Imagine St Charles Square become (once again) our community hub, with French-Canadian music and dancing giving way to the contemporary beats of DJs, break dance, slam poetry and Les Mosquitos– while audio-video projections and sounds infuse the site with visuals, music and energy. With a photography installation recalling both historic and modern Vanier, and with food, arts and activities, the site again becomes alive.
Great urban spaces are (often) borne out of the re-appropriation and re-imagination of public spaces – opportunities for residents and visitors alike to experience places in new ways. Vanier’s public spaces, like St Charles Square, are set to be reshaped and reclaimed as C’est Chill, an early winter arts and culture festival, takes to our streets and parks on December 1. The event welcomes individuals to “Vanier’s renaissance,” and the day’s events – steeped in Vanier’s own traditions – are set to bring a contemporary edge to Vanier.
Artistic Director and musician Dominique Saint-Pierre, having recently co-created with video artist Shaun Elie a river-inspired soundscape for Nuit Blanche (beautifully situated under the downtown Plaza Bridge), has assembled a program that celebrates Vanier’s unique heritage, its urban landscape, and its contemporary diversity.
The event kicks off at noon with the calling of church bells across the neighbourhood. Then imagine a parade. Led by Junkyard Symphony, and bringing together First Nations drummers, cyclists, noisemakers and groups in-between, the march departs Place Dupuis on Montreal Road, follows Vanier’s traditional architecture (and decorative houses) of Marier Street, to Beechwood and St Charles Square, once the active front lawn of St Charles parish.
Near the Rideau River, at the corner of Beechwood and the Vanier Parkway,Aboriginal artists are set to install a massive neighbourhood dream-catcher to capture the community’s hope and aspiration. Imagine, too, community-sourced public art, with a mural taking shape and giving life to the too-persistent wooden boarding around the Beechwood fire site. And imagine (even still) the softening of lamp posts and street lights on many of Vanier’s commercial main streets. All month, led by artists Mélanie Gatt and Amaury Lavoine, community members are knitting and crocheting, preparing to yarn bomb Vanier with cozy and colourful coverings.
Perhaps the beauty of C’est Chill lies in its fusion of that which frustrates with that which inspires, bringing together old and new in a celebration of community and public space. It’s Vanier remixed. Welcome to the renaissance.
Image Credits: Dream Catcher (Pinkyboon); Architectural Foundation (Mike Steinhauer); Notre Dame Bells (VanierNow); A display in Yellow Springs (Shrewdcat); Renaissance Logo (C'est Chill Event Poster; Vanier BIA)
Artistic Director and musician Dominique Saint-Pierre, having recently co-created with video artist Shaun Elie a river-inspired soundscape for Nuit Blanche (beautifully situated under the downtown Plaza Bridge), has assembled a program that celebrates Vanier’s unique heritage, its urban landscape, and its contemporary diversity.
The event kicks off at noon with the calling of church bells across the neighbourhood. Then imagine a parade. Led by Junkyard Symphony, and bringing together First Nations drummers, cyclists, noisemakers and groups in-between, the march departs Place Dupuis on Montreal Road, follows Vanier’s traditional architecture (and decorative houses) of Marier Street, to Beechwood and St Charles Square, once the active front lawn of St Charles parish.
Near the Rideau River, at the corner of Beechwood and the Vanier Parkway,Aboriginal artists are set to install a massive neighbourhood dream-catcher to capture the community’s hope and aspiration. Imagine, too, community-sourced public art, with a mural taking shape and giving life to the too-persistent wooden boarding around the Beechwood fire site. And imagine (even still) the softening of lamp posts and street lights on many of Vanier’s commercial main streets. All month, led by artists Mélanie Gatt and Amaury Lavoine, community members are knitting and crocheting, preparing to yarn bomb Vanier with cozy and colourful coverings.
Perhaps the beauty of C’est Chill lies in its fusion of that which frustrates with that which inspires, bringing together old and new in a celebration of community and public space. It’s Vanier remixed. Welcome to the renaissance.
Image Credits: Dream Catcher (Pinkyboon); Architectural Foundation (Mike Steinhauer); Notre Dame Bells (VanierNow); A display in Yellow Springs (Shrewdcat); Renaissance Logo (C'est Chill Event Poster; Vanier BIA)
