chantiers: Roundtable discussion and screening

Event as part of CHANTIER

A project by Jean-François Prost with collaborators, distributed by Skol
On-site at 6919 Marconi Street

August 3, 2024 (postponed to august 4th in case of rain)

From 6pm:

Roundtable discussion

Voids

Participants: Laurence Beaudoin, Nans Bortuzzo, Jean-François Prost, and moderator Josianne Poirier.

Beer bar, sausage stand, and music.

Screening – field side

From 8.30pm:

Screening – street side

From Lafontaine to Racine, passing through Bossé and Talbot

Artist: Emmanuel Galland

Presence of the artist

Additional screenings on Friday, August 9 and Saturday, August 10

Project Description:

Roundtable discussion

Voids

A building site generally evokes the physical construction of a building. Vacant land, wasteland and undeveloped lots are now the focus of increasing interest in real estate development projects. Must we systematically densify our existing cities, fill in and imperatively develop every vacant spot? These spaces, often perceived as waste or loss, nevertheless possess an intrinsic, ephemeral and transitional quality, fostering an exploratory and open world, conducive to a process of co-definition. How can open forms and unfinished spaces, as well as the practice of self-construction, become positive and creative vectors for the emergence of new forms of collaborative “architecture” that embrace change? Is it really necessary to extend our infrastructures rather than seek to make better use of and share those that already exist? In a striking paradox, while we strive to build more and ever faster, thousands of built spaces remain unoccupied, unused or dormant. In this discussion, our guests will approach the subject from different angles: artistic, social, political, environmental and legislative.

Projection :

From Lafontaine to Racine, including Bossé and Talbot

Emmanuel Galland

The artist will present, in the form of a projection, a series of photos taken at night in Chicoutimi in 2008. These images capture the illuminated signs lining the main strip called Talbot. Often disliked by modernists for their North American populism, kitschy language, and symbolism of urban sprawl and laissez-faire, these signs are nevertheless endearing due to their local flavour and particularism. They represent small family businesses, now rare. It is primarily their graphic quality, their inventiveness in various shapes and colours, as well as their contextualization that make them unique and invite reflection in a homogenized world. Projected onto the raised panel of Marconi Street, the signs, like street furniture, will take on a new, unsuspected dimension, in dialogue and contrast with a motley, dead-end street, home to independent garage owners, shoeboxes and unbuilt lots, all threatened by new developments.

About CHANTIER

CHANTIER is an artistic, political and social investigation of the conceptualization and creation of a large display device situated on a vacant lot at 6919 Marconi in Montréal. For more than a year, this proposed structure will serve as a support for the realization of a series of collaborative, artistic and civic interventions.

6919 Marconi, starting point of the CHANTIER project, is located in a hybrid urban zone (residential, industrial and commercial) along a train line. For many years now, Prost individually and collectively initiated on this 1 800 ft2 lot different types of occupations, such as workshops, projections, launches and urban camping. Today, many city dwellers are challenged and drawn to this vacant lot as a space-time of stopping, slowing down and spontaneity in an era of acceleration and increased control.

Unlike entertained-animated spaces that are overly programmed and codified, as we know nowadays, the vacant lot stays wide open for imagination (without dictating how we behave, move and travel). According to the theoretician Benjamin Delmotte, this allows “multiple never-ending beginnings.”

For the CHANTIER project, Jean-François Prost will initiate an intervention offering a support on which other individuals can act and contribute to define its character and specificity in transformation. This participation and (co)definition process suggests an eventual negotiation about the land, which is vital for democracy. As the urbanist Jane Jacobs said : “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

The proposed actions will explore the theme of the vanished, existing and prospective urban diversity, as well as the vagueness of the place, and the unfinished aspect of the construction site as a vector for co-defining the city.

It is in this spirit that the CHANTIER project is being developed. More news will follow soon about the planned actions.

Discover the program HERE