Public Artwork

Indices fragmentés

Indices fragmentés
Location:
Montréal, QC, Canada
Artwork creator(s): 
Neumark, Devora
Text author(s): 
Neumark, Devora
Installation year: 
1992
Remarks on location: 

The posters were placed in various locations (indoors and outdoors). The tombstones were installed in various green spaces in the city.

  • In Dorchester Square, at the corner of René-Levesque Blvd. West and Peel Street
  • On Prince Arthur Street, between Saint-Laurent Blvd. and Saint-Denis Street
  • At the corner of Guy Street and de Maisonneuve Blvd.
  • At Place Jacques-Cartier, in Old Montreal
  • Between Cherrier and Saint-Denis Streets
  • On Mont-Royal
  • Near Beaver Hall
Description: 

The work consists of posters and tombstones. 3,500 posters were put up by a company specializing in indoor and outdoor billposting. The posters feature text on the left and, on the right, a detail from a photograph of a tombstone. Ten tombstones were installed in various green spaces throughout the city. The inscriptions in Hebrew were partially sandblasted away so as to leave only traces. Tombstones recall the memory of an individual, it presents information of a private nature in a public place, it "weaves a link between private and public spaces."

Text of the artwork: 

INDICES FRAGMENTÉS

(les vestiges)

débris

restes

chargés des traits VISIBLES de l’âge

commandant l’espace identité personnelle

échangée par des signes de plus grande portée

que le seul souvenir d’une personne affirmant vos

 

MÉMOIRES

signaler la continuité

des repères solidifient (défient l’aliénation) ? fabrications et manipulations

de son histoire

héritage modes du tissu social

qui préservent la culture de la fragmentation pesez bien les significations le passé que nous créons

naît de notre seule présence d’autres – futurs – décideront de notre passé les surfaces estompées nient

les traces dans la pierre en état d’érosion

qu’est-ce que l’effacement révèle ?

Text theme: 
History
Artwork theme: 

Forgotten History

History: 

The intervention was carried out from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the intention of creating an ephemeral work of art. The 3,500 posters were visible for about 3 days. The tombstones disappeared over a period of four years. Two have remained in place. Devora Neumark was the organizer of the event. The artist used recovered tombstones that were meant to mark a burial but that were rejected by the client because of textual errors.

 

Event : Indices fragmentés, intervention en deux parties : pierres commémoratives, affiches

Event date(s): 
1992
Document(s): 

Art for time : artist doesn’t expect this work to last

Duncan, Ann (1992).  Art for time : artist doesn’t expect this work to last. The Gazette. (may 25) : The Montreal Gazette, p. A4