Noémie Fortin –

October 2023 

Douglas and Maude have just left their first week in residence at La Généreuse farm, where RURART welcomed them. Under the care of Amélie Lemay-Choquette, the instigator and artistic director of the organization that works at the crossroads of art and agriculture, the artists were invited to slow down the pace of daily life to make room for creation.

Among the small things that marked this first stay, I’ll note a few here: walking together in silence, sharing dinner in the orchard, making simple gestures with matter, drawing, reading, listening to the land – the wind, the stream, the rain, but also the tractors, the shooting range, the scratching of rodents, the traffic on route 108, the laughter of neighbors – lying in the dead leaves, picking up fallen apples, dressing in orange to explore the trails during hunting season, meeting a curious young deer and so on. Thus, this slowdown was marked by the desire to wrap oneself in a cocoon and the intention to enter into a relationship with others, as well as with the site.

Before departing for Montreal, the artists visited the ArtLab and the gallery to imagine, together, the possible crossovers between their practices that would continue to take shape throughout the residency, leading up to the exhibition.