Exhibition – Documentary by the Centre d’histoire de Montréal
June 15, 2011 – March 25, 2012 -- Extended until September 1, 2013
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«Ce que j'ai trouvé le plus difficile c'est quand on a vu la démolition
se faire. [...] Y'a pu de traces de ton enfance. On peut pu dire "Moi,
j'suis née là", "Moi, j'ai grandi là". Ben non, ct'un stationnement, pis
une tour. [...] » Jeanelle Bouffard, former resident of the Faubourg
à m'lasse. |
A city is not a fixed object. It is a body in perpetual movement and
perpetual change. This unassailable logic applied in the disappearance of entire
neighbourhoods in Montreal between 1950 and 1975, a period of urban
modernization in much of the world. The official reasons for demolition were the
unhealthy conditions prevailing in the existing dwellings and the needs created
by major projects such as the 1967 World’s Fair and the 1976 Summer Olympic
Games. Montreal was at a turning point in its history!
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« Ma récompense, c’est d’avoir largement contribué à transformer la
ville que déjà nous aimions en ville que nous aimons encore plus ». Jean
Drapeau's resignation speech, in Benoît Gignac, Le Maire qui rêvait sa
ville, Montréal, Éditions La Presse, p.246. |
The City undertook the daunting task of creating an inventory of the
dwellings slated for destruction, leaving a photographic archive of life in that
era to posterity. Wishing to bring these lost neighbourhoods back to life, the
Centre d’histoire de Montréal team carried out the task of collecting memories
from the former inhabitants of the Red Light district, the Faubourg à m’lasse,
and Goose Village, as well as those of experts working for the City and actors
in the demolition process.
As soon as they enter the exhibit, visitors come up against the unpleasant
evidence that entire neighbourhoods were bulldozed. When it happened, living
communities turned into no-man’s-lands.
Continuing through the exhibit, visitors discover that the reason for this
mayhem was the determination to solve urban problems by clearing slums and
modernizing Montreal to take on the challenges of the post-war 20th century.
Urban planners, architects, and engineers active either in a bygone era or today
explain the perceived need for urban megaprojects which offered a promise of
renewal and the hope of a “Radiant City” whose inhabitants could lead
better lives.
In the next section, visitors can peruse the inventory taken by City of
Montreal employees: the thousands of residences condemned for demolition
that were systematically numbered and photographed. Montrealers of today,
witnesses of those times, reveal what their former neighbourhoods were like. The
Red Light district, the Faubourg à m’lasse, and Goose Village are recreated in a
space that plunges visitors into life milieus that have been lost forever.
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" It's just like a death. Part of you, part of your history died that
day when they choose to put Expo 67. So you go to that process of grieving
the same way as you would do a death. because that's something tha's loss.
The memories are still there [...] but the place is not there, people are
gone." Frances Ortuso, former resident of Goose
Village |
The
exhibit ends in a space where visitors are questioned on their roles as
citizens: their ability to mobilize, to reflect, and to visualize the city of
the future.
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«L’urbanisme ça vous concerne, ça vous regarde et vous devriez vous y
intéresser davantage […] Qu’est-ce qui se passe en matière d’urbanisme, ça
concerne tout le monde. Ça a des impacts sur tout le monde. Être citoyen
devrait vouloir dire être interpellé par les questions d’urbanisme, les
questions d’architecture, les questions de paysages» Gérard Beaudet,
Professor of Urban Planning, Université de
Montréal
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Media
tours, interviews with the exhibition’s conceptors, and visual and audio-visual
material are available on demand for the media.
Media contact
André Gauvreau
andregauvreau@ville.montreal.qc.ca
