A live creation experience: twelve artists at work, from Quebec, Canada, Switzerland and France.
Lively exchanges and discussions with the artists, live painting sessions, installations, sculptural pieces, artist talks, and more.
The Symposium in Brief
In 1982, Françoise Labbé founded the Symposium international de la jeune peinture du Canada. Now called the International Symposium of Contemporary Art of Baie Saint Paul, this is a unique event in Quebec and recognized across Canada and abroad.
For one month each year, twelve artists from different generations and various disciplines are invited to create an artwork on a chosen theme in full view of the public. The program has recently added talks, artist’s presentations, intriguing kiosks and projections related to the theme.
The Symposium, 39 Years
Over the past 39 years, the Symposium has welcomed more than 500 artists from 30 countries in Europe, America, Asia and Africa.
Many of them are artists of renown, such as Raymonde April, René Derouin, Marc Séguin, Françoise Sullivan and the BGL group from Quebec City. Celebrated Canadian artists that include Rebecca Belmore, Shary Boyle, Tammi Campbell, Herménégilde Chiasson and Graeme Patterson have also presented their work here.
The Symposium also served as a stepping stone for emerging artists. During the last edition, we were able to discover the work of Gillian Dyckeman, Georges Audet, Ann-Karine Bourdeau-Leduc, Jin Hua, the duo Béchard-Hudon, Sylvie Bouchard, Richard Cloutier, Denis Lanteigne, Anne Ardouin, Erica Stoller, Martha Townsend and Sébastien Mügge.
Since 2018, the Symposium is held in its own environment in the Jacques Saint-Gelais Tremblay Pavilion of the MACBSP. After the MACBSP purchased the Thomas-Tremblay School in 2018, artists from around the world are left to create freely in their own workshops !
