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Diana
Boulay: Cornucopia shown on the invitation to the event.
The
Regional Contemporary Art Centre of Montpelier
is a museum that only opened this summer. It already organized three
major exhibitions featuring prominent Quebec sculptors. The main thrust
of this exhibit center is to display art that is accessible to all,
while dealing the concerns and aspirations of our society.
Jacques
Charbonneau, Mme. Paulette Lalande, MRC Papineau, and Armand
Destroismaisons.
The 1st
festival RECYCL’art aims to draw public attention to the
ravages of over-consumption. Thirty sculptors use their creative
expression, questioning our way of life, and reflecting on ecological
balance, with artwork that uses a multitude of daily life throwaway
items. The mood was really festive and the inspiring exhibition,
displayed original work within the building and on the grounds
surrounding it.
The artists, many of whom live in the Laurentians are:
Marie Bineau, Diana Boulay, Mustafa Chadid, Jacques Charbonneau, Daniel
Côté, Armand Destroismaisons, Pierre Dostie, Claude Drolet, Richard
Garneau, Yves Gélinas, Maurice Groulx, Michel Guilbeault, Jacques Huet,
Pierrette Lambert, Dominique Laurent, Winston Mcnamee, Claude Millette,
Louise Page, Clode Pilote, Sylvain Potvin, Daniel–Jean Primeau, Michèle
Provost, Karol Proulx, Sylvie Reis, Sally Lee Sheeks, Armand
Vaillancourt, Roman Varela, Léo Végeau, and Florent Veilleux.
Jacques Charbonneau, Armand Vaillancourt & Armand
Destroismaisons.
The
exhibit included so many intriguing, original creations, using found
objects to make political statements such as: Armand Vaillancourt,
one of the most renowned Quebec artists, pig-sty gate with a
magazine headlining an “Accidental President”
(Bush);
Florent Veilleux’s two-part installation including his
Politicien Electronique, which was a crowd-stopper;
Dominique Laurent’s Sandwich au bonhomme de guerre;
Pierrette Lambert’s Échiquier, a Chess board with figurines
of Barbie-Doll & Ken (commenting about prevailing concepts regarding
beauty, youth, and money); and
Sally
Lee Sheeks
shows us how to conserve water with her lost pail. Artists used
telephones, wires, old machines, music records, toys, food, metal scrap,
wood, packaging, cloth, road signs, all incorporated into art objects,
which made us laugh and cry at the same time.
As
part of Festival RECYCL’art, the museum launched an
educational program encouraging youngsters to participate. A collection
of masks created by school children was displayed in the garden. Young
people will also collect found objects for outdoor creations. They will
be guided by seasoned artists, including:
Armand Destroismaisons, Clode Pilotte and Sylvie Reis.
On
August 22nd, at the official inauguration of the 1st
Festival RECYCL’art, Director, Jacques Charbonneau and
Armand Destroismaisons, President of the Quebec Sculpture
Council, announced that as of September 20th, the Regional
Contemporary Art Centre of Montpelier, expands its role to become the
permanent home of the Quebec Sculpture Council. Armand Destroismaisons
mentioned that there is significance to the location at Montpellier, and
expressed the hope to create future collaboration with the artists of
the towns of Montpellier in Vermont and in France.
What a
wonderful idea!
Colours
and dimensions artwork may be slightly different from the original.
