Montreal  "Terre d'accueil": a heart for a green city

Philipp Adams questions the reception of his wall works and their inhabitation of urban space. With “Terre d'accueil”, he presents a subtle manifesto for the protection of our green spaces. 

Phillip Adams is an artist from Philadelphia, PA. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in Montreal for the past eight years. His murals and public artwork reflect the keen interest he has in the collaborative process, the transition from studio creation to outdoor realization, and the interaction with the public that comes with that process.

Philipp Adams' art is highly interactive. It is not simply a matter of decorating or beautifying a neighborhood, but of entering into a discussion with its inhabitants. For Adams, leaving his studio to create something means accepting that his art will step out of the private sphere and be transformed by the public.

Philipp Adams has the following to say about this community process, which he values: “In talking with residents, I immediately understood that as a public artist, you have to solve problems - not only to create an immediate impact of beauty, appropriation, and sense of place, but also to get people to see a place as unique when they walk by” (Carly Rapaport-Stein, Light and creativity: An interview with Phillip Adams). Choosing a familiar view of Mont-Royal, something the residents know, a typical view of a Sunday afternoon stroll, to bring them into the middle of their home and provoke a reflection on our environment and its fragility is anything but harmless. Adams presents something here that could be taken for granted and yet could disappear. One thinks here of Tempelhof Feld and the building projects that the community has repeatedly contested, but which keep popping up.

Green places in a city are always a political decision, and Adams makes us aware of the importance of protecting nature in urban spaces. In this way, he reminds the community, but also every passer-by, of the importance of preserving the green lungs of a city. His work Terre d'accueil, which features a crumpled sheet of paper on which a heart is drawn, points to a complicated relationship of society with the environment. The crumpled paper is reminiscent of the litter left by a passer-by on the street, but here Adams gives it new meaning by placing it at the center of his work. This worn materiality, combined with the view of urban nature, highlights the importance of protecting the places our community uses every day and serves as a reminder to all who pass by.