An “irreverent” artistic project has made its nest clandestinely in an abandoned industrial building in Montreal. Activists built a chic Victorian-style studio amid the rubble, thanks to a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, to prove that it is possible to act quickly and effectively against the housing crisis.
Access is via a thin opening in the barricaded building located at 4000, rue Saint-Patrick, a stone’s throw from the Lachine Canal, in the Sud-Ouest borough. The huge two-story building, covered in graffiti, is freezing on this December day. The humidity pierces our bones. All the windows are smashed. Debris of glass, wood and rusty metal litter the ground.
“Be careful where you step,” warn Marc-Antoine Goyette and Gabriel Lacombe, guiding us through this maze-like jumble that they know like the back of their hand.
The duo has been patiently working for four years to create a cozy cocoon in the middle of this mess. To reach their secret room, you follow them to the left, then to the right, bypassing the countless obstacles that populate this ghostly place. Here, a gutted sofa, three dilapidated armchairs and broken bottles surround what was once a campfire. A little further on, dozens of dismembered garbage bins were thrown to the ground.
A rickety staircase leads us to the upper floor of the old factory, where the same clutter reigns. But an unsuspected treasure hides behind a wall covered in graffiti. By opening a cleverly concealed door, you enter a room that seems to have come out of a decoration magazine: an ornate wooden bed sits in the center of the room, on a magnificent cream-colored carpet. A tapestry in the same tone adorns the walls. A skylight illuminates the room. We almost feel embarrassed walking in our boots on the immaculate hardwood floor.
Relieve poverty
“What we are setting up is a luxury squat,” summarizes Marc-Antoine Goyette, telling us the story of this improbable and daring project, which he describes as “a snub to the capitalist system”.
The two friends – one is an architect, the other is a cabinetmaker and designer – had the idea of setting up a “living room” for homeless people in the fall of 2020. Outraged by the sad fate of people thrown into the street, the two idealists set out in search of an abandoned building which could be used to alleviate the misery of the poor.
Their research led them to the former Canadian Power Boat factory, along the Lachine Canal, where Canadian Navy ships were manufactured starting in 1940. The shipyard closed its doors a long time ago. The City of Montreal now owns the building, which was abandoned in 2013 after serving as a storage location.
Marc-Antoine Goyette and Gabriel Lacombe are outraged that this 300,000 square foot building is barricaded at great cost, by a specialized company, while awaiting its new vocation.
Dignity for all
“We are in the middle of a housing crisis. Hundreds of people are sleeping on the streets or in tents. We decided that here, it’s for everyone. With a lot of audacity, a lot of juice and willpower, we can reclaim the space,” says Gabriel Lacombe.
Audacity, you say? The duo never asked for permission from the City to develop their “luxury squat”. “We arrived at our site with our tools, our generator, our uniforms and our work helmets. Then we worked,” summarizes Marc-Antoine Goyette.
The creators obtained a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to carry out their project, which cost approximately $25,000. They had indicated all the details of their initiative in their grant application. This studio is “subversive” art, they explain.
“We said to ourselves: we are going to embody the splendor of the Victorian, of the royal, in an abandoned environment which is already taken over by the poor. The poor have the right to beauty, prestige, dignity. We treat access to art as an essential need in the same way as housing,” summarizes Marc-Antoine Goyette.
The old factory is discreetly inhabited by squatters. Even in the middle of winter. As we walk around the building, we come across a young man, bundled up in a big down jacket, who leaves the premises with his backpack. He doesn’t want to talk.
A coveted studio
The squatters are unaware of the existence of a cozy little corner (despite the absence of heating and running water) well camouflaged in this building which slowly decomposes over the seasons. Marc-Antoine Goyette and Gabriel Lacombe are aware that the room, even hidden behind walls in the vast building, risks being coveted after the publication of this report.
They say they hope that this “free and 100% subsidized apartment project, built in a municipal building”, will accommodate people who need it.
To confirm the extraordinary value of the project, they offered their studio for rent at $550 per month, on Facebook. They had to withdraw their ad after a day and explain to everyone interested that it was a stunt. Marc-Antoine Goyette claims to have been overwhelmed by 240 messages in a few hours.
“Some people were willing to give me $600 to book the bachelor without even having visited it. People told me about their lives. It demonstrates the extent of the current distress,” he said.
Take inspiration from the slums
The worst scenario, for the two activists, would be the demolition of this hidden treasure because the place is “dangerous” and “unsanitary” — like the itinerant camps that have been dismantled, in Montreal and elsewhere, in recent years. weeks, months and years.
“We throw people onto the street saying it’s for their own good,” laments Gabriel Lacombe. He studied India’s slums — including the largest, Dharavi, in Mumbai — for his architecture thesis project. He is convinced that this model of social organization can inspire Quebec and other rich countries.
Yes, you read correctly: the slums of India perhaps hold lessons for Quebec.
“We are not advocating slums. It is a response of misery to a situation of misery. But in India, they have understood that we must stop pushing them down, and instead try to help them,” he says.
Slums are “encampments” that become permanent, for lack of anything better. The Indian authorities concluded that it was better to connect the slums to the sewer and electricity networks rather than dismantling them, underlines Gabriel Lacombe.
He and his colleague say they would like the City to support the squatters, with the support of people from the health and social services network, rather than evicting them. The City was unable to answer the questions of Duty during the holiday break.
