IDACTION INVISIBLE
Not so invisible. By triggering a hunger strike, Kena Molina and her troupe generated a debate amongst citizens. One hundred people who were approached in the streets chose to join in, to criticize, and to share their opinions and ideas regarding the huge claims made by the citizens on strike. Microphone in hand, Kena, in her capacity as a journalist, made this episode of civil considerations possible. Images here!
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PUBLIC SPACE, PRIVATE SPACE
Where are you in the here and now? The artist Emily Laliberté gathers the thoughts of participants on their perception of space. “Is there a place in public space which you consider private?” Discussion is launched. Emily then creates multimedia postcards based on the testimony collected. Fragments of the participants’ lives are rendered through texts, drawings, pictures and even video material accessible via a QR code. On the one side, we have public space; on the other, private space. In the end, participants are invited to distribute the postcards to passersby in order to initiate discussion and promote social diversity. So where are you in the here and now? In public space or in private space?
Learn more:
- “Holding the cards” (in French)
IDEAL HOME
“We even say to ourselves that we’ll have a house, with plenty of windows and hardly any walls, a house where we’ll live, and where we’ll be happy, and that if it’s not a certainty, it’s still a possibility,” sang Jacques Brel. The “Ideal Home” project comes from Suzanne Doucet and Colleen Lashuk, two professional architects, who believe everyone has a right to imagine and dream up their own house, tipi, igloo, shelter… Drawings of this perfect home are then transposed into scale models by participants.
Learn more:
- Flickr album
- “Dream House” (in French)
A SUMMER AT CABOT SQUARE
3 artists, 3 residencies, 3 approches. Two years of revovations made way on July 8th 2015 to the new Square, trucks being replaced by a summer cohort of inclusion-driven artists. Three residencies were born to engage bystanders: "De fil en aiguilles" (Élise Hardy), "Fruits du jour" (Soufia Bensaïd) and "Liaisons improbables" (Nicolas Rivard). The issues? Build relationships with the flow of passer-by and create social interactions with the users of the Square, particularly the homeless and the aboriginal patients of the nearby Nothern Quebec Module.
Learn More:
- Flickr album
- "A summer at Cabot Square" (in French)
RANDOM WAYS
Fate is a good provider: the artist Frédéric Péloquin has co-created four works of art with the help of four hundred participants! Using remote-controlled cars equipped with markers, the “artists-for-a-day” first sketched a figure the characteristics of which were discussed, chosen and painted as they went along. It resulted in flamboyant mosaics enriched by the social and cultural diversity of Montreal’s streets.
Learn more:
- Flickr album
- “Conquer the chaos” (in French)
- "Maximum Degree / Degré Maximum" (in French)
SHARED STORIES
A mobile museum is a rare sight. This initiative from the anthropologist Marie-Pierre Gadoua and the artist Mathieu Riel allowed many open-minded individuals to discover the McCord Museum’s collection of First Nation artefacts. Since every artefact derives from historical events, exchanges and specific know-how, these atypical museum experiences have opened the door to hidden knowledge and to discussions about cultural identity, its evolution and its impact on our culturally rich society. Click for images and videos!
Learn more:
- Flickr album
- "The Mobile Museum’s first stop" (in French)
- Shared Stories, the movie (in French)
FROM THE SHADOWS TO THE LIGHT
And there was light. Marie-Noël Vanasse, graphic artist, has created this technological gem, the Tagstool, so far little known by the general public. The Tagtool is a performative visual tool used on stage and in the streets. It is used here, with the help of mediator and comedian Alessia de Salis, as a way of blurring the boundaries between casts and cultures so that everyone has access to art. How does it work? A first artist draws on a tablet and then a second artist animates the drawing (this technique is also called live drawing). The result is projected onto a façade in order to highlight a building or a neighbourhood and to generate interaction between passers-by and participants. A must-see artistic residency, live Wednesday April 15 and 22nd, in collaboration with the Quartier des spectacles de Montréal.
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OH CROW!
June 21st is not only the beginning of summer, this is also the National Aboriginal Day during which Aboriginal communities celebrate the power of the Sun, a source of life and energy. For this special occasion, a painting was made for the First Nations Garden. Inspired by the Land of Trickster's tale "Oh Crow!", the painting was designed by Frédéric Péloquin (visual design), Geronimo Inutiq (sound design) and more than a hundred Montrealers using remote controlled cars – the same as the residence Random Ways. The end result is a surprisingly colourful mix: come see it at the First Nations Garden until June 2016!
Learn more:
- First Nations Garden's blog (in French)
- Flickr album
The caravan calls upon everyone's creativity, why not yours?
Contact Dorothée de Collasson. We look forward to hearing all about your creative and reflexive civic initiative!
Partenaires du projet • Project's partners
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