Light ! This seemed to be the watchword of the 375 celebrations.and Montreal’s anniversary, in 2017. Light on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, through Moment Factory’s expensive permanent light installation, but also light on Mount Royal, where works created by Marc Séguin shimmered.
Montréal, a winter city plunged into darkness for long hours, thus took its place in the line of cities around the world that have made light a major center of attraction, including Lyon, Berlin, Sydney and Shanghai.
But what part of the city’s shadows is concealed behind this deluge of lux now permanently projected on the walls of the Quartier des Spectacles after nightfall?
This is the question posed by art historian Josianne Poirier in her essay Spooky Montreal. Or the dark side of urban light animationspublished by Lux.
Although a fervent lover of light, Josianne Poirier is concerned about the synthetic and peaceful image of urban life conveyed by these projections that come on after dark, of the living heart of the city made invisible by these bursts of light. .
“I observed the Quartier des Spectacles a lot around 2010, when there was an accentuation of light and projection paths, the installation of permanent monumental videos. I wondered what it was doing to our experience of the city and how it was transforming downtown,” she says.
In her book, Josianne Poirier goes back to the 17thand century, when Louis XIV, the Sun King, installed 2736 candles above the streets of Paris. “These lanterns, she writes, contribute to the security of the premises, but they also remind us of the constant possibility of surveillance. She also traces the origins of phantasmagoria in the magic lanterns, which appeared after the Revolution, which allowed the projection of shapes or characters through glass plates.
In Montreal, the first 22 oil-filled streetlights were installed in 1815 on rue Saint-Paul, on the initiative of a handful of merchants, who were quickly imitated by those on rue Notre-Dame. In 1818, 24 men were hired to maintain and light the lamps, and act as guardians of the city. “They form the first police force in Montreal,” she wrote.
However, if night lighting induces a real feeling of security, it does not necessarily act on crime. “There is an observation that constantly comes up in North America, it is that there are more offenses committed during the day than at night”, notes Josianne Poirier in an interview.
Too bright for fish
Today, there are so many nocturnal projections that enliven the Quartier des Spectacles that it would be hard to find space to add more. When illuminating the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, it was even necessary to reduce the lighting and the animation so as not to harm the ecosystem of the islands and the life of the fish of the St. Lawrence… About these famous Live Connectionsthe work of Moment Factory, which was to take the pulse of big data Montrealer by recording information from cell phones, Josianne Poirier wonders if we haven’t bet more on the process and the technique than on the result.
Josianne Poirier specifies that she is “not nostalgic for pre-modern life”. “I deeply love light and lighting,” she says, as long as it is presented in a sensitive and inviting way. As a woman who often travels alone, she also says she appreciates the fact of being able to move around in a well-lit place, even if excessive white light can also generate insecurity.
The project Memory Cityby Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, is also a legacy of the 375and Montreal’s birthday. It is a succession of illuminated tables designed to represent as many aspects of the city’s history. But the project also offers, according to her, “a pasteurized vision of the collective narrative”, he writes. It must be said that, by their very nature, the celebrations of the 375and obscured the entire history of Montreal that preceded the arrival of Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance.
In her essay, she particularly insists on the Large Table, the centerpiece of the project. At the end of this scene, which begins when Montreal is still buried under the ocean, different characters from the story dance together to the rhythm of the song Do you love life like me?, from Boule Noire. “All the pitfalls of the past seem to have been overcome,” she notes. At the same time, a project like The magnitude of our strugglesby Jenny Cartwright and the Semaphore, which celebrated the 50and anniversary of the women’s demonstration for the right to hold public assemblies, was refused by the Quartier des spectacles. The message signifying the refusal indicated that “content highlighting a social cause, a cause / a movement / a political party / a social group, are not considered artistic”, she relates.
However, very few major lighting projects were developed in Montreal after 2017. Since then, the pandemic has also temporarily driven outdoor festivals from the Quartier des spectacles. Meanwhile, picnic tables and tub trees greeted passers-by, creating an atmosphere in stark contrast to the mood of large crowd-drawing events.
For Josianne Poirier, it would simply be a question of trusting the unexpected and the ephemeral more, to see and hear the true pulse of the city, outside of the predetermined stagings. “You have to trust in more spontaneous uses, in the unexpected, and in people’s ability to organize themselves. »