It used to be a bare wall on the side of the former Montreal Pita building. Over time it became an unsightly canvas of graffiti until now. On Wednesday the August 24th at 4:30 p.m., MU and the Borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension invited citizens to the inauguration of the new mural in the heart of the new Dickie-Moore Park, created by the artist Carlito Dalceggio. The old graffiti was painted over to create a massive eye candy experiment for the locals.
The event took place in the presence of Mary Deros, councillor for the City of Montreal in the Parc-Extension district, the artist, and the project partners at 654, avenue Beaumont, in the brand-new Dickie-Moore Park in front of the mural. This project is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of Quebec as part of the Program d’art mural de la ville de Montréal.
“This beautiful mural enhances the neighborhood. It is so different that one can sit in front of it day after day and discover new things every time. You literally can get lost in its magic where once was a dirty wall” said Mary Deros. She also spoke about the new Dickie-Moore park soon to be inaugurated calling it an oasis in an area without green spaces.
MU is a charitable organization that transforms public space in Montreal by creating murals rooted in communities, and by offering mural art workshops for young people in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods of Montreal. Their activities promote a sense of belonging, pride and the economic vitality of living environments.
The organization believes that art awakens, moves and touches people, because art arouses spontaneous and significant encounters, because art nourishes the daily relationship with the city and with each other, MU wants to make it visible and make it live. By making the democratization of art one of the main axes of its mission, MU embodies this desire to reclaim public space through art.
According to his website, Carlito Dalceggio is a contemporary artist, totally of this moment and intentionally transcending strict definitions of art and commerce. His work—a visual language spanning painted tarps, sculpture, video, installation, to public art murals– reflects the seamless ease in which he moves between genres and cultures all in the service of creating the mythology of now.
Carlito’s colorful world is at once folkloric and futuristic. Working out of his signature black sketchbooks and pop-up studios from Mexico City, Istanbul, to Paris he is in constant rotation around the globe collecting inspiration as both a local and a nomad. Carlito is heavily influenced by modern and ancient rituals such as Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico, whirling dervishes in Turkey, Persian calligraphy, beat poets, the pursuit of myth in art history, cobra movement, modernists, theory of the Duende, and jazz innovators such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane.