Place des Festivals transformed

Place des festivals has been transformed by a setting created by Michel Marsolais. He has permeated it with the cosmic vision of the First Peoples and drawn upon the inspiration of contemporary Indigenous artists who convey the rich spiritual and artistic heritage of the land in their own style.

Anishnabe artist Caroline Monnet ( carolinemonnet.ca ) of the ITWÉ collective designed the striking and luminous visual identity for the site; Athanore assisted her in her multimedia creation.

Meaningful architecture

The great central teepee evokes the vertical axis uniting the sky, the earth and the underwater world. At the apex, a goose in flight recalls the birds that carried Atahensic, the Skywoman, on the first day of the world. At ground level, the turtle represents the sea world and her shell the earth’s crust, which she carries on her back.

The longhouse, where the screenings sponsored by Canal D will be held, is architecture in the Iroquois tradition, thus very typical of Montreal.

The teepees (Amerindian nations) and the tupik (Inuit) are forms of textile architecture evoking the prairies, the taiga and the tundra.

The cervids in the fountains are references to the animal kingdom and the nourishing forest; the water sprays represent the soul that instils life into creation.  

Wall projections

From Thursday July 30^th  to Sunday August 2^nd.

The artist Michel Depatie has created an ambitious artistic project titled La traversée / Ashu-takusseu . This “work in progress” will be launched during the 25^th edition of First Peoples Festival by a show at Maison de la Culture Frontenac and by an outdoor projection on UQAM’s Président-Kennedy building. Hundreds of selfies sent in to the artist have become components of an art video: an array of faces of Aboriginal life imposing their presence on the walls of Montreal. From 11 p.m. to midnight every day.

A luminous visual setting has been specially designed for our 2014 edition by the Anishinable artist Caroline Monnet from the AM collective. Her geometric frames and vivid colours are drawn straight from the visual heritage of Amerindian imagination. From 9pm to 11p.m., alternating, every day.

A sequence created by Michel Poulin (Athanor) is an homage to Mother Earth as Amerindians see her. The video refers to the birth of the world, the first spark of life, Missinak the turtle’s crossing, up to our world. A performance bridging the gap between tradition and modernity, from the roots (tradition, memory) to the tree (the human community) and treetop branches reaching to the future. From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m, alternating, every day.