Back to Productions

Mes mots, mon quartier | Caroline Barber

2019 - Wandering web artwork

Credits

Production: TOPO – Digital Creation Centre
Director: Michel Lefebvre
Artistic direction: Caroline Barber
Interactive design and web development: Yannick Guéguen
Web programming: Rodrigo Velasco
Workshop & production assistance: Laura Coluccia, Ines Giorgi, Maxime-Alexandre Gosselin, Roxane Michel, Gaelle Issa.
Communications: Gabrielle Forest-Lachapelle
Street entertainment: Toxique Trottoir
Comedians: Dominique Marier et Muriel de Zangroniz
Costumes: Barbara Ménard

Thanks to the support of the Programme de médiation culturelle de la Ville de Montréal

Mes mots, mon quartier | Caroline Barber

Mes Mots, Mon Quartier is a geolocated poetry trail initially created in 2019 in Montreal's Old Rosemont district.

Produced by TOPO - Centre de création numérique, under the artistic direction of empoétineuse Caroline Barber, we collected words and anecdotes associated with a specific place in the territory, then created poetic phrases using the words collected via our word boxes and during creative workshops in four partner locations: the Rosemont library, the Oasis des enfants, Accès-Cible and the Petite Côte community center.

These playful and creative encounters have resulted in the collection of almost 300 words associated with anecdotes that can be found on the mesmots.ca website, created with interactive designer Yannick Guéguen. The site can be consulted on the computer, but also by taking a stroll around the neighborhood with a cell phone, an unusual way to see the streets, alleyways and other memorable places in history.

And now: take part in the Virtual Word Box

Interrupted in winter 2020 by the pandemic, the collection of words and anecdotes has continued with the virtual Boîte à mots. Click on the PARTICIPATE button on mesmots.ca, write an anecdote related to your neighborhood, area of residence or living environment, choose a word related to this anecdote, specify the address or precise location of your anecdote and then have fun with the Mes Mots, Mon Poème poetic creation application. It's easy and fun!

Poetry walks in Old Rosemont

For the start of the school year in September 2020, poetry walks with street theater troupe Toxique Trottoir were scheduled in Old Rosemont, but had to be postponed due to reconfinement. They finally took place in September 2021.

Drawing on the mesmots.ca website's repertoire of anecdotes and poetic phrases, Toxique Trottoir animated five poetic strolls bringing to life the testimonials from the cultural mediation project.

 

Caroline Barber

The literature of Oulipo, the cut-up words of Dada and the exquisite corpses of Surrealism are Caroline Barber's favorite playgrounds. These literary devices place words at the heart of her creative practice. Words serve as vehicles of the imagination, graphic images and echoes in the material, just as they do in her work as an everyday empoetineuse.

She has been offering literary workshops in Montreal schools and libraries for over ten years, and participates in the Blue Metropolis Children's Festival and Fenêtres qui parlent. Her fifth children's album, Le vol, has just been published by Les 400 coups.