Culture pour tous

Hisser haut!

A lyrical and conceptual evocation of the Saint Lawrence river

As part of the 2009 edition of the Journées de la culture, hundreds of small sails were perched over the rue Cul‑de‑Sac in Québec City, each one displaying a thought, a message or a memory related to the Saint Lawrence river.

During the 2009 Journées de la culture 2009 (September 25 to 27), in the bucolic and historical setting of the rue Cul‑de‑Sac in Québec City, the artists Mathieu Gotti and Isabelle Veilleux created the project Hisser haut!, a participative installation actively supported by the artisans of the Vert Tuyau cooperative and backed by the Coopérative de solidarité du Quartier Petit‑Champlain.

The artists, both of who are members of Vert Tuyau, organized the suspension over the street, at 6 m (20 ft) from the ground, of 500 small white sails measuring 12 x 23 cm (5 x 9 in) each one of which displayed message or memory that visitors of the Quartier Petit Champlain wrote while thinking about the St. Lawrence river.

The project is closely linked to the history of the neighbourhood and its rue Cul-de-Sac, formerly the havre Cul-de-Sac, a natural bay formed by the St. Lawrence river. The long maritime history of the neighbourhood fostered its development, as much as it contributed to its decline with the moving of the commercial port and the widening of boulevard Champlain which made it possible to pass around the cape on the summit of which the château Frontenac overlooks.

Hisser haut! is the result of a call launched by the Quartier Petit Champlain cooperative in order to select a suitable activity for the Journées de la culture. Mathieu Gotti and Isabelle Veilleux proposed a sketch that immediately won over the partners. The project provided an occasion to dialogue with the public, to evoke the maritime character of the site and to highlight the charm of the rue du Cul‑de‑Sac—one of the city’s most photographed streets.

The Quartier Petit Champlain cooperative financed the project, with the support of the Quebec City Caisse populaire Desjardins, who made it possible to cover the costs of the ingenious cable contraption to suspend the sails over the street.

Mathieu Gotti had the idea of using the 5 permanently installed aerial cable, which are normally used to hang publicity banners during the holiday season or for other events. With friends and members of the cooperative the artists used this structure to attach nearly 300 meters (1,000 ft) of iron wire on to which they fixed—at 50 cm (2 ft) intervals—a wire and a snap hook making it possible to suspend 500 small 12 x 23 cm (5 x 9 ft) sails cut out of sailcloth. Only the messages were missing now.

The Petit Champlain neighbourhood is regularly filled with crowds of passers-by, people from Québec, of course, as well as quite a few tourists from Europe, the US or Asia, among other places. During the Journées de la culture Isabelle Veilleux and Mathieu Gotti set up at a table on the street. They then welcomed people by explaining the project and inviting them to write a personal message, an evocation of the river in testimonial form on one of the 500 sails provided to this end. “People sometimes had the impression that they were writing to the river,” Isabelle Veilleux recounted, “but often they were also quite happy to just express a message verbally to relate an anecdote or a memory.” A few blank sails dissimulated among the installation evoked these lost words.

At the end of the afternoon the sails were hoisted one after the other over the street at 6 m (20 ft) from the ground. The overall effect resembled a floating mobile and recalled the high tide, with the sails creating a pleasing jangle as they waltzed in the wind. In the evening, on Friday and Saturday, a light projection on this poetic installation brought the work to life by creating a colourful movement—a light dancing on water.

The co-creator of the event along with Isabelle Veilleux, Mathieu Gotti spent a part of his life on a boat sailing on the Mediterranean. Maritime culture is something he’s no stranger to. After studying fine arts and environmental design in France, he immigrated to Quebec City in 2005 and took up studies at the École des métiers d'art, which offers a practice-based program, an important factor given the site-specific nature of his artistic approach. For her part, Isabelle Veilleux, who holds a diploma from the same school, is trained in textile construction. As a tandem they are very active in their milieu, notably as part of the Vert Tuyau cooperative, the GOGO collective, the Groupe Artistique Portneuvois, Folie/Culture, etc.

And what will they do with these messages now that the installation no longer exists? The mystery remains. While Mathieu Gotti was dismantling the installation a passer-by asked him if he could keep one of the messages, which the artist refused. “It’s people’s collective intelligence that made this project possible. We must conserve this collection.” Given the two artists’ multidisciplinary practice we can rest assured that they will put the collection to good use in the near future….