une autre nature;, by José Luis Torres (Montmagny, QC.).
Conferences
Eleven speakers, professionals of diverse specializations, participated in seven conference sessions, panel discussions and discussions on the following proposals: Social Visions of the Millennium Ecological Park, by Ronald Babin, sociologist (Moncton, NB); Building bridges between the Maritimes and the rest of the world to better manage wildlife species of ecological, economic and social importance in New Brunswick, by Marie-Andrée Giroux, Researcher (Moncton, NB); Hybrid and sensory works, by Gregory Lasserre, artist (St Etienne, France); Negotiating the Territory with Non-Permanent Public Art, by Matthew Williston, Inspire Festival Organizer (Moncton, NB), Christiana Myers, Board Member, Third Space Artist Center (Saint John, NB.) and Martin Dufrasne, Coordinator of Dare-Dare (Montreal, QC); Visible / Invisible: Negotiating the Impossible, by Daniel H. Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc, artists (Moncton, NB); Uncertain Landscapes by Isabelle Hayeur, artist (Rawdon, QC.); Ecology and the Practice of Landscape Installation in Social Space, by Gilles Bruni, artist (Clisson, France); And Urban Heterotopias and Gardens in Contemporary Art, by Edith-Anne Pageot, art historian (Montreal, QC)
Writing
Four authors from the region and various professional occupations have reflected on the interventions and activities of the Symposium and drafted sixteen critical texts published on the blog of the Symposium: Renaissance, Helicopters and Maintenance Sentiers Unusual, by Sophie Auffrey, cultural worker; The Millennium Park of the Ecological, Please Touch, Invasion, Embarked, The Zone and It Grows-ti ?, by Paul Bossé, poet and filmmaker; Building as Integral Part of Immigrant Identity, Kiss & Fly, by Amanda Dawn Christie, artist; And Art / Nature and Nature of Art: Contextualization, Light of Architecture and Architecture of Light, Stem and Root and Questions of Topology and Identity at the Art / Nature Symposium: Moncton 2016, by Sébastien Lord-Émard, publisher and poet.
Amanda Dawn Christie:
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/building-as-integral-part-of-immigrant-identity/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/kiss-and-fly/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/most-ethereal-and-ephemeral-type-mural/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/blurring-the-line-between-disruption-and-diversion/
Sophie Auffrey (French):
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/sentiers-inhabituels/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/une-renaissance-des-helicopteres-et-lentretien/
Paul Bossé (French):
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/parc-millenaire-de-lecologique/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/touchez-svp/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/invasion/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/embarque/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/la-zone/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/ca-sgrimpe-ti/
Sébastien Lord-Émard (French):
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/artnature-et-nature-de-lart/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/lumieres-de-larchitecture-et-architecture-de-la-lumiere/
http://www.artnaturemoncton.ca/fr/la-tige-et-la-racine/
