CCA wants your ideas for how to replace the John A. Macdonald statue in Montreal

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) has put out a call for proposals for After Macdonald, a project that addresses the empty plinth in Montreal’s Place du Canada, where a statue of John A. Macdonald once stood. The toppling of the statue during a Defund the Police protest in 2020 raised questions about replacing the structure or adding elements to the site that would provide context for a memorial of Canada’s first prime minister. Among Macdonald’s racist acts are the conception of residential schools for Indigenous children as well as the Chinese head tax.

The CCA launched this appeal as part of a special edition of their CCA Charrette project, titled After Macdonald, which is open to students enrolled in any university around the world, as well as recent graduates. The registration period runs until Nov. 11 at 3 p.m. and the submission deadline is Nov. 15 at 11 a.m. A launch event will also be taking place on Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m.

“Interventions can speak to Macdonald’s legacy in particular or to issues around racial justice more broadly, and can employ architectural approaches including time-based and performance media. Proposals must consider the positionality of the team: how do you justify your intervention? For whom do you claim to speak?”

This year, we're launching a special edition of the #CCACharrette. We invite proposals that address the emptied plinth of the #Macdonaldmonument and/or the site around it, and to challenge the idea of permanence and public memory. Find out more: https://t.co/HrBFJAWZZ2 pic.twitter.com/n5phXcfR78

— CCA, Canadian Centre for Architecture (@ccawire) November 1, 2021

Participants are asked to form teams of two to five people (for undergraduate students) or two to three people (for graduate level students and recent graduates).

For more on After Macdonald, please visit the CCA Charrette website.

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