Culture pour tous

The Billy Goat of Notre-Dame

Students’ mascot celebrates the 31^st tacon-site, at the
Économusée de la lainerie in Saint-Fulgence, in the land of the Ouananiche

In September 2010, the 31^st tacon-site was inaugurated at Le Chevrier du Nord, Économusée de la lainerie, in Saint-Fulgence. A “tacon” is a parr, or young salmon before it migrates to the sea. And a tacon-site is what Alain Laroche and Jocelyn Maltais, of the artists collective Interaction Qui, call the 60 stone sculptures that will eventually mark a salmon‑shaped circuit in the Saguenay– Lac‑Saint‑Jean region.

Creative Residency at School Produces the Billy Goat of Notre-Dame

Le Chevrier du Nord, a farm that raises goats and makes mohair clothing, is now home to the Tacon‑site des fibres naturelles. This 31^st tacon-site highlights the importance of wool production in the history and identity of the region. It stems from a creative residency at school by Stéfany Tremblay, an artist who is interested in natural fibre and textile techniques and has experience in creating masks and costumes. She previously collaborated with Interaction Qui on the Tacon-site de la fécondité in Hébertville-Station. In September 2010, she began working with elementary students at École Notre-Dame and suggested they undertake a collective identity project: creating a mascot symbolizing drive and determination. It would be a goat, with real goat hair.

“We needed a project related to the theme,” says Alain Laroche. “We envisaged something that would be fun and intergenerational, combining tradition and innovation.” Le Chevrier du Nord donated the raw materials and provided the expertise. The students met with members of Le Cercle de Fermières Sainte-Marie d’Isle-Maligne, who gave them an introduction to felt-making, weaving and knitting. Supervised by Stéfany Tremblay, who coordinated the creation of the mascot’s costume, they experimented with natural dyes and learned about the wool-making process, from fleece to fabric.

The activity was a huge success. The students are proud of their billy goat and felt honoured to wear the costume. Some of the teachers are even thinking of developing an entrepreneurial project based on handcrafted fibres, like other schools in the region have done with soap or paper.

On Friday during Les Journees de la culture 2010, the students set up booths in the school gym to demonstrate their new skills. Bertrand Bergeron came to read La Bergère de pierres, a tale he had written for the Tacon-site des fibres naturelles, and the students then presented their billy goat mascot clothed in wool and textile fibres. The following day, they put on the same demonstration for the general public at the regional history centre La Maison des bâtisseurs.

Interaction Qui often involves students in developing the tacon-sites. “We work in small communities of about a thousand people, and elementary schools are a key part of village life,” explains Alain Laroche. “We reach the parents and the rest of the community through the students.” However, this was the collective’s first experience with having an artist in residence at a school, made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts’ Artists and Community Collaboration Program.

La Grande Marche des Tacons-Sites – A Work in Progress

With this initiative, the artists are doing more than marking a geographical territory. They are, in their own way, celebrating the region’s animal emblem, the ouananiche, a landlocked salmon found in Lac Saint-Jean. They are also nourishing a rich regional mythology with the help of Bertrand Bergeron, an ethnologist, author and expert on popular arts and traditions who is contributing to the project through his writings about Ti-Jean in the land of the Ouananiche, whose 60-league strides correspond to the 60 steps in the circuit once it is completed. The artists are also encouraging community involvement in each of the tacon‑sites, which are hosted by partners in the social, recreational or tourist sector and are based on themes such as the family, sowing, writing, traditional crafts, transcendence, sharing, water, music, paper, etc.

The collective Interaction Qui resulted from the meeting of painter Alain Laroche and sculptor Jocelyn Maltais, who started collaborating in the 1980s based on a shared desire to make social art and to work with people. When the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region adopted the ouananiche as its official animal emblem in 1988, they were invited to come up with an artistic event to perpetuate this symbol. In keeping with their artistic orientation, they thought, “Why not spread this monument throughout the region?”

Interaction Qui created the first tacon-site in 1995. To express the theme of regional solidarity, rocks collected by citizens of Larouche, which was celebrating its centenary, were transported to the grounds of Auberge Île du Repos in the municipality of Péribonka, some 30 kilometres away, where they were placed in a wire structure in the shape of a ouananiche. Various other projects were subsequently carried out using the tacon (parr) emblem, including a virtual spawning ground, commemorative monuments and an ongoing forum.

In 2005, the duo was approached again by Séquence, an artist-run centre in Chicoutimi (Saguenay). “With the idea of associating an identity theme with the tacon‑sites, the project really took off,” says Alain Laroche. Adding a fantastic element, Bertrand Bergeron began writing his Contes du Pays de la Ouananiche, a collection of 60 tales, one for each site in the circuit, or Grande Marche des Tacons-Sites, as it is called.

Seen from the sky, the line connecting all the sites traces the outline of a giant ouananiche – a wonderful illustration of the project’s goal of promoting solidarity among the region’s municipalities. “We’re trying to have it touch as many communities as possible,” says Alain Laroche. “We see it as a social sculpture. From the outset, we wanted to help revitalize the region, which is why we decided to associate its animal emblem with our projects.” At this stage in its development, the parr can be placed in the rivers, where it can grow into a smolt and eventually a mature ouananiche.

In 2007, Interaction Qui received the Prix Citoyen de la culture presented by the organization Les Arts et la Ville in partnership with l’Union des municipalités du Québec. “The award opened doors for us,” says Alain Laroche. “Dialogue was generally fairly easy with the partners but much harder with the politicians, who were not quick to grasp the project’s potential for the region.” Receiving an award from a group of municipalities was recognition that permitted faster deployment of the project.

After 35 years in teaching, the last 30 in computer art and technology at the Cégep d’Alma, Alain Laroche, with his long-time collaborator, Jocelyn Maltais, is now focusing on completing the entire Grande Marche des Tacons-Sites by 2013, in time for the 175^th anniversary of the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region and the 25^th anniversary of the adoption of the ouananiche as its official animal emblem. To mark the occasion, Interaction Qui would love to put on a fireworks display, with each tacon-site lit up so as to form an enormous ouananiche that could be seen from space!

Six projects are already planned for 2011, and author Bertrand Bergeron, hard at work on his 44^th tale, is making great strides, like Ti-Jean leaving the imprint of his giant steps behind him.