The Bestiary of the Route du Richelieu
Enhancing a cross-border tourist route
Tourisme Vallée-du-Richelieu, along with Tourisme Montérégie, the Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire, and the MRC de La Vallée-du-Richelieu, came up with the idea of deploying a large-scale cultural installation along the Route du Richelieu, officially inaugurated in 2012. It is the first official cross-border tourist route between Quebec and the state of New York.
In addition to these installations, the partners wished to add a digital dimension to highlight the work of the artist.
Giving visibility to the artist
The cultural installation is a bestiary consisting of sculptures representing animals. The artist André Michel was entrusted with creating the 13 works. Alongside the works, interpretation panels provide information on the reason for this bestiary, what a bestiary is, but also why a particular animal was chosen to represent the municipality in question.
A digital tour enhances the experience. QR codes and NFC chips are integrated into the display. They provide access to a map that helps discover where the other works are located. They also provide access to video capsules where we listen to the artist talk about his artistic approach, the challenges posed by the pandemic, but also how the assembly and installation of the works were done.