Hi everyone!
Welcome to the fifth and last post of this amazing Montreal Week!! Yay! I’m happy you guys have enjoyed – I appreciated all your comments and am glad I’m convincing you to add Montreal to your travel bucket list! After two days focused on food, today I’m heading more in the direction of art!
Montreal is such an amazing artsy city! There is circus, theatre, opera and ballet presentations all year round. You have countless festivals, from cinema, to theatre, to music, happening during the summer. The streets and buildings are also full of graffitis – or ‘street art’ as you perhaps prefer it! Not only can you view and witness art everywhere in this city, but there are also artists everywhere. It’s fun, it’s hip and it’s happening.
Today I thought that I would bring you the one thing I love the most about Montreal: the ART SCENE!
I could talk to you a lot about the concerts – free and paying – that are thrown in this city. I could go on and on. Frankly, I kind of just wanted to use this photo because I’m damn proud of it ;)
I want to start with ‘street art’ or perhaps ‘installation art’. Artists chose to come show their art and do installations in Montreal often, so I guess it wasn’t much of a surprise when Kurt Perschke announced he was bringing his red ball project to the metropolis.
If you don’t know about the red ball project yet, here are the details of this weird installation : It started back in 2001 when it was created by the New York artist. The goal – stuff this giant red ball (of almost 5m high) in exterior locations to highlight the environment. Perschke started with Barcelona, where, despite his authorisations being rejected, he went along and stuffed in red ball around town. After a while, people started talking more and more about it and now he gets invited to cities around the world. He picks 7 locations in the city and spends a week there (one location per day). He came to Montreal earlier this month and my mom and I jumped at the chance to go see the big red ball! If it comes to your town, I suggest trying to track it down!
yes we went despite the pouring rain!
The second thing I want to highlight is an exposition. The World Press Photo foundation is dedicated to photojournalism and every year they host a photo contest. The 2014 winning photos were exposed at the Bonsecours market earlier this month and I went with my parents. Photos have this effect, in which they show truth and yet tricks, they show you emotions and yet stay still, unchanging. They are haunting and harrowing. These photos were the epitome of harrowing photos I’ve seen in my life – from beautiful action shots of athletes, to portraits, to animal photos, to devastating natural disaster photos. All the photos are accompanied by a description and I learned so much during this expo about things from around the world. If you have the chance and this expo comes to your town, please don’t hesitate to go!
remember I mentioned this was in Old Montreal?
the queue despite the rain
I could talk about the Montreal art scene for perhaps every single day of an entire month and still not be done, but this is it for today. This post was starting to grow longer and longer with every event I wanted to discuss, but I decided to leave it to the art I’ve witnessed in the past two weeks. Yes only two weeks – that tells you how much you can experience if you’re really looking for it!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this Montreal Week! While it is over, I am thinking of doing another one perhaps later in 2015. If there is any interest? If you have any questions or need recommendations about Montreal, please don’t hesitate to contact me! And if you’ve missed anything about this week, don’t worry, you can always catch up:
Montreal from Above
Old Montreal
Afternoon tea at the Cardinal
Sugar Shacks
What is the one thing about your hometown you love the most? xx
