Canada, an outsider on the world cultural scene? It was before ! From literature to performing arts, the country charms in all areas, with productions revealing the multiple facets of its identity. Between 2010 and 2019, its cultural and creative industries exports thus increased by 147% to France, the sixth market behind the United States, China and the United Kingdom.
“We are a hit in audiovisual, crafts, interactive media, but also in design, performing arts and publishing,” explains Caitlin Workman, director of the Canadian Cultural Center in Paris. An increase supported by the government, which has been deploying a creative export strategy since 2018. It is that, in a country of 37 million souls, the conquest of the world is a question of survival. “As a young country, we are much less affected by the weight of history, which allows us to practice very free creation,” she analyzes.
Inuit art began to travel
As a counterpoint to contemporary creations marked by the “youth” of the country, a new generation of native artists is emerging. Carrying the weight of their history and traditions, they offer a completely different translation of Canadian culture that is increasingly fascinating international markets. It is also partly through Inuit art that she began to travel. “Canada used it a lot in the 1950s and 1960s as a diplomatic gift,” recalls Maryse Saraux, director of the Art Inuit Paris gallery.
Alongside a general public market that thrives around small pieces, such as bears carved in stone, a collectors’ market is developing, driving up prices and the fame of artists. Sold for $24* in 1960, The Enchanted Owl, famous print by Kenojuak Ashevak, thus exceeded 200,000 dollars during its last two auctions. A recognition still observed during the 59th Venice Biennale, in April 2022, where the jury distinguished the designer Shuvinai Ashoona.
But Inuit culture travels in many other ways, notably with the company Artcirq, founded in Nunavut in 1998, in the midst of a renaissance of Canadian circus arts. “The Cirque du Soleil, which made shows without animals, gave it a new image in the world. Then the artists who worked for this company created their own structures, like the 7 Doigts de la main which redefined the contemporary circus”, deciphers Sophie Picard, a well-known figure in the circus community.
In Montreal, where the National Circus School attracts crowds of international students, the excitement has never died down. The Eloize and Alfonse circuses, the Le Monastère cabaret, and many more were born there. “Even during the pandemic, collectives like Sanctuaire and Flip Fabrique continued to rise,” says Sophie Picard, who herself co-founded Cirque Barcode in 2019, with artists Eric Bates, Eve Bigel, Tristan Nielsen and Alexandra Royer. . “We sold 40 performances of Sweat & Ink, mainly in Europe, without even having a video to present,” she recalls. Postponed due to the health crisis, the tour continued this year to end in style in August at the Sziget Festival in Budapest.
Low Carbon Tour
In parallel, with the Montreal group Acting for Climate, the troupe put on “Branché”, a show centered on the relationship between man and nature. Wishing to minimize its ecological impact, the company even tested in France, in the summer of 2020, with the association Elemen’terre, a low carbon emission tour aboard the Pen Duick VI sailboat, unfortunately turned upside down by the arrival of the coronavirus. . “Our activities leave a large carbon footprint, we have to learn how to do eco-responsible tours”, pleads Sophie Picard.
While the Quebec circus seduced the whole world from the end of the 1990s, Canada also distinguished itself in the audiovisual arts. With 30 adaptations on the clock in 2022, the last of which was signed in Slovakia, A boy a girl is the best-selling fiction format in the history of television. “We brought comedy to countries that didn’t have this tradition, which was very strong here,” says Arabelle Pouliot, head of international distribution at Avanti Groupe, referring to Canada’s bubbling comedy scene driven by the “Juste for laughs” and the National School of Humor, where nearly a third of the students admitted come from France.
Since the international success ofA boy a girl, the production of Quebec series has asserted itself with force. During the last Canneséries festival, Quebecers won three prizes, including two for dramatic comedy Audrey came back. On the cinema side, the new wave is also noticeable. “The emergence of Xavier Dolan has helped to highlight this creation, but it is above all the new directors who allow export”, explains Timothée Donay, of Alchimists, a production and distribution company offering a dozen Quebec titles.
A universal and avant-garde mirror
His greatest success in France, Kuessipan, by Myriam Verreault, is adapted from the eponymous novel by Naomi Fontaine, which follows two inseparable friends on an Innu reserve. Moreover, at the start of the school year, Young Juliette, by Anne Emond (2019), will integrate the “College at the cinema” system, allowing all French secondary school students to study film. “In Quebec, thanks to the new rules including parity in the financing of films, female directors have been able to express themselves on bigger budget films. There is a desire to catch up with a long period without diversity”, specifies Timothée Donay, who would like to see France take inspiration from this initiative…
Strengthened by this openness to these plural voices, long marginalized for some, as well as to the issues of our time, Canadian culture holds up a universal and avant-garde mirror that has not finished seducing the world and arousing vocations.
* CAD$1 = €0.74