Rideau Hall, Friday, March 28, 2008

You know, for Jean-Daniel, for me, for the entire Rideau Hall team, one of the great pleasures of living and working in this residence is being surrounded every day by luminous, evocative, thoughtful images, thanks to the imaginations of our artists and the generosity of various galleries and museums that have loaned us the works you will find throughout these halls.

Not a day goes by in this residence that we don’t stop and look at a drawing, a painting, a photograph or a sculpture, leaving behind the many trials and tribulations of work, if only for a moment.

We may be drawn in by a shadow that takes us by the hand; a face that searches our eyes as we look into its own; a landscape that explores the very essence of life.

From one piece of art to the next, from room to room, our sense are awakened by a slice of life captured on canvas, a portrait that makes this individual or that moment in history stay with us, an explosion of colours, perhaps even something indefinable that asks more questions than it answers.

So many images that reflect the unique interpretations of life.

Philosopher Tzvetan Todorov once wrote that art is a revelation of being, that even the most destructive art carries form and meaning.

Each of your perspectives is a window through which we, too, can peer.

And what we see transports us, challenges us, disturbs us, often at the same time.

It is through this window, which you have opened for us, that our own perspectives are expanded, melding with your own.

It is through this window that our perspectives, guided by yours, learn to resist uniformity and immobility.

So that our view is renewed, uninhibited.

Jean-Paul Riopelle believed that paintings push the envelope without worrying about labels; that theories and definitions come later, after the artists have moved on to create new works without labels.

It is precisely that power to open our eyes to ever more astonishing possibilities that the works by the artists here tonight are celebrating.

Thank you for enriching our perspectives with your visions.

And for offering the eye a brief glimpse of what is possible in the search for meaning and beauty.

To Alex Janvier, who carries on the richness of Aboriginal traditions in the pictorial universe, I say thank you.

To Kenojuak Ashevak, whose work ignites a stirring dialogue between Inuit and Western cultures, I say thank you.

To Serge Giguère, for whom images spring from the wonder of encounters, beings and words, I say thank you.

To Chantal Gilbert, an artist-knifemaker who gives the most everyday objects a touch of mystery and takes them beyond the ordinary, I say thank you.

To Shirley Thompson, a great advocate of the arts, for whom artistic integrity is first and foremost the art of living, I say thank you.

To Michel Goulet, who also elevates everyday objects to the extraordinary and endeavours to take art to public spaces for our great pleasure, I say thank you.

To Eric Metcalfe, whose multidisciplinary approach is a call to creation and evidences surprise and humour, I say thank you.

To Tanya Mars, an involved, eclectic and innovative artist, who creates intriguing and humorous situations, I say thank you.

To all of our award laureates, let there be no doubt that you illuminate, expose us to new perspectives and enrich our lives.

You remind us of Fernand Leduc’s keen observation made right here, one year ago, that the culture that has always been reflected in the multi‑faceted creativity of man is all that remains of passing civilizations.

For all of these reasons, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.