Free (service charges apply)
About the event
La Nuit des idées is an annual international event that invites cultural institutions to come together to celebrate the free flow of ideas and knowledge. An initiative of the Consulate General of France in Quebec City, in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the event’s 2023 edition will explore the theme “More?” through the lens of environmental issues. The debate will encourage a reflection on the role of culture in raising environmental awareness, mobilizing citizens, and developing strategies for action or change in response to these challenges.
About the panelists
Alice Audouin is a pioneer in the relationship between art and sustainable development. She is the founder and chair of Art of Change 21, created in 2014. She organized the first international colloquium on the theme “The Artist as Stakeholder” at UNESCO in 2004, and co-founded the association COAL in 2008. In addition to curating exhibitions focusing on the links between art and the environment (Novacène, 2022, Biocenosis21, 2021, etc.), she is also a consultant in sustainable development specializing in the cultural and luxury sectors. Alice Audouin has over 100 interventions to her credit, notably at the European Parliament, UNESCO, the Centre Pompidou, etc. She recently published Novacène. Art & Climate Crisis (FR-EN) (Éditions Lord Byron).
Bénédicte Ramade is an art historian, art critic and independent curator specializing in environmental issues. In Quebec, she curated the inaugural exhibition of the Grantham Foundation for the Arts and the Environment (Apparaître – Disparaître, 2019) and an exhibition of works by Anahita Norouzi, winner of the 2021 Grantham Foundation award. In France, the Centre Pompidou, in partnership with UQAM, put her in charge of developing its open online course on art and ecology, for which she presented three films. Her book Vers un art anthropocène. L’art écologique Américain pour prototype, published by Les Presses du réel in September 2022, elaborates on her doctoral thesis on ecological art by introducing an Anthropocene perspective. After 10 years teaching at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, she is currently a lecturer in art history at Université de Montréal and at UQAM’s School of Visual and Media Arts.
French contemporary artist Vincent Laval, born in 1991, grew up a few dozen metres from the Carnelle Forest in the north of Île-de-France and has nurtured a strong connection with the forest since his childhood. His approach is that of an “artist-walker-gatherer.” During his long walks in the heart of the forest, the young artist collects pieces of trees, stones, moments, images and emotions that then become part of his sculptures and photographs.
Aude Porcedda is a professor at the Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières and director of Collection 21 at Éditions Hermann (Paris). Her work focuses on sustainable change management and the relationship between health and culture through the issue of universal accessibility in museums. Her approach calls for going beyond the traditional distinction between values in practice and stated values and she advocates for considering the museum as an organization in its own right; a relational museology.
About the partner
The Consulate General of France in Quebec City oversees and manages the relationship between France and Quebec, primarily through rich political and economic exchanges and, more broadly, through a constant dialogue between leaders and civil society on contemporary issues. Through its cultural action, the Consulate General of France in Quebec City advises, conceives, develops and promotes Franco-Quebec artistic and cultural projects, with a particular emphasis on youth, digital technology and innovation.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Location: Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium, 1379-A Sherbrooke Street West
