Through many a window in Montréal, artists are busy practising a craft. Their work is an integral part of the city’s output, and is demonstrated by the support received by several institutions and societies. The new Quartier des Spectacles, for example, is being developed for that very purpose, with its aptly named La Vitrine Culturelle – Montréal’s cultural window, created to showcase cultural events taking place in and around Montréal.
From a flung-open third-floor window flows the noodling of a tenor sax – maybe the player is practising for the Jazz Festival. Or through the walls of an old factory blasts a band, practicing for that indie recording they’re cutting. Through a studio window at dusk, dancers move fluidly, pane to pane. Perhaps they’re members of La La La Human Steps rehearsing for a tour. Plate-glass windows all over the city display avant-garde paintings and drawings. In Old Montréal, the windows themselves speak silently of superb architecture from two colonial periods. And on the other side of many darkened windows play films from every corner of the earth that meet here for a festival or at a conservatory.
Art exists without windows, too, like outdoor festivals. Electronic and pop music, French music, African music and the Just for Laughs Festival in the summer, and the MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE festival in the winter, a celebration of all that’s fun about the snowy season that brings in the world’s best chefs for a gourmet delight.
With or without a window to look through, Montréal artists see a world that never ceases to inspire them. It’s a viewpoint they love to share.
