The initiation to competition begins now. This Tuesday, Concordia University begins a summer course whose goal is to “train the next generation of artists to develop public art proposals”. The students will work concretely from the example of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM) whose commissioning is delayed at the end of the year.
Over the next few weeks, the class will be divided into four teams who will have to imagine works temporarily integrated into part of the public transport circuit by rail. The apprentices of the 1% will have to respect precise constraints related to the chosen site (the place of the switchers in the south-west of Montreal), to the materials and to the adoption of practices respectful of the environment. The course is called Public Art and Sustainability.
The selected students come from the arts, architecture or design programs of the four Montreal universities. The course will be repeated (but probably with other themes) over the next few years at UdeM, McGill and UQAM. This original initiative is financed by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). Educational institutions will share $500,000.
“We have been working on this course with the Caisse de dépôt for at least five years,” explains Annie Gérin, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia, adding that she immediately offered her university for the first part of this experiment. . “This is an extraordinary opportunity to collaborate with the three other institutions in Montreal. Each time, the course will move and each time students from the four universities will participate. This will mix different colors. »
Short-lived criticism
The REM’s art program benefits from a budget of 7.8 million in total. The Fund has increased the budgetof said 1% of 4.8 million legally imposed by the Policy for integrating the arts into architecture and the environment. The voluntary addition will also serve to enrich the cultural legacy of the new metropolitan network with competitions by invitation.
“A few years ago, I went to meet the Minister of Culture, Nathalie Roy at the time, to ask her to extract $500,000 to make temporary art, to design and install works that will remain in public space in an ephemeral way”, explains Marie-Justine Snider, curator of the CDPQ. “We wanted to distance ourselves from the permanence of public art and encourage very current, perhaps more daring practices,” adds the curator.
This idea, which piques curiosity like a cactus, came to him from a conversation with an art teacher who was already thinking about related subjects in his classes and from the example of the Canada Line in Vancouver which temporarily exhibits works by students. from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Mme Snider designed and directed the network integration program, one of the largest public transit projects in the world today. Three artistic competitions have already been held (the first installation should be visible this year) and seven others should follow in the coming years. The plan does not exclude installing works outside the network’s 25 stations.
The twenty-two students selected (at least twice as many wanted a place) also don’t go “creatively” exploring around a station. The three teachers chosen to lead the course are themselves artists who have already participated in 1% competitions.
“The challenge of creating temporary works with a concern for eco-responsibility corresponds to my own concerns as an artist,” explains Professor Kelly Jazvac, who has produced works of this nature in Ontario and Quebec. “Public art is always a challenge, even for a well-established artist. You have to take into account the site, its meaning, its history, the materials. We must design a durable and safe work. The course will offer students a unique chance to familiarize themselves with these constraints. »
Halfway through, the group will travel to New York, in particular to see the integration of the works at the Highline. “It is an internationally recognized flagship project, with eco-responsible works,” notes artist professor Yann Pocreau who completes the trio of holders with his colleague Juan Ortiz-Apuy. “We want to see this model and see what works well elsewhere, even if Montreal, with its 1% integration program in the metro, does not necessarily have to envy the rest of the planet. »
Eco-responsibility is already a socio-political position. Could others emerge? Especially since critical theories are not lacking in universities. After all, the REM has suffered many criticisms since its development, for example for its brutalist and noisy side. How will the proponents of the program react if a budding Hans Haacke shows up?
“Artists are used to asking questions, answers Mme Jazvac. The goal is to produce good art. If someone comes up with a very critical proposal, they’re probably going to be encouraged to make it more complex. But we are open to ideas, this is the basis of the course. »