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Voici une compilation de photos que j'ai prises cette année à Montréal Je suis tombé par hasard sur la plupart des fresques, les photos ont donc été prises à l'improviste avec mon iPhone. Ça reste une qualité d'image de iPhone

un nouveau art (le mur de la paix ) dans le métro a vu le jour , dans la station Berri -uquam .http://www.stcum.qc.ca/info/infostm/2007/070926.pdf

An Artist’s Guide to Relocating From Trump’s America | artnet News [h=5]Politics[/h][h=1]An Artist’s Guide to Relocating From Trump’s America[/h]A definitive guide to finding the next art world Shangri-La. Christian Viveros-Fauné, December 9, 2016 More than 2200 people pose nude for photographer Spencer Tunick, on the steps of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art in Montreal, Canada, May 26, 2001. Photo by Jean Therroux/Getty Images. 5. Montréal Where Toronto is the hub of all things corporate, Montreal is Canada’s cultural hub. The city has plenty of commercial galleries and a smattering of respectable museums, but its beating heart remains its artist-run-centers—many of them established in the ’70s and ’80s as a way to explore art for art’s sake. To these can be added kunsthalles of a more recent vintage, including the DHC Foundation and Darling Foundry. Rent (an incredible $519 for a studio apartment) is about half what it is in Toronto and Vancouver, and a fraction of what you would pay for in London and New York. For those who bragged they’d move to Canada if Trump won, the train is now leaving the station. (I’m talking to you, Lena Dunham.) [h=5]Recommended Reading[/h][h=2]Must-See Art Guide: Montréal[/h]By Audrey Fair, Aug 28, 2014

via Blouin Art Info : 10 Must-See Warped Public Art Sculptures in Montreal BY Low Lai Chow | March 28, 2016 If cities were people, Montreal would be the rebellious, off-kilter kid who steals all the thunder at a party. Basking in diversity as the lively cultural capital of Canada (Ottawa is Canada's actual capital city, FYI), Montreal has a social calendar that is perpetually packed with events and festivals. Rule of thumb: if there is a party in town, know that there are a hundred more you haven't heard about. With over 315 public artworks in the municipal collection, Montreal also has some incredible public sculptures around town, from parks to libraries. Culture+Travel picks out ten of the most warped public art to seek out in the City of Festivals. See pictures of the artworks here. - Révolutions (2003), Michel de Broin | Rifting on the impossible, Montreal-based sculptor de Broin takes visual inspiration from the ubiquitous outdoor staircases seen throughout the city for this loopy 8.5-meter high Moebius strip out of aluminum and galvanized steel. The artist has said of the enigmatic work, “The staircase makes us think of what returns without repeating, transformed in its cycle. We can all project ourselves into this curved space and enter the game of revolutions.” In short, this work is infinity in poetry. Where: Parc Maisonneuve-Cartier, behind Metro Papineau metro station in Ville-Marie - Le Malheureux Magnifique (1972), Pierre Yves Angers | Cement-covered and huddled over in a humanistic form, Yves Angers' 1972 sculpture is a landmark that marks the entrance of Montreal’s bustling Latin Quarter. First installed in Place Pasteur in 1973, it was moved to the front of Alcide-Chaussée Building in 1991. Angers is said to have been inspired by the works of Rodin; his accompanying art says, "À ceux qui regardent à l'intérieur d'eux-mêmes et franchissent ainsi les frontières du visible” (French for 'To those who look inside themselves and thus cross over the borders of the visible'). Where: 385, Rue Sherbrooke Est, at the intersection of Sherbrooke and Saint-Denis streets in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal - Theatre for Sky Blocks (1992), Linda Covit | Installed on the shore of Lake Saint-Louis, Covit's minimalist work dwells on the environment. It was first exhibited in 1992 at the first Salon international de la sculpture extérieure. With the water and the sky in the background, three monolithic steel columns have a photograph of clouds silk screened on them. It all begs the questions: What is real? What is fictitious? Where: Parc Fort-Rolland in Lachine - Anamorphose D'Une Fenetre, Claude Lamarche | From afar, Claude Lamarche's artwork resembles colorful scribbles that seem to have leapt off the tip of a pen to interact with the exteriors of the Maison de la culture Mercier building in real life. A red arrow-shaped sculpture points at the upper left-hand corner of the wall while a blue arrow twirls one corner of it. A yellow window frame hangs on one wall, while steel rods and tubes prop up the sides. Where: 8105, Rue Hochelaga, at Maison de la culture Mercier in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve - Monica (1985), Jules Lasalle | Evoking the gigantic head sculptures of Easter Island and excavated archaeological remains, sculptor and modeller Jules Lasalle's larger-than-life 3D portrait of a woman with a smile on her face is deliberately fragmented, denoting the passing of time. Lasalle created the artwork in 1985 at the first Lachine, Carrefour de l’Art et de l’Industrie sculpture symposium. Where: Promenade Père-Marquette in Lachine - From A (1986), Takera Narita | Comprising three parts of a granite and mortar fluted column to reference ancient Greek civilization, this unusual ruins-like sculpture by the late Japanese artist Takera Narita appears to pop up from the ground and sink back into it. It alludes to the cycle of history, with the title hinting at a path between two points as a mathematical formula. Narita created the work for the second Lachine sculpture symposium L’an II – Lachine, carrefour de l’art et de l’industrie in 1986. Where: Parc René-Lévesque in Lachine - La vélocité des lieux (2015), BGL | Completed in 2015 in conjunction with the redevelopment of the Henri-Bourassa–Pie-IX intersection in Montréal-Nord borough is this work by Jasmin Bilodeau, Sébastien Giguère, and Nicolas Laverdière of Québec collective BGL. It comprises five bus-like forms on eight steel columns. Denoting the ebbs and flow of human activity and community, the cheerful 19-meter high sculpture looks like a Ferris wheel right out of an amusement park in frenzied motion. In reality, this static artwork doesn't actually move. BGL also recently represented Canada at the 56th Venice Art Biennale. Where: Carrefour Henri-Bourassa–Pie-IX in Montréal-Nord - Le Mélomane (2011), Cooke-Sasseville | Based in Québec City, the creative duo of Jean-François Cooke and Pierre Sasseville has a taste for the absurd. Evidence? This cheeeky bronze sculpture shows an ostrich sticking its head into a gramophone horn, illustrating the stronghold of music and new realities. Where: Parc François-Perrault in Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension - Site/Interlude (1994), David Moore | Shaped like gigantic legs, five steel wire structures filled with large stones stand starkly, deliberately spread out to coerce viewers to walk from one to the next so as to see the full work. Dublin-born and Montréal-based artist David Moore took inspiration from seeing how the legs and feet were often the only vestiges left standing from the ancient statues of Greece's archaeological sites. First displayed in Montréal's Old Port, Moore's work is a reflection on the passage of time and on progress. Where: Parc René-Lévesque in Lachine. - Regard Sur Le Fleuve (1992), Lisette Lemieux | Situated on the shore of Lake St. Louis, Arthabaska-born artist Lisette Lemieux's large billboard-like work includes incisive cutouts of the word 'FLEUVE' (French for 'river') and the word’s reflection in water, so that actual river water appear to fill up the cutout parts. Both a wall that obstructs the river view, as well as announces its existence, the work urges viewers to rediscover the river. Where: Parc Stoney-Point in Lachine

Montréal Art déco Jean-Christophe Laurence La Presse Publié le 20 mai 2009 à 07h44 | Mis à jour le 20 mai 2009 à 07h52 Le cinéma Snowdon, boulevard Décarie. Photo fournie par Art Déco Montréal Bien peu de gens le savent, mais Montréal compte parmi les plus importantes villes d'architecture Art déco de la planète. Le problème, c'est que ce patrimoine bâti est trop souvent négligé, quand il n'est pas carrément démoli, comme ce fut le cas l'an dernier du mythique Ben's Delicatessen. C'est un peu, beaucoup dans l'espoir de sensibiliser nos élus à cette richesse mal exploitée, que Sandra et Colin Cohen-Rose, fondateurs de l'organisme Art déco Montréal, ont décidé d'accueillir le 10e Congrès international d'Art déco le week-end prochain, avec des visiteurs venus d'aussi loin que la Nouvelle-Zélande. «Les gens ne réalisent pas l'importance de cet héritage, souligne Sandra Cohen-Rose, auteure du livre Northern Deco: Art Deco Architecture in Montreal. Au delà de sa valeur historique, c'est une richesse qui pourrait rapporter beaucoup d'argent au plan touristique. À New York, le bâtiment le plus populaire est encore le Chrysler Building. Ça en dit beaucoup sur l'attrait de ce style.» Selon Mme Rose, d'autres villes dans le monde exploitent déjà avec succès leur patrimoine Art déco. C'est le cas de South Beach en Floride, de Napier en Nouvelle-Zélande et de Saint-Quentin en France, qui l'ont mis au centre de leurs programmes touristiques. Avec des lieux aussi connus que le cabaret du Lion d'or, la Casa d'Italia, le Cinéma Empress, le théâtre Le Château, l'église Saint-Esprit, l'Université de Montréal ou le mythique 9e étage de chez Eaton, Montréal a tout ce qu'il faut pour jouer dans les mêmes ligues, croient M. et Mme Cohen-Rose. Mais encore faut-il que le politique s'en soucie, ajoutent-ils. Si certains de ces édifices sont aujourd'hui protégés (Eaton's, le Château), la plupart ne bénéficient d'aucun statut, ce qui les rend encore vulnérables. Le cas de Ben's, détruit il y a peu, est encore frais dans les mémoires. Mais on pourrait aussi mentionner le théâtre York, le théâtre Snowdon, l'ancien Woolworth. l'ancien Kresge ou l'hôtel Laurentien, que Sandra et Colin ont vu disparaître, en tout ou en partie, pendant le dernier quart de siècle. Un Art déco typiquement canadien? Consacré à Paris en 1925, l'Art déco (pour Art décoratif) a connu son heure de gloire jusqu'au milieu des années 50. Fait intéressant, Montréal a adopté très tôt ce style architectural en vogue, parce que plusieurs architectes allaient étudier en France. C'est le cas d'Ernest Cormier, à qui l'on doit certains des plus prestigieux édifices du genre, à commencer par le pavillon central de l'Université de Montréal, son grand oeuvre, dont la construction dura plus de 12 ans. Autre fait intéressant: l'Art déco canadien avait aussi sa propre couleur, ou plutôt son absence de couleur! Moins flamboyants qu'en Floride et moins mégalo qu'à New York, les constructions montréalaises se caractérisent généralement par leurs dimensions modestes (l'édifice Aldred, sommet du genre, ne fait que 24 étages) et leur côté «pierreux» un peu gris. Ironiquement, ce sont nos églises qui ont été les plus excentriques. Les créations du moine français Dom Bellot, surnommé le «poète de la brique» sont, à ce chapitre, très impressionnantes, notamment l'abbaye Saint-Benoît-du-Lac avec ses mosaïques de briques colorées. «L'architecture Art déco reflète le contexte social et économique d'une certaine période, souligne Sandra Cohen-Rose. Les églises voyaient gros et cherchaient à se moderniser. On remarque aussi des bas-reliefs très éloquents sur les édifices publics, qui représentent souvent l'époque ou un certain folklore propre à l'histoire du Québec.» C'est pourquoi il est vital de préserver ces bâtiments, conclut-elle. «Ils sont attirants pour les visiteurs, mais aussi importants pour les générations futures qui voudront comprendre d'où l'on vient...» En savoir plus Dixième Congrès international d'Art déco, du 24 au 30 mai. Informations sur le programme: http://artdecomontreal.com/fr/ La maison Cormier, avenue des Pins. Photo fournie par Art Déco Montréal Montréal Art déco 10 adresses 1. Pavillon principal de l'Université de Montréal. 2. Oratoire Saint-Joseph. 3. Théâtre Snowdon. 4. Cinéma Empress. 5. Neuvième étage de chez Eaton 6. Pavillon central du Jardin botanique 7. Cabaret le Lion d'or (rue Ontario, angle Papineau) 8. Théâtre Le Château (angle Saint-Denis et Bélanger) 9. Casa d'Italia (angle Berri et Jean-Talon) 10. Église Saint-Esprit (angle Rosemont et 8e Avenue)

Restauration d'un superbe immeuble édifié par la London & Lancashire Insurance Company en 1900. 18 unités résidentielles et 1 de commerce. Le projet est annoncé par Les projets Europa (les mêmes qui font Art de Vivre à Atwater, le Penny Lane annoncé par Monctezuma au 404 St-Jacques: http://www.mtlurb.com/forums/showthread.php/21088-404-rue-Saint-Jacques-Ouest) http://www.projeteuropa.com

Merci à MTLCity pour m'avoir aiguillé sur le sujet! http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/?p=49437&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter http://vtdigger.org/2015/06/30/vermont-pbs-soaks-up-montreal-qulture/

Lire les commentaires sur cette decision sur leur site Facebook qui a 250k abonnés. Nous n'avons pas commenter beaucoup ici, mais l'opinion américain est intéressant. https://m.facebook.com/hyperallergic http://hyperallergic.com/207918/woman-found-guilty-of-criminal-harassment-for-instagramming-street-art/ Woman Found Guilty of Criminal Harassment for Instagramming Street Art by Benjamin Sutton on May 18, 2015 Jennifer Pawluck (photo provided by Pawluck to Hyperallergic), and the street art photo that landed Jennifer Pawluck in hot water with Montreal police. Jennifer Pawluck (photo provided by Pawluck to Hyperallergic), and the street art photo that landed Jennifer Pawluck in hot water with Montreal police Jennifer Pawluck, the Montrealer who was arrested in 2013 for posting a photo of a piece of street art on Instagram, has been convicted of criminal harassment and, on Thursday, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and 18 months probation. Her community service must be completed within a year. The 22-year-old college student has also been forbidden from posting any public messages on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and must restrict her use of the social media platforms to private communications for the next year, according to the Montreal Gazette. She had faced maximum penalties of up to six months in jail and a fine of $5,000. Reached via Facebook, Pawluck told Hyperallergic: “I am unfortunately not responding to any media questions … following my sentencing I’d prefer to keep a very low profile.” In late April Pawluck was found guilty for having posted a photo on Instagram of a piece of street art showing Ian Lafrenière, the lead officer for communications and media relations for the Montreal police, with a bullet wound in his forehead. Pawluck did not create the artwork, but merely saw it and posted a photo of it online. The image was accompanied by text that read “Ian Lafrenière” and “ACAB,” an acronym for “All Cops Are Bastards.” Pawluck had seen the piece of street art in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood where she lives and posted it online accompanied by hashtags including “#ianlafreniere” and “#acab,” later claiming that she didn’t know who Lafrenière was. At the time, Pawluck had 81 followers. “On the photo there were links, or hashtags, with Ian Lafrenière’s name written in different ways and allusions like (‘All cops are bastards’) and (‘One cop, one bullet’) to the point where, given the context, there was criminal harassment,” Josie Laplante, lawyer for the prosecution, told the National Post in April following Pawluck’s conviction. “I think we all have to pay attention to what we post because (some people) don’t consider the impact it can have on other individuals.” Pawluck was a participant in the 2012 student protests in Montreal, during which Lafrenière was a very visible spokesperson for the city’s police force. He said in his testimony that he and his children had found the image disturbing, and that his wife had been forced to take a leave of absence from her job because of it. “There is a limit that must not be crossed,” said judge Marie-Josée Di Lallo when delivering her verdict on April 23. “She (Pawluck) felt anger toward the police.” Tagged as: censorship, Featured, Instagram, Jennifer Pawluck, Montreal, Social Media, street art sent via Tapatalk

The Bilbao Effect: is 'starchitecture' all it’s cracked up to be? Every struggling post-industrial city has the same idea: hire a star architect (like Frank Gehry) to design a branch of a famous museum (like the Guggenheim), and watch your city blossom with culture. After all, it worked for Bilbao ... didn’t it? Tomasz Kacprzak, chairman of the city council of Łódź, the third-biggest city in Poland, was telling me about the time he met David Lynch. “We went to his house in California,” Kacprzak said. “He loves Łódź. He wants to build us a cultural centre.” (Lynch’s plan for a 90-acre site comprising a film studio, cinema, gallery, offices and bar in an abandoned power plant in Łódź – the city that also inspired the cult director’s film Inland Empire – is expected to open in 2016.) “Actually,” Kacprzak continued, “Lynch’s house is not great. The interior. It is not modern.” “Oh, no,” I said. “Retro? Nineties?” “No,” Kacprzak said. “Eighties. Gehry’s house was much nicer.” “You went to Frank Gehry’s house, too?” This was interesting. We were standing in the soaring atrium of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, designed by Gehry. Through the window, in the courtyard, you could make out the back of Jeff Koons’ huge, Edward Scissorhands-style plant sculpture, Puppy. “Yes,” Kacprzak said. “We asked for the Guggenheim in Łódź.” “You wanted Gehry to design a new museum?” “No,” Kacprzak said. “The same.” He swept his arm over the pine, glass and steel that curved above our heads. “You wanted him to build the exact same building?” “Yes,” Kacprzak said casually. “The same. But we would use it for a concert hall.” Much is made of the so-called ‘Bilbao effect’, the idea that attracting a world-class cultural institution – in Bilbao’s case, a branch of New York’s Guggenheim art museum – will put your city on the map, and in turn attract more investment, brands, tourism and cultural energy. This was the first time, however, that I’d heard someone say they wanted to copy Bilbao’s building exactly, swooping metal sheet for swooping metal sheet. “What did Gehry say?” I asked. “He said, ‘OK – but it will very expensive.’” Kacprzak shrugged. “We are a small city.” So, of course, was Bilbao 18 years ago when it rose to fame almost overnight. The fourth-largest city in Spain had lost its former glory as a manufacturing centre: its factories shuttered, its port decrepit. But after Spain joined the EU in 1986, Basque Country authorities embarked on an ambitious redevelopment programme for their biggest city. They drafted in expensive architects to design an airport (Santiago Calatrava), a metro system (Norman Foster), and a footbridge (Calatrava again), and in 1991 landed their biggest fish – the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation, which decided to bring a new branch of the legendary Guggenheim Museum to the city, and hired star California architect Frank Gehry to build it. The building was an instant hit. Critics agreed Gehry’s deconstructed meringue of sweeping metal, which opened in 1997, was a work of “mercurial brilliance”. The collection inside, featuring art by Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Anselm Kiefer and Richard Serra, was world-class. The construction even came in on budget, at $89m. What’s more, Bilbao now had a landmark. Visitor spending in the city jumped, recouping the building cost within three years. Five years after construction, Bilbao estimated that its economic impact on the local economy was worth €168m, and poured an additional €27m into Basque government tax coffers – the equivalent of adding 4,415 jobs. More than one million people annually now visit the museum, which became the centrepiece of the Bilbao Art District: a cluster composed of the maritime museum, the fine arts museum and the Sala Rekalde art centre. In 2010, French designer Philippe Starck completed his renovation of a former wine cellar to create the Alhondiga culture and leisure centre (recently rebranded as Azkuna Zentroa). And Zaha Hadid has presented radical plans to redevelop the neglected Zorrozaurre peninsula and turn it into a high-tech residential and cultural island. A struggling city, decimated by the decline of its manufacturing base, had seemingly reinvented itself by – of all things – betting big on culture. Other post-industrial cities noticed. When I told Kacprzak’s story to Maria Fernandez Sabau, a cultural and museum consultant for cities around the world, she sighed. “Yes, many of my clients say the same thing: give us the Guggenheim,” she said. “Often the exact same building! But you can’t just copy it.” Don’t tell that to Abu Dhabi. Possibly in an attempt to buttress itself against the day the oil runs out, the city is building a museum complex called Saadiyat Island, which will feature branches of not just the Guggenheim (again) but the Louvre as well. In Hong Kong, the West Kowloon Cultural District will be home to M+, a new museum of Chinese contemporary art. There are plans for new cultural hubs centred on museums in Mecca, in Tirana, in Belo Horizonte and in Perth, Australia. It’s the same in the UK: Dundee has drafted in Kengo Kuma to build a new V&A Museum of Design, while Liverpool and Margate have welcomed the Tate Liverpool (designed by James Stirling) and the Turner Contemporary (David Chipperfield). Every city, it seems, wants to create the next Bilbao-Guggenheim-Gehry vortex. Praise for this model reached its zenith last month, as mayors, cultural attachés and city representatives descended on Bilbao for the UCLG Cities and Culture Conference. Walking the streets with Kacprzak from Łódź, I could see what the delegates liked so much. The city centre is clean. There are lots of expensive retail shops. “El Fosterito”, the glass-tube metro entrances designed by Foster, are slick and futuristic. And the people seem disproportionately well-off. Presiding over it all, like a monolith of gentrification, is the Guggenheim. Yet despite this icon of culture, the city seems strangely quiet. Where are the local galleries, the music, the graffiti, the skateboarders? Spain’s difficulties with youth unemployment are well-documented, but I expected more twentysomethings in what is regularly billed as a cultural capital. Does the Guggenheim actually encourage creativity in the city, as advertised, or is it a Disneylandish castle on the hill with a fancy name and an expensive entrance fee for tourists and the well-heeled? Is the Bilbao effect to spread culture, or just to spread money? “The Guggenheim put our city on the map, no question. But you also can’t get anything support here unless it’s top-down,” says Manu Gómez-Álvarez, an animated man of around 40 wearing earrings and a black hoodie, who is the driving force behind ZAWP, the Zorrozaurre Art Working Progress, a cultural group based on the Bilbao peninsula that Zaha Hadid proposes to completely redevelop. ZAWP is precisely the kind of cultural organisation that gets praised in megacities like London and New York. It’s a decentralised collective of young artists, theatre-makers, musicians and designers, with co-making spaces in the old industrial buildings of Zorrozaurre and a thriving entrepreneurial atmosphere in their colourful, funky headquarters – which also house a bar, a cafe, a gig space and a theatre. Gómez-Álvarez is leading a movement he calls Meanwhile, which aims to use the still-derelict buildings of the peninsula as temporary sites for plays, gigs, artistic interventions or even just cafes. Every proposal, at every turn, gets the same answer back from the authorities: no. “There’s no support for grassroots culture,” he says. “We waited 20 years before we got any funding from the government at all.” Last year, he says ZAWP finally received a grant – but they still don’t get a permanent home in the new Zorrozaurre, and will almost certainly have to move again. It’s hard to imagine: ZAWP’s premises are huge, stretching through half a dozen buildings and decorated in amazingly elaborate detail. And yet “we are nomads”, says Gómez-Álvarez. I asked Igor de Quadra, who runs Karraskan Bilbao – a network of more than a dozen theatre groups, venues and creative organisations – what he thought of the Guggenheim’s effect. He struggled to frame his words carefully. “It is fine for what it is,” he said at last, “but it gets a lot of attention from people who are just passing through. Events like this [uCLG forum] take up a lot of attention, but don’t leave much behind for Bilbao culture. Frankly, we don’t think about the Guggenheim.” The Guggenheim certainly doesn’t claim to be in the business of fostering local culture, nor would you expect it to. The museum has some Basque art and occasionally runs cultural workshops, but it’s an international art museum, rather incongruously plonked down in northern Spain. (Extreme Basque nationalists didn’t take kindly to its arrival: the week before it opened, ETA killed a police officer in a foiled attempt to bomb the museum.) There are, of course, Basque cultural organisations in the city, such as Harrobia Bilbao, a performing arts group established in a former church in the Otxarkoaga area in 2011, but their presence feels surprisingly marginal in a city that is supposed to be at the heart of Basque culture. “In English Canada, culture’s nice to have – in French Canada, it’s crucial,” says Simon Brault, head of the Arts Council of Canada, talking about a similar dynamic between French-speaking Quebec and the rest of the country. Brault helmed what you might call an “anti-Bilbao effect” – a completely different type of culture-led regeneration in another struggling post-industrial city, Montreal. Brault helped found an open, non-hierarchical cultural network called Culture Montreal, which rather than speaking only to the Guggenheims and cultural superstars of the city, was open to everyday Montrealers – bar owners, teachers, musicians. “An artist just in from Chile would be at the same table as the head of Cirque du Soleil,” he says. The aim wasn’t to secure funding for massive projects, but to put culture at the heart of the city’s regeneration. It was controversial at first. “The cultural groups thought it was a distraction and that what the culture sector needed was more money,” he said. “But within a year, we got what cultural groups had been asking for for 20 years: a seat at the table.” Rather than championing culture only for an elite group of professionals – and asking for money just for the huge institutions – Culture Montreal was better received by city and provincial governments, says Brault. Their goals were less arrogant: to increase cultural access for Montrealers, and to include culture as part of the solution to any civic problems. They achieved this, Brault says, by making everyone feel as though culture was a daily part of everyone’s life, not something for a sophisticated few. “There is definitely room for starchitects, but it’s always better to tap into local culture rather than buy it from outside. You can’t do culture in a city without involving citizens,” he said. So, which is the better way for cities – bottom-up cultural movements or big-ticket splashes? “Of course, there will always be top-down decisions,” Brault said. “The key is to look for a middle ground.” Hadid’s billion-pound redevelopment of Zorrozaurre will be a test for that middle ground in Bilbao. Will its 6,000 new houses, two new technology centres and park genuinely engage with local culture, or will it simply be a flashy area for rich Spaniards looking for a waterfront property? The Bilbao effect might be famous, but it’s here that it could be truly tested. Those cities around the globe hoping a brand-name museum will save them should be watching carefully. “The Guggenheim Bilbao was a rare occurrence,” says museum consultant Maria Fernandez Sabau. “There was an incredible confluence of amazing, talented people. You had a museum that was hungry to expand, available land for cheap, a government with money, an architect itching to make a statement, and a city that desperately needed a new reason to exist. You can’t just buy that.” http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/30/bilbao-effect-gehry-guggenheim-history-cities-50-buildings?CMP=twt_gu

http://www.architectmagazine.com/Architecture/the-best-and-worst-architectural-events-of-2014_o.aspx Voir le lien pour les images BEYOND BUILDINGS The Best and Worst Architectural Events of 2014 Aaron Betsky presents 10 lamentable moments and 10 reasons for hope in architecture. By Aaron Betsky New National Stadium, by Zaha Hadid Architects New National Stadium Tokyo, Japan Zaha Hadid Architects Everywhere this last year, we heard the call for a return to order, normalcy, the bland, and the fearful. Herewith are ten examples, in no particular order, of such disheartening events from 2014—and ten things that give me hope. Reasons to Despair 1. The demolition of the American Folk Art Museum in New York, by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. Idiosyncratic both in layout and façade—and absolutely breathtaking. The MoMA monolith keeps inflating its mediocre spaces; I despair and wonder if Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) will be able to rescue it from almost a century of bad and too-big boxes 2. The defeat of Bjarke Ingels Group’s proposals for the Kimball Art Museum in Park City, Utah. The second proposal was already less exciting than the first, an award-winning, spiraling log cabin, but even the lifted-skirt box caused too many heart palpitations for the NIMBYists 3. The protests against Zaha Hadid’s Tokyo Olympic Stadium design, which left the building lumpen and unlovely. At this point, Arata Isozki is right: they should start over 4. The Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition, leading to the selection of banal finalists 5. President Xi’s call for an end to “weird” architecture. What is truly weird is the amount of mass-produced boxes in which China is imprisoning its inhabitants and workers 6. Prince Charles’ recitation of the kind of architecture that makes him feel good. The ideas are very sensible, actually, but a beginning, not an end [Ed. note: The linked article may appear behind a paywall. Another reporting of Prince Charles' 10 design principles may be found here.] 7. Ground Zero. Actually, almost a farce since it was a tragedy that now has turned into just a dumb and numbing reality 8. The New York Times’ abandonment of serious criticism of architecture 9. The reduction of architecture to a catalog of building parts in the Venice Biennale’s Elements exhibition 10. A proposal from Peter Zumthor, Hon. FAIA, for a new LACMA building that looks as weird as all the other buildings proposed and built there, but is just a curved version of a pompous museum isolated from its site. It is a mark of our refusal to realize that sometimes reuse—of which LACMA’s recent history is an excellent example—is better than making monuments Credit: © Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner Reasons for Hope 1. The addition to the Stedelijk Museum of Art in Amsterdam: a strangely beautiful and effective bathtub Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, by Benthem Crouwel Architekten. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, by Benthem Crouwel Architekten. Credit: © Jannes Linders 2. The renovation of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam—though not its Louvre-wannabe entrance The ribbed, tiled vaults of the Museum Passageway beneath the Gallery of Honor were restored; arched windows overlook the renovated courtyards on either side. The ribbed, tiled vaults of the Museum Passageway beneath the Gallery of Honor were restored; arched windows overlook the renovated courtyards on either side. Credit: Pedro Pegenaute 3. The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s plan to go gloriously underground 4. The Smithsonian’s plan to do the same Aerial view of the South Mall Campus with proposed renovations. Aerial view of the South Mall Campus with proposed renovations. Credit: BIG/Smithsonian 5. The Belgian Pavilion exhibition at the Venice Biennale: looking reality in the eyes and making beauty out of it 6. Cliff Richards rollerskating through Milton Keynes in the same; ah, the joys of modernism 7. Ma Yansong’s proposal for the Lucas Museum in Chicago—especially after the horrible neo-classical proposal the same institution tried to foist on San Francisco; though this oozing octopus sure looks like it could use some refinement, or maybe a rock to hide part of it South view. South view. Credit: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art 8. The spread of bicycling sharing in cities like Barcelona and around the world, if for no other reason than that this way of movement gives us a completely different perspective on our urban environment 9. The spread of drones, ditto the above, plus they finally make real those helicopter fly-through videos architects have been devising for years 10. The emergence of tactical urbanism into the mainstream, as heralded by the MoMA exhibition Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities. I hope that shows the way for the next year Aaron Betsky is a regularly featured columnist whose stories appear on this website each week. His views and conclusions are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine nor of the American Institute of Architects. sent via Tapatalk

http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/city-life/324311/montreal-je-tadore Montréal, je t'adore 10 years ago, I went to Montreal for the first time on a whim. I was 20 years old, living in Ottawa and working for the Canadian government when I had just found out that my mother had breast cancer. Right after I received this upsetting news, a French Canadian guy - who I’d only met a few weeks earlier - invited me to hang out with him in Montreal. I was in such an emotional state that I decided to risk it and go spend time with someone I barely knew and have him show me his city. From that day forward, I fell madly in love with Montreal (not the boy, though - we remained friends and thankfully my mom recovered from cancer shortly after). I have gone back every few years since then, including spending three weeks in a French immersion program, just a few years after my first visit. When I returned to the city last week with my husband and son, I was reminded why I love Montreal. Here are my ten favourite things - in no particular order - about North America’s coolest city. Bikes - Montreal was one of the first cities in North America to establish a public bike sharing system with its Bixi bikes. The system was launched on May 12, 2009, and currently has 450 stations around Montreal’s central core. The city has embraced bike lanes and bike infrastructure ever since. It’s King/de la Commune station, with 110 docking points, is the biggest bike sharing station in North America. You will find people of all ages and backgrounds on bikes…like this guy:image Street art - Montreal is home to many talented street artists - and it shows, especially around the Plateau/Mont Royal area, which is bursting with colourful, impressive street murals. The city supports these artists through the recently launched MURAL festival. It is a free art festival that aims to celebrate urban art and graffiti painting, sculpture and installations, dance, music, film, and performance. The second edition took place in June on the famous Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Each festival brings new street murals to the neighbourhood. I could write a whole post on Montreal street art (and I probably will).image Advanced walk signals - In some Montreal intersections, pedestrians actually get to proceed on a green light BEFORE cars! A brilliant show of respect for people and a great way to promote safe walkable cities. Babies - I noticed everyone loves babies in Montreal. In Vancouver, people without children tend to avoid eye contact with me/pretend I don’t exist. In Montreal, everyone smiles and wants to help you when you have a child- from grandmas to young male hipsters. In all of the restaurants we went to, people never seemed to mind if my son was fussy or needed tending to. One male server even offered to watch him while my husband and I shopped on St.Denis Street. I’m pretty sure he was joking, but he mentioned that he also has children (and he was under 30). Maybe it is because Quebec’s fertility rate is higher than the Canadian average, but there appeared to be a lot of young families there. Public spaces - Montreal has many fun, creative public spaces - parklets, green laneways, urban forests, public swings, and as I mentioned before, spectacular street art. Here is a shipping container converted into a pleasant seating area:image Festivals and Culture - I remember when I was staying in Montreal for a French immersion program, it was July and the streets were constantly being closed off for some big party, complete with concerts, fireworks, outdoor movies, fashion shows, drum circles and more - Tam Tam at Mont Royal, The Indy, The Festival du Mode et Design, The Comedy Festival, The Festival du Jazz. Of course at the time I found this amazing, because festivals of this scale were so rare in my hometown of Vancouver. We may finally be catching up, but nobody throws a party like Montreal. Whimsy - When I walk around Montreal, I don’t see a city of monotonous glass towers. There are little bits of whimsy all around, like purple accents on heritage buildings, a bold red staircase on a rowhome, street trees made of ribbon, amusing murals, and even garbage cans made to look like maple syrup containers. Montrealers definitely have a sense of fun.image Mid rise buildings/row homes - You can walk down some streets in Montreal and forget you are in a city. I loved getting off the main roads and finding myself on a quiet street surrounded by lush trees and row homes, very much like New York. The city also seems to prefer mid-rise buildings to high-rise towers. Bilingualism and Multiculturalism: Montreal is one of the rare cities where people speak two languages - French and English - and that is a beautiful thing. To be able to walk into a store or restaurant and have the option of being served in French, English, or a bit of both, is a treat for me as I continue to work on improving my French skills. The city is also home to many different ethnicities - from Portuguese to Chinese to Italian and Haitian. On my last visit, I loved spending time in Little Portugal on upper St Laurent St, where I bought a lucky Portuguese rooster and ate an enormous roast chicken sandwich and egg tart. Style: Many Canadian clothing brands got their start in Montreal, such as Jacob and Le Chateau, and the city is home to several clothing designers and manufacturers. Montrealers have a sense of style that is bold and eclectic. This makes for great shopping (especially around the Mont Royal area) and people watching. As one Montrealer states: In Montreal, dressing in what makes you feel awesome and sexy, no matter how outlandish, is just a normal part of life. Thinking of cutting off the arms of an old fur coat and wearing them as legwarmers? Great idea! Want to max out the use of your Dracula Halloween costume by rocking a floor-length cape year-round? By all means, please do! You can understand why Cirque du Soleil had to come from Quebec and nowhere else. Walkable. Bikeable. Hip. Fun. Stylish. Edgy. If I haven’t already convinced you of Montreal’s effortless cool and fun-loving ways, you should go and see for yourself why it’s one of the best cities in the world.

http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/401486/la-main-retourne-a-ses-sources

Hi all, there's an art show tonight at Café El Dorado on Mont-Royal street, seems interesting! https://www.facebook.com/CafeElDorado?ref=ts&fref=ts

Montreal's metro featured for it's architecture amongst stations from the networks of Washington, Paris, Frankfurt, and Stockholm to name a few: Unreal Underground: the World’s 10 Coolest Subway Systems In urban life, the subway is synonymous with the spirit of the city. It frees the city dweller from the automobile, it moves from point to point with speed while capturing the curiosity of its passenger. From Moscow to Montreal, Paris to Pyongyang, these 10 transit systems house truly stunning subway stations across all aspects of design. So grab your transit card and head underground– get ready to explore the 10 coolest subway systems in the modern world. ... Montreal Metropolitain Another great French-speaking city is home to another great subway, the Montreal Metropolitan subway system. The Montreal Metro was born in 1966, in time for the world expo held the following year in this city. This was a vibrant time in Montreal, and the subway stations that dot this system reflect that vibrancy. Like the stations of the Moscow Metro and the Taipei Metro, this subway system is host to a collection of art galleries throughout its network. Public art ranging from fine to performance is welcomed here, far below the city it services. And with 1,100,000 riders a day, that makes it one of the most popular art galleries in the world. From the design of its subway stations to the culture it embraces, the Montreal Metro is high on our list for the world’s most beautiful subway systems. ... http://www.thecoolist.com/the-worlds-10-coolest-subway-stations/

"][/url] http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2011/10/24/montreal-graffiti-artists-paint-five-storey-ndg-masterpiece-dubbed-our-lady-of-grace/

Un jeune graffiteur qui pratiquait son art un dimanche après-midi risque de payer le prix fort pour sa passion. Accusé de méfait pour avoir détérioré un mur, il risque 5000$ d'amende, en plus de se retrouver avec un casier judiciaire. Dans l'attente de sa comparution devant la cour municipale de Montréal le 10 mai prochain, le jeune homme reste toujours incrédule devant la sévérité de sa peine. «On parle d'un graffiti! Sur les forums où je suis allé, les gens disaient qu'ils n'en revenaient pas, explique-t-il. Je suis conscient que ce mur a un propriétaire mais, en même temps, le street art fait partie de l'esprit de la ville. Il faut lutter contre la grisaille de la ville.» Stéphane (nom fictif), 26 ans, a commencé à pratiquer le street art il y a un an. «L'idée du street art est super-intéressante: c'est de démocratiser l'art, de le rendre disponible à un grand public, de ne pas être soumis aux musées et aux contraintes pour être exposé. J'aime pouvoir offrir mes trucs à tout le monde.» Pris la main dans le sac Seulement voilà: la générosité de l'artiste qui crée pour tous semble laisser insensible le propriétaire du commerce de la rue Sainte-Catherine Est, sur le mur duquel Stéphane avait entamé un dessin au pochoir. «J'ai eu la chance de terminer avant que la police arrive. J'avais pris beaucoup de risques, c'était un dimanche à 3 h de l'après-midi», admet-il. Était-il conscient des risques associés à sa pratique? «Oui, mais je trouve que 5000$ et un casier judiciaire, c'est cher payé. Je ne m'attendais pas à quelque chose d'aussi intense, dit celui qui travaille avec de jeunes enfants. Un casier judiciaire me mettrait vraiment dans le pétrin.» Peu d'endroits légaux Contrairement à bien des artistes qui associent le graffiti à l'illégalité, Stéphane n'a rien contre les murs où il est légal de dessiner, mais ils sont encore beaucoup trop rares à Montréal, selon lui. «Ils se comptent sur les doigts de la main. Il y a quelques places pour en faire, mais dès que tu fais un truc, quelqu'un passe par-dessus, et on ne peut pas leur en vouloir parce qu'il n'y a pas de place», dit-il. La Ville pourrait faire plus pour les arts de la rue, croit-il, plutôt que de réprimer les artistes. «C'est naïf de penser que le graffiti va s'arrêter. Depuis sa création, le graffiti n'a pas disparu, et il ne s'arrêtera pas.» http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/justice-et-faits-divers/201103/30/01-4384534-un-graffiti-qui-pourrait-couter-cher.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_BO2_quebec_canada_178_accueil_POS4

En lisant cet article d'aujourd'hui dans La Presse j'ai découvert le Art Gallery of Alberta, inauguré récemment. http://www.cyberpresse.ca/voyage/canada/201009/10/01-4314487-edmonton-la-ville-qui-fait-boom.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B2_voyage_264_accueil_POS1 Penser que les gens à Edmonton ont plus d'audace architectural qu'à Montréal...soupir.

Un autre article flatteur du NYTimes. Ça devient presque lassant.... http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/travel/15hours.html + des photos de Mtl. Nice. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/08/15/travel/36HOURSMONTREAL-9.html

(Courtesy of Pointe-à-Callière, the Montréal Museum of History and Archaeology) :goodvibes:

Published On Wed May 26 2010 Noor Javed The artistic pieces have graced the homes of Mughal emperors, adorned the gardens of Persian palaces and educated the masses of the Muslim world. Soon, over 1,000 years of Islamic art and culture will find a permanent home in Toronto. The groundbreaking for the Aga Khan Museum, the first in North America solely devoted to Islamic art, will take place on Friday near Don Mills Rd. and Eglinton Ave. E. The museum will be built alongside an Ismaili centre and park on a 7-hectare site at 49 Wynford Dr. More than 1,000 Islamic artifacts from China to the Iberian Peninsula will be showcased — with 200 on permanent display — when the museum opens in 2013. The pieces, which come from the collection of the Aga Khan family, already have more air miles than most Canadians. They have been featured in museums around the world from London to Madrid. Before they settle in Toronto, they will be exhibited in Istanbul and five other cities in the Muslim world. The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, will arrive Friday to put a shovel in the ground and give his blessings to the $300 million project “While some North American museums have significant collections of Muslim art, there is no institution devoted to Islamic art,” he said. “In building the museum in Toronto, we intend to introduce a new actor to the North American art scene. Its fundamental aim will be an educational one, to actively promote knowledge of Islamic arts and culture.” The 10,000-square-foot building will be designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, who is also working on the expansion of the United Nations building and Tower 4 at the former World Trade Center site. “This project will help to bridge the clash of ignorance,” said Amyn Sayani, a volunteer with the Ismaili Council for Canada. “This is very much an opportunity for people to dialogue and to bridge different cultures and faiths.” A sampling of the art coming to town: Manuscript of the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina, Iran or Mesopotamia, c. 1052: This manuscript is considered to be one of the most important collections of medieval medical knowledge in the Islamic world. It was used in the 12th and 13th centuries by medical schools in Europe, almost until the beginning of modern times. The document to be displayed is the fifth book, focusing on drugs and pharmacy. • Emerald green bottle, Iran, Safavid dynasty, 17th century: The Islamic world, mainly due to proximity, has always had close ties to the Chinese world. This bottle was made to imitate Chinese ceramics, in both colour and appearance. • Portrait of Sultan Selim, Turkey, c. 1570: A large album portrait done in watercolour, ink and gold of Sultan Selim II. It was his father, Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, who solidified the geographical borders of the Ottoman Empire. Selim was better known for enjoying finer pleasures such as literature, art and wine. Here, he shown by the painter as larger than life, in a luxurious fur-lined and gold garment. • Standard (alam), Iran, 16th century: Made of steel, standards usually decorated bowls used as drinking vessels or food containers for wandering ascetics. This pear-shaped standard contains an inscription which can be read from different angles. The text from top to bottom says: “Ya Allah, ya Muhammad, ya ‘Ali” (“O God, O Muhammad, O Ali).

Que pensez-vous de cette genre d'architecture ?

World's Most Stunning City Skylines 13 Greatest urban silhouettes Forbes Traveler.Com What makes a skyline great? It has to be more than merely memorable, it must have some exceptional characteristics: It not only should be instantly recognizable but, from the traveler’s perspective particularly, it should be an enticing view of great buildings and monuments. If it’s really special, you want to be a part of it. So we’ve asked a group of star architects to help us make the choices. See our slideshow of World's Most Stunning City Skylines. It’s no surprise that New York’s skyline is mentioned the most often—and this despite the dolorous replacement of the Twin Towers with Ground Zero. A single iconic building can make a skyline stand out, as can geography, and New York City is a case study for both. According to Peter Stamberg and Paul Aferiat, partners in Stamberg Aferiat Architecture in New York, the city’s great skyline “is partly a result of Manhattan being a long narrow island, maximizing the impact. And the agglomeration of New York skyscrapers has as its centerpiece the Empire State Building, which is such an iconic romantic building, and through the accidents of economics and zoning, it stands alone.” They architects also cite Chicago as a city of great architectural monuments and major iconic skyscrapers like the Sears Tower. But while the great race for height in which Chicago and New York were longtime contestants has largely shifted overseas, the vertical element in skylines still figures prominently across the board. “The image of a city in the 21st century still depends on the skyscraper idea,” says Andres Lepik, architecture and design curator at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City and author of the book Skyscrapers. “City governments know that the economy is pushing forward to gave high-rise buildings in city centers.” Examples? Lepik says London and Frankfurt are standouts. Still, high-rises are not a prerequisite for a great skyline. “City skylines aren’t necessarily defined by skyscrapers,” say Aferiat and Stamberg. “There’s Sydney with its Opera House, for example, which defines the city, St. Louis with the arch,” they add, “and Seattle has the Space Needle.” For that matter, we’ll always have Paris, which thanks to its concentration of historic slate gray-roofed six and seven-story buildings, many of which date from the mid-19th century and before, has a remarkably uniform and distinct skyline. Most architects would agree that a great skyline takes time to develop. “A skyline is something that comes up and comes together and somehow it’s unplanned,” Lepik says. “If you go to Shanghai right now, there are hundreds of skycrapers but they don’t form any really beautiful skyline,” he adds. By contrast, he says, “New York had a certain slow development, which sped up in the 1920s and ‘30s with the Art Deco skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building and Empire State—but it took 30 years to get the coherent skyline.” What of a future-forward city like Dubai? “I wouldn’t call Dubai’s skyline beautiful,” says Lepik, “because it has grown too fast, without a general idea of what they’re trying to achieve.” But if there is beauty in boldness, Dubai has an incontestably sensational skyline in progress: It started with the erection of the 1,053-foot-tall Burj al Arab Hotel in 1999, a “seven-star” hotel on an artificial island and complete with helicopter landing pad. And soon it will have the tallest skyscraper in the world: the 1,900-foot Burj Dubai tower. Financial crisis or not, more brash towers are in the works for the desert sheikdom. It’s hard to beat Asian tigers like Hong Kong for urban audacity, but our round-up of great skylines holds some surprises, such as… Pittsburgh? Indeed. The city is “right at the intersection of three fairly large rivers, and you approach it through a mountain tunnel, so you arrive completely deprived of a view—and then you’re on a bridge looking at the city,” say Stamberg and Aferiat. “It’s very beautifully proportioned the way it starts fairly low at the river and then climbs to the U.S. Steel building, which is the tallest one there.” As for Europe, it’s not just about historical aesthetics—modernity is moving in. In his book on skyscrapers, Lepik features two Frankfurt towers, one designed by Norman Foster. Cities like London and Paris increasingly represent a mixture of old and new in which traditional icons mingle memorably with new visions of star architects like Jean Nouvel and Renzo Piano. By accident or by design, the result is urban landscapes even more compelling for today’s travelers to discover and explore.

Le fabricant de jouets n'a pas fini d'enregistrer des pertes en raison de l'acquisition de Rose Art, déclarant un déficit de 122 M$ ou 3,34 $ US par action au troisième trimestre. Pour en lire plus...

L'industrie cinématographique et la province souhaitent faire de l'Alberta l'un des lieux incontournables du septième art au pays. Pour en lire plus...

Malgré quelques commentaires étranges ("Surely the fare served here is as bleak as the weather in this city" - venant d'un anglais, parler de bleak weather alors que nous avons beaucoup plus d'heures d'ensoleillement, c'est particulier!), et l'article comporte des erreurs de faits ("the Atwater market in Saint-Henri, which has the added attraction of being set in an Art Deco former railway station" - ah oui?), mais le ton est, encore une fois, plutôt flatteur. To get a flavour of Montreal just tuck in Canada is hardly famous for its culinary scene. Yet this city is as close as you can get to foodie heaven, says Kate Simon Sunday, 22 June 2008 Maple syrup: that is the most distinct flavour I'm expecting on my foodie tour of Montreal. Surely the fare served here is as bleak as the weather in this city, where the locals spend the winter months going about their daily business in an underground city of corridors, created to protect against glacial temperatures that can plummet to -40C. Of course, I'm wrong. The food is as extraordinary as the Montrealers' preoccupation with it. I'd like to trace this culinary prowess back to the days when the French ruled the banks of the St Lawrence River, but they were only here for about a century and far more interested in the fur that clothed an animal than its meat. And while the Quebec French have a strong Gallic appreciation of the art of dining, there are more than 80 ethnic cultures represented in this city of four million, with all the attendant flavours that such a mix brings. Breakfast proves the point: the feted Montreal bagel made its way here from Eastern Europe. I eat mine with my guide, Ruby, at St-Viateur Bagel & Café in Le Plateau. It is simmered in honey water and baked fresh in the wood-fired oven and tastes nothing like the usually doughy wheel that sits heavily on my stomach – this one is crisp on the outside, chewy in the centre and sweet-sour on the tongue. It's a flavour to be savoured: "You'll never see a Montrealer eat breakfast on the run," says Ruby, "even if that means being late for work." But I have only a day to get a taste of foodie Montreal, so we move swiftly on. Our next stop is the Jean-Talon market in Little Italy, home to the Italian-Canadians, the city's largest ethnic group. They first came here in the 19th century, then later after the Second World War; and though the community is now spread across the city, some still live in the staircase houses on Jean-Talon and Drolet Streets. These multi-dwelling rowhouses with their exterior iron stairs are a quirky signature architectural style of this city and a sight in themselves, built as a nifty solution to maximising space, containing heat – and raising taxes for the authorities. Ruby tells me Montreal's chilly climate hasn't deterred the Italians from growing grapevines in these backyards – the Mediterranean sun still lives on in their souls. At first sight the Jean-Talon market stalls, laden with workaday fruit and veg, look of little interest to the visitor. Indeed, this is the haunt of locals rather than tourists, who prefer the Atwater market in Saint-Henri, which has the added attraction of being set in an Art Deco former railway station. But Ruby guides me to Le Marché des Saveurs du Quebec on the south side, which is packed with produce from the fertile St Lawrence Valley and beyond – smoked meats, mussels from the Iles de la Madeleine, goat's milk cheeses, and, in a side room, beers from nearby microbreweries and the famed icewines of Niagara. It's the perfect place to pack a picnic for lunch on the run. We find more to tempt us in the boutiques along avenue Laurier Est back in Le Plateau. At Olive & Olives the array of oils could rival any Mediterranean emporium. At Maison Cakao the young owner, not long out of college, offers a modern interpretation of the art of chocolate making, adding inspired ingredients such as Earl Grey tea. While at Le Fromentier & Maître Corbeau we dip downstairs to discover a subterranean hall dedicated to bread and cheese. It also does a roaring trade in deli fare and gourmet prepared meals for that extra-special take-out. Over on rue Laurier Ouest at Les Touilleurs, Ruby gives a real insight into how seriously the Montrealers take their cooking when she shows me a kitchen equipment store that treats its wares as art exhibits. These culinary sculptures provide a good excuse for utensil junkies like me to stand and stare and who will not be able to resist buying a strawberry huller or other such nonsense gadgets as a souvenir. You can linger even longer in Les Touilleurs if you sign up for one of the after-hours cookery demonstrations at its open kitchen, where local chefs show off their skills to small groups of dedicated foodies. I pick up a copy of the Quartiers Gourmands annual guide at the till, which lists shops subscribing to the Slow Food movement and selling an alphabet of foods, from apple tarts to zabaglione. This city knows its food. I'm full and we haven't even tried a drop of maple syrup yet. The city's staircase houses provided the authorities with a handy way to raise taxes COMPACT FACTS How to get there BA Holidays (0844 493 0758; ba.com) offers four nights at the W Hotel in Montreal from £945 per person in July, including return flights on British Airways from £621 and accommodation only from £324 for the duration. Further information Quartiers Gourmands (quartiersgourmands.com). Tourism Montreal (tourism-montreal.org).