How is it that a Canadian couple breeze into Guadalajara for a one-week visit, are initially overwhelmed by this buzzing city, but end up staying for two months and canceling their around-the-world travel plans so they can embark on an artistic project aimed at humanizing the people who sell gum and wash windows on city streets, and then miraculously manage to get their project exhibited in a coveted public venue?
Perhaps it was a combination of Marilene Blain-Sabourin and Louis-Philippe Levesque’s youth, idealism, sincerity and talent that explains the fairy-tale dimensions of their Guadalajara sojourn. And their saga took yet another unusual twist as they were set to exit the city on the very day they were interviewed for this story, with no plans to return, leaving behind a striking display of photos and poetry in the pedestrian mall of Avenida Chapultepec along with fond memories in the minds of the humble people they courted for their project.
“When we first arrived, the city was too much for us, but then we started walking in the streets and feeling the smiles of the people who work here,” explained Blain-Sabourin. “They wash cars, sell Telcel cards or flowers or matches. We want ordinary citizens to take the time to talk to them. We want to create more human contact among people. The people on the streets made it a beautiful experience here.”
Inspired by the street workers, many of them children, Blain-Sabourin and Levesque assembled a small team that included a poet, a social worker and photographers. They began to cook up their project, soon meeting Guadalajara cultural official Sandra Carvajal, who invited them to show it in the beautified median of Avenida Chapultepec.“When Sandra proposed that we display our project in such a prime spot, we were speechless,” Levesque said.
“And when the subjects of our photos came and saw these big pictures of themselves displayed on the street, it was amazing,” added Blain-Sabourin. Behind the pictures are maps, showing the viewer exactly where the people work.
“When passersby see the project, I can tell they are thinking and asking themselves questions,” Levesque said.
The display, entitled “Tacto Urbano” [Urban Touch] is part of the couple’s larger project, named “iti” — the first letters of the word itinerants.
“The people who work in the streets try hard to make a living,” Levesque stressed.
Although Blain-Sabourin and Levesque are headed back to Montreal to work on commercial projects (he is an event coordinator and she does interior design and architecture), they plan to continue iti in Montreal and Paris.
“It was a beautiful experience here,” said Blain-Sabourin.
“Tacto Urbano” will be displayed in the median of Avenida Chapultepec (near cross streets Pedro Moreno and Vallarta) until the end of April. See http://glober.tv/en_CA/blog/2012/03/iti-project-an-urban-gathering/48/ or www.facebook.com/itiproject or www.ulule.com/iti-guadalajara. Part of the exhibit also shows nearby at Darjeeling Casa Morelos, a cultural center and tea house at Morelos 1491 near Progreso, (33) 3330-1512. Open 1–11 p.m.