Alessandra Calò & France Cayouette in Maria
EXHIBITION
The Voices
Alessandra Calò, Reggio Emilia, Italy | alessandracalo.it
France Cayouette, Carleton-sur-Mer, Québec | culturegaspesie.org/membre/france-cayouette
This photographic project (as well as the book) stems from my experience during an artistic residency in the Gaspé Peninsula. Invited in September 2024 for Rencontres de la Photographie en Gaspésie, I developed an artistic project in collaboration with the writer France Cayouette. On the basis of a period of research and a public appeal, a series of vintage photographs belonging to local inhabitants were collected and reinterpreted.
The result is a collective work where the territory becomes the echo and mirror of a humanity that returns, cyclically, to speak to us of memory through the conjunction of past and present. Inspired by the images created the words spring from the grandeur of the landscapes as intimate testimonies of a fusion relationship with nature.
EXHIBITION AT THE RECONTRES
THE VOICES
Alessandra Calò
Alessandra Calò, an artist and photographer, has been experimenting from the beginning of her career with the use of new languages that allow her to deepen her grasp of themes related to memory, identity, and to the language of photography itself. Her research is characterized by the reappropriation and reinterpretation of archival materials using historical off-camera printing techniques.
Her works have been shown in prestigious collections and at international exhibitions, fairs and festivals, among others at Circulation(s), Festival Voies Off, Les Photaumnales, Approche Paris (all in France), Rencontres de la photo en Gaspésie (Canada), Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival (United Arab Emirates), ArtStays (Slovenia), Unseen (Netherlands), Photoszene (Germany), as well as at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (both in New York).
France Cayouette
France Cayouette lives in Carleton-sur-Mer. After a career teaching literature and creative writing at the college level, she now leads writing workshops and offers various forms of support in the field.
She has published three poetry collections with Éditions du Noroît: Jolie vente de débarras (2008), Voix indigènes (2014), and Doublure du monde (2021). Her most recent poetic work, Arbres debout sur nos paupières, was published by Éditions du passage in 2025. She has also released haiku collections with Éditions David and Pippa, and has contributed to several anthologies. And she is the co-author of the collective children’s book Ada et la sandale de mer, illustrated by Catherine Côte and published by the Écomusée Tracadièche (2023). The interplay between text and image is increasingly central to her artistic exploration.
The connections between outer and inner landscapes, the sacred in everyday life, and beauty as a path to elevation lie at the heart of her creative approach.