30ethics

Description of Parc Gallery found on the ‘District Griffin’ website.The text box and image pop-up when the little tree located on the park — to the left of the text box in this image — is selected.

aftermath

dog parc gallery is a success story in many ways. In 2012 the city, in agreement with developers, responded to our pressure and re-zoned Parc Gallery as public, green space once again. On 4 July 2013, borough representative Véronique Fournier addressed a press conference in Parc Gallery to announce that this land would continue its existence as a dog park for the foreseeable future. However, by making the park’s history of activism and current- day vitality visible, pouf! unwittingly contributed to a celebratory discourse on post-industrial redevelopment. The major developer in the area, Devimco, plagiarised one of our publications to promote their heritage-conscious, ‘green’ approach.

The company’s website today quotes directly from, but does not acknowledge, our 2011 exhibition catalogue. above. Prospective condo-owners will find our own description of the value of the park as they peruse images of Devimco’s newest project: Sur Le Parc - District Griffin . In this way, pouf! ’s assertions of the value of Parc Gallery were deftly folded into the very development scheme we had aimed to critique. Devimco’s appropriation of pouf! ’s text is a clear example of what Ipek Türeli describes as “the free or near-free labour of the architect-artist” and how such labour can, despite intentions, “be used to generate capital”.

Plan of Griffintown in a booklet prepared by the Office de la consultation publique Montréal for a neighbourhood “open house” and planning workshop held on January 20-21, 2012.The white circle indicates Parc Gallery.As of January 2, 2012 it was being represented on public documents as an existing park!

8

Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator