The MURAL Festival is an annual international

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

festival held every June since 2013 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Quebec, Canada. It aims to celebrate the democratization of urban art in the city of Montréal. Artists from around the world are invited to participate in the festival every year and contribute with their personal perspectives of the art. The art itself is part of the free art movement which stems from the

free-culture movement The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or open content without compensation to, or the consent of, the work's original creators, ...

. Thus, all murals immediately enter the public domain as free content or open content when they are created and there is an absence of

copyright laws A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

. All the art is free to be viewed and photographed. It has been described by the festival's co-creator as "an extension of the Mile End", and the festival's self-proclaimed mission is to "democratize art". The festival is a free event open to all ages, and it is held on several streets in Montreal, such as the

Saint Laurent Boulevard Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in french: boulevard Saint-Laurent), is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north–south through ...

Sherbrooke Street Sherbrooke Street (officially in french: rue Sherbrooke) is a major east–west artery and at in length, is the second longest street on the Island of Montreal. The street begins in the town of Montreal West and ends on the extreme tip of t ...

, and

Mount Royal Avenue Mount Royal Avenue (officially in french: avenue du Mont-Royal), once named Tannery Road (french: chemin des Tanneries), is a street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The main part of the street transects the borough of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, from Pa ...

. Along with the mural projects are a variety of street vendors and food trucks that cater to the public. The three most important partners of the MURAL festival are Fido, LNDMRK, and

. However, there are also numerous other partners such as

Hennessy Jas Hennessy & Co., commonly known simply as Hennessy (), is a French producer of cognac, which has its headquarters in Cognac, France. It is one of the "big four" cognac houses, along with Martell, Courvoisier, and Rémy Martin, who together ma ...

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, and Poppers that are also involved and some participate in the street vending.

Artists

History

2013

The inaugural edition of the festival took place in June 2013. During the four-day event, more than 25 local, national and international street artists worked separately and in concert across twenty building facades chosen to be covered. Boulevard St-Laurent was closed to vehicular traffic between the Sherbrooke and Mont-Royal arteries. Every evening, festive activities was organized on site. The festival ended with a free musical show presented in collaboration with Osheaga, the Oshee & Aga Block Party, headlined by DJs Ryan Emsworth, Grandtheft, Prison Guard, KenLo Craqnuques and Jeanbart & RRKelly.

2014

In 2014, the MURAL Festival was held between June 12 and June 15, 2014. During this year, the festival started ''Le Market'', a pop up shop in the Parc du Portugal. This market allowed festival attendees to listen shop local stores while listening to live music. MURAL also worked with ExCentris Cinema to present screenings of street art and graffiti related short films. Every day, the MURAL Block Party had live stage music in the parking lot behind Station 16 Gallery on St. Laurent. In the same lot, the popular Parisian artist Kashink painted the festival's sponsored mural this year in the same lot. This mural took over from the En Masse mural displayed during the previous year's festival.

2015

For MURAL's 2015 edition, the festival extended their 2014 period of 4 days to 11 days, from June 4 until June 14. These news dates coincidentally overlapped with

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

weekend. Boulevard Saint-Laurent was again closed off to traffic from Sherbrooke Street to Mont-Royal Avenue, in order to accommodate artists and festival attendees to look at the street art. Twenty new murals were painted for 2015s festival, which brought the number of murals created since the festival first to a whopping 50. This festival also allowed visitors to partake in guided tours and attend presentations films on the subject. ''Le Market'' continued, allowing festival goers to shop local market stalls and visit street art galleries.

2016

The fourth annual MURAL Festival ran from June 9 to 19, continuing the 10 day long festival period from the previous year. In 2016, MURAL co-organizer Andre Bathalon mentioned his goal for the festival: for attendees to watch artists at work, so they can gain an appreciation for the detail that goes into each piece. Bathalon continued, "The goal is really to attract the attention, so we're not doing any subtle concepts. All the drawings are edgy, punchy so they really make you stop to say 'Wow'." 2016's festival featured world renowned artists from 8 different countries. They had 29 local, national, and international artists, and five earlier murals were replaced with new murals for the new year. The festival started from "mural central" behind the LNDMRK offices, goes up St-Dominique and the eastern side of St-Laurent then down Clark—all of these spaces are "pedestrian only" during the duration of the festival. In 2016, MURAL Festival was officially recognized as the "largest gathering of urban art in North America… bringing MURAL's permanent public legacy to more than 60 major works." For the first time in festival history,

ScHoolboy Q Quincy Matthew Hanley (born October 26, 1986), better known by his stage name Schoolboy Q (stylized as ScHoolboy Q), is an American rapper. In 2009, Hanley signed to Carson-based independent record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and in late ...

—a popular rap artist—performed on a stage in the main "performance" parking lot on St. Laurent.

2017

The 2017 MURAL festival ran from June 8 to 18, from 10am to 10pm. This years events were described as "ambitious and festive", in order to celebrate festivals 5th edition—the largest edition so far. By this time, MURAL wanted to consolidate itself as one of the world's largest urban art happenings. They continued to show murals, music, exhibitions, pop-up installations, conferences, films, and their local pop-up shops. This year, the festival size grew to include the area of

Old Montreal Old Montreal (French: ''Vieux-Montréal'') is a historic neighbourhood within the municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is bordered on the west by McGill Street, on th ...

, while partnering with the local merchants association. They also re-configured the concert area on St-Laurent to accommodate more visitors. The most notable artist to perform this year was Grammy-nominated singer Post Malone. About twenty new murals were created in 2017 to enhance to add to the long map of murals, spanning from the Quartier des Spectacles up to

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

. Aaron Li-Hill, Canadian artist living in New York, also produced a large-scale art installation to adorn Saint-Laurent Boulevard all summer long. Additionally, the Montreal famous Leonard Cohen mural was painted by Montreal artist Kevin Ledo for this 5th edition of MURAL Festival.

2018

This 6th edition of MURAL Festival ran from June 7 to 17. After several years of rapid growth from their first festival in 2012, MURAL has "hit a steady groove" while organizing their most recent festival. This year, MURAL Festival presented a substantial and permanent art installation developed by Cyrcle, a street art pair from Los Angeles, California. This art piece covered two floors of the underground parking lot at Lune Rouge entertainment company headquarters, in the heart of downtown Montreal. Another headlining installation was presented on Parc Avenue by popular Los Angeles artist Michael Reeder. 2018's festival was visited by more than 1.5 million people, and the festival itself made some major upgrades to accommodate its growing popularity. The festival's main St Laurent market space also grew to include even more temporary retail spaces and food trucks. The festival also released a VIP experience at a cost, which gave customers "discounts on alcohol, exclusive access to numerous musical events and conferences, 1 ticket for a guided tour of the murals, and the chance to meet both artists and influencers in the main VIP Terrace and exclusive Green Room. The Green Room is an inside chilling zone with a private terrace." A ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'' article mentioned that the festival "typifies Montreal's cachet, bringing together a wide array of eclectic talents to create something captivating." Although it is now more acclaimed than ever, the most recent festival was criticized for expanding too rapidly, therefore outgrowing the music venues for 2018's musicians. 2018's performers included

Playboi Carti Jordan Terrell Carter (born September 13, 1996), known professionally as Playboi Carti, is an American rapper. Carter was initially signed to local underground label Awful Records prior to signing with ASAP Mob's AWGE Label under Interscope R ...

Pusha T Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 20 ...

, and Maky Lavender.

2019

The seventh edition of the 2019 MURAL Festival took place between June 6 and 16. This was the year, Colombian artist and muralist Gleo was the main featured artist of the festival. This was the first time that a female artist featured the MURAL festival. A new feature was presented to the festival this year, where creations from digital platforms and from original materials were exhibited. The past six editions had only involved painted murals on walls. This year, artists such as Spidertag who installed colourful LED lights in different shapes and forms on the side of a building that lit up at night, Joshua Vides who presented a black and white decorated

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

car, and Laurence Vallières who created a large-scale sculpture from recycled cardboard materials all which presented new forms of art to the festival and city of Montreal. Musical live performances took place during the festival, featuring local artists such as

Milk & Bone Milk & Bone are a Canadian electropop duo based in Montreal, Quebec, consisting of Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin.Alaclair Ensemble. The festival also dedicated an LGBTQ+ evening for those who wanted to participate.

2020: Mural Estival

In 2020, the traditional summer festival organized by MURAL Festival which was supposed to be held from June 11thuntil June 21, was canceled and revisited due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic. Instead, the Mural Festival team set up an "Estival", which means summertime in French, that lasted throughout the summer from June to September on Saint-Laurent Boulevard as usual, but also online. This new version of the festival included the physical street work of mural artists from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and live streams of music performances and digital art animations that happened over a period of three months. During the Estival, guided tours of murals were available to the public in small groups upon reservation to ensure the respect of sanitary measures and social distancing.

Corridart

Mural Estival put in place an urban artistic infrastructure called ''Corridart,'' honouring the original exposition of the same name that took place in Montreal in 1976. During the first phase of Mural Estival (June 21stto August 21), the ''Corridart'' infrastructure showcased the work of 12 artists that painted live on outdoor canvas along Saint-Laurent Boulevard. The temporary paintings were then painted over by other artists for the second phase of the festival which took place from August 22thto September 20, 2020.

Murals

The murals painted across the city for the 2020 edition were made by the mural artists Jeremy Shantz (painting the work of digital artis
FVCKRENDER
, Ankhone, Denial, Marc-Olivier Lamothe, Burnt Toast and Patrick Forchild. Patrick Forchild's artwork was honouring the work of front-line workers during the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

, especially in the healthcare system. His mural was painted on an outside wall of Montreal's

Jewish General Hospital The Jewish General Hospital (JGH; french: Hôpital général juif), known officially as the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital (french: Hôpital général juif Sir Mortimer B. Davis) since 1978, is an acute-care teaching hospital in M ...

Art Terrace

The French Canadian artis
Francorama
(aka Franco Égalité) painted his work ''Together Apart With Street Art'' on an outdoor terrace that was installed on Saint-Laurent boulevard. The terrace was presented by

Stella Artois Stella Artois ( ) is a pilsner beer, first brewed in 1926 by Brouwerij Artois in Leuven, Belgium. In its original form, the beer is 5.2 per cent ABV, the country's standard for pilsners. The beer is also sold in other countries like the UK, Ire ...

and was opened to the public from August 13 to September 20.

Musical performances

The launch party of phase 1 of Mural Estival was performed online by the artists Hologramme, Nana Zen and Nate Husser. The musical performances were accompanied by live visual art performances of Francorama, Mono Sourcil and LeBicar. For the second phase of the Estival, the launch party was performed by Les Louanges and

Random Recipe Random Recipe is a Canadian musical group based in Montreal, Quebec. The band members are Frannie Holder (vocals and guitar), Fab (rap, beatbox, steeldrum), Vincent Legault (guitar and keys), and Liu-Kong Ha (percussion and keys). Although the ba ...

and was streaming on Mural Festival's

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page live from the PHI Centre. Other musical performances occurred online during the Estival, notably from Claudia Bouvette, Clay and friends, Cozy, Dead Horse Beats, Kirouac & KodakLudo, and Lou Roots.

Gallery

Leonard Cohen

Title of mural: “Tower of Songs: Hommage à

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

”. The mural is located in the sector of Ville-Marie, precisely at 1420 Rue Crescent, Montreal, QC, H3G 2B1. The mural was completed in summer of 2017, in participation of the Mural Festival. Inspired by

, the location of the mural situates where Cohen lived part of his life in Montreal. The mural covers a larger apartment building, filling more than 1000 square metres, on its side wall. The producer of the mural was MU, a charitable organization based in Montreal. The artist Kevin Ledo, from Montreal, painted the mural. The project was funded by the city of Montreal, alongside the donors Brian Levitt, Jonathan Wener, Marcel Elefant, Sari Hornstein, Rossy Family Foundation, J. Gerry Shapiro, and Murray Dalfen. Today, the mural is recognized for popularizing the MURAL Festival and bringing attraction to the city of Montreal.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://muralfestival.com/
MURAL Festival at Google Cultural Institute

MURAL A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

Recurring events established in 2013 Arts festivals in Quebec