Photos

Our FLickr collection contains over 500 photos, all under Artefatica’s attribution share-alike license. They will be used for our printed publication, due out in 2011. Notre collection comprend plus de 500 photos, et font partie d’images que la maison d’édition Artefatica va utiliser pour un livre en 2011.
paysage habité

Dites-moi: est-ce le terrain vague qui est un trou dans le territoire urbain ou l’urbain qui est une tache dans le territoire de la biodiversité?
marquer le territoire

Laisser sa trace sur une parcelle de terre…
faire de la ville un jardin: jardinier par jardinier

Ensemencer l’idée d’une île verte, cultiver l’espoir de transformer les citoyens en jardiniers, les toits en jardins, et en récolter les fruits.

introduction

This book is a remembrance of a place that lives in all cities, the world over. It is a place inside of us. It is marginal, sometimes invisible, and its story seldom told. It is a place at risk of disappearing, and this book is dedicated to celebrating its story so it is not forgotten in silence.

an opening for démocratie participative

The field can be seen as a metaphor for what is now occurring in our economy.
terrain vague

Besides usual locutions like “vacant lot” or “no man’s Land,” the use of the French expression terrain vague (Chateaubriand, 1811) seems to be increasing in the international community.
urban rituals for urban acres

We have inherited the city and it’s foundation, we are guardians rather than owners, we are fleeting parts of something more vast and encompassing than we allow.
le pouvoir du peuple

Redonner le pouvoir aux citoyens pour une réelle démocratie. La sève remonte toujours des racines vers la cime…
artscape wychwood barns

Un projet de coopérative d’habitations et d’ateliers d’artistes très réussi et dont le modèle de développement pourrait inspirer aussi bien les sous comités travaillant autour des pôles “culture et habitation” que ceux s’intéressant au développement écologiques du Mile end est.
community mapping project

When people came to Le Champ des Possibles (Maguire Meadow), they were asked to spend ten to fifteen minutes in the space observing. After, they were asked to draw or write a reflection they had of the field.

le terrain vague comme matériau 

Le terrain vague est un espace offert aux appropriations créatives spontanées et aux pratiques informelles qui trouvent difficilement leur place dans des espaces publics de plus en plus assujettis à la logique du commerce, le terrain vague est ici le lieu propice à l’émergence d’une certaine résistance, un espace potentiellement ouvert à des modalités alternatives de vivre la ville.
artivistic 2007

Artivistic 2007 tentait de faire le pont entre environnementalisme, luttes autochtones et migrantes ainsi que pratiques urbaines et ce, sous l’angle de l’occupation.
À l’automne, nous plantons des bulbes

Cette performance explore les concepts de patience, de temps et s’intéresse à la biologie unique du bulbe ainsi qu’à ses qualités évocatrices.
pénétrer le sol…

Le concept d’individu ne s’applique pas dans la nature. Dans chaque prétendue indépendance, la vie est une colonie de co-dépendants…
mon champ

Voir ce qui se passait sous ce béton avant que nous soyons ici et quand nous serons partis…
le mile end en chantier: les citoyens s’expriment!

Ce texte constitue un résumé du document présenté à la suite de la démarche citoyenne qui a conduit au Forum citoyen du 26 avril 2009.
l’exposition du pacte roerich

Bonjour, Je vous envoie les informations sur l’Exposition du Pacte Roerich (Bandera de la Paz), que nous organisons à Madrid et qui se déroulera entre le 6 et le 14 avril 2010. Le 7 à 19:30, il y aura une conférence d’inauguration, à laquelle vous êtes invités et  lors de laquelle il sera expliqué la [...]
action

Our sub-committee was named Le Champ des Possibles and involved up to thirty members. The announcement of the re-development of the district gave us an opportunity to formalize our ideas for this green space.
an opening for communauté

Strains of wildflower seeds have train hopped and travelled to this island from as far west as the prairies. The field is a host to many non-human lives; their silent and watchful numbers are powerful and rich.
old growth, new approach: learning from the haida land use agreement

Through the plan, Guujaaw believes the Haida are “creating a future where our own kids would know that they could go out and experience the land the way our ancestors had.” And in a world that is changing so rapidly, this is no small feat.
an opening for émergence

People want to be near where the artists are. Life is simply more interesting. As developers come in to build their upscale condos, the original community starts to get squeezed out.

how to be in time with time

Art can guide our society towards a regenerative view of life, and bring us closer to the instinctive life force and physical energies that are part of our universal experience. The artist can direct their energies towards a re-souling of art, where integral values are based on real communication, between self and environment, between humanity and the ecosystem.

a green oasis in an industrial setting

Keeping this green oasis is essential to the Mile End’s environmental equilibrium, which is mostly composed of brick, asphalt, and cement.
revolution is turning the wheel

sing steady, from the heart.
turn the wheel, with the heat.
turn the sky, turn the page,
there’s nothing more certain than change.
la guilde de permaculture de montréal

La Guilde de Permaculture de Montréal est un groupe actif de passionéEs dévoués à l’apprentissage, au développement et à la pratique de modes de vie écologiquement et socialement durables inspirés par la permaculture.
montreal permaculture guild

The Montreal Permaculture Guild is an active group dedicated to learning about, promoting and practicing sustainable living, inspired by Permaculture principles, in and around Montreal.
a theory of weeds as catalysts for social change

As with most things, weeds have names and when you put a name to a face it adds a layer or two of recognition and understanding that wasn’t there before. And like getting to know a new human in your life, learning the name is just the starting point.
five plants

In a magical and geeky kind-of-way, it’s interesting to me that when soil is disturbed there are certain particular plants that always tend to grow. Further, they are most often called weeds and thought of as BAD when they are more accurately edible and highly nutritious. Stellar, yes?
hattie carthan community garden

In the mid-90’s the garden was targeted to become a local police site and the gardeners worked with local politicians and local residents to rally and distribute petitions which halted the sale of the property.
la exposición del pacto roerich

De Moscou à Madrid, en passant par Montréal… le Pacte Roerich est international! Invitation espagnole provenant de Madrid pour les 75 ans du Pacte Roerich.

when water falls on a natural landscape, it does many things

Water in its natural state works hard at keeping everyone and every it alive and well. It drives the most fundamental cycles of life, and is the backbone of biodiversity…
terrain vague as material

At the crossroads of many, often contradictory trains of thought, jostled by the accelerated pace of change in modern society, the urban environment evolves along lines that are increasingly difficult to read. In this volatile context, a renewed interest in the terrain vague has become apparent in the last fifteen years or so. Post-industrial urbanization [...]
la gare transformée en champ

“Pour savoir où l’on va, il faut savoir d’où l’on vient”… Alors, quel est donc l’histoire du terrain aujourd’hui occupé par le champ, longtemps rattachée à celle du Canadian Pacific ?
a railyard, turned meadow…

The first railway in Canada opened in 1836 as a portage between the Saint-Laurent and Richelieu Rivers. By 1859, when the remarkable Victoria Bridge spanned the Saint-Laurent, the Grand Trunk Railway ran all the way from Portland, Maine on the Atlantic coast, through Sherbrooke to Montreal, and westward to Toronto, Sarnia, and Chicago. After Confederation [...]
côté cour côté voisins

“À vos pelles, prêts, creusez…!” ou de l’importance du bon voisinage pour construire un lieu vert pour tous…
to go into soil…

It’s the story, the biography of the field beneath my feet… English settlers imposed their acres on a land that before they arrived had flowed from sea to sea, joyfully free of measurement. (…) The acre’s residents; plants, trees, and animals are familiar miracles but while their story unfolds above ground, there is another running [...]
marking territory

No piece of land knows which flag it is flying or the nation that flag represents. Putting name flags on soil is a matter of convenience, so we can find one another, and state where we are from. Place names, sprayed on maps, street corners and garden gates, like graffiti, lets history know who has [...]
parole de jardiniers zurbains

Et que dans vie y’a pas juste du béton, du gazon pis d’l’argent?…
transition montréal : un champ de possibles

Qu’entend-on par l’appellation “ville en transition”? Montréal peut-elle être considérée comme telle? La conjoncture actuelle impose un ajustement auquel la permaculture offre quelques réponses…
my field

I pray here, watch the change of seasons, draw, read, write, and practice dance and voice. For eighteen years this has been my daily or weekly path. After nights of insomnia I would come and sleep on the ground to let the earth absorb my anxiety. In my times of heartbreak I would cry as loud as I needed to.
creative spaces

“Isn’t the ephemeral quality of these places part of what makes them feel so precious? Aren’t city-sanctioned graffiti walls, picnic areas, and skate-parks a little less beloved than their rogue counterparts?”
an opening for histoire

These lots are far from vacant, and teem with life of all kinds. From weeds to wasteland, each patch of earth is rich and streaming with culture and memory.

un comité de citoyens pour naturaliser un champs

Qui a parlé d’un processus simple et rapide? Le simple fait de vouloir ne nous dirige pas automatiquement vers le but visé. Reste que tout est encore possible…
history

The symbol was perfect to use in the field because the city had revitalization plans that did not speak of preserving the area as a centre of life and culture.

landscape

Are not the real territories to explore today notably the ones that we don’t see simply because of our immersion in them: these impure and extensive lands of the urban?
bioremediation

Mycoremediation, bacterial remediation, and compost remediation are the most appropriate methods for treating molecular contaminants. The natural metabolic processes of bacteria and fungi are capable of ripping apart molecular contaminants into benign components, which they then use as food.
30 novembre 2008

Je pleure parce que cette friche est comme un exutoire de liberté un retranchement reposant, une invitation à une certaine bohème de passage. Cette place c’est la possibilité éternelle. En faire quelque chose c’est tuer cette possibilité.
le quartier de mes rêves…

Imaginons l’avenir autrement, en commençant par notre quartier…
one sunrise at a time

Hemmed in by the human activity surrounding it, it has been razed to the ground repeatedly since that time. It has held train cars, parked automobiles, and collected bonfire wood. And each time, many of the same plants that have thrived on it for centuries would come back. Within a few years, once again, the field would return to its recognizable self.
remembering the earth as poetry: dreaming artemisia vulgaris

Artemisia vulgaris guards the entryways of this liminal space. Her silvery-grey flowers, the color of moonlight, announce that this is an untamed place, which makes some people uncomfortable as easily as it makes others feel at home. Her home is where the ground is disturbed and the conditions poor. She is a warrior, a city plant, tough and resilient. Her roots reach deep down to nourish the soil of the wild urban core. The heart of the city is where she thrives.
arbre ô mon ami

poésie inspirée, poésie inspirante…
view from the sky

A dumpster was placed outside the building, in a little triangular gravel parking lot, just on the other side of the fence from the meadow. All winter long the building’s garbage, piled into large open boxes, was removed by a forklift and emptied by hand into the dumpster below my window. Nothing was bagged.
pourquoi ce champ est-il important pour notre communauté?

lettre au maire.
yarrow & mugwort

We have all been enchanted by the beauty of our natural world. It is a distinctly powerful feeling that cannot be elicited by manicured lawns, nor by finely mulched gardens. Instead it is wild places — peacefully left untouched from man’s meddling hands — that have the capacity to stir something deep within us.
machines vivantes

Tout être vivant a été et sera un jour une plante…
live dining

Guests foraged, cooked, and ate in the field while discussing urban land use, weeds as food and medicine, and alternative agricultural spaces.

age of steam, age of faith

The fact that such a large uncultivated open field exists in the middle of the city is due to the presence of the railroad. The QMO&O Railway was built in 1876, on the same right of way that Canadian Pacific occupies today. The nearby Mile End train station was an important presence from 1878 up to the 1930s.

le carmel de montréal : haut lieu de la spiritualité féminine

Représentantes par excellence des ordres contemplatifs féminins, les Carmélites incarnent pour Montréal une grande tradition occidentale, l’une des rares attaches faisant le lien entre les siècles du Moyen Âge et le nôtre.
urban agriculture around the world

Even in the most densely developed areas of the city there is still unused potential for urban agriculture. Mushrooms can be grown in trays indoors, fish can be raised in tanks, trays of silkworms can provide income, and medicinal herbs can be cultivated in containers and processed in the home.
jardins recyclés… suite

Objets, plantes, jardins recyclés… et toutes les semences de possibilités.
source de liberté, jeu et créativité

La pénombre s’installait après qu’un envoûtant coucher de soleil ambré nous ait donné le goût de se promener. On voulait vivre un suspense, effrayer les filles pour qu’elles fassent semblant de chercher notre protection.
what brought me to montreal were its empty lots

What brought me to Montreal in 1985 were its empty lots. I used to love walking through them, seeing the flowers, the insects, all of the life that chose to live there. They represented the power of the non-human natural world.
un oasis de verdure au sein d’un décor industriel

Entre l’acier, le béton et l’asphalte, se trouve un coin de paradis naturel où la biodiversité urbaine s’épanouit…
artivistic 2007

To link environmentalism, indigenous and migrant struggles, and urban practices together through the angle of occupation, Artivisitc 2007 organizers promoted collaborative actions between artists, academics, and activists.
i’ve come here early

I’ve come here early to collect my thoughts before the group arrives. I’m sitting on a concrete slab, the sort the city puts in places when they don’t want cars to go through a bit of street or parkland.

in the fall we plant bulbs

There are unique opportunities in the quiet spaces left in the wake of industry and in the soil of the city. These spaces are part of the rich boundary zone between built and wild spaces, and Bulbs is an invitation to muck around in them.
how can citizens engage?

We’re still working on this chapter. The idea is to provide some ideas about how citizens can get involved in the creating and re-creating of urban spaces. Also to explain what it means for a city to be open and to give some examples that others can build on. For now you can download a [...]
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