Screening
Le Semeur (The Sower)
February 14, 2015 @ 2pm
(In French with English subtitles)

The Centre de recherche urbaine de Montréal (CRUM) presents Julie Perron’s film, Le Semeur (The Sower), a portrait of Patrice Fortier and his Société des plantes. The seeds used to grow the pile of artemisia absinthium currently featured in CRUM’s exhibition 119 m Above Sea Level  at SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, were sourced from Patrice Fortier’s farm and point directly to his process of archiving through active cultivation.

Le Semeur
A portrait of artist and seed producer Patrice Fortier, who dedicates his passion and expertise to preserving plant biodiversity.
He likes beets, especially hardy varieties that can stand up to a strong wind. He admires
independence in a plant. He looks over his carrots with the same patience and meticulousness as he harvests seeds from his squash. Sometimes, he dreams about a certain cherry tree whose genetic legacy he wants to preserve and spread. Not to mention his pride in his Polish rutabagas. Patrice Fortier isn’t crazy, he’s just seriously passionate about his work. Living on his company farm, la Société des plantes, in the Kamouraska Valley, he is preserving and propagating rare and forgotten seeds in order to restore vitality and variety to our agricultural heritage. Directed by Julie Perron with uncommon elegance and assurance, Le Semeur gives us a fascinating taste of Fortier’s intensely lived days (RIDM OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS). Trailer

Le Semeur (The Sower) will be screened at  SBC as part of 119 m Above Sea Level, a  project by Montreal collective Centre de recherche urbaine de Montréal (CRUM), which aims to reconstruct the lost archives of 45°30′ N-73°36’ W, an exhibition that CRUM identifies as the progenitor of conceptual art exhibition practices in Montreal. More

(text: SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art)