Under the Gardiner highway, in the Fort York district of Toronto, inscriptions on metal plates describe a place. But instead of being a trip in the past, as the plates of the genre are usually, they depict the future. A dantesque future.
Indeed, in this speculative public art exhibition entitled Pax Americana, a fictitious story emerges in which the United States annexed Canada, then echoing the repeated threats of President Donald Trump to make the country on the 51st Union state.
For example, on the plate Surrender of the Tecumseh Irregulars
Toronto artist Dara Vandor says that on August 11, 2031, a hundred members of the Canadian Armed Forces went to the Patriotic Liberation Forces of the United States, and that the surrounding buildings were rebuilt as part of the Plan Musk
.
The local artist Dara Vandor has installed false historical plates everywhere in Toronto.
Photo : Radio-Canada
However, since their installation, the six plates seem to have been withdrawn. Photos are still accessible online.
These plates have never been designed as permanent installations, but rather ephemeral works
she says.
It reminds us of how dangerous and fragile the world we live is. We are lucky to live in peace in Canada, but the country has already been a field of war and can become it again.
Ms. Vandor adds that plates are the perfect tool for freezing blood in the veins of city residents.
Due to the news, we end up becoming immune to images. The news no longer seems to us real. These plates have imposed themselves in the daily life of people. They force them to think about the future and how it can quickly change.
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Take your future in hand
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Camille Bégin is a historian and based in Toronto.
Photo : Radio-Canada
Even if the presence of these works in the public sphere was short -lived, the historian Camille Bégin believes that they are always relevant. It shows us that we can act in the present to write our own future.
Ms. Bégin especially appreciates the use of temporal markers in the exhibition. She quotes as an example the plaque The Hot Dog Stand
. According to the plaque, elite shooters were hidden there between February and May 2035, which would have enabled them to enable the movements of the insurgents and protect the American units.
We all pass in front of a stand of hot dogs in a fairly regular way. And there, suddenly, this place which is familiar to us becomes the rallying point for snipers American
develops Ms. Bégin.
[L’artiste] shows us that very familiar places can also become historic places in a dystopian future.
For the moment, the cause of the disappearances of the artistic installation remains unknown. But Dara Vandor cannot be carried away by the mystery.
The city does not belong to me. Anyone can take these plates. They can take advantage of it for their own needs
she said.
With information from Britnei Bilhete
