Organized by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec through the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Quebec Symposium of 1965 sought to enrich the museum’s collections. Open to the public in temporary locations, the museum had been located at Place Ville-Marie since March 1965 but moved into the structure of Château Dufresne on Sherbrooke Street East in Montreal where it remained until 1968. Guy Robert, then director of the museum, recruited foreign artists who were all living in Paris at the time. The symposium gathered nine sculptors—Leonardo Delfino (Argentina), Ivanhoé Fortier (Canada), Philippe Hiquily (France), Berto Lardera (Italy), Gérard Mannoni (Corsica), Claude Santa (Corsica), Gord Smith (Canada), Jeanne Spiteris (Greece), Yves Trudeau (Canada) — and a collective — Paul Borduas, Ivanhoé Fortier and Yves Trudeau (Canada). The theme focused on cut and melded metal. A total of $25,000 was allocated to the event by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec, while the artists’ needs were taken care of by the City of Montreal. The Montreal School of Fine Arts loaned tools, and several companies donated materials.
Reference: Serge Fisette, Symposiums de sculpture au Québec 1964-1997, Montreal, Centre de Diffusion 3D, 1997, p. 30-31.
