With the inauguration of the mural in homage to Françoise Sullivan, the one just as freshly painted which adorns one of the pavilions of the École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) has gone rather unnoticed. His title : Timelines. If we see hops several times, it’s not just because students like to drink beer…
“It’s a lesson in the history of the neighborhood,” summarizes Julien-Pierre Lacombe, sustainable development advisor at the ETS.
We often talk about the Griffintown neighborhood as a missed opportunity. But if we can cite one success, it is the conversion of the old Dow brewery buildings into the ETS campus.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
“We will be 50 next year. We are the largest engineering faculty in Quebec and we are growing,” emphasizes Julien-Pierre Lacombe.
ETS left the Plateau to settle in Griffintown in 1996, five years after the brewery’s last bottle of beer was produced. “We started with a building. There are 15 of us. We have really developed a university district with works of public art and four parks,” explains Julien-Pierre Lacombe.
In the 1960s, Dow beer was the favorite of many Quebecers. But when around twenty consumers in the Quebec region died, it was the beginning of the end.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
How do you become a muralist? “It’s the mural that chooses us,” says Jasmin Guérard Alie. And when we finish one, we think it’s the last, he jokes. “It’s very demanding. »
Three months of hard work
The Dow Brewery was at the heart of Griffintown and this neighborhood’s brewing heritage is an important part of the work Timelines. Reference is also made to the strong Irish immigration and the importance of the Lachine Canal in the industrial advent of Montreal and even Canada.
It took the Artducommun collective team three months to complete the 19,000 square foot mural that adorns Pavilion A of the ETS, and more than 500 chalks to trace it! “We worked in the evening with projectors,” says Jasmin Guérard Alie, co-founder of the Artducommun collective.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Through its mural works, the first of which was produced in 2007 for the 40th anniversary of Expo 67 on the Old Brewery Mission building, Artducommun has developed an expertise in telling the story of a place while making a bridge with today.
The collection of Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise
To find out more about the Dow Brewery, Jasmin Guérard Alie and her accomplice Simon Bachand consulted THE great connoisseur of the history of the Dow Brewery, Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise. “I am not a historian, but a collector,” he explains.
Her collection began with a tray given by her mother, who collected jewelry.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise
Today, I have thousands of Dow Brewery items in our home. I just bought four on eBay this week.
Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise, collector
Since 2012, some of its artifacts have adorned the exhibition Say Dow! The story of a local brewery, presented in the INGO Innovation Crossroads building at the ETS. This was the first “outside the walls” exhibition produced by the Pointe-à-Callière museum.
“The brewing heritage is very little commemorated in Quebec,” underlines Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise, who spent the last weekend of the Culture Days guiding visitors through the exhibition.
“It’s important to know the past of a neighborhood,” adds Julien-Pierre Lacombe, recalling that the construction of the former Dow planetarium – today occupied by the ETS Centech incubator – was financed by the brewery a year before the unfortunate events…
When the planetarium was inaugurated on 1er April 1966 by Mayor Jean Drapeau, Dow was doing great business. A few months later, the media reported the mysterious deaths of around twenty men from the Quebec region, all heavy consumers of Dow beer.
As a matter of urgency and prevention, Dow then decided to throw 500,000 gallons of beer down the drain. But for the public, the damage was done.
The cause ? The addition of larger quantities of cobalt salt at the Dow brewery in Quebec to increase the head of foam. “The autopsy of the deceased men revealed that their hearts were streaked with pale and dark bands,” says Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise, recalling the existence of the book. Tiger hearts by cardiologist Yves Morin.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Old Dow beer bottles
The “killer beer” scandal is often cited as an example of a public relations failure. Nice coincidence: this is the area in which Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise excels at the National cabinet (although he does not specialize in crisis management, but in relations with communities and in social acceptability).
The real failure is that Dow never admitted there was a problem.
Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise
Although much mystery remains and no charges have been filed, these facts led to the downfall of Dow who was bought shortly after by his “sworn enemy” O’Keefe.
Isn’t that a fascinating story? This shows that a mural can reveal little-known parts of the past. The mural is also a few steps from the exhibition which is located in the Carrefour d’innovation INGO building on rue Peel and to which entry is free from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.