Biography(ies)

Paul Duncombe

Through a singular reflection on the interactions between human beings and nature, Paul Duncombe explores the different scales of the landscape. His successive researches, on the Labrador ice floes, the storms of the Celtic Sea, the boreal forests, or the irradiated lands of Fukushima, aim at the contingent mechanisms that link these vast territories with the creatures that develop there and the infinitesimal elements that compose them. Starting with photographic work in situ and then a series of methodical experiments conducted in the studio or laboratory, his projects put the apparent simplicity of the works of nature in relation to the increasing technicality of modern society. From simple gestures to the most complex monumental installations, between performances, minimal sculptures and on-site interventions, his work crosses borders and disciplines.

A 2014 graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Paul Duncombe develops and exhibits numerous projects in France and abroad: COAL Prize (Paris, 2020), Nemo Biennial (Le 104, Paris, 2020), ]interstice[ (Caen, 2019 & 2018), Unicorn Center for Art (Beijing, 2018), Salon de Montrouge (Paris, 2018), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2017), Jeune Création (Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, 2016), Avatar (Coopérative Méduse, Quebec, 2015), Kyoto Art Center (Kyoto, 2012)

Marty-Kanatakhatsus Meunier

A media artist and specialist in scientific communication, Kanatakhatsus Meunier refuses to lock himself into an identity. Rooted for 22 years in Orford Township in the Eastern Townships, this racy artist (Kanien’keha:ka, French-Canadian) works at the University of Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Engineering as a communications consultant and lecturer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications (UQAM, 1991) and a master’s degree in environment (UdeS, 1998).

A screenwriter, producer and independent director, he has directed documentaries including Le vieil indien, shot in the Eastern Townships (2015). This historical-poetic work tells the story of the Parc national du Mont-Orford, by calling on the artists who have sung, painted or simply venerated it. He also directed and produced several documentaries in Nunavik while working for Taqramiut Nipingat (Inuit television of Quebec) in the early 2000s.

Currently, he is preparing an immersive video experience in virtual reality and/or broadcast on screens in the manner of the immersive journey, “Oasis immersion”. Animals of the Parc national du Mont-Orford will be filmed at night in their movements in five different locations of the park with high definition cameras (Sony A7 III) converted to infrared, for a period of one year. These cameras, integrated in a weatherproof housing, will be placed in strategic locations in collaboration with a biologist and an ethologist. The night will now be seen as if it were day. The recognition of these animals by the public will promote an awareness of the protection of their habitats in the same way as ours. The artist wants the public to discover the ethogram of these animals in order to better understand them and thus initiate a form of communication with those who share the same territory as us in order to defuse our relationship of power domination (humans) – submission (animals).

The artist is interested in the way to turn away from the racial illusion which is in reality an ideological invention without any biological basis. Whatever the skin color, it is even less a scientific concept. So how to build a new man, a new woman as Frantz Fannon said? The artist believes that we must turn away from this illusion and classification on race. It is necessary to move away from these differences which dominate and dictate the exchanges to aspire not to see any more the social and ethnic differences between the people. The idea of the uniqueness of the human race is the only way out of racism, an insoluble contradiction (aporia). Our identities are multiple and complex… “we are all added together” (Romain Gary). The racial illusion will be the subject of his next documentary film.

(All human culture is available and knowable to all human beings, Henry Louis Gates Jr, American professor and distinguished historian)

Erwan Gavelle

Before his arrival in Quebec in 2012, Erwan Gavelle grew up in France where he spent his youth exploring forests and woodlands to observe animals. As a photography enthusiast, this was always an excuse to go outside in search of unusual places and atmospheres. Thanks to his geography training, Erwan Gavelle oriented his discoveries of places with the help of maps which became a real passion. In 2017, he created his company in accordance with his values with a specialization in geomatics applied to the environment. Whether it is for the monitoring of caribou populations by drone or the mapping of flooded areas, he has at heart the acquisition of geospatial data for the preservation of environments and species. His main tool is the drone where he can use different cameras of various wavelengths depending on the project.

Maya Cousineau Mollen

Maya Cousineau Mollen, from the Innu-Montagnais nation, was adopted in the traditional way by a Quebec family on the decision of her Innu mother. Encouraged by her parents, she began writing poetry at the age of 14. Since then, this means of expression has followed her. Her texts have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines, and she is also the author of a short story in the collection Amun, edited by Michel Jean. She publishes in September 2019 her very first collection of poetry with the publishing house Hannenorak entitled Bréviaire du Matricule 082.

She has 23 years of experience in the First Nations world. Founder of the Aboriginal Student Association at Laval University and also co-founder of the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Youth Council, which has since become the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Youth Network. She strongly believes in the potential of youth, whose energy and willpower deserve to be encouraged.

Now a community development consultant for EVOQ Architecture, Maya continues her work with the communities. She acts as an ambassador for this team that has been serving Inuit and First Nations for over 35 years. Since 2017, she has also been involved with Projets Autochtones du Québec, whose mission is to offer housing and social integration services adapted to the cultures of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis who are living in precarious situations or in transition.

Louis Hamelin

Louis Hamelin is the author of several essays and ten works of fiction. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Biology from McGill University and an M.A. in Literary Studies from the Université du Québec à Montréal. His first novel, La rage, won him the 1990 Governor General’s Award. A literature columnist for Le Devoir since 1999, he has published a collection of short stories: Sauvages (2006), an essay on history and fiction (Fabrications, Prix de la revue Études françaises 2014) and several novels. La constellation du lynx, published in 2010, has won five literary prizes, including the Prix des Libraires, the Prix des Collégiens and the Prix Ringuet awarded by the Académie des Lettres du Québec. His articles and fiction have appeared in numerous periodicals. He has taught narrative writing at the University of Ottawa and McGill, and was a visiting professor at UQAM. He has just translated Muriel Wilie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time (Les étés de l’Ourse, Boréal, 2020) and directs the collection “L’œil américain” at Boréal. His latest novel, Les crépuscules de la Yellowstone, was published in early summer 2020.

Nathalie Lasselin

Nathalie Lasselin, filmmaker and underwater filmmaker, explores from the Arctic to the depths of caves in China or in the tumultuous waters of the St. Laurent River. Her films and expeditions put into images her omnipresent quest to put into perspective our complex relationship with this aquatic world and more broadly our living environments. Through her conferences, she shares her discoveries and brings to light obscure, enigmatic and not very accessible worlds. In between her projects, she continues to work as a cinematographer in both fiction and documentary and acts as an expert on aquatic exploration in documentary series. She has been inducted into the WDHOF (women diver hall of fame) fellow of the Explorer Club and Royal Geographical Society of Canada.

MANICOUAGAN / INTERFACE RESIDENCY : ART/SCIENCE

The Manicouagan project is an initiative with multiple ramifications: it is an expedition to the eponymous crater and its surroundings; a meeting of different artistic and scientific disciplines; an investigation of the territory and a collection of information and data; the creation of works and contents having in common the same junction point.

Bringing together French artist Paul Duncombe, Innu poet Maya Cousineau Mollen, writer Louis Hamelin, geomatician Erwan Gavelle, underwater filmmaker Nathalie Lasselin and documentary filmmaker Kanien’keha: ka Marty-Kanatakhatsus Meunier – in collaboration with Station Mir and Interstice in Caen, Normandy – the Manicouagan project consists of a vast multidisciplinary initiative with an art-science focus, dealing with the territory of the Manicouagan, more specifically the impact crater and René-Levasseur Island.

Having first approached the region in 2015, Duncombe is continuing his initial research, which will lead to the realization of a new digital art installation project. This initial research – the first steps of the Manicouagan project – allowed him to win the Coal 2020 Prize, which annually rewards artists interested in biodiversity issues. Maya Cousineau Mollen and Louis Hamelin, two Quebec writers with complementary practices and a commitment to territorial issues, bring a reflective perspective and depth that only literary works can generate. Drawing on their research in history, geopolitics and archaeology, they will create works in hybrid and exploratory formats. The geomatician Erwan Gavelle, and the documentary filmmaker Marty-Kanatakhatsus Meunier, will contribute to the project with a more technical contribution by promoting everything related to the collection of information and data, and the recording of the different stages. It is also planned to produce a short documentary, directed by Marty-Kanatakhatsus Meunier. A publication documenting the entire project is also planned, as well as a series of public presentations in Quebec and Europe.

The strengths and interests of these creators, researchers and specialists will be brought together, multiplying the perspectives offered by this very special territory. Anchored in the prospective expedition planned for the summer of 2021, the project unfolds from the material collected during the meetings and the discoveries gleaned in the field. These strengths and interests are shared porously among the five participants and their respective contributions to the project. In fact, the background and knowledge of each will influence the individual creations, in the form of cross-views and informal contributions. The meeting and convergence of perspectives is essential here: this initiative is an opportunity for exchanges and discussions around what constitutes the specificity of the territory, and it is essential to make it a project with variable geometry where different angles are taken into consideration.

This project is co-produced by Station Mir and Sporobole, with the support of La Tonne de l’INSTITUT FRANÇAIS, the Normandy Region, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des Innus de Pessamit and for which Paul Duncombe, initiator of the project, received the COAL award.