Montreal, and more generally the town of Hochelaga, hides a lot of stories. In partnership with UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) and BAnQ (Banque et Archives nationales du Québec), we've focused on a number of projects exploring the history of Hochelaga. This is an area that has been found in many different forms since it was discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535: an Iroquois village, a working-class neighbourhood and a number of hypothetical locations.

Following a number of meetings, such as Christian Gates-Saint-Pierre (Archaeologist and Professor at the Université de Montréal), Jean-François Palomino (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec) and Benoit Bordeleau (UQAM), we looked at an artistic representation of the different forms of Hochelaga in our "Empreintes" project:

• The first stage represents the mythological creation of the town, a story of Indian origin.
• The second is the discovery by Jacques Cartier.
• Then we have the four hypothetical locations of the situation of historical Hochelaga to conclude with the district existing today.

A tall, slender woman, the mother earth of the town, is marked by the various possible locations in the form of tattoos.

As part of Atelier Laboratoire à Montréal, Idefi Créatic.