Transcription Taking Part in Culture

Are you ready?

Yes!

Perfect, can you please introduce yourself?

My name is Soraïda Caron.

My name is Wina Forget, I am 31 years old, I’ve been living in Trois-Pistoles for a year now.

I am a choreographer, interpreter and contemporary dance teacher. I work in the cultural scene, mainly theatre, and I am involved in cultural organizations of the region.

What I find important in my discipline, it’s really to make my discipline known. The first projects that I started doing were projects with locals who were not professional dancers. People who were drawn by movement and the stage. W

ithout knowing it, I was doing cultural mediation. I was working with bodies that were untrained and that never experienced the stage through dance.

These non-dancers became ambassadors of contemporary dance, because when we presented the show, well it's their friends who come to see it. And all of a sudden, contemporary dance is something that that becomes accessible, it's not just "woaaaaah".

There is a family bond that has developed with this discipline, due to the fact that this integration happened. I feel like I'm doing something for my discipline.

Yes, I dance, which is already that, but to anchor it in a place where it did not exist, it is promotion for the discipline. I feel like I'm doing my part for dance like she's doing her part for me.

There is really a very strong tradition of the performing arts here. It was brought, among others, through the Rendez-vous des grandes gueules festival, which has been going on for 25 years.

But also before that, there was Victor Lévy-Beaulieu. The fact that he has done theatre, television and that he has written books in Les Basques since the 1960s, it created a culture and a tradition. So in a city where there are 3,300 inhabitants, people are fond of contemporary art, they enjoy discovering all kinds of creations.

Welcome to the opening happy hour of the 2nd edition of the Marathon de la création!

The Marathon de la création, is in fact a festival which invites 5 artists from the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, all disciplines combined, to come and spend 2 days of residency in Trois-Pistoles in 5 different places.

The day they arrive, it's the draw for their location, and the next day they go to their location for two days of creation.

Then, the second day, I call it the presentation walk, done with the audience. We meet and walk around to see the results of the research. And for me that moment is wonderful because when you leave for the second location, well there is the discussion about art, about what just happened you know, and I find that fun.

The act of walking you know, walking Trois-Pistoles, going down the quay, you know, there is something in the appropriation of the territory, the appropriation of art, of artists on the territory.

We will not start over, because to be a society is necessarily to hurt. Trees have no country, state, nation or parliament. We will therefore be trees, together we will make forests.

I proposed to do a performance called “sous éclats bleu mer ”, it will be partly an installation that I will do with reused and recovered materials and plants from my land, therefore from my environment. Within the installation, I'm going to do a performance that will be a ritual to celebrate the beauty of the world despite the ugliness of the world.

I am a burning chamomile, I am a war seahorse, I am a bloody firefly, a rag doll stuffed with explosives, I rock to the rhythm of the collapse of the world.

The arts are really rooted in the traditions of the people here, there are beautiful things that are happening here so I don't arrive here barging in telling myself that I came to give people access to art, nor do I bring culture to people in rural areas, because they have had access to culture for the past 60 years, but it's all the more interesting because people are open and are happy that there is still more culture, more dynamism etc ...

The more you are confronted with other cultures, the more you are confronted with other people, other forms of art, I think that this is what opens up world views, I dream of this cultural blending, you know, I dream of having artists from all the nations coming to Trois-Pistoles, because I think that it is in the blending that new things can emerge.

So no no, come one come all, arrive by boat, the houses are not expensive, you’re welcome! This is really my cry from the heart.