The
MUHC (McGill University Health Centre) is one of the world’s foremost
academic health centres. The new hospital, opening in April 2015 at the
Glen site, is the redevelopment project that will create leading-edge
facilities in three sites.
Havre
was completed in November 2014, the largest of eleven public art
commissions spread throughout the new MUHC hospital complex and the
largest commission of the Quebec government’s Integration of art to
architecture 1% policy realized to date.
Sited
on the entranceway grounds the objectives included being highly visible
to road traffic and to commuters in the nearby trains, drawing people
into the landscaped site with its many public gardens, and becoming an
iconic symbol for the hospital. While scaled to the immensity of the
site Havre also retains a more intimate experience. Conveyed as a
“sculptural embrace” it welcomes patients, visitors, staff and
passers-by into the artwork through three "doors", offering a personal
experience.
During
the day natural light projects patterns of shadows through the artwork,
transforming with the hours, days and seasons. During evening hours
three sequences each thirty minutes long bathe the artwork in subtle
shades of blue / blue-green, colours that evoke both air (sky) and
water, elements essential to life.
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About Linda Covit Linda
Covit lives and works in Montreal. Since 1975, her solo exhibitions
include Plein sud, Centre d’exposition en art actuel à Longueuil;
Expression, Centre d’exposition de Saint-Hyacinthe; le Musée de la Ville
de Lachine; Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec; Toronto’s Koffler
Gallery and Genereux Grunwald Gallery; the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo,
Japan. She has participated in international events including Japan’s
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2003 and the 53rd Museo Internazionale
delle Ceramiche in Faenza, Italy. Her works figure in the collections of
the Musée d‘art contemporain Montréal, the Musée national des
beaux-arts du Québec, the Collection Maurice A. Forget, the Cirque du
Soleil, the Musée de Lachine, the Koffler Gallery, and the University of
Concordia. Among
her many public artworks are a gift from the Quebec government to
Shandong Province, China; an installation on Montreal’s Mount Royal Park
commemorating the 1969 Lennon-Ono bed-in (Prix Les Arts et la ville –
Prix aménagement 2012); an art wall with mist at Toronto’s Four Seasons
Hotel and Residences (Regional Citation award, CSLA/AAPC 2014); a
monumental water column in the Calgary Water Centre and four garden
rooms in the Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center, Orange,
Texas (ASLA Honor Award, 2012).
She
has received numerous grants from the Canada Council, the Japan-Canada
Fund, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Cirque du
Soleil and New York’s Pollock-Krasner Foundation. A monograph of the artist’s work, edited and published in 2014 by Les éditions Plein sud is available through http://www.plein-sud.org Name of the project: Havre Project end date: 2014 Artiste : Linda Covit Materials: Painted aluminum, LED projectors, programming equipment Dimensions: 13 m x 15,75 m diameter / 42’8” x 51’8” diameter Lamp posts – 51 cm x 122 x 122 cm / 6’5” x 4’ x 4’ Location: McGill University Health Centre – Glen Site (MUHC), Montreal Client: Commissioned by the MUHC Fabrication: Michel Bernier Structural engineering: Nicolet, Chartrand, Knoll Ltée Technical drawings and renderings : Plan HB Installation: Formaviva Lighting: Blue Hour Design Photograph : Marc Cramer
