Dimitris Ilias-LJI Journalist
The teams from the Hors les murs program of the Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension borough and the University of Montreal Gallery are pleased to announce that the artist selected for the Projet Passerelle is Mathilde Benignus with her project “Mains d’herbes.”
During the summer of 2024, the multidisciplinary artist will explore the Parc-Extension neighborhood, questioning the presence of green spaces, from the most popular parks to the smallest balconies. She will engage with elderly residents and the University of Montreal student community through collaborative zine creation workshops. Zines are small, artist-made books that are easily reproducible and will serve as a medium for sharing ideas on socio-scientific and ecological themes, focusing on participants’ intimate relationships with urban nature. These zines will be distributed throughout the neighborhood at the end of the summer. The project will pause during the colder months and resume in the spring of 2025 with new groups but the same approach, combining participant exchanges and zine production.
Mathilde is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is deeply rooted in interactions with various communities, creating alongside them. This collaborative approach is what drew us to her work. She has extensive experience in co-creating zines.
In 2021 and 2022, she created two zine collections in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. “Seules et ensemble” focused on the strong relationships between chosen sisters in the community during the pandemic, while “Pour toi Fiona” involved several zine co-creation workshops with teenagers, addressing inner storms and the challenges we cannot control. In 2023, she led the project “Faire famille,” a collective and intimate reflection on various ways to welcome children, sharing good practices and designing dream spaces with various art center stakeholders, emphasizing the involvement of artists’ children during creative residencies.
Since 2020, Mathilde has actively participated in numerous collective projects connecting elderly individuals with artists across different Montreal neighborhoods. “Mains d’herbes” marks her first foray into Parc-Extension.