Team MASS Design Group

Images of the design concept

Team members

MASS Design Group, architecture, landscape architecture and urban design
Stephen Andrews, artist

Design intent

A Glass Bowl

Though our stories, traumas and triumphs are myriad we all share the rite of passage of coming out. Our vision combines the intimacy of a singular portal, as a place of transition - where we move from who we were, who we are, and who we can become. Enter the sunken garden where those who endured the purge are honored - their names inscribed in glass. A curtain of water honors tears of sorrow and joy. The mosaic flows into a ramp that becomes a gathering space, a stage and a venue for reflection, activism, and celebration.

In circling back, the path leads you to participate in reclaiming our narrative and encourage others on their journeys. Here, individuals may add to the mosaic with “tiles” of their own. Piece by piece, this surface becomes the story, and moves our collective identity forward.

Transcript

Transcript of 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument Team MASS Design Group video

Video length: 1:31 minutes

The visual elements are still and animated renderings, video images and news footage.

There are multiple narrators and they are not identified.

Various voices repeating: “I need to tell you something”

[Text on screen:“Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression.” Jane Rule, Writer

[Images of northern lights and trees against a night sky]

Various voices repeating: “I need to tell you something”

[Video footage of military marching in an urban setting, military vehicles, police arrests, a polygraph test, persons looking at computer screens, a close-up of an eye]

Narrator’s voice: “We were once considered a threat to national security and systematically purged, removed from our positions of power and authority. Through interrogation and surveillance, our identities were exposed and our private lives revealed.”

[News footage of protests, processions, parades]

Narrator’s voice: “We demonstrated, we marched, and we reclaimed our reveal: a procession that continues to celebrate our strength, diversity, and solidarity.”

[Animated nighttime and daytime renderings of a procession for the departure point of the Ottawa Pride Parade to the Monument site]

Narrator’s voice: “This is a story of procession and gathering.”

[Animated rendering of the approach to the Monument site from the east showing a long curved bench, a beach and main monument elements in the background]

[Text on screen:The Garden]

Narrator’s voice: “It is the story of the individual and of the collective.”

[Animated rendering of the back of the long curved bench, which is inscribed with educational content. The beach and main monument elements are also visible]

[Animated rendering of people looking at the educational component]

Various voices: “I am, together, we are.”

[Animated rendering of the approach to the main monument element with an opening in the monument wall that is surrounded by a waterfall]

[Animated rendering of The Portal, an opening in the monument wall that is surrounded by a waterfall]

[Text on screen: The Portal]

Narrators’ voice: “The weeping curtain surrounds the portal that represents the journey between who we were, to who we are, to who we can become.”

[Close-up image of multi-coloured mosaic tiles]

Narrator’s voice: “Individual tiles assemble to create an image of the cosmos.”

[Animated renderings of the interior of an amphitheater-like structure with lighting]

[Text on screen:The Stage]

Narrator’s voice: “Like the mosaic we are all small parts of something greater. Though our traumas and triumphs are myriad, we share a rite of passage”

[Animated renderings of outside views of the amphitheatre, The Bowl]

[Text on screen:The Bowl]

Narrator’s voice: “Coming out—articulated as a glass bowl. A faceted place, which holds, expresses, reveals and shares our emotions.”

[Animated renderings of the interior of the portal, with water cascading on each side]

Narrator’s voice: “Transforming tears of despair into tears of joy.”

[Animated renderings of the interior of long curved bench adorned with mosaics and the beach, including joyful processions]

[Text on screen:The Beach]

Narrator’s voice: “The bowl allows us to circle back, offering new opportunities for reflection, celebration, and ceremony.”

[Animated rendering of a person adding her own mosaic pieces to the long curved bench, a close-up of the bench being filled with individual mosaic pieces]

Narrator’s voice: “All are invited to add to the mosaic, an extension of the bowl inviting you, To leave behind a piece of your own journey and identity.”

[Animated overhead view zooming out of the Monument site]

[Text on screen: A Glass Bowl, Un cirque de verre]