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Symbolic Public Form & the Library Art Gallery of Ontario
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CITY OF THE SNOW It is in this city built between a sacred mountain of death and flowing river of life, that death is not feared but celebrated. It was not always the case in Hochelaga – that death was embraced as a natural threshold. They say that once the dead were buried on the opposite side of the mountain from the city of the living; the mountain standing as a physical and spiritual divide between the two mirror cities. Just like the city of the living, the other city communicated its history, life, and hopes; only here all had become stabilized, set out like libraries in stone, with no tolerance for chance or events. The more the Hochelaga of the living grew, became crowded and expanded, the closer it intruded on the Hochelaga of the dead. As with any sister city, the city of the dead grew as well, pushing itself over the mountain, towards the city of the living. The city of the dead can now be seen inhabiting the steep slopes of the mountain from the houses, offices, and restaurants in the living city. The two cities intersect at the base of the mountain, where remains from the ancient settlement can still be found. Nowhere else in Hochelaga are the forces of life and death so prominent as where the two cities marry. The threshold between the cities emerges on the paths formed within the mountain and on its living skin. It is here that some believe the new city of Hochelaga is forming. The origins of the new city are rooted in the birth of the mountain. When the upward force of the mountain dug into the sky, a concentrated site of energy stimulated the horizontal thrust of the mountain towards the living city. This energy was held and dissipated in vertical conduits, which are said to have eternally existed within the stone. The swelling caused by this intense energy eventually ruptured the layers of existing and newly formed rock. This fissure first revealed the conduits, but then began to extend horizontally through the mountain, the conduits being insufficient to control their entire force. They say, had the fissure not been contained it would have traveled through the entire city of the living. As such, to control the fissure, the inhabitants of Hochelaga built five square piles that burrowed deep into the ground and sky. These monolithic structures dissipated the energy of the fissure, slowly transferring its forces from the earth to the heavens – allowing it to extend to the rising sun. Some inhabitants viewed the fissures outward force as an invitation to journey inwards – both physically and spiritually. As such, the fissure became a threshold path of exchange between the two cities; where the city of the living crossed into the earth to give their loved ones to the city of the dead. The piles that continuously filtered and diffused the fissure’s energy were so large that they became inhabitable chapels. The chapels delve into and contain the spiritual energy of the earth, allowing for a final ritual of exchange between the inhabitants of the mirror cities. It is on the living skin of the mountain that the second threshold path exists, where it is common to witness people skiing, skating, and jogging with the extraordinary frame of the city’s skyscrapers. Along this path that ventures up the steeper slopes of the mountain, the relationship between life and death, unnatural and natural, light and dark is so integrated that it is difficult to understand the divide between the two cities. Like any great threshold, this path is a gathering and dissolving of forces. In some areas, the mountain swells and offers beautiful views to the city of the living, framed by the lush landscape of the mountain. At other instances, the path carves into the mountain, and disassociates itself from the surroundings. It is in these dark chambers that silence exists, and one can forget about the city that is so close by. Grass seeps into these chambers only as far as the light will allow it to grow, the further it creeps, the sparser it becomes until it finally vanishes. Structures are built into and out of the mountain while landscape runs over, into, and around these structures, adding to their ambiguity. The path stitches the pliable earth into the mountain, sculpted out of gabion baskets from the excavated stone. It is the sewing of the land – the pliable earth and the rock - that controls and reinforces the fissure along the mountain’s surface. Along this threshold between earth and sky, exploding and imploding forces, dynamic skin and rigid rock, the city of the living and that of the dead, is where one can find the bodies buried, stitched together and into the landscape. This interweaving allows for the chance exchange between the two cities. It is common to witness an individual abandon their group of joggers, either physically or spiritually, while passing the silent tombs in the mountain’s walls.
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