For more than a year, we have been singing about the centenary of Jean Paul Riopelle in all tones. And it’s not over. Over the same period, the 100e visual artists Betty Goodwin and Marcelle Ferron are absolutely discreet, like that of the great lady of dance Ludmilla Chiriaeff. We are already predicting that the 100e by animated film director Frédéric Back, two-time Oscar winner, will also be deleted. Artistic greatness alone does not explain the double standards that affect our memories. In the second text of this series of three, a reflection on what makes us commemorate sometimes with great song, sometimes little. Sometimes not.
“We cannot commemorate everything. It’s impossible. A choice always takes place. And it’s always easier to say “We forgot to commemorate such and such a person!” than to be the one who chooses what to commemorate, and how,” Karim Chahine immediately asks.
“It’s agreed, but true: humans need to remember. We have this desire to know where we come from in order to understand where we are going. We need commemoration as we need memory,” continues the researcher, recalling the distinctions between memory and history.
“It’s complex, commemoration; we play with intimate feelings, those of individuals and communities – small or large -, such as the feeling of belonging, for example, or identity; with the inscription of oneself, of others, of one’s community in time and space; with the creation and dissemination of a certain narrative of the past. These are all symbolic elements, but emotionally very strong. »
After his master’s degree in history, Mr. Chahine pursued a doctorate in literary studies. He is now interested in commemoration, and is closely following the establishment, since June 2022, of the Quebec Commemoration Strategy. “Commemoration always takes place in the present, projecting itself as much into the future as into the past,” he says.
Intimacy
Comparing commemorations can only be a game to help thinking. Too many elements come into play. Furthermore, the Riopelle commemoration is absolutely exceptional: of course it can, unintentionally, overshadow others.
The fact remains that certain elements overlap in the “which take” commemorations. If we talk about art, the discipline and its influential social and artistic weight. “Dance is already the art of the ephemeral,” recalls, for example, dance historian Josiane Fortin.
“Even in dance, we will always tend to remember the works and the choreographers,” she continues. And in art, we will tend to remember material works, like those left by the visual arts, rather than those, evanescent, of the living arts.
“We need materiality,” says Karim Chahine. Whether it is a plaque or a statue for historical events, a tangible work for the arts.
The economic relationship is not absent from this equation. Riopelle is an artistic economic engine and these commemorations, also animated by its collectors, also increase, as the wheel turns, the value of its paintings.
Memories and family
The importance of communities is essential, Mr. Chahine then emphasizes. First of all, the community which holds the memory, which animates the reliving. So, Mr. Chahine likes to see the compositions of the boards of directors and groups working on commemorations.
This administrative portrait shows that the financial, political, diplomatic and relational levers are not the same depending on the organization. We understand at a glance that the Friends of Place Marcelle-Ferron do not have the same scope as the Riopelle Foundation — without any judgment on the quality of the work of one or the other group.
The place taken by the families of those commemorated, the beneficiaries or the heirs is also a key, continues Mr. Chahine, “even if from a historical point of view, it is a proximity which is not ideal”.
More trivially, financial resources also influence. Having the means to pay the salary of someone who plans and organizes a commemoration, as the Riopelle Foundation has been doing for several years, changes a lot of things. “And that’s really rare,” notes Mr. Chahine.
The community that is affected by the commemoration is also important. And the resonance that the artist has in the general public. “Riopelle’s paintings are more accessible than the old ballets of Ludmilla Chiriaeff,” illustrates Mr. Chahine. Also easier to see – try, on the Internet…
And the songs of Cowboys Fringants, to get the idea straight, are even infinitely more popular, more accessible works. Can we predict that the death of Karl Tremblay will be commemorated and re-commemorated?
Let’s not go so fast: there is a difference between mourning and commemoration. “Memory is emotional. We often say that we cannot talk about commemoration until 10 or 25 years have passed since the event or death, explains Mr. Chahine.
Multiplied commemorations
Can we commemorate too much? Mr. Chahine refuses to decide the question. “It’s up to the community to decide, to see what it can digest, what place it still has in its agenda. »
On the other hand, the specialist notes that Riopelle has entered “into a cycle of self-commemoration: the discussions, round tables, activities and research are born of themselves, now”.
“But there can certainly be that moment where we forget the present in favor of the past, where we look and focus on a century-old artist to the detriment of the next generation, who would like to have a chance. »
In the past, recalls Mr. Chahine, the choice of what was commemorated was based on identity, national and homogeneous criteria. “Now other sensitivities come into play, other feelings of belonging. »
A multiplied vision, also encouraged by the new Quebec commemoration strategy of the government of Quebec which, with its 6.2 million over three years with aid of up to $50,000, wants to “ensure the full contribution of commemoration in the construction and maintenance of collective memory” and “increase the participation of citizens from all regions of Quebec in gestures of commemoration.”