Beaubourg Revisited

Acadiensis, 2006

2019

borderlands, 2010

This essay examines the process of foundation through which Samuel de Champlain's public image as the founder of Québec has been instituted both historically and during Québec City’s 400th anniversary commemorations in 2008. Through analyzing the official commemorative event, Rencontres, I demonstrate how Champlain's memory is deeply informed by spectacularized forms of politics. In particular, I argue that the Québec 400 places Champlain as the founder of a culturally diverse Québec by underlining the peaceful encounter between French colonizers and indigenous peoples. By relying on a strategy of familiarity that builds on the politics of spectacle and a semiotics of space, this discursive move solidifies the normative Québécois subject's ability to legitimately manage national space and define its own boundaries. I end by arguing that commemoration stands out as an important technique of the nationbuilding project in Québec.

Acadiensis, 1980

Canadian Architect, 2019

Quebec’s motto, “Je me souviens,” appeared for the first time—carved in stone—as part of Eugène-Étienne Taché’s elaborate façade for the province’s Parliament Building in Quebec City. The 19th-century building continues to blend architecture and politics in the present-day, with an impressive addition opened in May. The project is both a complex and careful intervention to what is certainly one of the most symbolically important heritage buildings in the province. (https://www.canadianarchitect.com/national-treasure-pavillon-daccueil-de-lassemblee-nationale-du-quebec-quebec-city-quebec/)

Canadian Military History, 2015

Article by Yves Pourcher for Historical REflections

2008