Roger Langevin studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, then earned a degree in visual arts education at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He was a professor of visual arts from 1963 to 1975. He created a number of monumental sculptures, including, in 1981, Monument aux travailleurs, a permanent artwork for the front of the head office of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, on Avenue De Lorimier in Montréal. One of his bronze sculptures, Nos traces en héritage (1989), is installed at the Centre de la nature de Laval.
Artwork description
Entitled Train de vies, the work depicts human beings interacting in dialogue on or around a bench. Arranged longitudinally, these dyads, which are both independent and linked by theme, unfold as if they were, temporally, a sequence of lives (the same bench captured at different moments) or, spatially, scenes taking place simultaneously, reflecting both the uniqueness of human beings and their similarity, their interdependence, just as the passengers on a train occupying different carriages are interdependent.
In a world increasingly determined by new technologies, the depth of human relationships and the strength of the social fabric appear essential to protect against certain phenomena of isolation and anxiety. To make this an open and intergenerational sculptural subject, it is necessary to capture the immediacy of these exchanges between two people while transcending the purely external, anecdotal aspect to also convey the inner life, the essence (and meaning) of human relationships.
Although the benches are not physically connected to each other as train cars would be, they are linked by their common theme: exchange, communication established between a diversity of individuals whose personalities are assertive and anything but anonymous. In this context, this humanistic work is a formal nod to the history of the Angus Shops and the urban diversity that characterizes the Angus Technopole today, where all kinds of uses coexist; a space where professional and personal life projects intersect to make it one of the most innovative, peaceful, and dynamic neighborhoods in the city.



