REM stations | Three first works unveiled

Multidisciplinary artist Manuel Mathieu is among the artists chosen

Josee Lapointe
The Press

The subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec, CDPQ Infra, unveils this Wednesday the names of the first three artists who have been chosen to create works in the stations of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM). Among them, the rising star Manuel Mathieu, whose five monumental mosaics will be integrated into a corridor of the Édouard-Montpetit station.

“It’s very moving to do this at the University of Montreal,” says the multidisciplinary artist of Haitian origin, who had, among other things, individual exhibitions in 2020 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and at the Power Plant. in Toronto.

“When I arrived in Canada, I was living in Rosemère, but I was studying at HEC. It’s like closing the loop a bit. »

In The inhabited mountainManuel Mathieu wanted to create a conversation with the works of public art that have made the mark of Montreal, as well as with the artists who “have fueled our imagination for years”, a question of drawing inspiration from the past while looking towards the future.

“It’s an honor to present a work of this scale in the city,” he says. There is also an accessibility component which I really like. I arrived in Montreal at 19, I’m 35 now. I became a man in Montreal, it forged my sensitivity. »

Manuel Mathieu does not hide it: he wants to create something “mindblowing” in this station which is located 70 meters underground. “We are really in the center of Montreal, in the heart of the mountains, of the stone. It’s very symbolic. »

Selection

The three artists were chosen after a very rigorous process, and had to propose projects related to the precise place where the works will be installed.

“We provide sociological and geographical information, on the users and the people who live around, on what is in the station and around the station”, explains the curator of the art collections of the Caisse de depot and placement of Quebec, Marie-Justine Snider.

The controls were also very clear. In the case of Édouard-Montpetit, the mosaic was a requirement, to recall the Montreal metro. In Brossard, given the configuration of the station, we wanted a diptych, so that we could “see the work from everywhere”, which called for more sculpture. In Panama, another station located in Brossard, the work, “installed in a very dark passage”, had to be presented in a backlit box, a “light box”, which was therefore more appropriate for painting or photography.

The selected artists have worked very little in the public space during their career. “It was not our mandate”, specifies Marie-Justine Snider. But that’s no coincidence either.

This is the case of sculptor David Armstrong VI, who was chosen for the Brossard station diptych, and who is experiencing public art for the first time. “I’m so excited, so happy,” says the man who has exhibited in Canada and internationally since 1997.

“I didn’t think it was a dream to do public art. But right now, I feel like I’m living that dream. I can’t imagine doing something that makes me so happy. »

Being associated with public transit is very significant for the Montreal artist from Belleville, Ontario, who was inspired by the symbolism of the train and all its “potential” of stories and encounters to create The passengerstwo very tall bronze sculptures that respond to each other and whose shape changes depending on the point of view.

“It opens the dialogue, it’s very magical. I will definitely be spending a lot of time at the Brossard station watching people watch them! »

For his part, it is the notion of movement that inspired photographer Chih-Chien Wang for the Panama station in Brossard, which is located in an area of ​​the South Shore that he knows well.

The Taiwanese-born artist, who has lived in Montreal for 20 years and who received the Louis-Comtois de la Ville award in 2020, superimposed photos of dust with aerial photos. The work titled An endless journey beyond the present thus passes from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, evoking the transformation inherent in movement.

“Whether we leave Brossard to go to work or study in Montreal, or we leave our country to start a new life in another, each time, we change our way of thinking. »

Inauguration

The two Brossard works will be inaugurated in the spring and summer of 2023, and that of Édouard-Montpetit, at the end of 2024. In all, about ten REM stations will benefit from integrated permanent works of art, to a budget of 7.3 million. Marie-Justine Snider’s team is still looking for the best locations for the next ones.

“These won’t necessarily be stations, they can also be places. We search, we are like archaeologists. We tame the network, to understand where these works will best live. »