Spatial Program
A space of contemporary art should be an emptied BODY PREPARED to be dismembered. It is an open field of action because contemporary means not predictable. We can only foresee an ATMOSPHERE OF VANISHING POINTS, always on the run.
Contemporary affairs don't need rooms but SUPPORTS. Not only in the infrastructural sense (as a theatrical attrezzatura) but also regarding the very character of the space where they unfold.
A space that is always pushed to turn into SOMETHING else, but in a certain way.
A light scaffolding comprising slim beams and polished steel columns supports the PHI interior. Black, corrugated concrete slabs, thick curtains, aluminum and glass partitions define different realms within it.
Thus, the interior becomes a kind of infrastructure that aims to prevent OBSOLESCENCE.
Heritage of the Site
A fragile and maimed body leans as best as possible on a massive plinth.
On their own ways, body and plinth tell their story and collide in a contemporary, relational time.
PHI Contemporain proposes bonding a new piece, FULL OF AIR, and an existing DENSE MATERIAL HERITAGE.
The ensemble allows the coexistence of simultaneous times. Past, present and future are present and stare at each other at every corner.
The material interlocking of these stories and their different physical reality produces an uncertain unit by means of simple COORDINATION, not subordination.
They are treated as simultaneous, non-hierarchical fragments able to negotiate with the city and themselves. The floating realm on top of the new building pairs up with the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours aisle across the street.
Urban Context
The ensemble preserves the domestic scale of the urban fabric and its interior voids surrounded by massive walls. The new piece will emerge from the back of the vacant lot, its OPEN image crowned by a loose metallic petticoat will be similar to that of a pavilion. The image of the building distances itself from the confinement that inhabits most of our museums/mausoleums, masked in opaque and exciting forms. The presence of light balconies and stairs blurs the limit of the interior with the city while suggests strolling through the façade: an aerial walk above the street.
In the ground level, a tree welcomes visitors. A garden-like courtyard recovers the open air above 401 rue de Bonsecours and articulates old and new pieces. Its natural light filters to the street through the porous facades, whereas open-air spaces on top of the new building and the Davies store replicate the dimension of the historical lots.
The new piece feels like an APPARITION, something that could be somewhere else, but it is precisely outlined in this place. Full of a gentle amazement, it establishes a new relationship with the skyline of Montreal.
It anchors to the center of an historic block and peers over the roofs towards the distant horizons of the river and the Montreal hills.
Art and People
A floating-field-like raft transports its occupants as they go across the landscape in a suspended time. They talk, carry their animals, listen, look at their surroundings and build, without intending to, a common destiny that lasts for the duration of their trip.
The interior ambience of an institution for contemporary art is about the rugosity of the trick.
It has to do with the INFECTED MEMORY of contemporary art and its daily reflections, rather than the memories of a better world that is already gone. It is about the momentary suspense and the shining OF THE VERY MOMENT when the saw cuts the magician assistant, rather than the permanent display of a smiling Lisa.
Within that open space, contemporary art should avoid telling stories about somewhere else ... once upon a time, somewhere.
To make a long story short: an institution for contemporary art presents stories as if they were TRICKS, lights reflected on an ancient shining. They appear as an unusual presence placed in front of the visitor.
(Competitor's text)
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