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This article was published 15/2/2016 (1676 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you thought Louis Riel was the face of Manitoba before...

Festival du Voyageur unveiled a remarkable mural portrait of Louis Riel Monday created from tiny submitted photographs of Manitobans.

More than 250 photos appear, each repeated many times, to form the very recognizable face of Riel — a startling mix of dark-and-light photographs to form Riel’s head and shoulders on a bright background.

The weather-protected mural is on the outside wall of Fort Gibraltar, and will stay there throughout Festival.

"We pay homage to Louis Riel," explained Colin Mackie, Festival’s heritage programs manager.

Festival used social media to draw in more than 250 photographs, he said.

There are individuals, there are couples, there are families, there are babies, there are families tobogganing, there are dogs too, even snowpersons.

"We had the idea that Louis Riel Day is family day — it would be a good idea to represent Louis Riel through modern-day Manitobans," Mackie said.

"I had this crazy idea, and they made it happen," he laughed.

Grace Esposito and five-year-old son Zander were delighted to spot their photo scattered throughout the mural.

"Right there! We have to take a picture!" said an exuberant mom, pointing the photo out to Zander.

They decided to send in their photo a couple of weeks ago, she said. "Through Facebook, we follow Festival. We thought it would be pretty cool," Esposito said.

"It’s just me and him. We’re dressed as voyageurs — that was from the French-Canadian pavilion at Folklorama."

Zander, in his first exposure to the paparazzi who swarmed Monday, kept his opinions to himself.

Mackie acknowledged that he had a little help in putting together the mural, which looks like an enormous jigsaw puzzle. There’s software for compiling mosaics, he said.

"It’s completely weatherproof, it’s fairly indestructible," Mackie assured.

And it will be back, and bigger, he said: "It’ll be interesting to grow it over the years."

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca