Stems Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Miart for the ninth consecutive year, presenting a new project by Canadian artist Jannick Deslauriers. This latest work draws inspiration from the iconic fountain in St-Louis Square, Montreal—a historical landmark that has witnessed the city’s shifting cultural, political, and social landscape.
St-Louis Square has long served as a meeting point for literary figures, musicians, and intellectuals, while also being a stage for political expression, including the Québec independence movements and early feminist rallies. Over time, the area has transformed, now also marked by illicit activities such as drug dealing, adding another layer of complexity to its historical significance.
Deslauriers’ project takes the fountain as a point of departure to explore broader themes of social change, containment, and movement. Water, in her work, represents fluidity, transformation, and connection but also control and restriction. This duality is at the heart of her artistic inquiry, where water has historically been a tool for both sustenance and domination—intersecting with themes of colonization, industrialization, and the regulation of bodies and spaces.
For MiArt, Deslauriers reinterprets the St-Louis Square fountain, embedding it with contemporary political and social narratives. The fountain becomes a lens through which to examine today’s global challenges: mass migration, tightening borders, and the resurgence of epidemics. Rather than viewing the fountain solely as a historic monument, she repositions it as a powerful political symbol, reflecting the ways in which power and control have been exercised over populations through the movement—or restriction—of vital resources like water.
The industrial history of the fountain resonates deeply with Deslauriers, recalling large-scale infrastructure projects often linked to colonial expansion and economic exploitation. However, her interpretation extends beyond history, anchoring the fountain in the present. Through her work, she reframes the structure as a poignant emblem of contemporary crises—addressing global migration, the shifting nature of borders, and the inequalities exacerbated by pandemics and climate change.