A piece of public art that pays tribute to the short-lived Corridart project of the 1970s now lies at the base of Mount Royal.
The reclining cross was installed Friday at Park and Pine Avenues, near the Convent of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph.
The idea was conceived by Pierre Ayot, and was initially installed in front of McGill University as part of Corridart in 1976.
His widow, Madeleine Forcier, is delighted at the restoration.
"I think he would be very, very happy to see that and I think grateful too, because it will be here for two months," said Forcier.
She is very happy that, although it's not in the same location as the original, it provides the same effect.
"The place is perfect because you can see at the same time the cross on Mt. Royal and this cross [lying] down, and that was the idea," said Forcier.
The original reclining cross was one of 16 large works of art that ran along Sherbrooke St. from the university to the Olympic Stadium, all removed one week after being installed on the order of then-Mayor Jean Drapeau.
At the time, Drapeau called the artworks "indecent" because some of them criticized overspending on the Olympics, while others were declared a threat to public safety.
The artwork was secretly torn down overnight by municipal employees, broken up or sawed apart, and hauled to the municipal dump.
Now, 40 years after the act of censorship, curators planning a tribute to Ayot came up with the idea of recreating the reclining cross. It was an idea that, once again, met with opposition from the mayor's office.
Ayot died in 1995 in a car crash at the age of 51.
After his work was first destroyed he led a court battle seeking compensation for destruction.
Forcier said that Ayot never meant the art to be a commentary on the church, but was rather a reflection of how the Quiet Revolution had altered Quebecers, changing them from people who looked first to the Catholic church for authority to those who had a more secular nature.
"He felt very bad because it was a great project to have this contemporary art on Sherbrooke St.," said Forcier.
Nicolas Mavrikakis and Plateau borough officials spent two years arranging for the construction of a replica of the cross and arranging for a suitable location, where it could be seen in conjunction with the cross atop Mt. Royal.
However in September Mayor Denis Coderre withdrew a $10,000 subsidy, saying the location for the artwork was inappropriate and lacked "social acceptability."
Mother Superior Marie-Therese Laliberté said she did not approve of the artwork appearing next to the convent.
"At this time, as Religious Hospitallers whose congregation is tied to the foundation of this city, we would be very uncomfortable to see this work installed near us, partially blocking buildings that speak to Montreal’s cultural and religious history," she said in a written statement.
But Plateau-Mont Royal councillor Christine Gosselin said the disagreement was blown out of proportion.
"The nuns are really elderly and cool and Mayor Coderre created a problem whre there is none," said Gosselin.
Eventually the nuns living in the convent withdrew their opposition to the artwork, and so the subsidy from the central city was restored -- but refused because in the interim, the Plateau had increased the amount it was donating to the project.
The reclining cross lights up at night, as does the cross that towers above the city on the mountain.
"We've done two years of work to be here today, so we're very happy," said Mavrikakis.
It is scheduled to be in place until Dec. 19, 2016.
