The Municipality of Saint-Norbert, its residents, and artist Étienne Paquette have introduced SOLEILS, a permanent sculptural and digital artwork that unfolds around, inside, and across the façade of the village’s former church, now known as the Espace culturel Jean-Pierre Ferland.
Saved from closure through community mobilization and a benefit concert, the site now serves a new collective purpose at the centre of the village through the integration of this contemporary public artwork.
This project reflects a broader effort to preserve the identity and heritage of regional communities, a cultural issue of real significance in Québec and beyond. In Saint-Norbert, the transformation is both concrete and symbolic: a former church that was at risk of disappearing has become a living place, rooted in its collective memory and open to future uses.
“SOLEILS was the result of sustained cultural and artistic development efforts, and of a collaboration that I think is fairly rare — between an artist and a municipal institution in a rural, agricultural setting. Saint-Norbert is the village where I grew up, and where I chose to come back to raise my children. Seeing my neighbors and fellow residents work to bring their heritage church back to life, I wanted to take part in that transformation in my own way,” says artist Étienne Paquette.
By transforming the function of a former church, SOLEILS creates a new collective role at the heart of the village. Built around themes of inner life and the rituals that shape community living, the artwork offers an immersive experience where heritage, light, digital creation, and collective memory converge at the Espace culturel Jean-Pierre-Ferland.
Through four artistic zones, both outside and inside the former church, the work invites residents and visitors to explore the site, interact with the installations, and experience the space as a place for gathering and reflection.
Outdoors, the components are accessible and visible year-round, through every season, and to passersby. On summer evenings or during the village’s community events such as farmers’ markets, concerts, and other activities, the work becomes part of the village’s public life, creating opportunities for interaction and shared experiences.
A new circular space on the grounds of the Espace culturel welcomes residents and visitors daily, offering a place to rest along the pond’s edge. At its center stands the Solar Organ, a monumental interactive steel sculpture that produces gentle sounds by interpreting data related to temperature, UV rays, and luminosity.
Rooted in the cycles of sunlight and an agricultural metaphor, the work reflects local history and the character of the Norbert community. Interactive by design, it lets visitors take part in creating a soundscape designed for contemplation. Around it, resting areas have been created using four benches, one wooden and three stone, and two stone platforms.
Arranged in an arc within the former church’s main hall, the Musical Anemometers bring together six monumental musical instruments, crafted in wood and worked metal, activated by breath or by hand, to create an immersive, interactive soundscape. Following a set program, visitors can engage with voices and sounds drawn from two musical repertoires. One, inspired by the soundscape of a garden, is generative and lets visitors create their own meditative environment; the other reinterprets five well-known songs by Jean-Pierre Ferland, highlighting the community’s cultural heritage.
The Musical Anemometers are on permanent display in the former church, and also travel to various cultural venues across Québec.
Installed at the entrance to the site, the Iris Portal is a monumental Corten steel sculpture based on photographs of the eyes of 105 students at the village’s elementary school. Created following a community engagement day with the children in the spring of 2024, the two-panel work becomes a symbol of welcome and intergenerational connection.
Each evening at sunset, the Narrative Façade brings the church to life through the activation of the bell tower and the illumination of the façade. Like an evening ritual, the audiovisual and sculptural composition marks the transition into evening in the life of the village. Programmable hammers were added to the bell tower, while preserving the original manual mechanism through a collaboration with one of Québec’s few campanologists (bell specialists).
Sculptures inspired by the musical worlds of Jean-Pierre Ferland and Angèle Dubeau also adorn the façade, paying tribute to Saint-Norbert’s popular and classical musical heritage.
The fruit of five years of conception, development, and creation, SOLEILS brought together, alongside creator Étienne Paquette, a dozen collaborators from a wide range of disciplines, from digital lutherie to ornamental ironwork, woodworking, campanology, and interactive programming. The project also brought together regional artists and craftspeople who had previously known little of each other’s work, encouraging new collaborations.
Through its strong focus on cultural mediation and citizen participation, SOLEILS supported engagement with contemporary technological art, and introduced local children to digital creation.
The outdoor components of the artwork remain accessible at all times, around the Espace culturel Jean-Pierre Ferland, at 2111 Rue Principale in Saint-Norbert. Only the Solar Organ is inactive during the winter.
The public can access the indoor component of the work, the Musical Anemometers, during free, open visits on summer Friday mornings, as well as during events held at the Espace culturel Jean-Pierre-Ferland, including the Saint-Norbert farmers’ markets.
As featured in the September-October 2026 issue of Canadian Interiors magazine.
