When Memory Returns…
When the past looms large and takes over the city. When echos of the past resound through bedrock, and through the rocky clefts. When the faces of yesteryear rematerialize… When songs sung time and time again can once again be heard. When, with larger-than-life projected performances, the story of our local history is described in circuits of discovery, the full place and full importance of the memories of a place are restored; this summer, Cité Mémoire lights up the darkness of La Malbaie’s nights!
Cité Mémoire Charlevoix
It’s often said that a place is full of memories. The walls, the rock, the ground, full of histories that can be felt, sensed as an echo in the distance. A ripple across time, like a ripple on water. This summer in La Malbaie, the veil lifts and the past, close enough to touch, resurfaces and brushes up against the present, appearing as a vision throughout a singular tour, a stroll through the Pointe-au-Pic district: Cité Mémoire Charlevoix.
The Artwork
As Solid as the Rocks
The largest of the 5 paintings is projected onto what is locally known (because it is a limestone cliff) as Cap Blanc. Facing the river, this cliff and the chemin du Havre in the pier district, become the twisted, textured canvas for a large animated mural depicting several hundreds of millions of years of history.
Several hundreds of millions of years of history, really? Yes, indeed. From the moment a meteor ripped across the sky and hit the earth on the spot which, much later, would become the Charlevoix of today: one of the few inhabited craters! Watching dinosaurs lumber across the rock wall in front of you, honouring Indigenous peoples while happening to stand on the exact site of the Pointe-au-Pic Indigenous encampment, hearing the echo of the great white boats, and steam engines; the cliff face becomes such a genuine window on the past that, as we walk away, our heads fill with dreams! Narrated by Guylaine Tremblay, an actor born and raised in Charlevoix, the screening also brings the present into focus by ending with the faces of present-day residents of Charlevoix, those who play the role of founding families for newly arrived residents!
Remember to download the app for the full As Solid as the Rocks audio experience.
The Log Drive
From Cap Blanc towards Parc du Havre and the Musée de Charlevoix, a trail snakes downhill from the chemin du Havre. Along the trail, come evening, three big, black recently erected arches tell a poetic story that is a delight to contemplate or to enjoy when, in an instant, the trail becomes a river playground! Salmon swim between our feet, we stand on a cracked, windswept sheet of ice, or on logs.
Logs crowd the water, following the river through the forested backcountry to its mouth, where log drivers know how to clear the logjams that have built up. Men jump from one log to another, wielding gaffs (long, steel-tipped poles), to guide the precious wooden cargo on its course. Log driving is part of local history, and it becomes legend with the publication of Félix-Antoine Savard’s Menaud, maître-draveur [Menaud, Master of the River] in 1937. This animated mural, projected on the ground, is the only one that incorporates sound in the installation itself, creating an immersive effect that hooks young and old alike, who will enjoy pretending to be log drivers, jumping from one log to another with an acrobat’s ease before reaching the thought-provoking finale, to the echo of the old Rossignolet sauvage [Wild Nightingale] song.
Ti-Louis l’Aveugle at the Forget Residence
From the log drivers, we move across the Parc du Havre diagonally to the rear of the Musée de Charlevoix where a large brick wall is transformed into a movie screen for this scene, in which one can easily imagine a beggar, a homeless man going from village to village, from house to house, offering to tell a story in exchange for a meal, or a place to spend the night (on a “beggar’s bench,” of course!), stopping at the estate belonging to the Forget family.
It is at Saint-Irénée, on the site where the present-day Domaine Forget stands, that Sir Rodolphe Forget built the imposing summer home of a businessman able to make his fortune in brokerage before going into hydroelectricity, railroads, and shipping, and then into politics as Member of Parliament for Charlevoix. He also supervised the construction of the Hôtel Tadoussac, and the first Manoir Richelieu, then built of wood, and subsequently destroyed by flames. A fate shared by the 16-room summer house equipped with a farm, indoor pool, billiards room, and a bowling alley where his family, his children and his dogs were housed, along with his many visitors. The action that takes place in the scene depicted in this mural (envisioned by Cité Mémoire Charlevoix) takes place in one of the estate’s greenhouses. We see the unlikely encounter between these two people. And finally: the still more improbable encounter of a beluga, swimming in the greenhouse’s imaginary waters!
Remember to download the app for the full Ti-Louis l’Aveugle at the Forget Residence audio experience.
The Muses of Charlevoix
Leaving the chemin du Havre, we retrace our steps a few metres to the rue Richelieu, at once an authentic village with many residents, and a street of gourmet food, full of restaurants. We take a break near the intersection with côte Bellevue [hill], in the Petit Parc de L’Abbé Paul across from the belfry illuminated by a blue glow. Three muses are ready to provide inspiration to those prepared to receive it.
No, these aren’t the mythological Aoede, Melete, and Mneme, though the muse of memory would feel right at home here. Rather, they’re three remarkable women from Charlevoix who left their mark and fought their fights in their own way. Laure Conan, Laure Gaudreault, and Thérèse Casgrain (daughter of Sir Rodolphe Forget), portrayed by some of Quebec’s great actors, appear on three screens in cameos facing each other, talking to each other in a venue beyond time, in an imaginary restaurant. Sitting around a table together, the conversation flows from one to the next, shedding light on the impact made and the heritage passed down by these three great women, one an author, the second a teacher, the third a suffragette and militant feminist. These three muses, nocturnal visitors, inspire the fight for equality, for knowledge, for language, for what we believe in…
Remember to download the app for the full The Muses of Charlevoix audio experience.
Hearts of Gold
Complementing this short tour is a mural across the front of the Casino de Charlevoix. Easily accessible by car, shuttle, or even on foot via the staircase linking the end of the rue du quai to the Hotel Casino de Charlevoix property, this last projection shows nothing but faces. Faces that some locals will recognize, as many people from Charlevoix took part (dressed in period costumes) in the filming, portraying explorers, colonists, as well as vacationers who contributed to building the one-of-a-kind character of this region. Go back in time to see Indigenous peoples’ contributions to Charlevoix, among others, and journey into the present by way of the faces on screen, smiling “hearts of gold” projected on a building which, before becoming the gaming venue it is today, had been (in its heyday) the Manoir Richelieu’s theatre and entertainment room.
That’s it! It’s an experience that impresses, that makes people want to come back again and again. It’s an experience they will leave with a gleam in their eye, a spring in their step, and humming that old log-driver’s tune, Rossignolet sauvage in the silence of a La Malbaie summer night!
Under the initiative of Marie-Christine Dufour, President of the Board of Directors at the Musée de Charlevoix, Cité Mémoire, featuring more than 25 works in the territory of the City of Montreal, has set up its projectors and, most of all, has put its creators talents to use reliving Charlevoix’s memories.
A multidisciplinary artist trained in theatre production, Michel Lemieux creates innovative shows and artistic installations. Simultaneously a designer, set designer, producer, composer, performer, and director, he integrates these various facets into the projects he has a hand in. A pioneer when it comes to using technology, he has worked in multimedia since the beginning of the 1990s. Notably, he collaborated in the creation of Starmania Opéra, in the creation of four Cirque du Soleil shows including Toruk and Delirium. Today, he’s putting his creative genius to work with the creation of the Cité Mémoire Charlevoix circuit.
A prolific writer of plays performed and translated into more than 20 languages, Michel Marc Bouchard is a creator with a firmly established reputation, among the many prizes, honourable mentions, and adaptation of his plays to the screen, including “Tom at the Farm” directed by Xavier Dolan and recipient of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice International Film Festival. Here, he has used his pen in the service of the Cité Mémoire Charlevoix's circuits.
