Portraits of Women in Imagined Landscapes – 2014, 2018, 2021
Maison d’Haïti, Coopérative d'habitation Santisouk, Centre d’Apprentissage Parallèle
A collaborative project by Caroline Hayeur and interdisciplinary artist D. Kimm, produced by Les Filles électriques, this series of cultural mediation activities offers unique portrait sessions to women members of different community organizations. The concept aims to enhance participants’ self-image through a fun experience. Photographed against a white background, the women’s images are then digitally transposed against colourful, imaginary landscapes. Each portrait is carried out in close collaboration with the participants, creating a sense of unity among those involved. Since 2014, the series has been adapted to both immigrant communities and marginalized populations.
Each cultural mediation activity is exhibited in a nearby location, thereby facilitating access for the participants’ local community.
Les Filles électriques |
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The Plateau of Dîners Saint-Louis – 2020
An exhibition at the Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal
This cultural mediation project led to a group exhibition titled Le Plateau de Dîners Saint-Louis. Initiated by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), the project invited six young adults who frequent Dîners Saint-Louis (a community organization serving homeless or at-risk 18 to 30 year-olds) to take part in a series of workshops. Over the summer of 2019, they practiced the art of street photography and image editing software, while also learning about the city’s cultural heritage. “The project seeks to give visibility to at-risk youth in the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood. The goal is to raise public awareness about their daily lives and the important place they have within the community, while also offering a different perspective on this neighbourhood and its history.” – BanQ
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Accompanied by photographer Caroline Hayeur, the participants first took photographs of the area and then paired these images with archival photos from the BAnQ collection. Through access to computer equipment and software at Le Square, the BAnQ’s digital creation lab, participants learned to edit their images. The participants created their own vision of the Plateau by juxtaposing past and present images of sites that are meaningful to them. Neighbourhood life, nature in the city, and comparing the Plateau of today and yesterday are just some of the themes they explored.
Participants: Carl, Justin, Éric, Kevin, Mario and Roméo BAnQ: Jules-Antoine Demers, New Technologies technician (Le Square, Department of Youth Services and Media Experimentation), Marie-Pierre Gadoua, Social Mediation Project Manager (Department of Communications and Programming) Dîners Saint-Louis: Jean-Pierre Narcisse, Coordinator, Emmanuella Sanon and Élie Lalonde, Project Managers |
Come to my hood – 2017 // ZOOM ON SAINT-MICHEL – 2018
In parks throughout the Saint-Michel district
As part of their Parks and Public Art Project, Vivre Saint-Michel en santé invited Caroline Hayeur to give photo workshops to members of several community organizations in the Montréal neighbourhood of Saint-Michel: Forum Jeunesse du quartier Saint-Michel, Joujouthèque Saint-Michel, La Maison d’Haïti, and the Centre éducatif et communautaire René-Goupil (CECRG).
These cultural mediation activities were held over several months between 2017 and 2018 and brought together nearly forty adults and youth. Their goal was to highlight the neighbourhood’s positive aspects through the eyes of each participant. |
Visual research was conducted according to a proposed theme. Members of the community were invited to invest themselves in a process of creativity and self-identity, while learning photographic techniques.
The workshops resulted in a series of outdoor exhibitions in several Saint-Michel area parks, including François-Perrault, Champdoré, Sainte-Yvette and Ovila-Légaré. |
ADOLAND: My room is my territory – 2014 to 2021
Photography workshops with local youth
As part of her exhibition ADOLAND, on tour throughout Québec since 2014, Caroline Hayeur has held several youth-oriented cultural mediation activities. Teens aged 12 to 17 are invited to explore the theme of “home,” or more specifically, their own rooms. Through these workshops, participants become familiar with contemporary art and photography, and are coached on how to use a camera and write about their project. Each session is accompanied by a public exhibition of their work.
For the Maison de la culture de Côtes-des-Neiges, in 2014, Caroline Hayeur worked with a French-immersion class at école La Voie. At école secondaire d’Amos and école Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Longueuil, she created a group mosaic with the school’s Art and Technology classes.
ADOLAND |
This workshop is also adapted to the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec’s programme La culture à l’école (Culture in the Schools Program). |
LA VOIE, DÉCLIC ! – 2012 // DÉCLIC 70 – 2013
Photography workshops with École secondaire La Voie
This workshop was held as part of the exhibition Déclic 70, curated by Nicolas Mavrikakis, which was first shown at Galerie SAS in Montréal in 2011. For its second presentation at the Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges, it brought together eleven remarkable documentary photographers from the 1970s in Québec. Drawing her inspiration from this body of work, Caroline Hayeur offered photography workshops for a reception class from école La Voie.
First, a group of 14 students aged 12 to 16 are initiated to photographic techniques (subject, composition, etc.). |
Then, each participant produces documentary style images based on three themes: family, food, and winter. The workshops help students tell a story, edit and assemble their photographs into a mosaic, and sharpen their critical thinking skills.
At the end of the workshop, the Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges hosted the students and their work in an exhibition titled LA VOIE, DÉCLIC! in February 2013. |
DWELLING –THIS IS MY HOME – 2006 // DWELLING – BEYOND MY ROOM - 2011
Photo and video projects with the adolescent community
HABITER was first developed with youth from L’Ouvre Boîte, an after-school drop-in centre in Québec City, as part of a creative residency at VU—Centre de diffusion et de production de la photographie. With disposable cameras in hand, 6 teens took one photograph that represented their ideal “home.” Hayeur then photographed them in their home showing the image that represented their vision of their dream home. The project led to an in situ piece and a public performance in Québec’s Saint-Roch neighbourhood.
In 2011, Alice, Gwenaël, Hamza and Lysandre, four youths from Montréal, helped to produce an interactive project led by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB): HABITER – AU-DELÀ DE MA CHAMBRE. These two cultural mediation projects were realized in collaboration with composer Myléna Bergeron. |
HABITER – AU-DELÀ DE MA CHAMBRE invites us to discover the concerns of youth through photography and audio recordings. Hailing from different neighbourhoods and from different socio- cultural backgrounds, each participant created a series of images based on the themes of family, well-being, and pastimes.
With the support of NFB’s web and interactive media teams, Hayeur’s images, as well as those taken by the participating teens, are set in dialogue to create an immersive virtual journey into the personal space of these four encounters. |
AMALGAT: DANCE, TRADITION AND OTHER SPIRITUALITIES – 2007-2020
Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges and Musée d'art de Joliette
In 2007, during the exhibition of AMALGAT at the Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges in Montréal, Caroline Hayeur led cultural mediation activities with members of a French-immersion class in the neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Over a three-week period, participants attended creative workshops with three different guest artists: Renée Robitaille, story-teller; Christine Germain, poet; Myléna Bergeron, musician. Through writing, listening to sounds, and analyzing images, the group familiarized themselves with the works on view. |
In 2010, AMALGAT was presented at the Musée d’art de Joliette. Caroline Hayeur also led a cultural mediation activity for the Lanaudière community. Workshops were proposed to two local associations that offer dance activities as a social outlet: Ensemble folklorique La Foulée, and the Club Bel Âge seniors’ club.
The resulting blend of traditional dance, line dancing and photography was presented in the form of outdoor banners during the Festival Mémoire et Racines. |
ROOM WITH A VIEW – 2007
Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM) and Culture pour tous
The pilot project “Art au travail” (Art at Work) was initiated by Culture pour tous as part of the 11th edition of the Journées de la culture. Eleven businesses took part by hosting an artist in their workplace. Caroline Hayeur was invited by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal to create a collective photo-based project.
Working with Hayeur, each employee took a photo representing their vision of Montréal. Afterwards, Hayeur photographed the employees and their photo in their offices. |
The combination of images was used to create a “photo clothes line” installed in the ruelle des Fortifications at the World Trade Centre, thus revealing the contrasts and links between public space and work space.
Eighty two employees from the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal took part in this collective work, which was presented on September 28, 2007.
Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain |
DÉCARIE : A COMMUNITY EXHIBITION PROJECT – 2005
Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts and École secondaire Saint-Luc
In response to curator John Zeppetelli’s carte blanche invitation to contribute to the exhibition Décarie: un projet d’exposition communautaire / Décarie: a community exhibition project, Caroline Hayeur produced a photo installation conceived with students from the École secondaire Saint-Luc, which is adjacent to Décarie boulevard.
Photo assignment with students from École Saint-Luc, 2005 © Caroline Hayeur After introducing students to the camera and the fundamentals of photography, the group spent the next twelve hours (from noon to midnight) together. Armed with disposable cameras, they explored the streets of their residential neighbourhood along the autoroute’s edge with the goal of taking a fresh look at familiar surroundings and to document the area’s most striking features. |
The result of their quest was assembled into a large photo mosaic in the geographic shape of their neighbourhood, Côte-des-Neiges, and presented at the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts. Assisted by Hayeur, the students took part in every step of the process leading up to the exhibition, planning and determining the parameters of the installation.
Images produced as part of their workshops were also animated and presented as part of a video-music performance in collaboration with the musician Myléna Bergeron, during a special public presentation. |
STOCK IN HAITI: FIFTEEN YEARS – 2003
Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges and Maison d’Haïti
Following a group exhibition of photographs on Haiti presented at the Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges, Caroline Hayeur organized her first cultural mediation activity – a community photography workshop – in collaboration with Montréal’s Maison d’Haïti
Hayeur accompanied four young street patrollers from the neighbourhood of Saint-Michel, introducing them to the practice of citizen photojournalism. They also visited the offices of Agence Stock Photo and met its members. Disposable cameras in hand, participants drew a portrait of their neighbourhood by documenting the day-to-day lives of the youth they regularly encounter. The photo series was then presented in the foyer of the Maison de la culture de Côte-des-Neiges. |
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