A multi-faceted creature playing the piano, a white tiger baring its fangs, or a huge Batgirl: dozens of artists are busy creating new giant frescoes in the streets of Montreal for the tenth edition of the Mural festival.
To discover
Find all the results of the legislative elections
Read alsoThe urban art of Butte-aux-Cailles goes QR code
This year, during the month of June, around twenty new walls will be created by Canadian and American urban art artists.
The French-speaking metropolis has several hundred mural frescoes, often large, especially in its central districts.
Inaugurated in 2012, the Mural festival dedicated to street art now allows Montreal to be one of the "
leading cities in urban arts
" and "
street art, in North America
", explains to AFP Pierre-Alain Benoît, its director.
Among the artists invited this year, an Aboriginal artist.
Caroline Monnet chose to paint geometric patterns "
passed from generation to generation in the families
" of her Anishinaabe community, she explains to AFP.
"
We have been excluded from all cultural expression for a very long time.
So there, to be able to have my art on a platform as big as this one, then that it is accessible to a wide audience, I find that good.
I think we're taking a step forward
,” adds this artist, spray paint in hand and large white-rimmed glasses.
Open air museum
The open-air museum aspect greatly appeals to Kata Hull, a painter originally from Boston passing through Montreal, stopped under the partially finished fresco by Caroline Monnet.
“
I like to see art anywhere and outdoors it seems more accessible to more people.
Not everyone is interested in galleries
,” says this tourist, accompanied by her husband.
Natalie Capuano, who has already taken more than five hundred photos of the murals, is very proud to see these paintings because "
it changes the image of the city
".
"
It's a great pleasure to come and discover the new murals every year, we are often surprised and it's much more beautiful than bare walls after all
“says this Montrealer who wears a very colorful Mickey t-shirt and big sunglasses.
Among the famous frescoes, the city has two huge ones bearing the image of the singer Leonard Cohen, born in the agglomeration of Montreal and who died in 2016.
