International Students @ Concordia

Of Art, History and Travel: In Memory of Giovanni De Min

October in Montreal is all transitions. Leafs change, the wind whistles and people start feeling the cold. It’s also the beginning of the semester for students, perfect for travel before the winter and exams scares us from the roads. Or at least, this is how I convinced my friend from New York to come visit me.

I hadn’t seen her in four years. We were finally sitting down having coffee together. Maybe it wasn’t as good as Italian espressos but… va be’, they still passed. I asked her to remind me some of our experiences we shared in Florence, Italy.

She laughed at me, as if it weren’t more obvious: “Not Florence! You convinced me to take a train with you all the way up to that little old town near Venice to see that one church where your ancestor had painted a fresco… what was the name again?” she asked. “Mirano remember? And not Milano” I replied.

The adventure was about uncovering my Italian roots. I wanted to find out how my ancestor had been remembered as an artist, and perhaps instead of reading about him in the two books that I found in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, stepping out and going to witness one of his works, with my own eyes.

***

Art, history and travel brought us together in Florence at Lorenzo de Medici University. While Cinzia was taking a course on Dante’s Divine Comedy, I was taking Art History. We have Italian roots so every week-end we made trips around Tuscany. The farthest we went was Mirano, the town were I found out my ancestor Giovanni De Min had painted “the Last Judgement,” a fresco of the 19th century at the Parish of St. Michel.

Four years ago, it was around this time in October that I had to do a research project for my Art History class. When looking for topics to explore, I called my grandmother and told her, she said, “Why don’t you look more into De Min’s works?” I was 18. I was learning Italian. I was in “The Birthplace of Art.” There was no excuse.

I was going to one place, to see one painting from one of my ancestors. “Travel in a way redefines our identities, uncovers our histories, and displaces our realities,” I told Cinzia. But I realized I had forgotten this passion. But holding the paper now, it was hard to begin reading. Anger went through my mind. I wrote it on November 23rd, 2004. Four years ago, and I hadn’t done anything but to keep it safe with me.

Giovanni De Min (1786-1859). This is the piece of information I took with me to the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze. Two books were given to me written about him. Although Spanish makes Italian an easier language to understand, it was still a challenge to read in Italian, to digest the information and translate it into English for my investigation. For four months, this is what I concentrated on.

From Giovanni Paludetti’s book entitled “Giovanni De Min” published in 1959, a century passed after anything was written about him. My first questions were: if he was a good artist, how come he was forgotten through history? From the book by Giuliano Dal Mas “Giovanni De Min 1786-1859” published in 1992, the president of the province of Belluno said that he was “a man and an artist to which finally, even if late, justice was paid.” And justice for me is writing about him.

My professor Lucia Giardino, said in class that the purpose of Art History was to analyze artwork by its context in order to better understand its significance. Is Art History the history of historians that have written about artists?

In “History of my life 1966-1971” Casanova said: “Everything in the world that is famous and beautiful, if we rely on the descriptions and drawings of writers and artists, always loses when we go to see it and examine it up close.” This quote convinced me to go hunting and take a look at one of my ancestor’s works.

***

“Remember the guy that let us into the church?” Cinzia said. It was getting dark in the afternoon. The front doors were closed. In the Veneto Italian dialect, a man was trying to tell us that the church was undergoing reparations. I replied that I was related to Giovanni De Min and that today was my only chance to see his only and main work in this church. He understood how much this meant to me as he looked into my eyes. He knew I was about to cry.

So he let us in.

To the right was the altar; to the left, the organ at the back. But when I looked up, there it was: the fresco. It covered the entire ceiling of the church, his “Giudizio Universale.” The man passed beside me “Grazie, lo giuro, grazie mille,” I said. And he left with a smile, not knowing how much he changed my life by opening up those doors.

In my research paper, I wrote: “The work of an artist has a life of its own: it puts together the artist that’s creating with hands (GDM), and the artist that is creating meaning through the eyes (the viewer)” in other words, I wrote that “the beauty of art is not that it was created in the past, but that it is created in the present. That is why art is eternal.”

“So why don’t you publish your work now?” Cinzia said.

I never thought about that. After four years, all I want to do now is go back and see the man that opened the doors for me again. And with a better Italian, ask him for his name and start from there.

Concordia’s Sustainability ambassadors

Sometimes, even the small stuff—reducing bottled water usage or daily paper consumption—can make a big difference in creating a greener work environment.

That’s part of the mandate of the Sustainable Ambassador Program, one of Sustainable Concordia’s initiatives. The program, launched in 2006, recruits Concordia faculty members and staff to promote and encourage environmentally sound actions and attitudes in the workplace.

Sustainable Ambassadors

Coordinator Jonathan De Luca explains that the ambassadors review and audit their departments and recommend ways to implement greener habits. “For example, if people are using bottled water, the office managers can install water filters on the taps instead,” De Luca says. “They can add motion detectors to light switches in kitchens or other common areas, so the lights don’t have to always remain on. Or they can encourage using recycled paper and both sides of a sheet paper.”

The ambassadors also meet regularly during lunch hours at the Concordia Greenhouse atop the Henry F. Hall Building to brainstorm and exchange strategies. “It’s an informal network and a great way to get involved,” De Luca says.

About 35 Concordia faculty members and staff now serve as sustainable ambassadors, and De Luca hopes to eventually enlist representatives from every University office across both campuses.

The Sustainability Ambassadors website (sustainable.concordia.ca/ourinitiatives/ambassadors) also highlights examples of how Concordia faculty members and staff are going green. For instance, Concordia participated in the Défi-Climat Campaign, a four-week, Montreal area-wide drive launched March 20 on International Earth Day.

institutions to encourage employees to reduce greenhouse gases, in ways that included biking or walking to work and lowering the thermostat in winter. Another initiative is Greeniits, a sustainability committee created within Concordia’s Instructional and Information Technology Services department whose website, greeniits.pbwiki.com, lists sustainability strategies.

Others at the University are also leading by example: John Molson School of Business Dean Sanjay Sharma consults on corporate sustainability for several large companies and international organizations, such as the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation; Peter Bolla, Associate Vice-President of Facilities Management, is committed to increasing the Quebec-produced food products he consumes.

“Sustainability is not only about rethinking actions but also about building a community and making decisions that will be more ecological,” De Luca says. “Our goal is to get more professors involved because they can influence the students and, therefore, they can promote change.”

(Previously published in The Concordia Magazine)

Concordia’s Growing Greenhouse

It’s easy to get lost on your way to the Concordia Greenhouse. There are few signs, and the Henry F. Hall Building rooftop site is beyond the reach of the elevators that stop at the 12th floor. But once you climb the final flight of stairs, you discover “a green oasis in an urban jungle,” as the Greenhouse promotes itself.

The Concordia Greenhouse, run by Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning and Environment and Sustainable Concordia, opened in 2006 as a site to compost the Hall Building cafeteria and cafe’s organic waste and to conduct research and promote education on sustainable horticulture.

On-site manager Mark Kwiatkowski, BSc (biol.) 75, says the Greenhouse aims to eventually become self-sufficient by growing and selling plants. He displays an Opuntia cactus, the sole survivor of the old greenhouse, built in the 1960s but unused after the Department of Biology moved to the Loyola Campus in 2003. This plant, he explains, is actually the replanted tip of an older cactus. “In April, the cactus will be two years old,” he says.

Heather Wray is research coordinator for the Montreal ecological development and integrative design firm Ensemble Terre-Ciel, which rents a space at the Greenhouse. The results from Wray’s research on the use of cold frames covered with glass that function as mini greenhouses, will be incorporated into the Maison Productive House, a project that promotes urban agriculture. Gillian Jackson, a volunteer and McGill School of Environment student, explains that she is researching the frames’ uses for urban agriculture in cold climates. Another experiment is to grow plants vertically on the walls. Says Jackson: “I look at the city differently now. I see all these flat rooftops and think, ‘You can have a garden up there.’ ”

For more information: sustainable.concordia.ca/ ourinitiatives/greenhouse

(Previously published in The Concordia Magazine)