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Board of Directors and Committees

President

Éric Desmarais

Éric Desmarais holds a master's degree in visual and media arts from UQAM. Since 2010, he has been the executive director and co-artistic director of Sporobole, an artist-run centre located in Sherbrooke, Quebec (Canada). Founded in 1973, the centre now specializes in technological creation and guides artists from various disciplines at all stages of their creative process through several research, production and dissemination residency programs. In 2014, in an effort to break down disciplines, Sporobole established the Interface: Art/Science program, which brings together artists and researchers in science and engineering for long-term research and co-creation residencies. As a result, the center has enabled collaborations between art and artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering, biotechnology, astrophysics, and quantum physics. In 2018, Sporobole created the 0/1 division, a digital hub that offers digital coaching and development services for artists and cultural organizations across Canada. Éric Desmarais was president of the Conseil québécois des arts médiatiques (CQAM), where he served from 2010 to 2021, and is one of the main architects of the founding of REPAIRE, born from the merger with the RAIQ.
Vice-president

France Choinière

France Choinière has been the director of Dazibao for several years. She is interested in the evolution of image practices, the specificities of their spatialization and dissemination, and the historical and social issues that these practices raise. Her approach is characterized by the close ties she maintains with artists, from the genesis of a project to its dissemination. She has prepared a number of exhibitions and video programs for Dazibao, and has developed a significant publishing component, which now includes a digital section. Other important projects include the group exhibitions Out of space: la photographie et l'imaginaire sculptural; Point & Shoot, photographie et performance (with Michèle Thériault); Fonction/Fiction (with Vincent Bonin); Home Sweet Home: À propos de l'inquiétude (with Olivia Boudreau); Let's Be Open About... Conceptual Art (with Daniel Olson) and, more recently, Do You See What I Hear? Do You See What I Hear? She has also worked on solo exhibitions, either retrospective (Bas Jan Ader, Damir Očko, Reynold Reynolds, David Tomas, etc.) or particularly significant in an artist's career (Velibor Bozović, Steve Bates, Nelson Henricks, Myriam Jacob-Allard, Marion Lessard, Zinnia Naqvi, Isabelle Pauwels, etc). Although she no longer teaches, France Choinière regularly serves as an external specialist on university evaluation committees and master’s and doctoral juries. She has also been a specialist for the Integration of Arts in Architecture program for several years. She is a member of IKT, an international association of curators of contemporary art.
Treasurer

François Toussaint

Originally from Belgium, François Toussaint studied directing at the Institute of Broadcasting Arts (Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium). After a few years spent working in film and television in Brussels, he arrived in Quebec in 2006 to do an internship at Kino Montreal, the independent filmmakers' movement. After serving as project coordinator, he became the general manager of the organization in 2007 for the next seven years. In 2014, he became the executive director of PRIM, a Montreal artist-run center specializing in post-production. During this mandate, he led a major renovation project for the center in 2021.
Secretary

Alicia Turgeon

Alicia Turgeon is a multidisciplinary and neurodivergent artist based in Montreal, Quebec. Active in the field of media arts and three-dimensional practices, Turgeon is primarily interested in cultural ecology through the concepts of accessibility, intergenerational exchange, meshing, radical care and design for appropriation. She recognizes the essential role that alternative approaches play in shared production spaces and explores, through her own creative research, the notion of authorship through Open Design methodology and DIY practices. Alicia is currently a bachelor of fine arts candidate at Concordia University majoring in sculpture, where she recently received various honors including a Sustainability Research Award (2020) and an Experimental Learning Grant (2020-2021) for one of her research-creative projects. As of March 2021, Turgeon is the executive director and co-director of the Eastern Bloc artist-run center, where she worked for several years as artistic and programming coordinator. Turgeon is currently a board member of the Art Matters Festival and a research assistant for the Kinawìnd Public Art Lab under the direction of Nadia Myre (Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Practice).
Administrator

Gilles Arteau

Along with his associates, Gilles Arteau founded Obscure, a cooperative of multidisciplinary arts workers (1982-97) and Folie/Culture, an alliance of art and mental health. He contributed to the creation of the Regroupement des centers d'artistes autogérés du Québec (RCAAQ) and the Ateliers de la Mezzanine. For a time he directed CKRL-MF and has twice organized the Quinzaine internationale de la radiophonie. A sound poet and performer, he writes for Arbo Cyber, Théâtre (?) and Productions Recto-Verso, two research theater collectives. With BRUIT TTV he has created numerous sound works. With the support of the artistic and community organizations that make up this cooperative, he coordinated and supervised the creation of the cooperative of artistic, cultural and community producers and presenters Méduse in Quebec City (1993). From 2007 to 2014, he became the administrative director of the artist-run center Espace F in Matane. Today, he is president and curator of PHOS, a major event in the region dedicated to the use of the photographic object in the visual, digital/media and multi arts.
Administrator

Albéric Aurtenèche

Albéric Aurtenèche studied visual arts, media arts and cinema. His first experimental short films were shown at the Festival des cinémas différents in Paris. In 2008, he presented L'appel du vide, an openly narrative short, in several festivals around the world. In 2011, M'ouvrir won the Jutra award for best short or medium-length film. Sigismond sans images, a multiple award winner, was part of the international competition in Clermont-Ferrand in 2017. His short films all explore different genres, with one common point: the questioning of reality. His first feature film, La contemplation du mystère (2021), was described by critics as "a disconcerting and enjoyable oddity," and "a milestone in a filmmaking career that promises to be brilliant."
Administrator

Mélanie Bédard

Mélanie Bédard is the general director and programmer for Recto-Verso – productions, residencies, venues and producer of the Mois Multi international festival of multidisciplinary and electronic arts. She holds a master's degree in visual arts from Laval University and a bachelor's degree from the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Marseille. A professional video installation artist, her work has been presented in several artist-run centers in Quebec – Regart, VU, L'Oeil de Poisson, L'Écart, Espace F, Caravansérail – as well as at various international events – International Performance Congress Paris/Berlin 7th and 8th edition, Espace Blanc II in Rimouski, Champ Libre 6th international video and electronic art event in Montreal and Image Contre Nature in Marseille. For more than 20 years, she has been creating, directing and coordinating exhibitions and events and has been involved in various artistic organizations in Quebec City, such as The Emergence sculpture symposium, Rouje arts and events, Klondike sound design for a skating rink, La Bande Vidéo and La coopérative Méduse.
Administrator

Symon Henry

Symon Henry's artistic practice is based on the interaction of three major approaches in his creations: concert music, visual arts and poetry. This transdisciplinary approach is particularly reflected in his sound paintings – instrumental or performative graphic scores, interpreted here and elsewhere by musicians and artists whose paths are as winding as possible. His poetic-sound collection L'amour des oiseaux moches (2020, finalist for the Governor General's Literary Awards and the Émile-Nelligan Award) was an important culmination in his career, having been published by Omri, and a major production by the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (ECM+).
Administrator

Lazeni Traoré

Lazeni Traoré is an entrepreneur and multidisciplinary artist who has been living in Quebec since 2014. Self-employed, he is the founder and manager of Les Productions Eratalfilms Inc. He holds three master's degrees, one in social anthropology, another in public communication as well as one in management of cultural enterprises. He is currently working on a prototype for interactive podcasts and is interested in dialogues in interactive cinema. His interest in arts and culture is also marked by research and experimentation in the arts, innovation and creativity. He is very involved in art projects within community organizations and works in research with the Nanotechnologies Nanosystems Laboratory (LN2).
Administrator

Aube Forest

Aube Forest is a 2017 graduate of Laval University's B.A. program in theatre and is interested in artistic initiatives that stimulate action in the spectator. For her, the creative performing arts exude a political and social force. She approaches the performing arts from different angles, from directing to writing for the theater to designing costumes. With her colleagues Auréliane Macé and Marie Tan, she has run the Théâtre de l'Impie since 2020 (Requiem pour Martirio A., 2018, L.Y.C.R.A, 2020, eauX, 2022, Performance-Hommage Femmes assassinées, 2021 and La nuit du 4 au 5, 2022).

Committees

Executive Committee
Éric Desmarais, president
France Choinière, vice-president
François Toussaint, treasurer
Gilles Arteau, administrator

Strategic Planning Committee
Réjean Perron, consultant
Éric Desmarais, Sporobole, 01 Digital Hub, president
France Choinière, Dazibao, vice-president
Gilles Arteau, artist, PHOS curator, administrator
Sonia Pelletier, executive director

Membership Committee
François Toussaint, PRIM, treasurer
Gilles Arteau, artist, PHOS curator, administrator
Aube Forest, artist and co-director of the Théâtre de l’Impie
Andrée-Anne Leriche-Jacques, communications and member outreach at REPAIRE

Professional Development and Continuing Education Committee
Aube Forest, Aube Forest, artist and co-director of the Théâtre de l’Impie
Laurence Beaudoin Morin, artist
Maude Thibault Morin, Continuing Education Coordination

Financing Committee
Éric Desmarais, Sporobole, 01 Digital Hub, president
Gilles Arteau, artist, PHOS curator, administrator
Lazeni Traoré, entrepreneur, artist, administrator
Sonia Pelletier, executive director

Reflection Committee – Digital Project Development
Éric Desmarais, Sporobole, 01 Hub numérique, president
Gilles Arteau, artist, PHOS curator, administrator
Lazeni Traoré, entrepreneur, artist, administrator
Mériol Lehmann, artist
Émile Morin, artist
Johann Baron Lantaigne, artist
Sophie Auger, artist, teacher
Elsa Fortant, doctoral student in musicology
Marc Olivier Ducharme, director of development at 01 Digital Hub, consultant at Musubi
Sonia Pelletier, general manager