Welcome to St-Laurent’s art labyrinth

Trippy, bro. Photo by Owain Harris

So despite this weekend’s shitty weather, the Villa Maria Music and Arts Festival, a fundraiser to help finance an artists’ collective at 1601 St-Laurent, went off successfully. The homes/art spaces, known together as 1601 or the Gold Labyrinth, are a combination of four apartments attached to a maze of fire escapes and abandoned, though recently cleaned up, living spaces. With two performance areas for 11 bands, live graffiti painting, slam poetry and video presentations, the festival kicked off the tenants’ efforts to create a public art space in the atrium of 1601. Cult MTL photographer Owain Harris was on hand to document the happenings.

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