Jury chooses three finalists for the Legado Public Art Competition

Three fine arts student projects were selected last week as finalists in the Legado Public Art Competition.

Seven teams of fine arts students presented designs for a new public art installation on the site of the Legado urban redevelopment project in Griffintown. They pitched to a jury of Concordians and industry leaders, including Natalie Voland, the president of Gestion Immobilière Quo Vadis, who launched the competition last Spring in collaboration with Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts.  

“It was a very difficult choice. Every single team worked very hard. I can say that today, I am an extremely happy person, because all of you got what we were trying to do. It’s a real honour that we get to do the first university-led project with Concordia,” said Voland, in announcing the finalists.  

And the three finalists are...

The following three groups, in no particular order, passed into the second phase of the competition:

1. Annabelle Daoust (Design) and Fany Rodrigue (Studio Arts), for ‘Misty Valley’

2. Tam Vu, Stacia Kiosses, Dylan Bourdeau, Alexis Gosselin and Andrea Pena (all Design), for ‘Cornerstone’

3. Alessia Signorino, Rachel Ann Timtiman and Lys Quintero (all Design), for ‘Dynamo’

Open to all Concordia students, the competition asked them to envision a public work of art that could engage the diverse community of Griffintown around its shared history and highlight the importance of creativity, sustainability and resiliency in developing urban projects.

The first phase of the competition took place over the summer with DART498, Urban Futures: Developing Conscientious Competition Proposals, an intensive summer course led by instructors Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat.  

“This beautiful idea was born to bring Quo Vadis and Fine Arts together through a public space in Montreal and to think about how to make a better community for all of us,” said Rebecca Duclos, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts.

“We’re grateful to Natalie for bringing this opportunity to us and for moving us forward in terms of how we think about an embedded curriculum that goes out into the city.” 

Phase two of the competition and beyond

The final three teams now enter the second phases of the project. They will work with Quo Vadis and the Legado team to examine technical issues, health and safety concerns and materials usage in order to develop and refine their proposals.

They will present their work again to the jury in January. The winning team will receive $5,000 and the opportunity to construct their proposal on site with the support of GI Quo Vadis. The second-place finalists will be awarded $3,000 and third-place finalists $2,000.

But Concordia’s working relationship with Quo Vadis will not end with this competition. Bram Freedman, VP of Advancement and External Relations, announced that the university had signed an agreement with Quo Vadis to continue their collaboration.

“This competition is just the start of our collaboration with Quo Vadis. There are many opportunities for us to create more meaningful change in this world. We look forward to many more years of friendship and shared impact.”

Elevator pitch: finalists describe their projects