Territoire Mémoires
Delivery : 2025
Location : Parc des Papetiers
Grand-Mère (Shawinigan)
Role : Creative Director
Type : Projection Mapping & Realtime Generative
Tools : C4D + Resolve + AE + TouchDesigner
Team:
3D Artist : Maxime Truchon
3D Artist : Christopher Hengenberg
VFX & Editor : Audrey Rainville
Generative Artist : Ruby-Maude Rioux
Audio Compositor : Habib Zekri
Narrator : Lise-Yolande Awashish
Atikamekw Consultant : Jacques Newashish
Scenario : Ruby-Maude Rioux
An immersive poem retelling the history of Grand-Mère,
as told by the land itself.
Territoire Mémoire unfolds in three acts.
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The story begins in the abundance of the original forest. Towering pines, the rushing Saint-Maurice River, and the voices of animals and winds evoke a time when the land breathed freely. This act reflects the Atikamekw perspective of a territory seen not as a resource, but as a living relation — a vast ecosystem where everything is connected.
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The second act plunges into the industrial era. The arrival of the pulp and paper mills reshaped the landscape, diverting rivers and harnessing waterfalls. Light and sound machinery pulse with relentless rhythm, embodying both the power and violence of transformation. The tower of the old mill stands as a monument to human ambition, but also as a witness to the fractures it left behind.
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In the final act, the land reclaims its voice. Through the narration of Lise-Yolande Awashish, memory becomes a guide, weaving together Indigenous knowledge, workers’ histories, and the resilience of nature. The projections dissolve boundaries between past and present, suggesting not nostalgia but continuity — the possibility of carrying wisdom forward as the territory reinvents itself once more.
Through light, sound, and projection mapping, Parc des Papetiers becomes an immersive poem celebrating the layered history of this resilient land.
Designed to embrace the site and reveal its soul, Territoire Mémoires weaves memory, landscape, and digital media into dialogue.
Bain de Minuit, mandated by the City of Shawinigan to complete the long-delayed illumination of Parc des Papetiers, invited me to lead its creative direction. I developed the scenario, assembled and guided a multidisciplinary team, and led the project from conception to delivery.
In Grand-Mère, near Shawinigan, the Parc des Papetiers holds its last sentinel: an observation tower, remnant of the paper mill that once gave birth to the city and has stood silent for more than a decade.
As creative director, I collaborated closely with Atikamekw artist and activist Jacques Newashish, drawing on extensive archival research to shape Territoire Mémoire.
The scenario grew from my walks in the forest with Jacques, listening as he spoke of his culture’s profound relationship with nature. This symbiotic perspective became the heart of the piece. Voiced by Lise-Yolande Awashish, the narrator shares the enduring knowledge of a land that has reinvented itself again and again.
