ville-marie Esplanade Tranquille

[monctezuma]

Les balançoires s'en vont le 23 mai. Ça n'aura pas durée longtemps.

[IluvMTL]

21-swing orchestra strikes a chord with users in Quartier des Spectacles

Co-operation brings harmony and many smiles as swings strike piano, guitar and vibraphone notes

 

By Jeff Heinrich, The Gazette May 11, 2011 8:05 AM

 

Dax Methot gets in the swing at 21 Balançoires, which is bringing some springtime serendipity to the Quartier des Spectacles.Photograph by: Dario Ayala,

 

The GazetteMONTREAL - The music sounds classical, but the movement? Definitely swing. Twenty-one swings, to be precise.

 

Hung from concrete-and-steel frames in the median between Place des Arts and the UQAM sciences building, a new interactive art installation adds an element of springtime serendipity to the Quartier des Spectacles.

 

Called 21 Balançoires, the installation is the work of Montreal artist Melissa Mongiat and her New York-trained colleague Mouna Andraos. They’re the 2010 winners of Design Montreal’s $10,000 Phyllis Lambert Grant.

 

“The Quartier des Spectacles wanted us to come up with something to launch the new Promenade des Artistes,” the strip of land between the university and the arts centre, Mongiat said. “The swings are a way to make creativity accessible.”

 

“The project really came to life by thinking about that specific space (in the median), which was out-of-reach for people for a long time,” added Andraos, who’s originally from Lebanon.

 

“It was under construction for a long time and before that was just a divider between two streets,” she said. “We tried to think of something that would bridge the two worlds of the sciences and the arts.”

 

To that end, the artists were helped by UQAM animal behaviour professor Luc-Alain Girardeau, a biologist who consulted on how people would be likely to co-operate when they tried out the swings.

 

Each emits musical notes from a classical instrument – piano, guitar or vibraphone – that were recorded by local composer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. The sound can be cacophonous when people swing randomly, harmonious when they swing together.

 

Nine swings play piano, six play guitar and six play vibraphone. “The sound depends on your movement,” said Andraos. “Whenever you reach the highest point, you trigger a sound. The higher you go, the higher the note.”

 

To keep the element of surprise, the artists won’t say what all the notes are.

 

“Depending on how people swing together, certain sounds are revealed,” Mongiat said. “There’s also a secret, top-level sound when there’s something magical happening in all the swings together.”

 

Jose Manuel Calero took the bus and métro down from St. Léonard to try the swings with his daughter, Manuela, 6.

 

“It’s a great experience, very relaxing – it’s marvellous,” the retired aerospace worker said Tuesday as his swing plucked a guitar sound. “My daughter says we should come here every day – I wish!”

 

Pierre Fortin runs the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership, which co-ordinates activities in the one-square-kilometre downtown entertainment district.

 

“We want to be a laboratory – or at least a window – for creativity in Montreal,” Fortin said. “It means dressing up the urban environment so that people make it their own, that they meet, try things out, get surprised.”

 

The installation covers 30,000 square feet of ground along the new Promenade, a showcase for local talent. The concrete-and-steel frames were erected last November.

 

“You watch people on the swings, and they all have a big smile on their face,” Fortin said. “Personally, I liked the guitar sound and, most of all, the vibraphone.”

 

The volume is kept low out of respect for downtown residents and the swings are locked up at 11 p.m. But though the installation ends May 23, it won’t disappear entirely.

 

“We’re going to bring it back next year, as a sign of the start of spring,” Fortin said. “The concept was great on paper, but now that it’s up, we’re really surprised by the public’s reaction. It’s fun.”

 

21 Balançoires (21 Swings) continues through May 23 on the Promenade des Artistes, between de Maisonneuve Blvd. and President Kennedy Ave. on the north side of Place des Arts. The swings are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. For Monglat and Andraos’s other work, go to http://www.livingwithourtime.com

 

jheinrich@montrealgazette.com

 

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/swing+orchestra+strikes+chord+with+users+Quartier+Spectacles/4760672/story.html#ixzz1M3JoW0Wj

[milboul]

Pour ceux qui n'ont pas vu le brumisateur en action...Peu utile aujourd'hui!

[Memphis 22]

Le retour des bancs, mais avec une petite différence, question de les garder en bon état

 

un banc en 2010

 

...et en 2011

 

détails

Modifié 13 juin 2011 par Memphis 22

[Monsieur_MA]

C'est subtil, mais beaucoup moins invitant pour les adeptes du scateboard.

[Invité]

Bien fait!

[MtlMan]

En effet! C'est brillant!

[ymenard]

Brillant? Je me questionne plutôt sur l'incompétence des gens créateur du projet (architectes paysagistes, urbanistes, ville de Montréal), considérant que les mécanismes "anti-skate" sont la norme sur tout mobilier urbain depuis plusieurs années.

 

Laxisme? Incompétence? Oublié par exprès? Oublié dans le tourbillon infernal du fonctionnariat trop lourd de la ville?

[Invité]

Brillant? Je me questionne plutôt sur l'incompétence des gens créateur du projet (architectes paysagistes, urbanistes, ville de Montréal), considérant que les mécanismes "anti-skate" sont la norme sur tout mobilier urbain depuis plusieurs années.

 

Laxisme? Incompétence? Oublié par exprès? Oublié dans le tourbillon infernal du fonctionnariat trop lourd de la ville?

 

Wow.

Toute cette tirade haineuse pour des bancs publics avec des barres de métal.

[WestAust]

Les mécanismes anti-skates devraient plutot avoir l'air de cela: