LE FOLK SALE DE SAINTE-ROSE-DU-NORD: EXCÈS, EXTASE ET BOUETTE
[THE FOLK SALE OF SAINTE-ROSE-DU-NORD: EXCESS, ECSTASY AND MUD]
2013
The Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay 2013 invited Caroline Hayeur to fill a dual role as its spokesperson and exhibiting photographer. In its 4th edition, the Festival was largely dedicated to news events covered by local and international female photojournalists.
“Today’s photojournalist is merely an insatiable troubadour traveling towns and villages, relating stories whose images are imbued with authenticity and poetry. He carries in his backpack the poor, the rebellious, the eccentric, the extreme, the brief and the stories of left-behinds. The social injustices.
And people want to see these stories; they are fond of them. I even think that they need this itinerant photographer who informs us and confronts us through his quest for the mass media play less and less the role of producer. To pick from online discount image banks, the picture is relegated to a simple illustration plated on a text. It is therefore important to find spaces of independent distribution. To share his vision, the troubadour needs the walls of galleries, of virtual spaces and of course, of festivals.”
– Caroline Hayeur, excerpt Looking for a better view, 2013
La Pulperie de Chicoutimi /Regional Museum, Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay, 2013 © Caroline Hayeur
From the very start of the project, Hayeur’s guiding principle was “a great adventure can start in your own backyard.” And she has continued to develop this powerful concept throughout her career, as evidenced by her series RITUEL FESTIF, AMALGAMAT, and HUMANITAS.
Just a few months before the Zoom Photo Festival, Hayeur literally immersed herself in the Fabuleux Festival du Folk Sale,* an event held in Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, a small town in the heart of the Saguenay mountains and fjord. For one weekend each year, the village of 150 permanent residents swells with thousands of festival-goers.
Hayeur’s immersion in this battlefield is total—and while there may not be any bullets, the sparks still fly. Her images bear witness to the joyful, packed crowds of revelers. The Folk Sale offers a wide range of compelling activities to shoot: parades with plenty of fanfare, a battery of old and new musical instruments, bonfires, colourful costumes, friendly Viking battles. Hayeur captures the before, during and after of the festivities: moments of elation, release and contemplation. Behind the scenes, the region’s picturesque landscape contrast sharply with the festival’s raucous events. The surreal, frozen-in-time village of Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, while seemingly spared from the activities, sees itself—through Folk Sale—as a quirky and free interpretation of the myth of Arcadia.
La Pulperie de Chicoutimi / Regional Museum, Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay, 2013 © Caroline Hayeur
“Nature breathes new life and energy into those who set foot in this tiny mountain village, dampened by the fjord and hidden from view. From far away or around the corner, open-hearted revelers have come together at Saint-Rose-du-Nord for the three-day Fabuleux Festival International du Folk Sale 2013.
By the hundreds, outsiders, lovers of life, street artists, circus performers, colourful or dark characters, the barefoot and the barely clothed, musicians, gypsies and punks trample through muddy fields. At this event, labels and taboos disappear, while music, love, liquids and opiates flow freely.
The hours fly by, the Sun replaces the Moon, and the bonfires never die. At its peak: a twilight climax under fireworks or at the heart of a throbbing crowd. Between two frenzied songs, a stolen kiss with a mud-faced stranger.
You danced, you screamed, you loved.” – Marielle Couture, reporter and resident of Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, 2013
La Pulperie de Chicoutimi / Regional Museum, Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay, 2013 © Caroline Hayeur
*The Folk Sale, in its 2nd edition, offers “supersized parties”: music concerts, circus performances, pyrotechnics, and more, all entirely outdoors. One of the Folk Sale’s unique characteristics is that it’s eco-friendly; it is managed by Art Salé and by Coopérative Coup d’griffe.
LE FOLK SALE DE SAINTE-ROSE-DU-NORD: EXTASE, EXCÈS ET BOUETTE
[THE FOLK SALE OF SAINTE-ROSE-DU-NORD: EXCESS, ECSTASY AND MUD]
Technical description:
40 framed digital prints, 60 x 40 cm (24 x 16 in.) each
Exhibition history:
2013 – La Pulperie de Chicoutimi / Regional Museum, 4th edition of the Zoom Photo festival Saguenay, MEETING INTERNATIONAL DE PHOTOJOURNALISME / INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF PHOTOJOURNALISM, Oct. 29 to Nov. 24, 2013
Zoom – Caroline Hayeur
La Pulperie de Chicoutimi/ Musée régional
