Through the window | Pres

“I was there the day it all started. »

I was walking down rue Marie-Anne in Montreal when I suddenly stopped in front of a large window. A black and white photograph showed a man and a child in front of a thatched house. The label said: “Villa El Salvador was founded in 1971 on bare sand south of Lima. The slum is a response to the urgent housing needs of migrant families from the Andes. A land invasion soon created a city of 25,000 people […] I was there the day it all started. »

Work Carlos Ferrand.

It's not common to see a home where the windows serve as an artistic display. Rarely does this art tell us about a nation's past. By looking at the process behind this installation, I discovered a two-part story. One is about our relationship with the city; Another is the surprises fate has in store for us.

Time 1

27 years ago, architects Anne Cormier and Randy Cohen moved into a large house in Plateau Mont-Royal. Judging by the two large windows on the ground floor, the building was once commercial. Concerned about their privacy, the couple decided to veil them and then display the models they created.

About fifteen years later, the artist Andrew Forster (with whom Jodi shared a studio) created a work expressly for the two windows. Since then, Andrew has been promoted to curator of non-museums, incorporating photographs, videos, objects and installations at his discretion.

“It's not corporate!” He mentions. We're just a bunch of friends doing something and hoping it's interesting. I love when people turn the corner and find something different and it makes them think. »

The private is here designed for the public.

Until May 20, passers-by can see two photographs taken by Carlos Ferrand. A journey through Peru's history for those who only went from A to B.

“What I wanted was these photographs of urban spaces that are not ours,” explains Andrew Forster. While we live a more organized life, here we see a place improved by those who built their home in the desert. »

Time 2

Carlos Ferrand is a filmmaker and photographer. Born in Peru, he returned home after studying at university in the United States and Belgium. He was immediately hired as a film producer by the military government. This led him to document the founding of Villa El Salvador in 1971.

“The people took the unoccupied lands of the oligarchs with the protection of the government,” Carlos Ferrand explains to me. In the sense that the authorities did not send the police…”

A label with his photographs provides information to passers-by. For example, we learn that the neighborhood was supplied with electricity and water largely through the efforts of its residents. Does the photographer hope to inform us of certain things?

Before he can answer, he shakes his head that I'm wrong.

“I see that there is little information about Latin America here. The life is magnificent, it is very difficult to see elsewhere… but the goal is not to raise awareness. I took these photos not to condemn poverty, suffering and injustice, but because I admired them. I loved the settings of these early efforts. : woven straw, resilience, innovation, ingenuity! There, we recycled all things and thought about the common good. It was a highly organized laboratory for social self-sufficiency.

Stopping in front of the house at the corner of Mary-Anne and Laval is a recognition of the resourcefulness of the people who took years to build a house in the middle of the desert. It respects an art history that is half a century old.

In 1974, Carlos Ferrand collected his photographs in a collection, and then he quickly forgot about them. They would remain anonymous for 45 years… until a Spanish publisher conducted a census of fringe photographs taken in Latin America from 1910 to 2010, that is.

When he saw Carlos' collection, he decided to add some of his works to the collection.

Later, the collection fell into the hands of the staff of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid (a very prestigious institution visited by more than 3 million people a year). Photos of Carlos caught their eye. The museum acquired some of them to fill its permanent collection.

Carlos is still in shock.

An exhibition was organized in Quebec in 2020. Later this month, Carlos Ferrand and his photographs will travel to Lima. Fifty years later, they shine at home.

The man is happy with this twist of fate: “Photographs are extraordinary, 50 years later, someone tells us: “They are good”! »

There's something akin to a fairy tale in the stories the house on the corner of Mary-Anne and Laval tells these days.