DUMONT, Pierre (1952-2011)

Pierre Dumont completed a BFA in sculpture at Université Laval in 1974 and began teaching fine arts at the Cégep de Jonquière in 1975. A painter, sculptor, sound designer and musician, he was also actively involved in his community: he co-founded Galerie de l’Arche, a thriving exhibition centre and place of interdisciplinary exchanges in the 1980s; served as administrator of Café-Théâtre Côté-Cour; was a committed member of the Maison d’animation sociale et culturelle de Jonquière; co-founded the Centre d’expérimentation musicale; and was artistic director of the Festival des musiques de création du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. His interdisciplinary approach, which often combined music, painting, writing, sculpture and photography, sought to bring out the mysterious and telluric forces of nature through practices intended to be somewhat ritualistic. His interest in protecting the environment also led him to create several works using recycled materials, as in Charnières et autres objets de transfert (“hinges and other objects of transfer”), his final exhibition at Chicoutimi’s Galerie Séquence in 2009. That same year, he was awarded the Prix à la création artistique by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.