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Benoît Côté

Biography

Originally trained in composition, Benoît Côté holds a doctorate in music. A versatile artist, he evolves in literary, theatrical and musical worlds. He has published three novels, all acclaimed by critics and the public alike, as well as an essay that was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards in 2017. For theatre and dance, he has composed numerous musical scores heard here and abroad, and he himself has performed on stage as a musician-actor, namely in the documentary play Run de lait, which has been very successful all over Quebec. Also an educator, Benoît is very active in cultural mediation. He is the director of Cosimu, an organization whose mission is to develop innovative digital resources that focus on the development of creativity.

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Summary of the project

Kanitau-unahitshesht. Homage to the High Trapper

This Homage to the High Trapper/Kanitau-unahitshesht is an inverted reference to Riopelle’s famous masterpiece L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg, the “high trapper” – Kanitau-unahitshesht in the Ilnu language – a nickname coined by André Breton, leader of the Surrealist movement. To create the series of paintings in L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg, Riopelle took long walks on Isle-aux-Grues and Ile-aux-Oies and collected various objects and fauna and flora samples. He would then place these objects on wooden boards and stencil them with spray paint. The youth of Mashteuiatsh, in the region of Lac-Saint-Jean, will be called upon to apply a similar process to various objects from their immediate environment found on their Indigenous community’s territory to create their own artworks. They will collect sounds from their space and create compositions using fonofone-image, an innovative digital tool developed by project partner Cosimu to combine music and image.

Important dates in 2023 📅

  • June 1st → Launch at Old Convent of Saint-Prime
  • All summer 2023 → Exhibition at the Vieux Couvent of Saint-Prime and the Mashteuiatsh Museum

Related documentation

Video – Kanitau-unahitshesht Homage to the hight trapper
Benoît Côté
Video for the Mashteuiatsh Ilnu Museum
Quebec
20/06/2023
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Kanitau-unahitshesht. Homage to the High Trapper
Benoît Côté
Final exhibition and launch in two locations: Musée Ilnu de Mashteuiatsh ET Galerie du Vieux-Couvent de Saint-Prime.
Quebec
12/06/2023
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Kanitau-unahitshesht. Homage to the High Trapper – Gallery
Benoît Côté
Photos of the project.
Quebec
07/04/2023
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Realized within the framework of the centenary

The creation of the Foundation was inspired by the dream of Jean Paul Riopelle, who wished to pass on his passion for art, his vision and inspire the next generation of artists to explore, innovate and surpass their creative potential.