Djeneba Dosso
LJI Reporter
On July 6, local artists and art-lovers gathered at 101 Montcalm St. to discover the newest Recycl’art exhibition while celebrating the project’s second decade in the Outaouais. The opening was hosted by the Centre d’art contemporain de l’Outaouais. The art centre, which has facilitated six outdoor public art exhibitions for Recycl’art, celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Starting at 2 pm, the unveiling was followed by a guided tour featuring each piece, including a Recycl’art creation designed by the students of Nicolas-Gatineau high school.
“Recycl’art is an imaginative art form, full of humour too, and the works often bring a smile to your face,” said Denis Marceau, CACO president. “The works speak to us of the environment, of preservation, of taking care of our world and our planet.”
The concept for Recycl’art stems from a Google search. After stumbling on a major European exhibition that used recycled metals to create sculptural work, multidisciplinary artist Jacques Charbonneau hosted the first Recycl’art Festival in Montpellier in 2004. At the time, the exhibition of sculptures produced with recovered materials was only made up of 16 artists. By 2016, the exhibition would make its way to Maniwaki and L’Ange-Gardien, making its debut in Ottawa and Gatineau by 2019.
Today, while CACO still “struggles to get Recycl’art recognized as a legitimate art form,” they continue to push Charbonneau’s initial vision to turn abandoned materials into something beautiful and playful.
“Here’s an example of how, despite the fact that things are thrown away, discarded, abandoned, forgotten, neglected and unloved, we reuse them to create works of art, each one more imaginative and amusing than the last,” Marceau closed off.
The exhibition will be on display every day, free of charge, until August 31, 2024.
Photo caption:
Photo #1: The free outdoor public art exhibition Recycl’art is back again this year. This 6th edition organized by CACO will be open to the public from July 6 to August 31, 2024. (DD) Photo: Djeneba Dosso.