Présences du littéraire dans l’espace public canadien

The Concordia neighborhood is characterized by its main thoroughfares such as the Boulevard de Maisonneuve, Sainte-Catherine and Guy streets. Without fully defining the neighborhood, these axes represent both paths crossed, multiple views and diverse access methods. Crossroads Guy/De Maisonneuve, where there are particular access to the metro station Guy-Concordia and the Place Norman Bethune is one of the major centers of this area, given the flood of people and individuals who use them daily. The intervention project aims to make this intersection a landmark firmly rooted in the urban fabric by the surprising presence of texts that offer a unique experience in this neighborhood.


The project builds on the desire to include the written word within a site where language and words are the heart of an area associated with the knowledge and creativity. The use of modes of presentation is dynamic and evolving and mark the countless movements of speech and mobility exchanges. To properly mark the vivacity, the project uses two types of intervention: one permanent and one transient. In the manner of some works of public art in the neighborhood, the project seeks to invest the facade of buildings as a support intervention. (See Figure 1)

Tower of words
The first work of a permanent nature, is located on the east-facing facade of the residential tower, located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Guy and De Maisonneuve. This facade, visible from afar in the axis of the de Maisonneuve street, who will become an important landmark of a neighborhood.


The artwork consists of painting in the central vertical set of signs and letters from various languages that accumulate and overlap, as if they were placed in a bowl. Depending on the dusk gradually, a video projected on the entire facade exposes initially accumulating signs that come to those who are painted. In a second step, when the sun sets, the video shows an animation of letters that have come to the side sections of the left and right to form various statements in different languages.


The text builds vocabulary including road signs and billboard advertising to distract the usual sense. Here are some examples:

-Contournez la bêtise
-Tournez au feu de l'amour
-No exploiting anytime
-Dream ahead
-Divieto di non sognare
-...
(See figures 2, 3 and 4)

Words site - writing residency urban
The second intervention, which is ephemeral nature, is to put in the public space for the various movements of a text being written in real time. A writer is invited to work on a writing project whose daily work would be projected in public space. To do this, we propose to cover the facade of buildings under renovation with a tarp (scale 1 / 1) which would be reproduced some architectural elements of the building covered by the work. On this sheet is projected direct writing of the text starts (either via a webcam filming the blank page on which the writer writing or through a screen that shows the text being be entered into the computer).


This concept wants to carry a writing workshop writer at the heart of the city and thus give access to the process of contemporary creative writing for people who travel or reside in the district. The ability to monitor daily or seize the moment, snatches of the text being written has the potential to passersby to enter into an original text and absorb it.

The example chosen for the presentation is that of TD Bank, located at the intersection of Guy and Ste-Catherine West, who will be undergoing renovations in the coming years. Other buildings, like the GM Building (1550 de Maisonneuve West), the convent of the Sisters of Charity are called to be renovated over the next two decades.
(See Figure 5)