Cité Mémoire brings the past to life in Montréal
The storied history of Montréal comes to life with Cité Mémoire, one of the largest outdoor video-projection installations in the world. Cité Mémoire is an urban multimedia experience that tells the stories of famous as well as little-known Montrealers who have shaped the city and the world.
Tales of the city
Inaugurated in May 2016, Cité Mémoire is an ongoing art installation that currently features more than 20 tableaux composed of images, dialogue and music projected on walls, in alleys, on the ground and on trees in historic Old Montréal, the Old Port of Montréal, downtown and Montréal East.
Six years in the making, Cité Mémoire was created by three of Montréal’s most creative minds: internationally-acclaimed duo Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, who have created large-scale productions for Cirque du Soleil, in collaboration with famed Québec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard.
“We chose stories with themes and values central to Montréal’s identity,” says Michel Marc Bouchard. “Our screen – our canvas – is the city itself.”
Victor Pilon points out more than 800 people worked on this project, including 400 artists and craftspeople. Says Pilon, “We wanted to create something that had never been done before, something innovative.”
The critically-acclaimed Cité Mémoire installation has proven to be a big hit with locals and visitors alike, and is popular year-round.
Every picture tells a story
The Cité Mémoire tableaux tell the stories of such Montrealers as Marguerite Bourgeoys, the French founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montréal who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, sports icons Jackie Robinson and Maurice “Rocket” Richard, as well as the gay soldier stationed with the French garrison in 1648, who was caught having sex with another man. The soldier was given a choice: die or become the first executioner of New France. The gay soldier took the executioner job.
There are also tableaux about The Jewish Children’s Transport train, about a thousand orphans who survived Nazi concentration camps and were adopted by Montrealers; the burning of the Parliament building in Old Montréal in 1849; Montréal’s fabled Sin City era and jazz heyday, set to the rhythm of Montrealer and jazz icon Oscar Peterson’s piano; and about falling in love in romantic Montréal, set to Montréal songwriter Leonard Cohen’s iconic song Suzanne.
The Cité Mémoire mobile app
Visitors can experience the full Cité Mémoire multimedia experience by downloading the free app. The app provides Cité Mémoire’s entire soundtrack as well as historical context for each tableau in four languages (English, French, Spanish and Chinese).
Available 24 hours a day, the app also features some 100 additional points of interest and augmented reality segments in addition to the tableaux, enhancing strolls in Old Montréal where a free Wi-Fi network – MTLWiFi – is accessible to all.
Projections schedule
The projections are available Tuesday to Sunday after dark. Click here to check out which tableaux are currently available.
The 90-minute Cité Mémoire public guided tours are temporarily unavailable, but private tours and the two-hour historical scavenger hunts for schools are back.
For more information about Cité Mémoire, visit www.montrealenhistoires.com.
Richard Burnett
Richard “Bugs” Burnett is a Canadian freelance writer, editor, journalist, blogger and columnist for alt-weeklies, mainstream and LGBTQ+ publications. Bugs also knows Montréal like a drag queen knows a cosmetics counter.