Phase I, 2021
Wartin Pantois (Quebec City, Quebec)
A site-specific installation in an empty lot, Phase 1 addresses an essential need in the Saint-Sauveur neighbourhood: greener, friendlier public spaces. With a freestanding circular mural, Wartin Pantois has created a temporary public space that will breathe new life into an unused lot and make it a welcoming space for the entire community.
The installation presents an eclectic collective portrait drawn from photographs the artist found in old books. Figures have been cut out, digitized, enlarged, and removed from their historical contexts to be brought into the present and assembled in a monumental collage. Reminiscent of a tiered wedding cake or perhaps a joyful Tower of Babel, the work is crowned with flowering plants. The layered construction stands like a lighthouse on the edge of the Saint-Sauveur district, a reminder of the inequalities created, then as now, by our hierarchical system of social classes.
Wartin Pantois lives and works anonymously in Quebec City, where he infiltrates public spaces with contextual murals and installations. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology and has carried out artistic interventions in the United States, France, Germany, Portugal, and Canada. He has also completed creative residencies with La Bordée in Quebec City, Lolab in Nantes (France), and Ibug International Urban Art Festival in Chemitz (Germany). One of his works has been included in the permanent exhibition at Quebec’s National Assembly, Comprendre-Ressentir-Agir-Inspirer, in the section dedicated to art that inspires social action.
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