Gilbert Boyer’s in situ intervention is composed of five granite disks set in the ground beside paths in Mount Royal Park. Engraved on the disks are bits of conversations heard in the park by the artist.

The natural environment of Mount Royal, situated within the heart of the city, the familiar discussions to which it gives rise, and the strolls for which it is the setting are thus represented by what may be thought of as a tribute to the way that Montréalers experience their “mountain.”

Viewers who discover La montagne des jours by chance as they walk can freely appropriate the words that the artwork has engraved in the ground – the memories, feelings, and thoughts that it evokes. In fact, Boyer thinks of his work as an act of sharing. “From the spring thaw to the first snows of winter, the poetic dialogues on the granite disks recount the daily life of Montreal and converse with everyone.” – Gilbert Boyer, 1995. 1

1. Letter from Boyer to Hélène Thibodeau of the Public Art Bureau (our translation).

The artwork, originally meant to be temporary, was created and installed for the Cent jours d’art contemporain in 1991. The event, organized by the Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal with the theme “Art and the Public Space” and held from 15 August to 3 November, was intended to “indicate new sites of intervention where artists could produce works for public consumption” (Claude Gosselin, 1991).1 The Ville de Montréal acquired the artwork in 1996. 1. Quoted in Claire Gravel, “Les cent jours d’art contemporain et le défi de l’œuvre dans l’espace public,” Vie des Arts, Vol. 36, No. 144 (1991), 16–19 (our translation).