Art installation captures the sounds of the city
If we can’t silence our environment, we can at least play with it, artist says
If you’re craving a moment of reflection amid the constant buzz of city life, heading into the heart of downtown Montreal might seem counterintuitive. But a new installation outside the St-Laurent métro station that launched Thursday encourages Montrealers to do just that.
Wind Instrument, a work created by Montreal artist Étienne Paquette, pushes passersby to listen to their surroundings more carefully. It is made up of six large steel pipes — reminiscent of ones you might find at one of the city’s many construction sites — that are designed to turn the ambient sound caused by the hustle and bustle of city life into music. Those who walk by can contribute to the soundscape by speaking or singing into the pipes.
“If we can’t silence our environment, we can at least play with its sounds,” a description of Wind Instruments says.
The installation is the result of a partnership between the Quartier des Spectacles, the National Film Board of Canada and incubator LA SERRE — arts vivants. It is also the 12th and final piece in LA SERRE’s Possible series, which began last year during Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebrations. The goal of the series was to create art that inspired civic engagement and new ways of tackling problems that exist in the city, said LA SERRE codirector Jasmine Catudal.
“(Paquette’s) idea was really to work with the sounds that exist in the city ... and figure what we can do with them,” she said of Wind Instrument, which has been in the works since December 2017. “How can we transform those noises into something artistic?”
One of the big challenges in creating the piece was ensuring the public would know what was being asked of them, said LouisRichard Tremblay, an interactive studio producer with the NFB, who worked with Paquette on the installation. He said it was integral that the creators in their studio achieved balance between creating something that was beautiful and captivating as well as something that could communicate its functionality to those who walked by.
The piece will be on the corner of St-Laurent and de Maisonneuve Blvds. until Oct. 8, during which time it will be recording all of the sound it collects. According to Tremblay, they have yet to decide what they will do with that data once the two months are up.
“We know we’re collecting precious information, but we don’t decide on what to do (with it) before actually seeing people relating to the work and having a clear understanding of what is it that we have at hand.”