The Canadian Centre for Architecture, in collaboration with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University, will hold an interdisciplinary colloquium entitled Montréal at Street Level that will investigate how Montreal’s cultural identity was fundamentally redefined in the 1960s. It will take place both at the CCA and at Concordia from 31 March to 2 April.

The colloquium is presented as a complement to the exhibitions The 60s: Montréal Thinks Big and Expo 67: Not Just a Souvenir. Colloquium organizers Rhona Richman Kenneally and Johanne Sloan of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia state that "Just as the architectural achievements of the 60s dramatically altered the cityscape, so too was urban experience transformed through the articulation of popular culture, everyday life, modernism, and cosmopolitanism."

The reinvention of Montreal cannot be considered properly without highlighting Expo 67, the exposition universelle that functioned as a kind of dream-city on the fringes of the real city. Expo 67 brought architecture, art, design, and technology together into a glittering modern package, heralding the ideal future city to both Montrealers and visitors from afar. It is important to ask why this event was so successful, what the repercussions were for Montreal, and how it managed to leave such a significant material and imaginative residue in the lives of its citizens.

For the colloquium, local and international scholars across various disciplines will offer new perspectives on this pivotal moment in the life of Montreal. Addressing the interstices between architecture and other cultural practices, they reveal how the consequences of "thinking big" were played out "at street level."

Participants include: Annmarie Adams (McGill University), Anouk Bélanger (Concordia University), Jean-François Côté (UQÀM), Elizabeth Darling (University of Brighton), Ross Higgins (Concordia University), Ben Highmore (University of Western England), Monika Kin Gagnon (Concordia University), Eva Marie Kroller (University of British Columbia), André Lortie (Université de Rouen/Guest Curator of The 60s: Montréal Thinks Big), Thomas McDonough (SUNY Binghamton), Janine Marchessault (York University), Martin Racine (Concordia University), Inderbir Singh Riar (Columbia University), Kitty Scott (National Gallery of Canada), Sherry Simon (York University), Will Straw (McGill University), Aurora Wallace (New York University).

Admission to the Thursday evening inaugural session in the Paul Desmarais Theatre at the CCA (1920, rue Baile) is free, but seating is limited. Costs for attending the Friday session at Concordia’s De Sève Cinema (atrium of the J.W. McConnell Building, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West) and Saturday’s at the CCA are $20 per person for the two days, payable at the door. The program is open to the public and admission is free for students. Those wishing to attend can register online at www.mtlatstreetlevel.concordia.ca or www.cca.qc.ca/mtlatstreetlevel.