Cities for loving
CreateSpace Public Art Forum 2022
An artistic response to the 2022 CreateSpace Public Art Forum, a national forum virtually convening participants who identify as Black, Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), racialized, rural and/or youth with disabilities and between the ages of 18-25. Participants were presented with online talks themed around public art practices, studio tours by artist facilitators, a Keynote Event by artist Lori Blondeau, and opportunities to engage with fellow peers to inspire their final creations.
Project at a Glance
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Artist: Chris Scott Martone Donde
Year: 2022
Program: Artist Capacity Building
45
CreateSpace participants
10
artist facilitators
1
keynote speaker
Artist Statement
This piece is the result of participating at The CreateSpace Public Art Forum, put up by STEPS. It shares my feelings around my academic, artistic, and professional work around place-making. It also problematizes the complexities around notions of ‘place’ and ‘making’—from colonial erasure, to hip gentrification.
It is composed of two tracks. One, is an ambient drone wave created by overlaying multiple volume swells (the many voices!). The other is a poem I wrote taking as inspiration the Artist talks offered by Ammar Mahimwalla, Florence Yee, Amanda Lederle, and the Making Space collective.
About the Artist
Chris Scott Martone Donde
Christian is a queer Mexican-Canadian artist, designer, researcher, and urbanist based in Montreal/Tio’tia:ke. They study cities and people, and focus on urban play, participatory design, and place-making practices through the use of research-creation methods and multiple media—particularly poetry, sound, and performance. As a PhD student at Concordia University, they collaborate at the Performative Urbanism Lab (PULSE), the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG), and the Dramaturgical Ecologies research group.
CreateSpace Public Art Forum
STEPS Public Art believes public art has the ability to challenge the systemic inequities that exist in public space. In support of this important work, we facilitate artist capacity building programs that foster inclusive public art practices, build the capacity of underrepresented artists, and demonstrate how public art can help reimagine equitably designed cities.
CreateSpace Public Art Forum is a digital forum that virtually convenes participants who identify as Black, Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), racialized, rural and/or youth with disabilities and between the ages of 18-25. This forum fosters connections, builds understanding across geographies and cultures, as well as provide emerging equity-seeking artists with the skills, relationships and support needed to develop public art practices. Visit the online gallery to view all artistic responses by the 2022 forum participants.
CreateSpace Public Art Forum is supported by Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts and CIBC.
