About us

Brèches' mission is to nurture meaning and connection to the living world by exploring a multitude of paths to knowledge.

Brèches is based at the Cité-des-Hospitalières, a property owned by the City of Montreal since 2017, following its acquisition from the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph.

In 2021, the City developed an ambitious vision through a collective intelligence process: to transform the Cité into a unique, open, and living space — a true laboratory for healing and reconnection.

Brèches actively contributes to bringing this vision to life — it’s at the very heart of our mission!

How ? 

  • By bringing philosophical, social and spiritual issues together in unusual ways that break us out of our disciplinary reflexes, provoke pauses and open us up, individually and collectively, to new horizons.

  • By creating moments of rich, real encounters that open up new possibilities for creative relationships between ideas, people and practices.

  • By recognizing the existence and validity of a multitude of paths to knowledge and making them visible.

  • By exploring the transformative potential of spirituality.

  • By helping to uncover avenues for collective reflection and healing at the intersection of the sacred and the profane, the mysterious and the accessible. 

Brèches is a project designed to explore and transform our relationship with the world.

We are currently in the first thematic cycle of Brèches, organized around the notion of Presence.

  • We have no choice but to reject the destructive systems that currently govern our human communities, and we remain hopeful that “the viable world” is also already here.

    Brèches is a project under construction that recognizes the metacrisis we are going through. Our approach is inspired by current trends that acknowledge the autonomy of living systems and seek to reintegrate us into the movement of life (Morizot, Bateson, Coccia, Abram, Taleb, Porta, Shiva).

  • The exploration of the multiple paths to knowledge takes the form of thematic cycles each lasting around 1 year.

    The first theme will give rise to a set of activities to be held in 2024 and 2025.

    A first series of three conversations will enable three groups of people from very different fields and practices to explore and discuss the chosen theme.

    These conversations will be punctuated by in-depth interviews, either with participants in the conversations, or with other people who could help shed light on the gaps that emerge.

    An artist-in-residence will accompany the team and create art that resonates with the evolving conversations.

    The team will hold its activities at the Cité-des-Hospitalières, which has been the home of religious hospitallers since 1863. This site, rich in meaning and still vibrating with the hospitallers' life of care, hospitality and contemplation, brings a special dimension to the exploration of the various paths of knowledge that Brèches aims to reflect upon.

    The presentation of what was learned from this theme has taken place within the joyous context of the launch of Brèches, as a complement to Nora Bateson’s public talk on November 20, 2024.

    Brèches will focus on three areas for this theme: content, experiences and community.

  • Brèche invites us on a genuine ontological and epistemological adventure that mobilizes our capacity for wonder and allows a profound reconciliation with our inherent creativity.

Spirituality is the formless heart that expresses itself, among other things, through the cultural forms of religion.
The human values of the heart transcend religions. It is in the heart that we come together and move forward as one.

By “sustainable world” we mean a world in which social and environmental inequalities are minimized by various measures that prevent (attempt to prevent) their increase.

To this end, the guidelines of the honorable harvest are inspiring
(Kimmerer, 2013).