Embroidering the City in Ontario: a project by the ERd'O company, in partnership with the Alliance française d'Ottawa and the Institut français

Published on 30 July 2025

Illustration
1er Atelier d'écriture sur nos peurs à l'Alliance Française d'Ottawa Nous commençons par un questionnaire, déclencheur de la rencontre. | © Edith Amsellem - cie ERd'O

Broder la Ville is a participatory street art intervention by the ERd'O company. The project took place in July 2025 with the support of the French Institute's IF Export program.

As part of a series of writing workshops, the ERd'O company invites groups of people to question their relationship with fear, in order to draw up a subjective and poetic inventory. Together, the participants choose phrases from these workshops, and come to embroider them with red wool thread on wefts present in the city (wire mesh, fences, barriers, street furniture...).

The idea is to claim intimacy in the public space and to make the poetry of a phrase vibrate in a particular place. Broder la Ville en Ontario took place in July 2025 in partnership with the Alliance française d'Ottawa, the MIFO (Mouvement d'Implication Franophone d'Orléans), the Maison de la Francophonie d'Ottawa; and with the support of the Institut français and the French Embassy in Canada.


A project supported by IF Export

The project is supported by the French Institute's IF Export program. IF Export accompanies French or France-based creators and cultural partners internationally, for projects involving distribution, cooperation or presence at major prescriptor events.

IF Export

  • Architecture
  • Visual Arts / Photography
  • Digital creation
  • Crafts / Design
  • Performing arts / Music

IF Export provides international support for French or French-based creators and cultural partners, for projects involving distribution, cooperation or presence at major prescriptor events.

On the same theme

Read also

IF Export: interview with curatorial duo d-o-t-s

Presented at the Bridderhaus, Esch-sur-Alzette, from June 28 to September 14, 2025, the exhibition Earthbound. Worms, Soil, Decay transformed Luxembourg's art center into a veritable living laboratory...

11 December 2025

A look back at the Livres des deux rives residency with Ahmed El Falah and Mustapha Benfodil

In residence at the Cité internationale de la langue française from September 15 to October 19, 2025, as part of the Livres des deux rives program piloted by the Institut français, authors Ahmed El...

10 December 2025

Novembre Numérique: a look back at a month of programming around the world

The 9ᵉ edition of Novembre Numérique has just come to a close, having enlivened more than 60 countries and 135 cities around the world throughout the month of November. Another rich and inspiring...

10 December 2025