Festival Art Souterrain
Apushtapaueu / Something Softens Upon Contact with Water (2026)
Performance
“I like to think that I’m fluid, like water eroding stone”- Soleil Launière.
For this performance, Soleil Launière will first be hidden in a material-dress reminiscent of rock, like the mountain. For her, this solid mass evokes the hardness of the world, its frozen tensions, its apparent resistance. Inside, the artist moves with fluidity, like water that infiltrates and gently erodes the stone, transforming it. By these gestures, she hopes to symbolize the dissolution of conflict and above all, the gentleness that unravels the tensions of the world. The rock dress becomes the territory of a metamorphosis: what seemed immutable reveals gaps of light, and gives way to the purifying force of water. Fluidity and movement are invitations to overcome immobility, to let love irrigate, cleanse, and reveal a space larger than oneself. A journey between the harshness of reality and the transforming power of water, this performance highlights the mobilizing power of love in the way it can shape the future.
Biography
Winner of Révélation Radio-Canada 2024-2025 and the Francouvertes 2024, Soleil Launière is an Innu transdisciplinary artist from Mashteuiatsh, on the shores of Lake Pekuakami, now established in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal).
In the fall of 2023, she unveiled Taueu, her very first soul-roots album with pop sounds and magnetic arrangements, which explores themes of identity, language, femininity, and matriarchy. Thanks to this landmark project, she distinguished herself in 2024 and 2025 with several prestigious nominations: Artiste autochtone de l’année and Album de l’année – langue autochtone at the ADISQ gala (2024 and 2025), Album indie-rock at the GAMIQ (2024) and the Prix découverte de la chanson francophone at the Panthéon des auteurs et compositeurs canadiens (2024).
In November 2025, she gave a captivating performance of Era Ew at the 47th ADISQ gala. On stage, accompanied by seasoned musicians from CHANCES (Chloé Lacasse, Geneviève Toupin, Vincent Carré) and Simon Walls, she combines vocal harmonies, strong percussion, and performance art to offer the audience an immersive, deep, and captivating experience.