Who is La Boîte Rouge VIF?
La Boîte Rouge VIF (La BRV) is an indigenous non-profit organization founded in 1999. Its mission is to place collaborative research and co-creation at the service of cultural transmission. Its team's mission is to valorize indigenous cultures by contributing to their dissemination and appreciation, notably through the creation and dissemination of multidisciplinary and multicultural productions. It also deploys this know-how in other social and cultural contexts. La BRV is an agent of change and an influential player in the field of mediation, preservation and support for indigenous heritage, cultural transmission and valorization as well as the development of indigenous communities and the training of their members.
Over the years, it has developed numerous tools for the transmission, dissemination and mediation of cultures in collaboration with its indigenous partners, while contributing to the affirmation of their identity. La BRV works specifically in a museum context, while having an image of transmission that has a very strong pedagogical potential due to its quality, veracity and modernity.
Bref historique
Research, creation, artistic production and cultural transmission have always been at the heart of La BRV. Making First Peoples' cultures tangible, concrete and accessible is at the heart of its concerns.
From 2003 to 2009, La BRV worked almost exclusively on the Design and Material Culture research program, a research project led by Wendat researcher Élisabeth Kaine, then director of La Boîte Rouge VIF. This project allowed for the development of creative workshop programs where indigenous artists and artisans sought to develop artistic design objects that would allow for the renewal of traditional and artisanal practices. In addition, these years of research have served to highlight the collaborative mechanisms of co-creation and concertation in the context of cultural expression and transmission in multidisciplinary contexts, anchoring our current artistic vision. A literary work was published on this subject in 2016, The Little guidebook on the Extensive Consultation. Cultural Creation and Transmission by and with Communities.
From 2010 to today, La BRV has pursued its mission within various projects of creation and cultural and intercultural transmission: creation of collective works, conception and production of exhibitions, short and feature films, interactive and digital productions, publications of literary works, as many productions realized in collaborative mode.
Always concerned with fostering cultural expression among First Peoples, La BRV continues its involvement in research, notably by initiating projects aimed at taking a critical look and sustainable actions in its field. It is also a close partner of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Transmission among First Peoples as a Dynamic of Well-Being and Empowerment at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC).