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.
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?
mon champ
Voir ce qui se passait sous ce béton avant que nous soyons ici et quand nous serons partis…
my field
I pray here, watch the change of seasons, draw, read, write, and practice dance and voice. For the past 18 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.
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.
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.
yarrow & mugwort
We have all been gripped 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 our soul.
live dining
Guests foraged, cooked, and ate in the field while discussing urban land use, weeds as food and medicine, and alternative agricultural spaces.
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.
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.
Chapter: 2/ life is here: communauté