S5:E8 We are fundamentally social creatures... Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat, Co-founders, Daily tous les jours
Guest
Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat
In conversation with
Stephanie Fortunato
Stephanie Fortunato speaks with Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat of Daily tous les jours about their book Strangers Need Strange Moments Together, participatory urban art, and why moments of shared joy between strangers are essential to building healthy, resilient cities.
Date of Recording
7 July 2025
Date of Publication
31 July 2025
[00:00:00]
Melissa Mongiat: We are fundamentally social creatures, and we forget that. It's not about introvert or extrovert – this often gets kind of intertwined in the conversation about how to bring social back in cities. We are fundamentally social, and we need to be connected with people we don't know to be healthy, and feel alive.
[00:00:19]
THEME MUSIC
[00:00:24]
Stephanie Fortunato: Hello, and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is one of a series brought to you by AEA Consulting for the Global Cultural Districts Network, in which we explore what's happening around the world on those busy, and sometimes congested intersections of cultural and urban life.
I'm your host, Stephanie Fortunato, Director of Special Projects for GCDN. And I'm so excited about today's conversation because it's about what happens when we make space in our cities and our daily routines for surprise, for art, for play, and for each other.
My guests are Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat, co-directors of Montreal-based art and design studio Daily tous les jours. If you've ever seen musical swings that harmonise when strangers use them or crosswalks that sing, you've likely experienced their work, whether you knew it or not. Since the founding in 2010, the studio has become internationally known for its participatory urban art installations that invite people to interact with one another, with their environment, and with themselves in surprising ways.
Their projects are often poetic, playful, and inclusive; reimagining public spaces as sites of encounter, dialogue, and delight. Their practice brings art, storytelling, and technology together in ways that make cities feel a little more alive and a little more connected. Daily tous les jours transforms the everyday into opportunities for shared experience, and they've just published a wonderful new book called Strangers Need Strange Moments Together.
The book weaves together stories of their most iconic projects, philosophical musings on the social role of public art, and a deep commitment to designing for connection in urban life. It's part retrospective, part love letter to city life, and a powerful reminder that joy is a civic value.
[00:02:15]
Stephanie Fortunato: Mouna, Melissa, welcome and thank you so much for being here!
[00:02:18]
Melissa Mongiat: Thank you so much, Stephanie.
[00:02:20]
Mouna Andraos: Thank you.
[00:02:21]
Stephanie Fortunato: I'm so excited to talk to you guys today. I've been a big fan of your work, really, since I first experienced it in Montreal. And I'd love to start with your origin story.
How did the two of you come to work together, and what brought Daily tous les jours into being?
…
About our Guest
Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat, are the co-founders and co-directors of Daily tous les jours, a Montreal-based award-winning art and design studio known for creating large-scale interactive installations that invite public participation. Their work blends storytelling, technology, and design to transform everyday environments into spaces of encounter and collective imagination. +
