A rural community celebrates its cultural heritage with the creation of a permanent digital public art work by artist Étienne Paquette and invites the public to come and discover it.
The Municipality of Saint-Norbert, its residents, as well as the artist Étienne Paquette are pleased to invite the public to discover SOLEILS, a permanent sculptural and digital work, which is displayed around, inside and on the facade of the old village church, now the Jean-Pierre Ferland cultural space. Saved at the last minute thanks to the mobilization of the community and a benefit show bringing together Jean-Pierre Ferland and Ginette Reno in front of 2,500 people in 2010, this place full of memory has today found a new collective function in the heart of the village, through this work of contemporary public art.
SOLEILS is a digital work of art installed in a heritage building and engaged in the transformation of a rural village in the era of the necessary cultural revitalization of the regions. It is at the same time the story of a small municipality, of just over 1,000 inhabitants spread over a largely agricultural territory, which had the audacity to embark on a contemporary public art project to mobilize its community and redevelop the space and spirit of the village heart. Digital and sound arts, sculpture, reappropriation of the architectural heritage of the old church and reinvention of ancestral rituals: the work of Étienne Paquette offers a current reflection on the importance of working on one’s own interiority as a human being, as well as on the practices and aesthetics that found a community.
“SOLEILS was the result of sustained efforts at regional cultural and artistic development, as well as a collaboration, quite rare I believe, between an artist and a municipal institution in a rural agricultural environment. Saint-Norbert is the village where I grew up, where I chose to return to raise my children. By discovering the commitment of my neighbors and fellow citizens to revive their heritage church, I too wanted to participate in this transformation in my own way. », underlines the artist Étienne Paquette.
The mayor of Saint-Norbert, Sonia Desjardins, adds: “Thanks to SOLEILS, we have much more than an artistic installation: we make the soul of Saint-Norbert shine through a meeting place between memory and the future, between heritage and innovation, between daylight and the more intimate light that inhabits each of us. I am extremely proud of this promising and unifying project for our community.”
The SOLEILS work is also a continuation of the gesture made by the late Jean-Pierre Ferland, a long-time resident of Saint-Norbert, who contributed to the preservation of this heritage church. This became the Jean-Pierre Ferland Cultural Space in 2018.
“There is a reference to Jean-Pierre Ferland’s heritage in the village in the title SOLEILS. Soleil (without “s”) is the album that follows Jaune, his legendary opus. It’s this metaphorical continuity that interests me. Saint-Norbert had its heyday, with a hotel in the center of the village, on the road to the holiday home that was Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon in the 1950s. My work is located in the aftermath, for the future, for the children of the village, for my children. I added an “s” to “sun” because continuity is everyone’s business. » explains Étienne about the context of his approach.
An artistic gesture that transforms the vocation of a church, SOLEILS restores a collective function to the heart of the village.
Designed around interiority and ritual gestures that shape community life, SOLEILS offers an immersive experience where heritage, light, digital creation and collective memory meet on the site of the Jean-Pierre Ferland Cultural Space. Through four areas of artistic intervention, both outside and inside the old church, the work invites citizens and visitors to explore the site, interact with the installations and make this space a true place of gathering, celebration and contemplation. Outside, the components are accessible and visible, throughout the seasons and passages. During balmy summer evenings or major moments of collective life in the village, such as farmers’ markets, concerts and other activities, the work is revealed in all its dimension: it is integrated into the public life of the village by energizing relationships between people and reinforcing a framework conducive to community life.
SOLEILS: four artistic interventions to inhabit the village
SOLAR ORGAN: entering into harmony with the lightA new circular space set up on the grounds of the Cultural Space to welcome citizens and visitors on a daily basis offers a peaceful place to sit and rest on the edge of the pond. At its center stands the Solar Organ, a monumental interactive steel sculpture that produces soft sounds, interpreting data relating to temperature, UV rays and brightness. Based on the cycles of sunshine and a metaphor relating to agriculture, this work reflects history and seeks to go back to the essence of the Norbert community. Interactive, it allows visitors to participate in the creation of a soundscape promoting contemplation. All around, rest areas were created using four benches (one wooden, three stone) and two stone landings.
MUSICAL TWIRLS: expressing oneself in harmonyArranged in an arc in the large room of the old church, the musical Twirls bring together six monumental musical instruments, in crafted wood and metal, activated by the breath or the hand, allowing the creation of an immersive and interactive sound fresco. According to a specific program, visitors play with voices and sounds from two musical bodies. One, inspired by the sound world of a garden, is generative and offers visitors the opportunity to create their own meditative environment; the other consists of the reinterpretation of five well-known tunes by Jean-Pierre Ferland. This latest musical ensemble celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the local community. The musical Virevents are permanently presented in the old church as well as in circulation in various cultural places in Quebec.
IRIS PORTAL: looking at the world through the eyes of the village childrenInstalled at the entrance to the site, the Iris Portal is a monumental sculpture in Corten steel made from photographs of the eyes of the 105 students of the village primary school. Created following a day of mediation carried out with the children in spring 2024, the work, made up of two panels, becomes a symbol of welcoming the public and transmitting generations
NARRATIVE FACADE: celebrating memory and collective life Every evening at sunset, the Narrative Façade animates the church thanks to the activation of the bell tower and the illumination of the facade. Like an ancient ritual, the audiovisual and sculptural composition punctuates daily life in the village. An addition of programmable hammers in the bell tower – while preserving the original manual mechanism – was carried out thanks to the collaboration of one of the only campanologists (bell specialist) in Quebec. Sculptures inspired by the musical universe of Jean-Pierre Ferland and Angèle Dubeau also come to inhabit the facade, in homage to the popular and classical musical heritage of Saint-Norbert.
SUN video
An important collaboration
The result of five years of design, development and creation, SOLEILS has mobilized, in addition to its creator Étienne Paquette, a dozen collaborators from various disciplines, ranging from digital violin making to artistic ironwork, including cabinetmaking, campanology and interactive programming. The project also encouraged meetings between artists and artisans from the region who knew each other little before, opening the door to new artistic collaborations.
Through its important component of cultural mediation and citizen participation, SOLEILS has also made it possible to bring a rural community closer to contemporary technological arts and to introduce an entire generation of village children to digital creation.
Discover SUN
The exterior components of the SOLEILS work remain accessible at all times, around the Jean-Pierre Ferland cultural space, at 2111 Rue Principale in Saint-Norbert. Only the solar organ is paused during the winter.
The public can access the interior part of the work, the Musical Windshields, during free and self-guided tours on Friday afternoons in the summer, as well as during events presented at the Jean-Pierre Ferland Cultural Space, including the Saint-Norbert Farmers’ Markets.
PartenairesSOLEILS was made possible thanks to the unwavering support of the municipality of Saint-Norbert and its elected officials, as well as the trust and generosity of major financial partners: the government of Quebec, the government of Canada; the MRC de d’Autray and Caisse Desjardins.
A media and digital artist with a doctorate in communications, Étienne Paquette has created sound sculptures and immersive audiovisual environments in contexts of remarkable diversity – public institutions, urban spaces, converted industrial sites and heritage places – from the Ottawa Parliament to a water tower on Lake Saint-Jean, including downtown Montreal and an old village church in a rural setting.
Étienne is among others the artist behind Mégaphone, a political work on speaking out in public space produced in collaboration with Moment Factory in 2013, in downtown Montreal, the author of Wind Instrument, a popular and esteemed success on our relationship to noise pollution presented at the Quartier des spectacles in 2018 and 2019, and the creator of Rêve Profond, an interactive work on the future of our dreams in the era of artificial intelligence, produced in collaboration with Mylène Chabrol and presented in the summers on the Mont-Royal metro square since 2025.
The inauguration of SOLEILS marks for him the culmination of a creative cycle that began in Montreal in the early 2010s, in the context of social mobilization associated with Maple Spring. In the wake of his doctoral thesis on the media coverage of violence (2010), public art became for him the terrain of pacifist action aimed at shaking up daily indifference and promoting social innovation and citizen well-being in shared spaces.
Awarded in the field of interactive and immersive experiences (NUMIX, MUSE Awards, Société des musées du Québec, Boomerang, Stereopsia) and cited in scientific works, one of which was published by MIT Press, his works, designed as interactive tools or living pieces rather than as static objects, invite the public to actively transform their environment and to transform themselves.
ABOUT THE JEAN-PIERRE FERLAND CULTURAL SPACEThe Jean-Pierre Ferland Cultural Space, formerly the church of Saint-Norbert, houses a multifunctional room that can host celebrations and shows.
Saved from closure thanks to the exceptional commitment of Jean-Pierre Ferland and Ginette Reno, who presented a benefit show in 2010 in front of nearly 2,500 people, this emblematic heritage building was able to be restored and preserved for future generations. Renamed in 2018 in homage to Jean-Pierre Ferland, the Cultural Space today embodies his deep attachment to the community and offers cultural vitality.
Recognized for its remarkable architectural, artistic and landscape value, the church is distinguished in particular by the work of the architect Joseph Michaud, the painted decorations of Louis-Eustache Monty and the meticulous sculptures of the Héroux brothers. Located in the heart of the village, on the banks of the Bonaventure River, the Jean-Pierre Ferland Cultural Space has become the location for SOLEILS, a permanent monumental digital work by the internationally renowned Norbert artist Étienne Paquette.