From August 28 to September 7, 2026, Espace DesPrés hosts the third edition of the Festival Pour la suite du monde. In a brand new outdoor agora inaugurated for the occasion, artists and audiences will gather for ten days of shows, installations, reflections and celebrations in the heart of the Sutton landscapes. Around thirty artists will offer shows, installations and meetings that take root in the region and explore the links that unite us with life.
Ivanie Aubin-Malo • Gentiane Bélanger • Martin Beauregard • Orélien Biet • Jacob Brideau • Antoine Caron • Stéphane Cocke • Isabelle Craig • Michel Durand Nolett • Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba • Fenyx Florentiny • Catherine Hardy • Patrick Hivon • Jonathan Hope • Ryth Kesselring • Stéphane Lafleur • Marianne Lavoie • Maude Lecours • Fabienne Lucet • Nadine Louis • Angela Marsh • Audrey Murray • Mélanie O’Bomsawin • Nathalie Plaat • Étienne Plante • Becky Priebe • Audrée Wilhelmy • Collectif VivaceSUTTON, June 23, 2026 —
Shows under the stars, installations in the fields, literature, circus, theater, music, workshops and meetings: the festival transforms the DesPrés site into a vast open-air artistic laboratory where the arts interact with the landscapes and communities.
This year, the same question runs through the entire program: how to live together in the heart of life? Each activity becomes an invitation to slow down, to observe differently and to deepen our relationship with the places we inhabit. The festival thus brings together artists, citizens, thinkers and knowledge bearers in a collective experience where creation becomes a space for attention, dialogue and the future.
The vast majority of activities are free and a solidarity price list allows everyone to participate according to their means.
A PLACE THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN THE CITYEspace DesPrés is an old barn dating from 1919, transformed into an artists’ residence and surrounded by a seven-acre meadow, century-old willows and works of art. Founded in 2015, the organization adopted its new identity in 2026 after eleven years under the name Arts and Dreams. Each year, DesPrés welcomes around twenty artists in residence and awards three creative grants.
The 2026 edition marks the culmination of a project lasting several years: the commissioning of a permanent outdoor agora intended to host outdoor artistic shows and gatherings. Equipped with professional sound and lighting, it will be able to accommodate all artistic disciplines: theater, music, dance and circus thanks to anchors specially designed for aerial arts.
AN ARTISTIC VISION ROOTED IN LIVING LIFE Since September 2023, Espace DesPrés has been directed by Jasmine Catudal, co-founder of OFFTA and LA SERRE – arts vivants, former co-artistic director of Usine C and co-founder of Écoscéno. Under his direction, the program explores the relationships we have within living things and with the territories we inhabit.
“In an era marked by ecological, social and cultural upheaval, we believe that art has an essential role to play in helping us imagine other ways of inhabiting the world. With Pour la suite du monde, we wish to create a space for meeting between artistic disciplines, knowledge, citizens and the living world. The festival invites us to slow down, reflect, celebrate and reconnect with what connects us to each other and to the territories we inhabit. » — Jasmine Catudal, general and artistic director, Espace DesPrés
DECLARE THE LIVING AS PARTNERS IN CREATION On Saturday, August 29, DesPrés will publicly launch its manifesto Declare the living as partners in creation on the occasion of a day of reflection bringing together artists, researchers, cultural workers and citizens around training in regenerative design, a panel and the opening of the Alliance Terrestrial exhibition. Born from a growing need for coherence between the values carried by the works and the ways of creating them, this manifesto invites us to go beyond reducing environmental impacts. It proposes to consider the living as true creative partners and to imagine artistic practices capable of nourishing territories, communities and our relationships within the living. Faced with a crisis of sensitivity which weakens our connection to the world, he affirms that the arts can contribute to repairing what connects us.
OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRAMMINGFour outdoor shows presented in the new agora, an evening of large gathering, a day devoted to creative practices attentive to the territories, a day of repair, exhibitions, workshops and meetings for young and old make up this third edition. Among the highlights, Stéphane Lafleur will present on August 29 Émondage, a solo concert in which he revisits twenty-five years of songs. On September 4, the Grand Gathering will bring together a gastronomic feast by Catherine Hardy, a territory recognition ceremony carried by artists from the Wabanaki Confederation, a circus show and a dancing evening under the stars with Stéphane Cocke.
On September 5, Ivanie Aubin-Malo will present Wesuwecuwon, a work told, sung and danced by seven performers from the Mi’kmaq, Wolastoq and W8banaki nations. On September 6, Patrick Hivon will take the stage alone in Un Canot d’ark in Greenfield Park. On September 7, Nathalie Plaat will join Ivanie Aubin-Malo and Patrick Hivon for a panel devoted to repair, moderated by Isabelle Craig. The festival will also welcome Pascale Bussières, Jean-François Casabonne and several other artists, thinkers and bearers of knowledge.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION Location: Espace DesPrés, Sutton, 90 minutes from Montreal Dates: August 28 to September 7, 2026 The vast majority of activities are free.
About the Festival Pour la suite du mondeMultidisciplinary festival dedicated to the relationships between arts and life, Pour la suite du monde brings together artists from the performing arts, literature, music, visual arts and interdisciplinary practices each year in the natural spaces of Espace DesPrés in Sutton. At DesPrés, we consider creation as a gesture of care, relationship and transformation. Supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Sutton.