A friend told me a few days ago that she loves Montreal’s Old Port but never goes there in winter. “The wind! The wind is too icy!” Like all Montrealers, she is an expert at finding warmth and streets where the wind doesn’t blow in winter.
It’s true that walks along the waterfront are a little lacking in winter, when they turn into storm corridors. Of course, there are always those who jog along the harbor promenade, and as usual, we admire them greatly.
Last night, for the opening of the Eaux Vives exhibition at Panorama Expérience, warm and cozy upstairs at the Grand Quai, the frozen harbor looked very calm through the large windows. After shivering at the thought of the water temperature, we returned to the exhibition, which focuses on all the beauty that lies beneath the surface.
Eaux Vives—an aquatic life
The Panorama Experience and Infinity Experiences exhibition features four works that explore the seabed in different ways.
The Marshmallow Laser Feast collective projects psychedelic, pixelated videos of the seabed with sound that makes the floor vibrate, allowing us to see through the eyes of whales. In a room next door, there is a guided meditation where we breathe in and out to descend deeper beneath the surface of the sea.
In another screening room, Maxwel Hohn recounts the odyssey of tadpoles in a lake in British Columbia.
The most political work in the exhibition is Entrer en flagrant délit de légender by Maryse Goudreau, which brings together captions from articles and images on the subject of beluga whales. It’s interesting for children, but it’s always sad when animals are mistreated (we still haven’t recovered from the documentary about the orcas at Marineland).
Finally, Mandy Barker’s work, Our Plastic Ocean, is composed of plastic waste gathered into sublime mandalas on canvases with a black background like the bottom of the ocean.
Practical Information
Where? Grand Quai du Port de Montréal,at200 rue de la Commune Ouest
When? Opening on Tuesday, February 24, 2026
What? Tickets start at $17.60 for adults and $10.60 for children— and you can reserve them here!
Enjoy the exhibition!