Designer and creative director Geneviève Dupéré, a long-time collaborator with Finzi Pasca, invited Montrealers to Parc du Fort in Pointe-aux-Trembles on Thursday evening to present an excerpt from an upcoming show centered on the river. Told through a maritime acrobatic device she designed.

The immense circular structure lit by fires, first placed flat in the grass, is hoisted vertically by a crane, a few meters from the river. In its center, we recognize a German wheel – a two-ring wheel – attached to the rest of the structure which weighs more than 680 kg!

Two circus performers climb inside the O-shaped structure, which flattens out and soars to the sound of waves, seagulls and boat horns. Some 60 feet in the air, they will perform several acrobatic tricks, whether using ropes, straps or even a trapeze.

During their fifteen-minute performance, we will hear the testimony of fishermen, excerpts from communications from the Canadian Coast Guard, or the voice of a pilot of the Montreal Express, which transports… the German wheel (at the heart of the structure) to the Port of Montreal!

In total, the designer recorded 30,000 hours of maritime noises, voices and testimonies.

This unusual artistic project, carried out as a researcher, Geneviève Dupéré has been working on it for five years, motivated by her passion for the beauty and complexity of the river, which she has traveled up and down in recent years. On board merchant vessels, research vessels, fishing vessels, trailers, but also boats and barges.

The maritime aerobatic device in question, built at the Groupe Océan shipyard in Rimouski, was designed in parallel with his travels and encounters.

The maritime acrobatic maneuvers performed by the two circus artists are very similar to what crews do on the deck of a ship, the artist-researcher tells us. “We deploy scientific instruments, we send people outside the hulls, we do the rigging, we go down to little engine rooms, we climb a ladder, that’s what we replicate. »

The complete show, which will be presented at Parc du Fort in Pointe-aux-Trembles next year, will tell the story of the river in several chapters: piloting ships, crab fishing, shrimp fishing, the water cycle in our cities, etc. One could almost speak of a documentary circus. He will then tour the coastal towns of Quebec.

Geneviève Dupéré and her crew’s science project, as she calls it, was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts through its Social Innovation Fund. “I did not design a circus device, she insists, but a maritime acrobatic device that allows us to reach people by going from the river to the stage. »

An aerial scene that moves freely in the air thanks to the maneuvers of a crane operator, who pulls the device in all directions and even over the river.

Geneviève Dupéré, who is a researcher at the National Circus School of Montreal’s research center, immersed herself for the first time in the maritime universe in the creation Avudo, directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca. A multimedia show created in 2017, which told the story of Montreal through its river.

This project, for which she was responsible for the historical and artistic content, confirmed her passion for the river.

“It is certain that with this project, I spent three years studying the historic St. Lawrence. It made me want to go deeper into the subject, she tells us. There is so much knowledge and know-how about water that I want to pass on. We are talking about about 300 collaborators in the ecH2osystem project. People who help me showcase the excess of the St. Lawrence. »

This project at the confluence of arts and science, Geneviève Dupéré really considers it from the point of view of the St. Lawrence. “It’s a show written and directed by the river,” she concludes.