Creative residency at Château Landry, Mont-Joli
Mont-Joli, October 18, 2022 – The Carrefour de la littérature, des arts et de la culture (CLAC) is honored to welcome authors Diego Herrera Yayo and Jean Sioui for a creative residency from October 23 to November 13 at the Maison de la culture du Château Landry in Mont-Joli. The duo’s visit is part of a call for projects launched earlier this summer by CLAC to offer two creative residencies to duos of artists from diverse or aboriginal communities. This project is made possible thanks to a financial contribution from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the invaluable collaboration of the Musée régional de Rimouski, the Espace de la diversité and the Mémoire d’encrier publishing house.
The public will be invited to meet the artists during their stay, and several meetings, events and talks will be offered in collaboration with the Musée régional de Rimouski, the Salon du livre de Rimouski and the L’hibou-Coup bookstore in Mont-Joli.
Artists and projects
Jean Sioui is a Wendat poet originally from Wendake.
He lived for many years in Saint-Henri-de-Lévis, a place where he could enjoy nature, before returning to his community.In 1997, he published his first book, a poetic collection of thoughts, Le Pas de l’Indien, with Editions Le Loup de Gouttière, where he also directed the “Les loups rouges” children’s collection. Jean Sioui quickly became one of Quebec’s most prolific Aboriginal authors. He published a dozen collections with various publishers. His collection Entre moi et l’arbre (Écrits des Forges, 2013) qualified him as a finalist for the Prix Alain-Grandbois from the Académie des lettres du Québec, and Au couchant de la terre promise (Mémoire d’encrier, 2021) earned him a nomination for the Prix de la poésie Jean-Noël-Pontbriand 2022. In 2010, he founded Éditions Hannenorak with his son, Daniel Sioui.
Residency project
Jean Sioui will write ten to twelve stories describing his relationship with the ancestral Huron-Wendat territory. With this new book, he will tell stories in his own way about the recognition of his territory and the dispossession that followed.He will lead his readers in the footsteps of his contemporary encounters with Niowentsio (our magnificent territory). He will instruct his future readers in a brief history of colonization and the many sometimes dramatic, sometimes comic and often poetic anecdotes that fueled his passage through the ancestral territory. He will let himself be guided by his past creations, which have so often visited exceptional places, tides and dazzling sunsets, to ensure the writing of texts chosen to create a living dialogue with communities, local organizations and the territory.
Diego Herrera, also known as Yayo, is a Colombian-born author and visual artist who has made Quebec his new home. With a poetic and humorous approach, his work examines our human and social relationships, as well as culture, nature and the environment. He specializes in cartooning, commenting on the world in his own way. In Quebec, his views can be found in magazines such as L’Actualité, Coup de pouce, Le Devoir and Reader’s Digest.He also works for magazines in English Canada and the United States. Yayo has been honored for his work in cartooning and illustration, notably by the Grand Prix of the International Cartoon Biennial, The Golden Smile, in Belgrade, and the Prix Charles-Biddle 2011, in Quebec, which recognizes the exceptional contribution of an immigrant to Quebec whose involvement contributes to the province’s cultural development.
Residency project
Under the signs of encounter, dialogue and sharing, during this residency, the author will create texts imbued with humor and poetry. These texts will be inspired by encounters with local people and places, by encounters with the territory and the Musée régional de Rimouski, in particular with one of its current exhibitions. In this residency, the nearby presence of water will be a huge source of inspiration: the St. Lawrence River, the Rimouski and Mitis rivers, the coastline, the Institut maritime du Québec, the Maurice-Lamontagne Institute, the Institut des sciences de la mer, the Pointe-au-Père maritime historic site, etc. Some of the texts created during the residency will be incorporated into the book he is currently working on, SOS EAU, which features a sailor and his goldfish. He wants to show his fish friend the world, but all the places they visit have been invaded by plastic water bottles.In this book, he uses humor and poetry to tackle the very serious issues of plastic pollution and the commercialization of water. It’s a book for young and old alike.
Activities and Information
Sunday, November 6 2022
Residency outing in collaboration with the Salon du livre de Rimouski. Presentation of artists’ unpublished creations, echoing the exhibition Tryphon, un cachalot du Saint-Laurent, by artist Cynthia G. Renard.
Friday, November 11 2022
Residency outing with Yayo and Jean Sioui. Talk and reading about their personal creative project.
Saturday, November 12 2022
Hydro-Québec youth matinee for the whole family with Diego Herrera Yayo and Jean Sioui.
**All activities are free of charge.**
During the activities, the authors’ books will be on sale on site, thanks to the collaboration of the L’hibou-Coup bookstore in Mont-Joli.
Also on the agenda is an interview with the artists in the Tourelle. The interview will be produced and broadcast by Télévision communautaire de la Mitis and on social networks.
Thank you to our friends, collaborators and partners in this residency project:
COLLABORATORS
Le Salon du livre de Rimouski
The Hibou-Coup bookstore
Télévision communautaire de La Mitis
Radio-Canada
PARTNERS
Rimouski Regional Museum
Mémoire d’encrier publishing house
L’Espace de la diversité
The Conseil des arts des lettres du Québec
