DESIGNS
By: Zhuofan Chen
Located at the foot of Mount Royal, George-Étienne Cartier Monument is dedicated to one of the Fathers of Confederation. Often seen as the less problematic French-Canadian counterpart of John Macdonald, Cartier’s quote “We are of different races not for strife, but to work together for the common welfare” can be seen on the bottom of the monument. However, with the monument adorned with neo-classical figures in ancient European-style clothing gazing down on spectators, one might wonder who is included in Cartier’s concept of “common welfare.” As a centerpiece of Jeanne-Mance Parc, the monument has long been a site of various activities ranging from protests to weekly drum sessions. During those activities, many often find themselves interacting with the sculpted figures at an intimate scale.
The intervention seeks to enhance such interaction by bringing the bronze figures down to pedestrian level and scattering them across the site. Further, the physical protrusion of the towering monument shall be dismembered and positioned across the field. Those parts of monuments now become platforms at a lesser height, allowing anyone to perform, to be celebrated, or to exist merely. Numerous monuments and sculpted figures from other sites might join their peers at the foot of Mount Royal, leaving it to the spectators to navigate the scope. Common Ground now exists as an open space, where we live, perform and protest while looking into the eyes of our bronze and marble counterparts.
is an author, speaker, columnist, and podcaster in the fields of architecture and decorative arts. She is completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University, Montréal, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing from John Molson School of Business. She studied Industrial Psychology in Los Angeles, California. Sicotte is the author of two published books on design (2015, 2018) published by Les Éditions Cardinal.
is a Colombian PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. She has a background in architectural design and community activism and holds a master’s degree in Building and Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, England. Her interests focus on socially-engaged art, social movements, collaborative activism in post-conflict scenarios, collectively-produced art, and art produced in relation to the built environment.
is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. His research focuses on spatial agency, social aesthetics, youth narratives, and graphic representations of urban memory. He has published on the relationship between children, play, and public space in Cartagena, Colombia. He has also worked as an editor on literary projects, including Territorio Fértil, which received the María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza award for Afro-Colombian literature.
is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice (Tier 2) at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research interests include low-income housing and participatory design, civil protest and urban design, and campus landscapes and race. Her publications include the co-edited book, Orienting Istanbul (2010) and solo-authored book, Istanbul Open City (2018).
is an artist and a professor of Art History at Concordia University. Her work focuses on women and the history of the built environment, urban landscapes, research-creation, and oral history. She has published on the spatial history of the suffrage movement, public art, gardens, and the politics of urban change. In addition to her research on the spaces of restorative and transitional justice, she is leading an oral history project on the urban memories of diverse Montrealers.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. For instance, see ‘Facilitating voicing and listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. The Colombian scenario.’ In: De Nardi, S., Orange, H., et al. Routledge Handbook of Memoryscapes. Routledge: London. (2019), and his article ‘Not being able to speak is torture: performing listening to painful narratives’. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Special Issue Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: Contributions of Arts and Culture. (March, 2020)
