Sculpture offers ‘symbolic greeting’
Concordia chancellor and wife donate kinetic sculpture to city, university
An eight-metre-high kinetic sculpture has been donated to the City of Montreal and to Concordia University by the university’s chancellor, Jonathan Wener, and his wife, Susan Wener, on the occasion of Montreal’s 375th and Canada’s 150th anniversaries.
The 725-kilogram aluminum piece, called Di-Octo, is by American artist Anthony Howe; he designed the kinetic, or moving, sculpture used during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio to reflect the light from the cauldron.
No other sculpture exists like it in Canada and there are only a handful around the world, said Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins, director of communications, advancement and alumni relations at Concordia. Howe works only on large-scale installations, he said.
Di-Octo, unveiled Thursday, stands outside the university’s Hall Building at Mackay St. and de Maisonneuve Blvd. It’s the latest addition to the university’s public art collection, which features 75 artworks on the Sir George Williams and Loyola campuses.
The piece, which requires only a two-km/h wind for its moving parts to be activated, works in near-silence.
“Di-Octo is a beautiful, original sculpture whose graceful folding arms are a symbolic greeting for students, faculty, staff, alumni and visitors,” said Jonathan Wener, founder, chairman and CEO of Montreal-based real estate firm Canderel.
Concordia president Alan Shepard called the sculpture “a feat of engineering that will allow Concordians and Montrealers to contemplate the role of art in our society.”
The plan is for Di- Octo to remain outdoors year-round. The university has a service agreement with Show Canada, the Laval-based steelworks company that built the piece with the artist — and was responsible for the Rio Olympics centrepiece.
It was lawyer France Chrétien Desmarais, president of the Society for the Celebration of Montreal’s 375th Anniversary, who helped to convince Wener to donate a work of art to honour the city’s and country’s special anniversaries.
Wener discovered Howe’s work through his daughter Katherine (Kassy) Wener; she was given the family mandate to find an appropriately inspirational sculpture.
Wener has deep ties to Concordia: He earned his bachelor of commerce degree in 1971 there — it was Sir George Williams then — and met his wife there. It made sense for the gift to have its home at Concordia.
“I love my alma mater,” he said. “My most passionate, benevolent work is done at the university. I have always loved public art, going back to my very first buildings in 1980. This opportunity seemed such a wonderful confluence of events to celebrate our history with another piece of magnificent sculpture by an internationally famous artist.”
Di-Octo is a beautiful, original sculpture whose graceful folding arms are a symbolic greeting.