L’étreinte des temps

Permanent public artwork for the park Tiohtià:ke Otsira’kéhne in Montréal
Inauguration : October 2019
Bronze sculpture and landscaping
Realized by: The Society of Affective Archives (Fiona Annis, Véronique La Perrière M and Nadia Myre)
Collection of the Bureau d’art public de la Ville de Montréal

Situated in the heart of Tio’tia:ke island (also known as Montreal, Canada) the Mont-Royal park has been known since time immemorial as a site of meetings, exchanges and contemplation. Very ancient graves, as well as a contemporary cemetery, testify to the sacred nature of this territory. In the spring of 2018, the Mont-Royal park welcomed for the first time in half a century a new permanent public artwork on the landscape. Realized by three artists of different cultural backgrounds, the sculpture L’Étreinte des temps gives voice to the heritage of the mountain by evoking the history of the site and drawing inspiration from ancestral knowledge. Inspired by the form and medicinal properties of the willow, an ancient remedy for pain, L’Étreinte des temps acknowledges the past and proposes a future.

Essay by Anne-Marie Proulx
Interview with Éric Clément de La Presse
Documentary film available on ARTS.FILM
Location: the sculpture is located on the northern summit of the Mont-Royal