환경과조경

곧바로 이 공공 예술프로젝트 속으로 들어가 보자. 마운트 로열 파크(Mount Royal Park)의 서측면에 위치한 이 작품은 평화를 주제로 삼은 프레드릭 로 옴스테드(Frederick Law Olmsted)의 비전과 일치하고, 1969년 존 레논(John Lennon)이 오노 요코(Ono Yoko)와 몬트리올의 호텔 방 침대에서 펼친 평화 이벤트 ‘베드 인(Bed-In)’때 작곡한 ‘평화에 기회를 주세요(Give Peace a Chance)’라는 노래를 기념하는 공간이라는 것을 깨닫게 될 것이다.

보행자를 위한 특권
굽어진 도로의 중간쯤에 위치한 이 작품은 180개에 달하는 석회암 석판으로 제작되어 평평한 땅에 나란하게 배치되었다. 석판 위에는 40개의 서로 다른 언어들로 ‘Give Peace a Chance’라는 문구가 양각으로 새겨졌다. 석판들 사이로 식물들이 간격을 두고 식재되어 표면에 방점을 찍으며, 주변의 숲과 조화를 이룬다, 미술가와 조경가가 함께 한 이 대상지의 위치 선택은 매우 효과적이다.
이 작품은 장엄한 바위의 발치이자, 여러 개의 굽어진 산책로 중 하나에 발생하는 초승달 모양 부분에 설치되었는데, 이러한 배치를 통해 아래 편에 위치한 도시의 일부로 연결되도록 유도된다. 이 작품은 도시 풍경과 숲 지역을 교묘하게 이어주며, 도시에서 산지로 이동하면서도 보행자들이 단일하고 일관성 있는 환경으로 통합되도록 해준다. 린다 코빗은 “별개의 공간들 사이에 통과가 가능한 경계의 필요성이 발생하였고, 고립됨이 없는 경계를 설정했다”고 언급했다. 다양하고 관련 있는 전망을 제공하면서도, 보행자의 권리를 보호하고자 한 것인데, 이를 통해 옴스테드의 바람에도 부합되도록 했다.

Authors _ Linda Covit(artist), Groupe Cardinal Hardy & Marie-Claude Seguin(landscape architect)
Contractor _ Rainville & Freres with Terrapro Construction
Client _ City of Montreal
Location _ Mount-Royal Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Completion _ 2010
Photographer _ Marc Cramer

Straightaway the mission of this public art project is enticing : realize an artwork on Mount Royal Park’s southern flank in accordance with Frederick Law Olmsted’ vision, have peace as the theme, and commemorate John Lennon’ song ‘Give Peace a Chance’ written during his 1969 Montreal bed-in with Yoko Ono. From the perspective of exploiting the natural heritage of the mountain and its harmonious relation with the city, Linda Covit was the obvious choice for the project’ mandate. Influenced among other things by the philosophy of Japanese gardens, the artist has acquired over the years an experience sensitive to the landscape. Preoccupied with the memory of site, she endeavors to recreate intimate spaces within public contexts while favoring the interpenetration of the artwork, the site, and the stroller.
The artwork on the mountain, which falls within the scope of the vast project of redeveloping the Peel entrance, is here the result of a close and fruitful collaboration between her and landscape architect Marie-Claude Seguin of Groupe Cardinal Hardy.

Privileged Position of the Stroller
Located almost midway along a winding road, the artwork is made of approximately 180 limestone slabs laid side by side on flat ground. The phrase ‘Give Peace a Chance’ is carved in relief on forty of them, written in as many different languages. Vegetation inserted between the stone slabs at distanced intervals punctuate the surface and echo the surrounding forest. The choice of the site by the artist and the landscape architect is very astute. Installed along one of the winding path’s crescents, at the foot of a majestic rock, the artwork fans open onto part of the city below. Deftly introduced between urban landscape and wooded area, it exploits the transition from the city to the mountain integrating the passer-by into a unified and coherent environment. In this regard Linda Covit talks “of a need for permeable boundaries between distinct places, of borders that define without isolating.” It is this intention to conserve the privileged position of the stroller while offering multiple and interrelated perspectives which, even in accordance with Olmsted’ wishes, is favored here.

Intimate and Introspective Space
From the Peel Street entrance, the slow ascension of the site permits a gradual discovery of the artwork in the arc of a circle. Immense stones bordering the slabs on the ground discretely invite one into the heart of the artistic intervention.
Sitting on the large boulders or wandering upright on the paving stones carved with words, the passer-by is led to live an experience of place, in a position of receptivity, in an atmosphere of tranquility and contemplation. Whereas the vanishing points unfold all around their horizon, the installation makes possible and accessible an intimate and introspective zone, like a secret garden within an urban park. The experience is also one of light. A changing light, shifting, scintillating or disturbing, irradiating or filtered by the leafy thickness shimmering their shadows on the surface of the “megaliths” depending on the hour of the day, in this way vibrating and transforming the forms.

Symbol of Belonging to the World
A space for meditation and commemoration, this monument dedicated to peace, enveloped with Lennon and Ono’ message translated into 40 languages, aspires to gather, to be respectful. It’s humanist and universal reach as much as its evocation of Montreal’s cultural diversity, constitute a symbol of a person’s integration into his or her milieu and, on a larger scale, with his or her connection to the world. The synergy that resides here between mountain, city, river, walker and artwork is certainly, in its way, one of the fundamental expressions of this link of belonging.
Strong through their mutual approach, Linda Covit and Marie-Claude S?guin have realized an installation at once silent and imposing, sober and noble, in the image of the intervention site and bearer of the human trajectory.

Material _ Linda Covit