Metro stations, hot coffee ... and diversity in harmony
This year, Salima Punjani — a social artist, photographer, writer and Concordia journalism graduate diploma student — undertook the participatory art project My Montreal, Our Values.
She asked residents from a range of backgrounds to spend one day taking photographs of their routines, their families and the small moments that make up their daily lives.
From March 21 to April 3, these images will be on display at Concordia’s Loyola Chapel, in an exhibition sponsored by the Office of Community Engagement and the Multi-faith Chaplaincy.
We asked Punjani to explain how it all came about.
Salima Punjani on My Montreal, Our Values
My Montreal, Our Values was inspired by a need to create a middle ground to learn about the mosaic of cultures in Montreal.
I started thinking about this project last summer at the Institut du Nouveau Monde’s annual summer school, when participants were asked to think about projects that would make the city a better place. As a photographer and journalism student, I thought it would be fascinating to see what the lives of people from the different cultures that make up Montreal look like as a creative response to the polarizing debates surrounding cultural and religious diversity.
I decided to pursue My Montreal, Our Values as the final project to complete my graduate studies in journalism under the supervision of photojournalism professor Stanton Paddock. The process involved handing out disposable cameras to as diverse a range of Montrealers as I could find.
I started to recruit people in January through word of mouth, social media and a call for participation sent to as many different community groups as I could find — groups like the English Language Artists Network (ELAN), Culture Montréal and the Institut du Nouveau Monde. I also approached certain people directly to ensure as many backgrounds as possible were included. I am happy to say that there are 12 people between the ages of 19 and 67 years old who participated in the project.
After four months of intense planning, I started to get the cameras back. People took photographs of their loved ones, streets, transportation — and, not surprisingly, a lot of cups of piping hot coffee, multicultural food, metro stations and nights out at Nuit Blanche.
The most remarkable thing I’ve realized in the process of collecting these photographs is that there is an incredible degree of overlap. It doesn’t matter what skin colour someone has, if they follow a faith or what gender they are: the photographs are almost interchangeable.
All the participants have incredible stories and experiences, and that's what I find makes the project so strong. From Montreal's "hip" Rabbi Yisroel Bernath, to Sukhmeet Singh Sachal, a 19-year-old Sikh McGill student from Vancouver who gave a TedxKids talk on diversity last year, to Marie-Soleil Brosseau, a Québécoise from the Eastern Townships, I think the participants and their photographs truly celebrate diversity.
I truly hope this project can be a starting point for a productive dialogue that will continue long after this exhibition ends — a conversation that appreciates difference while finding the things we have in common.
My intention is that the exhibition will rotate in different community gathering places after its debut at Concordia. I hope people from all walks of life will come to see My Montreal, Our Values — that they take a moment to create a better sense of understanding of one another so that we can live harmoniously in diversity.
My Montreal, Our Values opens with a vernissage on Friday, March 21, from 6 to 9 p.m., and runs until Thursday, April 23 at the Loyola Chapel (7141 Sherbrooke St. W., on the Loyola Campus). From March 21 onwards, the exhibition will also be available online.