It began as an abandoned city lot on Ste-Catherine and Panet, in the Gay Village. On World AIDS Day 1991, members of the AIDS activist group Act Up Montreal tied 1,200 black ribbons in the trees as a memorial to the people who had died of of the disease in Quebec. The next year, the group put up a sign, which imitated an official park sign, dedicating the city-owned lot as an AIDS memorial.
Over the following years, photographs, candles, flowers, toys and ribbons were left in the unofficial memorial site to celebrate the lives and mourn the deaths of those affected by AIDS. The park was officially inaugurated in 1996 as Parc de l’Espoir. However, it is no longer technically a public place: the city also sold the space to the owners of an adjacent hotel.
The park is divided into two spaces: streetside, the design employs cold polished black granite and concrete to commemorate the dead, while further back, a more natural space, with trees and park benches, represents the realm of the living.
A 1997 article in the Gazette criticized the park for perpetuating a gap in the Ste-Catherine streetscape. It also pointed out, with a somewhat suspicious level of precision, that the space could have just as easily been custom designed for drug dealing:
“The front is a hangout for the sellers and a convenient car drop-off point for buyers arriving from all over the city. The back is used as a waiting room, for discreet but intense haggling, and for quick handoffs.”
The Gazette article concludes somewhat snarkily:
“…the perception of AIDS is changing. Protease inhibitors and combination therapies have been remarkably effective, giving a more hopeful outlook to those living with HIV… The new park, with its corny name and temperate image, fits today’s cautious optimism about the disease and its effects.“
Perceptions aside, 12 years later AIDS remains uncurable or even easily manageable, as a current photography exhibit, Per7eption, testifies.