EAUX ARTS ELECTRONIQUES ! is the next event proposed by Champ Libre from May 19th to 22nd from 7:00 pm to midnight and the 23rd from 2:00 pm to 9:00 pm, in the Craig Pumping Station, situated under the Jacques-Cartier bridge at the corner of Notre-Dame and De Lorimier streets. This event is part of Eaux Vives, culture et savoir pour une mémoire de l’eau, a series of artistic events that will take place in Montreal from October the 1st 2003 till August the 31st of 2004, as part of the International Year of Freshwater 2003 decreed by the UNESCO. Presented by the city of Montreal and the Ministry of Culture and Communications of Quebec, this major event aims to raise the public awareness of this important resource.

In the frame of EAUX ARTS ÉLECTRONIQUES ! Champ Libre ordered to 5 Montreal artists of different horizons the creation of original slideshows to be able to think about the relation between Water and architecture, and Montreal island with its river… We are islanders, but do we see the water around us ? The artists invited for this event are : THOMAS BÉHURET, NATALIE GADOUA, BRIGITTE HENRI and JOHN LONDOÑO. Coming from the contemporary photography, these 5 artists will present cutting-edge slideshows that will inundate with moving images tha Craig Pumping Station. YAN BREULEUX, a multimedia artist, will do the honour to come and transform for one night, the pumping station Craig in a blue room.

Milestone of Montreal’s industrial heritage, the Craig Pumping Station was built in the last century, as part of important works of river navigation control established after serious floods of the St-Laurent. The Pumping Station had to control its overflowing. With the arrival of new technologies and with the topographical changes of the area, the pumps of the Craig station stopped working at the end of the 50’s. Today, all the streams that once surrounded the building are under the ground and the new concrete docks, the railroad and the fast lanes are elements pushing the St-Laurent away from the station. This threatened building is one of the last witnesses of these evolutions. Restored by Champ Libre for the 5th Manifestation Internationale Vidéo et Art Électronique – Montréal, September 2002, the Craig Pumping Station will serve once more as the premises for an encounter between electronic art, architecture, urbanism and public, but this time on a theme that concerns it directly, freshwater.

In its desire of connecting the patrimony with the community and of making them aware of the ecology, Champ Libre is glad to welcome a series of conferences from several organisms on the theme of water in the pumping station Craig. Eau Secours will realize conferences on the drinking water from the aqueducts and its situation, on the illness of the fixing and water counter, and on the state of lakes and rivers. The webzine on the water in French, H2O.net will put at disposal of the visitors its Web site with interactive animations for the young people. As for the International Secretary of Water, the special consultant Benoit Mailloux, will come to present the actions of its organism as the activities during the World Youth Parliament for Water in 2002. The Sunday afternoon will be devoted to the children to inform them on the issue of water and to make them discover the works of the artists on the theme.

For 12 years now, Champ Libre’s mandate has been to develop and promote the electronic art by inserting its events directly into the community. Let’s not forget that Champ Libre, founded in 1992, has promoted about twenty events of nomadic diffusion related to architecture, urbanism, art and new technologies that have taken place both in Quebec and worldwide.

Opening at 7:00 pm on Wednesday 19th of May

Free entrance from 7:00 pm to midnight on May 19, 20, 21, 22 and the 23th from 2:00 pm to 9:00 pm