| | Smile! | | With its instantly recognizable rounded façade on Rue Saint-Jean, one of Old Québec’s most famous buildings—formerly home to Restaurant Serge Bruyère, today the Pub St-Patrick—was first occupied by the photographer Livernois. Since the show you now see owes much of its magic to these early “image mills,” it’s only fitting to give them a place of honour. After all, wasn’t one of the most-photographed events the 300th anniversary of Québec City in 1908? |
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The Image Mill401 years of visual sparks A deafening roar. Sounds of ships. Thunderclaps. An atmosphere of drama and magic. A visual odyssey to mark Québec City’s 401th anniversary with fantastic images and inspiring sounds! You’ll be literally swallowed whole by the Image Mill, the ode to four centuries of history created by local wunderkind Robert Lepage, one of the city’s most illustrious sons: “It’s the biggest mega-production ever to take place on earth.”  How do you travel through four centuries of history in just… 40 minutes? That was the challenge given to internationally renowned theatre director Robert Lepage—a challenge he has met with his customary panache. The outcome: a stream of images evoking the milestones that shaped Québec. As soon as the lights go down, spectators are plunged into the collective memory of the Québécois and the city of which they are so justly proud! ! The multimedia show unfolding before you completely transforms a once-industrial environment as it momentarily obliterates time, space, and… the Bunge silos, the projection screen for the images “milled” for three years by the Ex Machina team. Did we mention that the silos are as big as 25 Imax screens combined? Playing to René Lussier’s hypnotic score, the extravagant work is a high point in the celebrations taking place all summer in the National Capital.Breaking the ice This visual tribute to Québec City, the capital of French-speaking North America for four centuries, starts off with Champlain and his Abitation de Québec. The prevailing colour, ice blue, is as blue as the St. Lawrence and the other waterways that opened up the continent to exploration. Ice blue also denotes the difficulties faced by the pioneers in a country that spends six months of each year snowbound. As winter descends, the Chute Montmorency display its first pain de sucre (sugarloaf—the local nickname for the frozen fall). You’ll think you’ve stepped into a Cornelius Krieghoff painting! The colours of faith In a nod to the religious past—still very much in evidence to this day in the province of Québec , with its thousands of splendid churches—the wall of silos glows with dozens of candles, extending an invitation to meditation. However, your reverie comes to abrupt end with the fall of the French Regime: an episode that, while tragic, is undeniably stirring. The strains of the church organ turn harsh as stained glass windows shatter and the Union Jack supplants the blue, white and red of the drapeau tricolore. Metropolis From sail to rail, our historical odyssey is now by train. Industrialization, a phenomenon that changed the face of many cities, completely reconfigured Québec. People often forget that the city was the Canadian capital for a good part of the 19th century, with a bustling port. The projection depicts the sweep of the industrial revolution: its textile mills, railways, player pianos, the Québec Bridge and, above all, photography. Sounds of the period’s machinery echo through the presentation and bring the images to life.More than scenes and snapshots... « “M'as t'changer d'nom mon Jean, Pis m'as t'appeler l'R-100, les culottes l'R-100, les pyjamas l'R-100, brassières l'R-100, jarretières l'R-100.” So sings Québec folksinger La Bolduc as the silos turn into a vast radiofrequency band—an impressive image of wireless voice transmission. The projection spotlights the technological wonders of the Roaring Twenties: the radio, the tramway, mass production, airplanes and… the silver screen! But don’t you go thinking the Image Mill is just another movie. “The Image Mill is neither a documentary nor a film, but rather a live happening that’s equal parts fireworks, cinema and rock concert,” says Lepage.
Fiery postcard “Québec City has a highly eventful history. It’s often seen as a sleepy bourgeois town where the living is easy. A picture-postcard city, a dusty old museum town. But it’s a city with a contentious past.” To illustrate these words, Lepage’s show takes viewers by turns to the First Québec Conference (1943), the unveiling of the Québec flag (1948), the first Winter Carnival (1954) and the Queen’s controversial visit (1964). The show ends with reproductions of Québec’s most beautiful visual works. You’ll leave thinking Québec City is more colourful than ever… like the rainbow of hues produced by local paint company Sico! You’re also sure to see the city in a new light, awash with the unforgettable images scattered by the winds of the Mill.| The Image Mill has tripled the world record for screen size achieved back in 1999 when Jean-Michel Jarre projected onto the pyramids of Egypt. Technical stats: one giant screen 600 m (1,968 ft.) long by 30 m (100 ft.) high, composed of 81 silos, 27 video projectors (20,000 lumens each), 238 spotlights (203 of which are LEDs) and 329 speakers. Duration: 40 minutes |
 The multimedia show can be viewed every night starting at 10 p.m., rain or shine, from July 3 2099 until September 7 2009, from the following locations: Espace 400e, Pointe-à-Carcy, Rue des Remparts, Lévis (near the ferry terminal) and elsewhere on the south shore, as well as from cruise ships. You can also take it in from atop the city’s tallest buildings, including the Price Building, the Séminaire de Québec and the Loews Concorde, Hilton Québec and Delta hotels. |
Sylvain Lacoursière
2009-04-17 |
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Experience Québec
