This text is part of the special section Culture Montérégie
From one end of the Montérégie to the other, storytellers, poets and writers are transforming the interior landscape of the region.
“Montérégie is often seen as an extension of Montreal, but we want to be a region with its own identity,” says Marie-Claude De Souza, general and artistic director of Productions Langues pendées.
It’s not just wishful thinking. For 10 years, his organization has brought together several creators driven by the same desire, seeking to celebrate both the word of poets and the gesture of creators in the visual arts. It also promotes interregional exchanges, such as with the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, where creation residencies are offered for authors from Montérégie.
Langues hanged was born in the wake of a consultation on the next generation of artists in the City of Longueuil. Failing to see concrete results, a group of creators wanted to take matters into their own hands. “At the time, artists wanted to collaborate, but everyone was in their own disciplinary network, especially centered in Montreal,” points out Marie-Claude De Souza. Hence the idea of organizing networking activities, all disciplines and all generations combined, to create more projects on our territory. »
Tell great stories
The extended geography of the Montérégie, Françoise Crête knows it very well, but sees it as a great challenge, determined to make the Flots de parole festival, of which she is the director, “an essential pole for the dissemination of storytelling in Quebec”. All this from Verchères, “30 minutes from the Jacques-Cartier Bridge”, specifies, with a smile, the one who often has to explain to Montrealers where the charming municipality is located.
This celebration of storytelling, which takes place until May 28, has existed since 2019, first born impromptu to receive three French storytellers, friends of Françoise Crête, who were looking for other opportunities to meet the public. during their stay in Quebec. From this trial balloon, a festival was born, first to give “the sting of storytelling”, but also to reach an audience as far away as Saint-Hyacinthe.
Several municipalities in the region have pitched in to spread the richness and diversity of the tale, both Varennes and Contrecoeur, offering shows while promoting the performance of Flots de parole. “We are starting to have a loyal audience,” rejoices Françoise Crête. During the first editions, many discovered the tale or only knew Fred Pellerin. This year, we are offering 16 events with 14 artists who do much more than tell a story: create a real sharing with the spectators. »
This ambition guides all the actions of the managers of the two organisations. For Marie-Claude De Souza, affirming the cultural uniqueness of Montérégie requires building one initiative at a time. “In Longueuil, cultural investments are concentrated around rue Saint-Charles and Vieux-Longueuil. Knowing that public transit is a challenge for part of the population, we rented a bus from the Régie de transport de Longueuil to go from neighborhood to neighborhood. The Centrifugeuse project will thus end on June 16, with various artists on board.
Les Productions Langues pendées also presents a sound installation, Sédiment narrative, which is part of the Poetic Interventions series, inviting the public to listen in the shadow of the Raymond-Lévesque library in Longueuil. The viewer is thus invited to pause to soak up this experience designed by La Quadrature, an organization dedicated to contemporary storytelling, and Audiotopie, a cooperative specializing in immersive works.
These activities contribute to solidifying the social fabric and to transforming environments which, from an external point of view, are too quickly reduced to the suburbs. For her festival, Françoise Crête wishes to appropriate even more the charms of Verchères and those of the river: “I dream of marrying rowboat and storytelling, or kayaking and storytelling! All of this through an art that too many people still identify with childhood or are convinced is contained only in books. Flots de parole illustrates all its diversity, embodied this year by François Lavallée, Isabelle Crépeau or Michel Faubert, but the event also aims to make people understand that “the storyteller does not learn anything by heart, but [que] everything goes through the heart”, sums up Françoise Crête.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.