Montreal MURAL Fest 2023 Includes A Giant Artwork ON Mount Royal

Popular Montreal festival MURAL will return to the city between June 8 and 18 — and big things are already in the works. On June 5, festival organizers unveiled one of the highlights of the festival: a giant ephemeral fresco by artist Saype on the lawn at the northeast corner of Mount Royal Park.

The biodegradable painting is part of the artist's "Beyond Walls" series, depicting human arms locked in tight embrace. Similar works have appeared in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

"This project," MURAL wrote on social media, "stems from a desire to share a positive message of solidarity and collective effort around the world by symbolically creating the largest human chain ever realized."

It will only be visible on Mount Royal for a "few days."

Also in the MURAL 2023 program is a "reinvention" of the famous "Graffiti Granny."

That mural on the corner of boulevard Saint-Laurent and avenue des Pins by artist production company A’shop has become a fixture since its installation in 2013. Local street and digital artist collective Projet TYXNA will be revisiting the work for the upcoming edition of MURAL. According to a 2022 announcement from the city, Projet TYXNA will preserve Granny's "main character" while "[reinterpreting]" and "[refreshing]" it.

The festival says other large-scale works this year will come from artists OSGEMEOS of Brazil, Cleon Peterson and Lauren YS of the U.S., and Tima of Morocco. A "huge inflatable work" by birdO of Toronto will rise at the MURAL concert grounds.

Spanish artist Isaac Cordal will work on a different scale, setting up "miniature installations." Additional sculpture work will include a piece made from recycled detritus by Portuguese artist Bordalo II, an "impactful metal sculpture" by artist JUNKO, "illusionist works" by Montreal's Roadsworth, and installations by Lithuanian artist Egle Zvirblyte.

Zvirblyte will also create a mural. Other murals will come from artists Kezna Dalz of Montreal, Alex Bacon and Shalak Attack of Toronto.

Information about each artist is on the festival website.

MURAL will once again include a pedestrianized boulevard Saint-Laurent between rue Sherbrooke and avenue Mont-Royal, and free shows on a stage near the Saint-Laurent intersection with rue Milton. New this year is a second stage with paid shows in the Mile End.

The complete program is online.