Centre

Joséphine Bacon is an Innu poet from Pessamit, born in 1947. A director and lyricist, she is considered a leading author in Quebec. She has worked as a translator-interpreter with the Elders, the holders of traditional knowledge, and has wisely learned to listen to their words. Joséphine Bacon often says of herself that she is not a poet, but that in her nomadic and generous heart, she speaks a language filled with poetry that echoes the elders who have marked her life. With Mémoire d'encrier, she wrote her first collection Bâtons à message/Tshissinuatshitakana (2009) with the nomads in love with the great outdoors in mind, and received the Readers' Choice Award at the Montreal Poetry Market in 2010 for her poem "Dessine-moi l'arbre". Also published by Mémoire d'encrier, in collaboration with José Acquelin, Nous sommes tous des sauvages (2011) and Un thé dans la toundra/Nipishapui nete mushuat (2013, Finalist for the Governor General's Award and Finalist for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal). Her most recent collection, Uiesh • Somewhere (2018), won her the 2019 Booksellers' Award. 

With a background in film production, and classical orchestral string training, Kelly Nunes is a musical composer and multi disciplinary artist, whose practice focuses on responsive environments.

Nunes brings a holistic vision that blends multiple media forms to create powerful experiences that push the boundaries of perception and storytelling. He has a passion for driving innovative technologies at the intersection of architecture and scenography to service transformative, human centred environments.

He is mostly known for his monumental and orchestral public art project NEWT Miami, as well as his Celestial Cycle, a series of commissions for Montreal’s Never Apart Gallery, the Moon Room, Sun Room, and Earth Room, as well as The Black Hole Room in the private collection of Dax Dasilva.

Born in Toronto, Nunes is currently based in Montreal where he works on a project basis as a director for studios such as Moment Factory and Daily tous les jours studios.