Updated: October 6, 2025
The rustling leaves, gentle rain, cozy sweaters, and old afternoon movies under a blanket; autumn has that touch of nostalgia. Art evokes emotions, and autumn is the perfect season for melancholy. If autumn has that effect on you too, here’s a visual art circuit that’s sure to make you feel something. Across five areas of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a journey of installations, drawings, photographs, sculptures, paintings, and more awaits. Let yourself be carried by the emotions these visits inspire.
L'Abitibi-Témiscamingue sur vinyle, by Félix B. Desfossés
Centre d’art de La Sarre
September 11 to november 28, 2025
A music journalist since 2005, Félix B. Desfossés is known for his contagious passion for music history and local cultural news. Splitting his time between Rouyn-Noranda and Montreal, he juggles research, radio segments, and projects that spotlight Quebec talent. If you listen to ICI Musique or Radio-Canada Première, his voice probably rings a bell.
Among his standout projects is ''L’Abitibi-Témiscamingue sur vinyle''. Launched in 2017, this installation brings the region’s musical heritage back to life, especially that of Abitibi-Ouest. It features records, instruments, stage costumes, and everything that evokes the vibrant music scene from the 1940s to the 1980s. Thanks to QR codes, visitors can even listen to excerpts and immerse themselves in the sounds of the vinyl era.
The exhibit highlights iconic figures like Dany Aubé, Raoul Duguay, and Diane Tell, and showcases a rich variety of styles, from rock to country. For Félix, this project is a way to remind us that when it comes to creativity, Quebec has nothing to envy from anyone.
With this initiative, he hopes to breathe new life into forgotten musical treasures and rekindle pride in our musical culture: a beautiful way to revisit our identity through the voices, rhythms, and stories that have shaped the region.
Itinérants, by Mary Hayes
Centre d’exposition d’Amos
September 26 to November 16, 2025
With ''Itinérants'', artist Mary Hayes offers a sensitive and powerful response to the climate crisis and all it brings: war, displacement, loss, extinction. Her characters wander through a changing world, shaken by both physical and emotional upheaval. Color becomes a language, bridging the external world with our inner landscapes: our fears, hopes, moments of calm, and storms.
Through her paintings, Mary Hayes tells a deeply human odyssey, a search for safety, for refuge, for a sense of “home” in a world in constant motion.
Photo courtesy: Centre d’exposition d’Amos
Àgua Viva, by Marcella França
Centre d’exposition d’Amos
September 26 to november 23, 2025
Photo courtesy: Centre d’exposition d’Amos
With ''Água Viva / L’eau vivante'', Brazilian-Canadian artist Marcella França invites us into an immersive multimedia experience that explores our deep connection with water. Through works that are physical, metaphysical, and emotional, she encourages reflection on the climate crisis and the impact of global warming on this vital element, and on our lives. Some pieces also explore the link between the exploitation of nature and that of women’s bodies, raising profound questions about respect, vulnerability, and strength.
The exhibition aims to create an emotional connection between the audience and these pressing issues, using technology as a bridge to a sensory and conscious experience. A space where water becomes a mirror, not only of the planet, but of ourselves.
Un jardin la nuit, by Caroline Hayeur and D. Kimm
Le Centre d’exposition du Rift
September 26 to November 15, 2025
Created by photographer Caroline Hayeur and interdisciplinary artist D. Kimm, ''Un Jardin la nuit'' is an immersive exhibition where images, sound, and poetry converge. Large-scale video projections are accompanied by the dreamy, festive music of Guido Del Fabbro and a series of 26 black-and-white photographs printed on fabric.
Over five years, the artists filmed the night using infrared trail cameras, capturing hundreds of hours of footage in the countryside of Montcerf (Outaouais) and in a Montreal garden. The result is a rare glimpse into nocturnal life: deer, raccoons, a fox, a rabbit, caught in their own world, as vegetation continues its cycle, far from human eyes. The whole experience unfolds as a black-and-white visual poem, sometimes surreal, where strange objects, ghostly presences, and even an animated firefly by Claude Cloutier appear.
Mysterious, touching, and playful, Un Jardin la nuit invites visitors of all ages on a journey of wonder, curiosity, and that little shiver we feel when night transforms the places we thought we knew. A dreamlike experience, suspended between reality and imagination.
Dialogue V : art sámi et inuit
Musée d’art de Rouyn-Noranda
November 02 to January 12, 2025
For the fifth edition of the “Dialogue” series, co-curators Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau and Vanessa Bell shine a light on the work of Inuit women artists from Nunavik and Sámi women artists from the Norwegian territory.
To create this artistic encounter, they traveled to the Sámi Dáiddaguovddáš (Sámi Centre for Contemporary Art) in Karasjok, where they discovered the work of Máret Ánne Sara and Marte Lill Somby. Through conversations, walks on the land, and shared moments over tea or meals, a dialogue emerged with Inuit artists Niap, Prim, and Ulivia Uviluk, giving rise to a unique body of work at the crossroads of cultures and lived experiences.
As everywhere in the world, cultures evolve, and so does art. Traditional motifs are now joined by political, environmental, and feminist concerns. This exhibition aims to go beyond clichés and present the voices of women whose work blends innovation and tradition. At the heart of the project is the Sámi concept of daiddaduodji, which merges traditional craft (duodji) with contemporary art (dáidda).
Dialogue V also highlights how the fate of Indigenous women is deeply tied to the lands they inhabit and the animals that share those spaces, revealing a powerful parallel between colonial history, the body, and the natural world.
![Crédit photo: NIAP, Uncategory 11 Land [Non-catégorie 11 Territoire], 2019, pigment d’impression d’archives et acrylique sur papier.](https://abitibi-temiscamingue.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/dialogue v-artsamietinuit-niap.jpg)
« My connection with Indigenous Peoples is a dream I’ve cherished for decades. This visionary and unifying project fits perfectly into my path—one that ventures off the beaten track, driven by a desire to break down creative boundaries and to bring people together, guide, share, and shine a light. »
Jean-Claude Poitras, C.M., O.Q., ChoM, multidisciplinary designer and visual artist.
TRESSAGES, by Jean-Claude Poitras: Encounters with Indigenous Nations
VOART Centre d’exposition de Val-d’Or
October 10 to november 9, 2025
With ''TRESSAGES'', the VOART Exhibition Centre in Val-d’Or presents a unique co-creation process that brought together, over six months, artists from the 11 Indigenous Nations of Quebec alongside multidisciplinary designer and visual artist Jean-Claude Poitras and his team. Together, they explored the connections between identity, memory, culture, and haute couture.
Each artist imagined a piece inspired by their personal and cultural story, which was then transformed into a fully realized work of art. The result: 11 powerful and distinctive creations that spark a dialogue between Indigenous traditions and the world of contemporary fashion.
« My connection with Indigenous Peoples is a dream I’ve cherished for decades. This visionary and unifying project fits perfectly into my path—one that ventures off the beaten track, driven by a desire to break down creative boundaries and to bring people together, guide, share, and shine a light. » explains Jean-Claude Poitras, C.M., O.Q., ChoM, multidisciplinary designer and visual artist.
Through these works, TRESSAGES celebrates clothing as a form of identity and artistic expression. The public is invited to discover garments that carry stories, born from the meeting of Jean-Claude Poitras’s archival creations and the contemporary vision of multidisciplinary Indigenous artists.
An exhibition where every thread tells a story, every pattern holds a memory.
Photo courtesy: KWE!
TRILOGIE
VOART Centre d’exposition de Val-d’Or
October 10 to november 30, 2025
Born from a partnership between the Val-d’Or Conservatory of Music, the VOART Exhibition Centre of Val-d’Or, and the Festival de contes et légendes en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, ''TRILOGIE'' is a transdisciplinary project where the arts respond to one another. Each visual artwork—whether pictorial, sculptural, installation-based, or digital—was paired with a storyteller and a musician. Together, they brought to life five original creations where image, voice, and sound intertwine to create a unique sensory universe.
During the Festival de contes et légendes (October 16–19, 2025), the works will be presented “in progress,” outside the walls of the exhibition centre. They will then be fully showcased at the VOART Exhibition Centre in Val-d’Or.
The five artist trios in action:
- Christian Ponton (visual art), Pierre Labrèche (storytelling), Félix Dion (music) Dominic Lafontaine (visual art), Louise Magnant (storytelling), Eve-Emmanuelle Girard (music) Geneviève Hardy (visual art), Marta Saenz de la Calzada (storytelling), Ekaterina Mikhaylova-Tremblay (music) Julie Mercier (visual art), Claude Boutet (storytelling), Pete Chamberland (music) Sabrina Forget-Matte (visual art), Céline Lafontaine (storytelling), Marie-Elaine Dontigny Morin (music)
TRILOGIE is an invitation to experience art differently: where creation becomes encounter, story, and shared emotion.
Échos oniriques : Exploration des rêves, by Thibault Laget-Ro
VOART Centre d’exposition de Val-d’Or
October 10 to november 30, 2025
Continuing his exploration of migratory flows between Central and North America, Thibault Laget-Ro turns his attention to the notion of the Garden of Eden as a promised land. Through this reflection, he sheds light on the paradoxical reality faced by many South American agricultural workers employed by North American growers in California or Texas: achieving their dream, only to become enslaved by it in order to survive.
Beyond the Garden of Eden evokes a dreamlike realm, rich in symbols and stories, where dreamers escape to explore a world without borders. The artist expresses the emotional ambivalence felt when a goal is seemingly reached: a mix of fulfillment and disillusionment.
His vibrant, colorful works give nature a central role, serving as a metaphor for the field of possibilities. The faceless figures he portrays become universal reflections of humanity, anonymous, yet familiar.
Six of his works will be presented in public spaces in Val-d’Or, along the bike path on boulevard Jean-Jacques Cossette and on the façade of the Complexe culturel Marcel-Monette (600, 7e Rue, Val-d’Or).
« This final exhibition is a tribute to those taken slowly by Alzheimer’s disease, like an invisible force that erases the leaves, branches, roots, and bark of the tree. »
Jacques Pelletier
Ils étaient autrefois… des arbres…, by Jacques Pelletier
VOART Centre d’exposition de Val-d’Or
October 10 to november 30, 2025
Jacques Pelletier presents ''Ils étaient autrefois... des arbres...', a series of sculptures shaped from driftwood. Through this body of work, the artist offers a poetic and emotional reflection on the painful transformation of a loved one—someone who, like an uprooted tree, becomes driftwood carried by the waves of forgetfulness.
“This final exhibition is a tribute to those taken slowly by Alzheimer’s disease, like an invisible force that erases the leaves, branches, roots, and bark of the tree.” explains Jacques Pelletier.
L’art caché de nos aîné.es, group exhibition
VOART Centre d’exposition de Val-d’Or
October 10 to november 30, 2025
“L'art caché de nos aîné.es” shines a light—for the very first time—on the previously unseen artistic creations of seniors from the community. Initiated by Daniel Aubé, a community outreach worker for seniors, this exhibition extends the Seniors’ Week celebrations in Val-d’Or (October 1–7, 2025).
Often created quietly, simply for the joy of making, these works reflect a remarkable legacy of sensitivity, memory, and talent—revealing the artistic richness of our fellow citizens.
Nous continuons à couler dans un corps aqueux, by Lina Choi
Écart
August 28 to october 26, 2025
It all starts with almost nothing: first, a curiosity for sound. Then, the seemingly simple purchase of a portable recorder. And finally, a question arises: What do I want to record? The answer soon follows: I want to record water.
Thus begins Lina Choi’s exploration, which, through artist residencies and performances, leads her into the creation of soundscapes. These take shape through falling rain and flowing rivers, seeking to uncover the mystery behind the sense of calm that water and its melodies evoke in us.
During her time at L’Écart, the artist reflects on the origin of this fascination with water, which she connects to the universal—yet memoryless—experience of prenatal life. By crafting a structure that mimics the shape of a uterus, within which she will broadcast sounds captured from nearby waterways, Lina Choi attempts to recreate that intimate world that precedes our contact with the outside world, inviting the public to immerse themselves in it.
Through this layering of maternal waters and the natural waters we encounter daily, the artist hopes to spark conversation and gather stories that illuminate our relationship with water—and help restore the bond that connects us to it.
— Text by Gabrielle Izaguirré Falardeau
Roca Daurada, by Carol Priego
Écart
August 28 to october 26, 2025
Rooted in social and ecological struggles, Carol Priego’s practice here turns toward the conceptualization of landscape, exploring the often porous boundary between the land itself and its representation. Drawn to experimental photographic methods, the artist questions the role of images produced and exported in contexts of colonization and natural resource exploitation. She interrogates the impact of these images on the collective imagination and how they may contribute to legitimizing acts of cultural and territorial dispossession. How are horizons altered and defined by human presence, even as they emerge from it? What can we learn from archives and the narratives they construct?
This time, Carol Priego experiments with the concept of the daguerreotype, whose production relies on materials extracted from the earth. In the specific case of Rouyn-Noranda—where the earliest visual archives were captured using this technique—the very metals used to immortalize the landscape are the same ones extracted from the ground, and which now contaminate it. By linking landscape and its imagery, the artist also explores the living nature and memory of the land. What is revealed in the visible and invisible traces—human, historical, and sometimes toxic—that run through its layers?
During her residency at L’Écart, Carol Priego is conducting research around the idea of a giant daguerreotype, which she reinterprets using raw materials—wood and copper—to create a hyperbolic representation of the landscape and its embodiment as a political subject. Through conversations and shared stories, the work will, in turn, likely become a landscape itself.
— Text by Gabrielle Izaguirré Falardeau
Pérambulations, by Andes A. Beaulé and Gabrielle Izaguirré Falardeau
Écart
August 28 to october 26, 2025
For the past two years, Éditions du Quartz and L’Écart have shared the same space. Wanting to take the idea of cohabitation even further, Marie Noëlle and Audrée, directors of each organization, joined forces for an interdisciplinary collaboration: ''Pérambulations''.
Like a walk through unfamiliar territory, ''Pérambulations'' offers fertile ground for encounters, discovery, occasional detours—and certainly, learning. Conceived as a dialogue between two artists and their respective practices, the project initiates a correspondence between writer Gabrielle Izaguirré-Falardeau and visual artist Andes Beaulé.
Together, they will exchange ideas around shared themes, questioning the notion of home and everything that surrounds it. In a context of major upheavals, multiple crises, and growing inequalities, what does it mean to be at home? Is it a reality accessible to all? An inalienable right? A pretext for intolerance or a lever for hospitality? An idea to be redefined? A community more than a place?
Through reflections, testimonies, conversations, and the paths they travel, ideas will emerge—texts, an exhibition, perhaps even a book—but above all, a space and a process of exploration without a fixed destination, guided first and foremost by curiosity for the other and for what inhabits them.
— Text by Gabrielle Izaguirré Falardeau
Whether alone, with your niece, your grandfather, or Aunt Huguette, I invite you to explore a new artistic universe. The discovery of works often triggers meaningful exchanges with oneself or the person accompanying you. And in terms of themes, mediums, and galleries, Abitibi-Témiscamingue has plenty to offer this autumn!
