At the invitation of Rencontres and Diaphane (France), the French author Patrice Juiff undertook a creation residency in the Gaspé Peninsula in the autumn of 2022. The text that resulted from that, entitled On the moose’s potentially fatal unpredictability, inspired the theme of the event’s 14th edition.

“When I read the text, which Patrice describes as a sort of literary road trip, a narration of mental roaming in the Gaspé with the aim of getting to know people, the territory and the beauty and fragility of the landscape, I wanted to draw inspiration from his encounters and his story in imagining the programming,” explains Claude Goulet, executive and artistic director of Rencontres “Very quickly, Patrice agreed to lend us his words.”

Visual arts and literature juxtaposed
In the framework of the France-Québec cooperation agreement, initiated in 2015, exchange residencies are organized each year by Rencontres and its French partner Diaphane. In recent years, observing that more and more artists are navigating between visual arts and literature, the two organizations have sought to juxtapose these disciplines as part of their exchange-residency projects. Thus it was that in fall 2022, French author came to the Gaspé Peninsula and Gaspesian author Philippe Garon traveled to France to do a writing residency. Similarly, visual artists Judith Bellavance (Québec) and Robert Charlotte (France) are doing exchange residencies in France and Québec in spring 2023.

First of all, excerpts from Patrice Juiff’s text will be published on the occasion of Rencontres on Tour, in August 2023.

And during the 15th edition of Rencontres, in 2024, that text and the one by Philippe Garon will be the subject of an exhibit and of a publication released jointly by Éditions Escuminac (the publishing house of Rencontres) and Diaphane Éditions, with the photos of Judith Bellavance (Québec) and Robert Charlotte (France).

Image : Dolorès Marat, Route en Corse