Designers in a Dangerous Time

New UQAM Retrospective Profiles Student-Strike Artists

Fringe ArtsMargaux Loper — Published November 27, 2012

For some, though, the strikes were a chance to get creative.

The École de la montagne rouge was an initiative primarily started by students studying design at the Université du Québec à Montréal, looking to leave behind an alternative, more artistic trace of
the past year.

Not only did this group stand against the increase in tuition fees, it also expressed a desire to stir broader debates and questions about the education system in Quebec.

It produced a number of graphic designs and artifacts that gave a voice and a visual to the student protests; now, long after the end of the printemps érable, those art works are on display at UQAM as part of Création en temps de crise sociale!

Guillaume Lépine, one of the co-founders of the École, sees the show as a means of giving the ideas and the artistic community that sprang up during the protest a venue to be seen in retrospect.
“Since the École de la montagne rouge has closed its doors, the exhibition takes place to form an overview and commemorate of all the work that has been done during the protests, so that they won’t sink into oblivion,” explained Lépine.

The name for the group echoes that of Black Mountain College, an American alternative art school founded in the 1940s, but with an added touch of red, from the red square, a symbol of the Quebec student movement since 2004 meant to signify both a certain revolutionary aspect and the colour of debt—student debt.

“We inspired ourselves from the Black Mountain College to pay tribute to what they’ve done and create our own community through our school. [It’s] a collaboration among students helping each other without portraying teachers as possessors of knowledge but as guides in our research,” said Lépine.

The student strikes carried with them an atmosphere of consciousness-raising urgency that led the members of the École de la montagne rouge to understand the importance of mobilization—no matter what form it took.

“Visual communication concretizes abstract ideas and increases their existence,” Lépine said. “Any combat should exploit this visual power.”

Their designs and artistic works have become symbols of this social and political uprising and helped the movement grow larger and stronger—giving a simple and direct materialization of the ideas rendered in this cause.

“Is what we do engaged art or engaged design? I don’t know; we would rather leave this open to interpretation.”
—Guillame Lépine, Co-Founder of L’École de la Montagne Rouge

But it wasn’t as simple as that, initially; the student strikes and their participation in the movement led the students to question what the role of graphic designers should be in our society.

Lépine noticed that there weren’t many groups of graphic designers in Quebec before them that worked in a context of social and political struggle, strikes or syndicated movements. But this politically charged period in Quebec’s history led them to, through their work, serve a more ideological purpose.

Their images and slogans, for instance, echoed another famous moment of social upheaval: the widespread student protests in France in 1968, which featured iconic images and slogans like “Be realistic, demand the impossible” and “It is forbidden to forbid.”

“The impact of the images and slogans of May 1968 […] greatly inspired us,” said Lépine. “It was somewhat inevitable, because it leads to a direct, graphic and simple communication with people.”

However, the members of the École de la montagne rouge did not seek through their work some sort of historical recognition—nor follow any particular traditions.

“It is not our role to judge if whether or not we fall into a historical context,” Lépine said. “We created compositions believing in this social movement, in dedication to the cause.”

When talking about their achievements, the members of the École prefer referring to them as works or images rather than creations. As students in graphic design, their goal was primarily to establish a strong visual communication through the use of concrete images and symbols in order to strengthen an abstract ideology.

Lépine explained that their group had many discussions on the nature of their work when it came to their design backgrounds.

“Is what we do engaged art or engaged design?” he asked. “I don’t know; we would rather leave this open to interpretation.”

That wasn’t the only thing that was left up to the viewer. Most of the artists remained anonymous, so the group’s work remained about the work and not about the creators.

“We didn’t want people joining the group just so they could have their names published somewhere,” Lépine said. “Most of the posters weren’t even signed.”

That spirit remains in Création en temps de crise sociale, as well.

“We wanted to document our productions in order to constitute an anthology, but it was never to launch a career. These works were created for purely ideological purposes.”

Création en temps de crise sociale / Until Dec. 9 / Centre de design de l’UQAM (1440 Sanguinet St.) / Free / centrededesign.uqam.ca