Photography Mission in the Lower St. Lawrence: Clara Lacasse selected 

Photography Mission in the Lower St. Lawrence: Clara Lacasse selected 

The artist proposes an exploration of the imaginary and of the region’s built religious heritage

Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie, in collaboration with the Espaces F center in Matane and thanks to the financial participation of Loto-Québec, announces the selection of Clara Lacasse, an emerging Montreal-based artist, to carry out a photography mission that will document the Lower St. Lawrence landscape in 2025. The results of her residency will be exhibited at Espaces F in 2025, and then at Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie in 2026.

Context

Launched in 2016, this Québec -wide photography mission is an initiative of Rencontres de la photographie en Gaspésie. Its distinctive feature is the involvement of a local artistic partner for each of the regions concerned. And thus the Espaces F center in Matane, which devotes itself in large measure to photographic art, was approached as a Lower St. Lawrence partner.

Religious imagination and transformation

The project proposed by Clara Lacasse, and which caught the jury’s attention, has as its central theme the place of religion as made visible through the Lower St. Lawrence landscape.

This political subject, according to the artist, leaves no one unmoved. Between faith, on the one hand, with its share of traditions and the Catholic built heritage that has left its mark on the whole of Québec; and on the other, the increasing importance of secularism, the reformation of the Church’s values and the struggle to preserve, restore and deconsecrate places of worship across the province, this subject is rich in reflections regarding the religious imagination.

“The research project proposed for this edition of Rencontres derives from my continuing interest in built heritage, as well as the fundamental place occupied by photography as a structuring material of the imaginary in my practice. I look at photography as a discipline that allows me to actively preserve a form of memory, be it personal, collective, cultural or historical. I’m specifically interested in documenting places of worship throughout the region, whether they’re functional, in the process of change, or obsolete, as well as going out to meet people and hearing the stories they’d like to share – all this to enrich my personal vision of the faith.”

Portrait of Clara Lacasse
Credit : Maya Naidu

About Clara Lacasse

Clara Lacasse (born Montreal, 1993) draws inspiration from the construction of narratives linked to History, nature, sciences and the collective imagination. Through a focus on the photographic image, she endorses critical reflection on the representations generated by visual culture and on the image as an instrument of knowledge and power. A winner of the 2022 New Generation Photography Award from the National Gallery of Canada and Scotia Bank, Lacasse has presented her work in solo exhibitions at VU (Québec City) and DRAC (Drummondville), as well as in group exhibits elsewhere in Canada, including at the National Gallery (Ottawa), at Arsenal Contemporary Art (Toronto) and at Centre Skol (Montreal). Her projects have received the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec.

Top image : Deux voûtes, Clara Lacasse