Vitrine

Refreshments go down particularly well after a long day at the office, following a weekend of (for the most part) procrastination from math exam cramming, but most of all in the presence of creativity and purpose. When I arrive at the final vernissage "Situated Knowledges"of Ali’s summer course, not only do I behold a larger installation than previously imagined – and quite rationally laid out – but I’m thrilled to participate in what I understand as a multimediated meta-intervention (for some background on what an intervention is in this context, see a. the previous post, b. this website).

In (okay, almost) the same way that people walk through the Atwater market and cross the Charlevoix bridge over the Lachine canal with but a faint consciousness of the fact that history, important foundational “involves-us-all” history, happened in the area, the students’ staged interventions to resurrect that history (in green spaces around Montreal) were themselves recent history, having been missed by most in attendance today but animated through creative representation and an exhibit of primary works and footage.

Of course the Lachine canal example is the location chosen by Alexandra to perform her intervention and by default the one I’ve heard the most about. Her classmates’ projects have relocated and reimagined today’s public parks and green spaces like Victoria Square, Viger Square, the Maguire Meadow in sketches, photography, videography, and by juxtaposing symbols of the past by way of these ceremonial events, both locating, and themselves located in, time. A commemoration for commemorations. And how appropriately successful. Montreal embraces art and sets aside a place for every piece to survive on its own. For example, a group of small flower pots, each identified by labels reading the names of different First Nations peoples has survived a week sitting on the Victoria Square monument. How fitting that they have entered the landscape so naturally as memorial. Here, we live social and cultural memory through the present, through our perception of surroundings, through markers like (but not limited to) architecture, botany, and protection of heritage spaces. Memory both whispers and glares at us as we walk right by on the way to work.

Light pours into Concordia’s EV Building through the massive windows that basically are the MacKay wall, casting long shadows and providing an early dusk since we are on the East side.

The diminuendo, once outside, consists of sausages and sauerkraut, a sleepy bus ride and another walk up Westminster, only this time at twilight and dryer.