This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Urban art, like cycling, is part of Montreal’s identity. What if we combined these two symbols of the city during a guided tour? That’s what the company Fitz Montréal is offering this summer: a first tour of this nature to be done on an electric bike.
If you live in Montreal, you walk past murals every day without really admiring them. However, the city has long had street art in its DNA. This is thanks to the Under Pressure festival, the oldest event of its kind in North America, which was founded in 1996, and since 2012, with Mural, an event that is now international in scope. Currently, on the city’s website, there are 306 murals listed, each with their own creator and their own story.
It is precisely to help them (re)discover them that Fitz Montréal, a company specializing in guided bicycle and walking tours, had the idea of launching a tour of the murals on two wheels this year. “We recently acquired 25 new electric-assist bikes among the best available in Quebec: those from the Canadian company Norco, in order to offer tours accessible to all. And we thought that the murals were a good excuse to discuss many things related to Montreal, including the city’s culture, its history and the symbols of the neighborhoods,” says Diego Salamone, co-founder and president of Fitz Montréal.
Colours in your eyes
After a short explanation of how the electric bikes work and a test of the helmets provided by the company, we set off on two wheels through the streets and alleys of the Plateau-Mont-Royal. For this tour, we are accompanied by Thom Seivewright, an experienced guide who is popular on social media thanks to his videos published under the name @montrealexpert. “I have dedicated my life to presenting Montreal: it is my first love,” he says right away.
First stop: a few blocks from La Maison des cyclistes, located near Parc La Fontaine, the headquarters of Fitz Montréal. Thom Seivewright stops in front of a mural in vibrant shades of green, pink and purple. “It’s by the artist Monosourcil. She did about ten in Montreal and in each one there are people with a unibrow,” he explains. It’s the kind of thing you’d never notice without a chaperone.
A little further on, in Mile End, we come across a huge 15,000 square foot mural by Ola Volo. “It’s one of the largest murals in Montreal! Among other things, it shows a bird that came out of its cage because the artist, originally from Kazakhstan, says that the city gave it wings,” the guide tells the impressed participants that we are.
For two hours, riding through streets, alleys and cycle paths, Thom Seivewright presents the history of about twenty works. He also addresses more generally the culture of graffiti, the techniques and terms used in the street art world and how to choose artists to create new murals.
Fitz Montréal’s tours, conducted in groups of up to 10 people, are not static. First, there are several guides, and then everyone goes freely, according to their desires and interests, admiring various creations in several central neighbourhoods. “I never repeat the exact same tour,” says Thom Seivewright. “You could come back tomorrow and it would be different.”
While guided tours are sometimes associated with tourists, on the way home, driving down a green alley, Diego Salamone insists that those offered by Fitz Montréal are for everyone, even Montrealers. “We try to make visitors feel like locals and locals feel like visitors,” he says. Mission accomplished, since the Montrealer in me comes out of the tour with my head full of colours and new knowledge.
Discover the city with Fitz Montreal
This content was produced by the Special Publications Team of Dutyrelevant to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part in it.