Quai des arts in Carleton-sur-Mer will be the site for the very first public screening of the short film Derrière les mauvaises photos de baleines (Behind the Bad Pictures of Whales) by multidisciplinary artist Maryse Goudreau. The event, at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, August 30, the opening evening of Rencontre on Tour, will kick off the 2024 Rencontres on Tour weekend of activities.
“Starting with the first edition of Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie we’ve invited Maryse Goudreau to do photographic interventions and events in the Gaspé region,” comments Claude Goulet, artistic and executive director of Rencontres. “And ever since, we’ve carried on with our collaborations each time the opportunity arises – fruitful collaborations that have always made an impression.”
This time, artist Maryse Goudreau was given carte blanche to create a work in the Gaspé Peninsula, and decided to explore a premonition she felt on once seeing a whale.
Shot on the tip of the Gaspé, this documentary video was filmed in large part on whale-watching outings with tourists on board. The subject of whales and the ways that humans bond with them has fueled Maryse Goudreau’s multidisciplinary artistic practice for a dozen or so years.
The artist explains: “The starting point for Derrière les mauvaises photos de baleines was a story my uncle told me during the last days of his life. His daughter, Mica Guitard, is an up-and-coming young performer and this project was written for her as a way to bring her father’s story back to life. As a young man, Rodrigue Guitard was a swimming instructor, a nimble canoe guide and a summer-camp counsellor in the Baie-des-Chaleurs region. Water being his element, one day a whale pretended to be him. Our little film crew went to sea off the coast of Forillon to try to find the whale called Rodrigue and bring it closer to his daughter.”
This creation was supported by the Entente de partenariat territorial de la Gaspésie and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. The grant made it possible to assemble an entirely Gaspesian crew around Maryse Goudreau, who directed. Pierre-André Bujold (actor), Mica Guitard (budding actress), Mathieu Boudreau (photo direction and image editing) and Olivier Poulin (sound recording) happily joined these research and creation efforts, which were anchored at Camp de Base Coin du Banc thanks to Cap Art-Nature artistic residencies initiated by Culture Gaspésie. The whole crew set off to sea with Croisière Forillon and had the chance to co-create alongside fin whales, porpoises, minke whales and mythical humpback whales.
The work will be presented on August 30 in the presence of Maryse Goudreau at Quai des arts in Carleton-sur-Mer at 6:30 p.m.
Free admission