Night Walk in the plateau.

this is my first entry for our situationist art project, montreal revolt. wanting to find the revolution mired between the capitalist constructs, starbucks gentrification and pharmaprix brightness (how was that translated from “shopper’s drugmart”, seriously…), i chose to start wandering around my very own plateau neighborhood.

hey now, i know what you are all thinking. the plateau is a bastion of revolution and independence, the streets are urban artscapes, the people walking down those streets the very arty fashionable characters of the plateau’s very unique tableau. you know what i started thinking though? behind a seriously fashionable front, does the plateau have any substance? where is the revolution? after all, pharmaprix shines strong, fastfoods are everywhere, overpriced clothing stores sell you cool, second cup wants to charge you for wireless. the last 5 girls who walked past my cafe window were wearing the exact same coat! is my dearly beloved plateau just a fad, a hipsterville?

armed with my camera last sunday night, i started to walk up the plateau, snaking the streets to montroyal, and quickly rediscovered that my neighborhood is no fad at all. with an eye on wall spaces, i took in all these incredible visual artistic constructs: outside the gallery on roy, a robot sculpture blinking blue on the sidewalk; large elaborate and beautiful graffiti scattered on walls between alleys just out of view of the street; a friendly jesus opening arms on a lonely stdenis street evening; the city of montreal trying out different shapes for bike rails, multicolored distorted metal protruding from the ground…

these little gifts of art are scattered all over the plateau and it takes a second to stop and acknowledge their importance. people live for visual pleasure here and do not yield to capitalist influence. this neighborhood takes care to customize wall space to present the wanderer (me, you, us!) with an art scene that develops into many stories as you walk along the streets. there are less store signs, there are more wall arts. and an occasional friendly looking jesus…

when the city is moving too fast, when a lifestyle becomes a fad, when it seems even the plateau has fallen into a marketable fashion, just stop and take a look. here is a place teeming with energy, busting out art everywhere, making montreal a better place.

i heart you, plateau.

selin.