New public Art Series at the Quartier des spectacles

A bold new set of Avant-garde works turns downtown Montreal into an open‑air gallery in 2026

April 23, 2026

The Quartier des spectacles Partnership has unveiled a new series of co-presented and co-produced works that will animate downtown Montréal’s public spaces throughout the 2026 season. Emerging from the second edition of its call for projects launched in fall 2025, these initiatives lean on experimentation, interactivity, and citizen participation to rethink how art is created and experienced in the public realm.

These projects firmly establish the Quartier des spectacles as an open-air creative laboratory, where digital arts, dance, street arts, and socially engaged mediation intersect.

On the program: four video projections on the district’s landmark façades, interactive installations, performances, and urban interventions unfolding across various public squares. Together, they reinforce the Quartier’s role as a space where artistic disciplines meet, collide, and evolve. Among the artists and collectives taking part are AATOAA, Martin Messier, kondition pluriel, as well as Caroline Laurin‑Beaucage and Chélanie Beaudin‑Quintin, all known for their innovative practices.

A year‑round creative laboratory

With this new wave of projects, the Partnership continues to pursue its goal of making the Quartier des spectacles a year‑round creative playground, complementing the district’s already rich festival scene. “This second edition of the call for projects confirms the Partnership’s commitment to supporting bold, high‑calibre works created for public space,” notes Émilie Chabot, Director of Development and Programming. In her view, the selected projects reflect a wide range of practices – from digital arts to street arts, including cultural and social mediation – and help transform the downtown core, from east to west, into a place for collective, accessible artistic experiences.

Twelve public art projects to discover

Now an annual initiative, the co-presentation and co-production call invites artists and organizations to develop projects in one of five areas: installation, placemaking and urban design, animation, video projection, and exhibition. The third edition of the call will launch on September 1, 2026. Among the twelve selected proposals, several stand out for their immersive and participatory nature.

Feria FTA & Bosque – Festival TransAmériques (FTA)

Terra – Vincent Morisset & Caroline Robert (AATOAA)
From April 14 to May 5, 2026, Terra transforms the façade of the Wilder Building into ephemeral murals that incorporate participants’ faces in real time. This interactive video projection, presented on the Place des Festivals, playfully celebrates the beauty of the connections that bring us together.

Feria FTA & Bosque – Festival TransAmériques (FTA)
From May 29 to 31, 2026, Esplanade Tranquille comes to life with a festive weekend marking the FTA’s 20th anniversary, featuring parties, dance workshops, story time, film screenings, and an artisans’ market. On the Place des Festivals, Bosque, a work by choreographer Clarice Lima, creates a strange forest of legs pointing up to the sky with about thirty Montréalers, turning the city into a poetic and political tableau.

Inframondes & Cabaret Essence – OFFTA
From May 29 to June 5, 2026, Place de la Paix hosts a diptych by OFFTA, featuring Inframondes by Sabrina Ratté and Cabaret Essence by Athena Lucie Assamba. This immersive project blends technological arts and public participation in a sensory, experimental environment.

Inframondes & Cabaret Essence – OFFTA

Métissage urbain – Exeko
In July and August, Métissage urbain sets up first at Place de la Paix, then at Place Émilie‑Gamelin as part of Jardins Gamelin. This artistic residency brings together, among others, people experiencing homelessness to take part in collective creations that foster expression and participation.

Jeu(x) de lumières – Société des arts technologiques [SAT] From August 20 to September 3, 2026, Place de la Paix is transformed into a giant collective playground thanks to an immersive setup where the public’s movements control beams of light, turning the space into a constantly evolving luminous composition.

Freefold – 14 Lieux et Martin Messier
On August 14, 15, and 16, 2026, Esplanade Tranquille hosts Freefold, a dance performance that explores the tension between technological control and artistic freedom. Performers and the urban environment resonate with one another in an immersive choreographic experience.

Festival TransAmériques (FTA)

FAR’s Olympian parade – Festival des arts de ruelle (FAR)
On September 5, 2026, a large participatory parade marking the 50th anniversary of the Montréal Olympic Games will link Place des Festivals to Place Émilie‑Gamelin along Sainte‑Catherine Street. For the first time, the Partnership is co‑producing a project with FAR, bringing the spirit of Montréal’s back alleys right into the heart of downtown.

Quartiers Danses Festival

In September 2026, a series of video projections and live performances will take over Place des Festivals and the façade of the Wilder Building. The project sets dance and moving images in dialogue, at the crossroads of cinema and live art.

Flood – kondition pluriel
From September 14 to October 4, 2026, the façade of UQAM’s Président‑Kennedy Pavilion becomes the screen for a video projection that turns foundational human‑rights texts into visual and sonic landscapes. Flood addresses contemporary environmental issues through an experience that is both contemplative and politically engaged.

Corps immergés – Chélanie Beaudin‑Quintin and Caroline Laurin‑Beaucage
From November 2 to 26, 2026, the Wilder Building hosts Corps immergés, a projected choreographic work in which bodies submerged in water see their movements altered, as if suspended in time. The installation offers a sensory, meditative experience centred on liquid matter and the memory of gesture.

Toxique Trottoir – An icy tale
In winter 2026–2027, Place Pasteur will be transformed by an interactive theatrical installation built around a mysterious iceberg. Aimed at children and their families, the work invites a poetic reflection on our relationship with living beings and on the upheavals caused by climate change.

A cultural heart in motion

As Montréal’s cultural core, the Quartier des spectacles boasts the greatest concentration of cultural venues in North America and hosts a multitude of festivals and events every year. Created in 2003, the Quartier des spectacles Partnership is a non‑profit organization that brings together more than 85 active members and oversees the animation of public spaces, cultural programming, and the promotion of the Quartier as a must‑see cultural destination, with support from the City of Montréal.

Through these twelve projects, a whole facet of contemporary creation – digital, performative, community‑based – is moving into Montréal’s public space, inviting passersby to become, for the duration of an encounter, co‑authors of the work.

Images courtesy of Quartier des Spectacles