Montréal Signs Project

Les Enseignistes de Montréal, aka The Signmakers of Montreal, is a web doc about the people behind the over-sized words and images that have enlivened, perhaps blighted, urban centres across the world since long before the invention of neon. Focusing on Montreal, a cosmopolitan city once hailed as the ‘Paris of North America’, the film features interviews with several experienced signmakers, a self-taught signpainter, and two sign collectors, plus visits to the Ville de Montréal sign shop and a guided tour of the Montréal Signs Project, a permanent exhibition at Concordia University. This visually rich film offers unique insights into the ways that sign-saturated cityscapes have changed over time, for better and worse, and explores the imaginative reuse of two mechanized airport information signs in a recent exhibition about migration and land rights. In this brief excerpt from the web doc, distinguished Montreal artist Cheryl Sim explains the creative process behind her art exhibition ‘YMX’.