The Quartier des spectacles Partnership invites designers to enter the fourth instalment of Light Therapy, a multidisciplinary competition to highlight and enliven the public spaces of Montréal’s downtown Quartier des spectacles.
The project that is the subject of this competition will commission a work conducive to highlighting and enlivening the Place des Festivals and the Place des Arts Esplanade. The Partnership plans to present the work for the first time between December 11, 2013, and February 2, 2014.
The total project budget is $225,000, before taxes.
The Quartier des spectacles urges entrants to form multidisciplinary teams, so as to stimulate emergence of new cultural and artistic practices. By taking this open, transverse approach, the Quartier des spectacles seeks to favour projects that spark a blending of perspectives, where frontiers between disciplines blur and the languages of design, the stage arts, literature, as well as the visual and/or media arts are amalgamated.
The work must be both a day- and night-time experience that is participatory, playful, festive, luminous and multisensory. It must integrate with the wintertime context and that of the Quartier des spectacles, as well as the specific characteristics of the sites. The work must, both in form and content, connect with the public by achieving the following goals:
- Design of a major work, meaningful in both its content and artistic approach, that reflects the site and the wider Quartier des Spectacles and Montréal context;
- Creation of a participatory experience that encourages interaction and discussion, whereby both the public and environment can affect the installation (via interaction, modification, transformation, addition, enhancement, etc.) and become a part of it along with its other constituent elements;
- Establishment of a dialogue between the installation and members of the public so as to produce a unique result in real time;
- Creation of a festive, playful, illuminated setting that integrates with the winter environment at all times of the day and night;
- Potential for integration of the installation with the lighting design for the Musée d’art contemporain, subject to approval by the Musée.
Works submitted must be original and must not have been previously shown. They must be transportable and adaptable to a smaller area for purposes of exporting.
Area to be covered: approximately 52,000 square feet.
The competition is:
- Open;
- Free;
- Multidisciplinary;
- Canada-wide; and
- Held in two stages, the first consisting of anonymously submitted proposals, and the second consisting of presentations before the jury, with compensation, by a maximum of five finalists.
- A project competition leading to completion.
For the second stage, a maximum of five finalists will receive $5,000 each, before taxes. This compensation shall be conditional upon preparation of a presentation compliant with the Rules and Regulations.
Eligible contestants may be any designer, or any team having at least one lead designer who meets the following conditions at the time of competing:
- Works in the fields of planning and design (architecture, landscape architecture, land use, urban design, interior design, environmental design, industrial design, graphic design) and/or in the fields of event design, multimedia, literature, the stage arts (set designer, director, choreographer, musical director, lighting and video designer) as well as the visual and media arts.
- Is based, at least as concerns the team’s lead designer, at a head office located in Canadaat the time of moment de concourir.
The establishment of multidisciplinary teams is strongly encouraged.
The jury comprises the following nine members:
Chair:
Brigitte Poupart, director, actor, stage director and Co-Artistic Director, Transthéâtre
Other members:
- Pierre Fortin, General Manager, Quartier des spectacles Partnership
- Michel Gagnon, Programming Director, Place des Arts
- Hélène Godin, Executive Creative Vice-President, Sid Lee
- Pascal Lefebvre, Director of Programming, Quartier des spectacles Partnership
- Benoît Lemieux, Director of Operations, Quartier des spectacles Partnership
- Eugénie Manseau, industrial designer, Studio Dikini, Phyllis Lambert Design Montréal Grant recipient
- Gabriel Pontbriand, Moment Factory
- John Zeppetelli, Curator, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art
Registration is compulsory and free of charge. It enables contestants to obtain the competition documents and to ensure liaison with the communications network established by professional advisor Véronique Rioux.
The registration form is downloadable via the link below (please note that all documents are in French). It must be completed and sent by e-mail by March 14, 2013, at noon local time, to @email.
To download the Rules and Regulations (French only)
To download the Registration Form (French only)
For the first stage, proposals must be prepared and submitted by March 28, 2013, at noon local time, via an FTP site whose address and password will have been provided to the contestants by the professional advisor after registration.
For the second stage, presentations must be prepared and submitted by April 25, 2013, at noon local time, via the same FTP site.
All communications pass solely through the professional advisor, Véronique Rioux. Any questions or requests for details from an entrant or finalist regarding the competition must be e-mailed directly and solely to the professional advisor, at @email, during the question period specified in the calendar contained in the Rules and Regulations.