Located on the ruins of the Expo ‘67 Place Des Nations pavilion at Ile Ste-Helene, the Island Studies Center is a research institution focusing on the study of Islands; specifically; how storytelling relates to the geography, history, culture and society of islands. It is composed of five main programmatic elements: research center, library, archive, gallery and theatre.
Chorography is the study of place related to experience, rather than mere observation - of establishing relationships, rather than accumulating facts, engaging a multiplicity of narrative perspectives. This implies a shifting balance in the interpretation of a place. The meaning of place shifts from each new perspective, with every season, for each inhabitant. Place invites new understandings, it is dynamic, imbued with life.
In studying the most notable events in the history if Ile Ste-Helene, which has been the site of army barracks, a POW camp, and most notably Expo ‘67, I was struck with how its narrative is related to its island-ness. Remote, yet constantly visible from the Montreal shoreline, its distinctiveness has always accommodated the unconventional. This critical relationship between geography and history became the basis of this project’s program.
The island represents a shift in perspective with respect to time and experience, it lies beyond the conventional within the intangible environment of the liminal. The island increases our awareness of time, since the journey there and back increases our awareness of the beginning and the end of our stay. As we travel to the island, an act which is necessarily intentional, we prepare ourselves to step outside of our every day experience. We see where we came from in a new light when we return.
An island has no absolute defining scale, it is defined relatively, in relation to the mainland, which is also an island, and thus in relation to the visitor’s unique perspective.
On an island we are simultaneously protected within our insularity and exposed to the surrounding elements - a delicate balance of self sufficiency and vulnerability. Island nations represent some of the most fragile cultures and ecosystems on earth.
2010
