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I believe that living in cultural cities
is a wonderful opportunity,
because there are too many communities
without artists and without culture
in this America that surrounds us.
These are places that are erected
quickly by imported clichés and mediocrity,
from prefabricated cities and devoid of souls
where one passes through without wanting to stop.
(This is not the case in Sainte-Marie...)
The relationships between creators
and their municipalities are important.
Artists are often seeking
conviviality and tolerance.
Many years after their time,
their works are reminiscent of the places
redefined by them, and the existence
of a certain community of thought.
[Artists: Initiators of Change and Creators of Collective Wealth]
Do artists protect, conserve,
and add value to the places where they live?
They often find themselves
victims of the wealth they participated in creating.
Many neighborhoods
are now too expensive to live in
for the artists who contributed to
the reputation of these places.
Each place artists move into,
speculation follows shortly after.
You could give multiple examples.
Look at our now famous
Plateau Mont-Royal.
The same phenomenon is happening
in Val-David, where I live.
The regionalization of culture
is a very relevant subject.
Actually, there is a big change occuring
in the perception of the arts in relation
to our communities.
New questions
and a growing interest in the arts
are perceptible in municipalities
situated outside of the large city centers.
This trend is relatively new
and I imagine that it is in large part
created by the arrival of money
invested by the government
in the regionalization of the arts.
I perceive equally a curious phenomenon
of the depletion of tourist resources
throughout Québec.
Today's tourist
-- and we're all familiar with them --
travels a lot, asks a lot,
and doesn't spend 15 days of vacation
in a single place.
This is a major change.
We must now develop
sites of major interest
to retain the attention
of these traveling tourists.
We must also create a competition
between the towns to stand out,
and then, more stakeholders are persuaded
that the arts are the only viable option
in this effort.
The artist and the citizen.
Actions, fascimiles of the arts.
The cultural initiatives that eminate
from this new trend are sometimes distressing.
So where there has never been a
living painter in this town, no pictorial tradition,
we decide, for example, to create
a painting symposium.
Looking for a portable concept,
we try to develop "medieval" works
in a town that isn't
even 100 years old.
That's something you see all over Québec, actually.
So, one would like to revive
troubled cities by focusing
on culture, but what culture
are we really talking about?
It's the equivalent of opening an iron mine
in a place where there was never
any mineral water.
It is from the essential heritage to look for work.
Culture must, above all, serve
the well-being of its citizens
and identify with those there
before wanting to become an attraction
for the eventual tourist.
It's been some years,
we haven't dared to ask these questions.
With the emergence of new trains of thought,
troubles more important than
the importance of artists in the economy
of our societies, the relationship between
citizens is primordial.
In this perspective
we must reexamine the statute
that we've given to artists
inside of our society.
So, Val-David -- I said earlier,
I live in Val-David -- is a town
with 4,800 residents who, happily,
have had the Butte of Matthieu for 50 years.
Then, there is the Associated Creators Collective,
the organization 1001 Pots,
the Precambrian Gardens that I created,
the international symposiums of art,
the exposition center, the Island Studio
For a little town, it's enormous.
It's truly enormous. So, something to remember:
all of these projects were created by the artists.
Never by the politicians.
But we have the support of the municipality
with memorandums of understanding
for each of these items that I listed.
We cannot forget that the artists
are the primary patrons of their institutions.
I created the Precambrian Gardens,
the international symposiums,
in 1995.
The first symposium was
around the theme of the "Territoires Rapaillés,"
with Gaston Miron who was our first guest.
It was multidisciplinary.
So, after 17 years, since 1995
to 2012, the last symposium, this past year,
it's fully developed.
We are in the process of leaving what we created
and we want the see continuation of what we made.
The idea of an international symposium
came from my work,
in the sense that I traveled a lot
between the North and South,
and I worked for a long time in Mexico
where I had many exhibitions
one of which was an installation, Migration,
where I dropped 20,000 statues
into the bottom of the Saint Laurent river.
Having stopped my travels,
I developed my sedentary side
more than traveling,
and I created the Precambrian Gardens.
I was thinking that land and identity,
these are two very fundamental things.
Here, we see the Precambrian Gardens
in its territory and the different works.
There is a common identity in the Americas
that makes most of the peoples were colonized,
experienced decolonization,
and their relationship with the extent of territory is rather uniform,
between the three Americas,
and the meeting of these cultures with the Amerindian world
is what makes us the mixed-race and the indigenous of the North.
The objectives of the foundation,
are to ensure the sustainability of the Precambrian Gardens,
to create multidisciplinary events,
and to encourage thought about the notions of identity and land.
The Precambrian Gardens,
it's a non-profit
managed by nine members who, each year, invite
a commissioner to select artists.
How is it funded? Because it's always about money.
We sell tickets, which works very well,
we have a fundraising event,
we have an agreement protocole with the municipality,
we receive a subsidy from the Québec Council of the Arts,
we have sponsors and patrons,
and we rely heavily on the citizens.
So the economic benefits:
the economic benefits are rather surprising.
Because when one speaks about cultural organizations of this type,
we don't often really calculate
the economic contribution it provides to our community.
We created a study : each year,
we bring to Val-David 2,8 million dollars.
I couldn't believe it when I saw the numbers,
but it's what we pay the artists, and everyone who comes to Val-David,
after seeing the symposium,
they go to restaurants in Val-David.
And it's all the development of hotels, restaurants,
and those who visit the Precambrian Gardens
are those who go to the hotels and the restaurants in Val-David.
Of course, now, we don't have to be convinced of
the economic benefits to our community
but for many years we believed
that culture was not a subject of economic development.
In my opinion, it is time for artists
to react and reintegrate themselves into the public space.
That was the proposition of Agenda 21 Culture.
We must de-ghettoize ourselves, get the artists out of the studios,
and create an independence, and a relationship with the citizens,
in relation to the bettering of our community.
I will finish by telling you about
the achievements of the Gardens.
Here, is a work by me, but after,
these are the works of different artists
that we invite from all over the Americas.
Here, is Gaston Miron's Agora,
where we have recitals, conferences,
every year. This work was made by Daniel Lagacé.
These are ephemeral pieces of art that last only two years.
This one is from this year.
And so, we see here, we have 50 acres of land
and three kilometers of trails
with agoras, which we see here,
where the public can meet the artists.
We strongly encourage
the meeting of the public and the artists.
Another work, a work by a Mexican artist,
Paloma Torres, from Mexico.
Linda Osborne, from Calgary. When one works on the Americas,
there are artists a little bit from everywhere.
Here, we have performances on the Rivière du Nord
with poets and writers.
Here, closing the symposium, we come
7 kilometers down the Rivière du Nord.
This is our 2012 team, actually,
in a new agora that we've just finished building
in developing the animation department
and the scolastic department.
Auditory works and concerts.
I will finish with "Around My Garden."
"Around My Garden" is something I created in Val-David.
You will see,
which took me by surprise.
I am from this village. It's a very cultural
community and I realized that
three years ago, I saw that there was
a development that was quite curious.
And this is not unique to Val-David.
The church is closed, the post office is closed,
and they wanted to add a metro stop, and move
the Val-David grocery store to the highway.
So, me, I said to myself: "We're becoming a bedroom suburb.
There will be no more church, no more grocery store."
So I tried to understand
how a community could come to be
so destructured like that, and I suggested
to my friend Jacques Dufresne, who is owner of the metro
to make a work of art around the metro,
and convince the community, the City Council,
the Planning Committee, to save the grocery store.
But in reality, it was not only to make a work of art;
it was necessary to prevent the
consolidation of the local grocery store
into a big supermarket, you know.
This phenomenon of largeness
it's everywhere throughout the world, across America.
It destroys our heritage,
local cultures, displacing them
to the outskirts of the cities,
and what's left of small, local trade disappears.
As I am living in a cultural project,
I come from a cultural community, I say to myself:
"If we lose the local grocery store, we will become a commuter town."
I thought of turning the grocery store
into a work of art. It is a struggle
not just to do the work, but I discovered
to what extent the developers have power
over municipal decision-makers.
The developers are outsiders
in our communities, and they decide
which large stores to include,
a Wal-Mart, big liquor stores, then often large banks
get mixed in, and starting on the outskirts
and destroy the heart of the city.
I'm not saying this model is for everyone,
but in our case, I experienced it so closely
that I said to myself: "If we do not fight against it,
it is made, like culture. You can defend a culture for tourism,
but our way of life will be changed. "
Then, the rectory was moved,
it had to be accepted at the City Council,
then to Planning Committee,
then me, I said: "We're going in the church,
we'll get all the citizens of Val-David together,
and we'll present the project to them,
which is called 'Around My Garden.'"
The project was received with such enthusiasm
from the community, saying:
"Not only will it save the grocery store,
but at the same time, it will contribute to the heart of the village."
And the project was accepted.
When I came out of the Church,
I said to Mr. Dufresne, the owner of the metro,
"There, now we got the residents dreaming.
Do you have money to do this?"
(Laughs)
The problem arose.
"I have no money. It is intended to develop
the subway, the inside, for products.
But to make a work of art out of my metro..."
So I said, 'I'll propose something to you.
I will sign a contract where you will pay materials,
because it is a work that is 160 meters long,
which will go all the way round,
and which will be covered in vegetation in a few years.
You will pay the assistant artists,
and I will remain the owner of the work.
(If you go to Val-David, you can see it,
it is in the heart of the village). As long as
as long as you leave grocery store in place."
There's really a condition in the contract.
if he closes the grocery store, we remove the work.
It is a safeguard for this type of work.
Once we saw it completed, there was a monumental realization,
because not only
was this integrated into the community,
but I had embarked on a complex situation
as a known artist in a small village.
My community is depending on me. If I miss my chance,
assuming that it's not good,
every morning, when I go into the village.
to the grocery store, I'll be reminded of it.
It's not an exhibition in a gallery,
when it is finished, you close the exhibition
and you move on. I thought to myself:
"There's a terrible anguish in relation to the community".
My team and I, we said: "Not only
is our community depending on this
but it will be a challenge to succeed."
It is a work inspired in large part by
nature, the flora of Marie-Victorin,
research on birds, fish,
nutrition. It is a work that embellishes this place.
I am enormously proud of it,
because not only did I succeed in my community,
but I also succeeded in the idea that an artist in his community
must impact his surroundings, his environment,
his quality of life. Here, you can see the team,
and the inauguration.
And we see some plants
starting to grow. The entire building
will be covered in vegetation in five or six years.
It will change color. It will be red in the fall,
green in the spring. It is a work
that will change in its place.
Now we see it, during the inauguration,
which is perhaps one of the most beautiful moments of my life
that I experienced as an artist in this community,
to see the entire community
rally around the idea of our grocery store
and a work of art of which they are now the owners
like the Precambrian Gardens.
It's like a relationship with the community
that the artist makes... I came out of my workshop
and - I was trained in Mexico,
by the Mexican muralists. I have always thought that art,.
if it's not for the public, then
it has no meaning. Art is created in a studio,
alone, with an artist, but art exists
only if there's an audience, someone who buys it,
who lives with it, and in my opinion,
in our environment, our surroundings,
we must integrate culture into our surroundings.
We cannot have high culture
in devastated cities.
Destroyed cities, where there will be
only expressways, and where we will live
in a sort of historical heritage
of what once was traditional Quebec.
It is urgent for artists to take charge of
the municipal councils, because the local governments
are controlled by developers,
and not by citizens.
And then you know, the problem of corruption in Quebec,
that's that. It is the developers who decide our way of life
So, I will finish with that. I thank very you much.
(Applause)