As asked by the building owners, graffiti-artist Memo legally drew a mural on one of the outside walls of Dookies bar on Décarie Boulevard.
(Photo: Jacques Pharand)
Urban signage
In the September 16th edition of the St. Laurent News it was mentioned that there were no place in the borough where it was legal to do graffiti. However, if one desires to have graffiti drawn on its property, he can legally do so. If you want to see an example just go to Dookies resto-bar on Décarie Boulevard.
The Patel family bought the building a little more than a year ago and when they re-opened for business, one of their objectives was to draw a younger clientele. The inside of the bar went through a complete make-over and a graffiti artist was asked to do a large mural on the exterior wall. “People really love it and the youth thinks it’s cool. It’s a new generation of art,” said Marc Patel. The graffiti also illustrates Dookies’ main characteristic as the drawing shows four artists on a stage doing different types of music in front of a crowd. “We wanted a concept that shows we are a show-bar and that we have all kinds of multicultural bands playing,” explained the co-owner.
Before even thinking about doing the mural, the concept needed to be approved by the borough’s urbanism department and the council. Three different designs were submitted and they were all accepted. In the end, it took three weeks for the Patel family to receive their permit.
A graffiti artist named Memo was asked to do the mural, a feat he accomplished in less than a day. “It took me about 6-7 hours to complete it. Many people came to see what I was doing and it was cool. Even the cops stopped by and I was surprised they didn’t say anything,” he said.
More than meets the eyes
Doing murals is more than a hobby for Memo, it’s a part-time job. During the course of a year, he’s able to do a good number of contracts, but according to him the tolerance towards graffiti, whether they’re pretty or not, is diminishing. “For the last two years I’ve been constantly watched while I’m doing murals and it also takes a lot of time to obtain a permit before I can actually start working,” mentioned Memo.
And yet the reason why building owners decide to have a graffiti done on their wall is to embellish them. Marc Patel reminds that before there was a mural on the outside of his bar there was a lot of tags and it looked dirty. He’s also very confident that he won’t see any new tags on his property. “Usually kids respect good looking graffiti, so I’m pretty sure they won’t do any new tags on my bar.”
Vice-President of the Public Security Commission for the City of Montreal Marcel Tremblay agrees with this idea. “We actually need more murals because people who do tags respect that and they won’t tag over them.” However, Mr. Tremblay doesn’t think legal walls could help decrease the number of unwanted graffiti. “When the walls are full they go somewhere else and often in places where it’s very hard for us to clean afterwards, he said. We can’t forget that these people want their drawings to be seen.”
In the eyes of the authorities, the artists and the general public, a major difference lies between a mural and a basic graffiti. In order to eradicate the graffiti problem this message simply has to reach the youth.
(Photo: Jacques Pharand)
Weather: Montreal, July 6th 2008 / 27°C
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