Installed in plant beds along Promenade Camille-Laurin, the Sporophores sculptures are related to the urban infrastructure from which they seem to emerge. The 12 human-scale organic tubular forms, presented alone or in pairs, twist and curl around themselves, linking the site’s industrial and railway past to its new landscaping. In the plant world, sporophores are the visible part of mushrooms – the fruits of the mycelium. The vegetative apparatus of mushrooms, the mycelium branches out underground to form complex distribution webs and create a mutual-aid community among various living organisms. The sculptures standing on the site neighbouring the new Université de Montréal science complex take inspiration from these organic intercommunicating networks.

The creation of the artwork Sporophores for Promenade Camille Laurin falls within the context of the MIL Montréal campus project (Campus Outremont and its environs), an urban requalification project located south of the former Outremont marshalling yard. The integration of public art into this area is provided for in the planning document Lignes directrices d’aménagement du domaine public du site Outremont et ses abords.