Posted yesterday at 11:30 a.m.
René Derouin is quite discouraged. He had proposed to the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul to give him his mural memory river inspired by his project Migrationsi.e. the dropping of 19,000 statuettes into the St. Lawrence River in June 1994. The statuettes had been partly immortalized beforehand by René Derouin’s photographer, Lucien Lisabelle, to keep track of them and thus create memory riveran 8-foot by 24-foot work, with red tones from a special Kodak paper, now discontinued.
“When I rubbed the black and white photos, it gave a red that stood out, a red that was part of the pigmentation of the photo, says René Derouin. So, I am very attached to this work. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE ARTIST
One of the photos of the statuettes dropped in 1994 during the project Migrationspart of the mural memory river.
The three crates that contain the 48 photo modules of memory river were stored in his workshop located in the building that once housed the Rolland factory in Sainte-Adèle. When he wanted to find them, he only saw one. “It’s the first time such a thing has happened in his 60-year career,” said René Derouin. My workshop has been there for 13 years. I always had an assistant with me and sometimes other people come to help me with big projects. I have always been confident. »
The 86-year-old artist adds that he has never noticed a break-in into his studio, which takes up an entire floor of the building. “I don’t see what interest we could have in stealing two of the three crates,” he said. Each crate has 16 modules and each module is interesting. You can put it on the wall, it’s very beautiful. But there is no market for that. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE ARTIST
René Derouin in front of his mural memory river
The mural memory river is one of René Derouin’s key works. It was exhibited for the first time at the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, in 1994, then at the Glenbow Museum, in Calgary, in 1998, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, during its retrospective, in 1999 , then at the Grande Bibliothèque de Montréal, in 2013.
René Derouin lodged a complaint with the Sûreté du Québec by giving the police a complete file on the work. “I also spoke with Alain Lacoursière [enquêteur de police durant 20 ans dans le domaine des crimes liés à l’art]. Some 8,000 galleries will be informed of this disappearance, as well as Interpol. So, if there is a visual circulation of these modules, it will be denounced. »
“I don’t like the climate around that, adds René Derouin. But I would like to have this work returned to me, which is essential in my life because of the project Migrations. Then, I will give it to the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, as a donation. »