A competition aimed at providing a Saint-Hyacinthe library with a work of digital art is raising controversy. The artist who won the $120,000 prize is a “long-time collaborator” of the company cadabra, one of the main partners of the project. However, people with an employment relationship with the firm were not eligible for the competition.
Multidisciplinary artist Étienne Paquette, who has a long track record in digital arts, won this coveted prize. An independent artist, he has been described as a “member of the cadabra team,” including serving as creative director, on several of the company’s publications and projects — on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X and other platforms — during the last years.
An “immersive experience” show at the Canadian parliament, presented from August 17, 2023, also describes Étienne Paquette as a “director, screenwriter and designer” at XYZ Technologies inc. and its subsidiary Cadabra.
Clear rules
The rules of the competition, published on July 7, 2023, are however clear: “People having an employment link with one or other of these institutions, namely: the City of Saint-Hyacinthe, the cadabra firm, the Saint-Hyacinthe public libraries and the Saint-Hyacinthe History Center, whether they have a permanent, occasional or auxiliary status, are not eligible for the competition. »
The City of Saint-Hyacinthe indicates that it is “well aware that Mr. Paquette had collaborated with the firm XYZ inc. (cadabra) in the past, from the start of the selection process.”
“We therefore carried out several checks concerning the nature of these previous business relationships. It appears that Mr. Paquette is an independent artist who has never had a formal employment relationship with XYZ Inc., although he has worked with the latter in the past as a subcontractor. The jury therefore ruled that it was eligible for the competition,” specifies Lyne Arcand, director of communications for the City, in an email.
The winner Étienne Paquette confirmed to Duty that he had informed the City of his links with XYZ Technologies and cadabra to “avoid any misunderstanding, because I wanted to be sure to act in full compliance with the rules”. He assures that he did not have access to any privileged information. The artist works on his own and indicates that he has never been an employee of the companies associated with the Saint-Hyacinthe project.
An ambitious project
This work will be the first of an ambitious artistic journey, at an estimated cost of $576,000, aimed at celebrating the 275e anniversary of the founding of Saint-Hyacinthe.
A series of illuminated silos will be set up along the “cultural pole” bringing together the T.-A.-St-Germain library, the Juliette-Lassonde Arts Center, the Museum of Art and Society (Expression) and the Center d’art. history of Saint-Hyacinthe.
The firm XYZ Technologues and its subsidiary Cadabra were chosen from the start to coordinate this vast project highlighting the history of the city. According to the figures obtained by The dutythe company obtained $245,000 to develop the concept, as well as to provide equipment and technology programming.
To this must be added the $120,000 contract (plus $30,000 for unforeseen circumstances) won by Étienne Paquette, a long-time collaborator of the multimedia firm.
All contracts were awarded with the authorization of the municipal council and without a public call for tenders, since the Cities and Towns Act provides that this obligation does not apply to contracts related to the artistic or cultural field, specifies the door -speaks Lyne Arcand.
“Unusual” competition
The appearance of a conflict of interest surrounding the competition for the creation of the digital work raises eyebrows Étienne Rochon, known under the artist name Arthur Desmarteaux. He was one of the finalists in the competition. Noticing the close ties between the winner Étienne Paquette and the cadabra firm, the Montreal artist had the impression that the dice were loaded.
“We can wonder if this competition was ultimately just a facade to obtain popular approval for a project already decided behind the scenes,” he argues in Duty.
“I put a lot of effort into putting together my case. It kept me busy for two months during the fall,” he adds.
The multidisciplinary artist considers it “unusual” that the participants in the competition had to comply with certain constraints set out by the firm XYZ Technologies. For example, the submitted works had to integrate 420 light garlands equipped with 21,000 bulbs, supplied by cadabra.
Étienne Rochon, who has created works in South Korea, Australia, Mexico, France and Ireland (in addition to Quebec), is also surprised that an additional budget of $30,000 for unforeseen events was added. to the work project that won the competition — something he was unaware of when submitting his proposal.
This reserve aims to “compensate for certain unforeseen events and ensure the integration of the work into existing infrastructure,” explains the City spokesperson. This contingency had been planned before launching the competition and without regard to the choice of work and artist. »