by CHRISTINE REDFERN

Without further ado:

Best Art Piece: When I think about the most interesting and exciting works I saw this year, I keep coming back to Isabelle Hayeur's site-specific interactive video installation in Champ Libre's exhibition Désert. It maximized the perceptual distortions arising from its location in a long tunnel previously used to remove waste from the Carrières incinerator.

Best Sound: Who could play with Marc Fournel's electronic rubber balls at Oboro and not be highly entertained? Each ball made different sounds so that when the three of them were rolling, bouncing and flying around the space, it made a hell of an appealing racket.

Best Voyeur: The fellow staring out at you from Munich-based artist Alexandra Ranner's Corridor installation (of which he was a part) at Dare-Dare last winter.

Best Move: I'm always interested in art that moves and am even happier when it moves right out of the gallery into the public space. This year, Dare-Dare did one better by moving their whole gallery into the streets and the office into the gold trailer in Viger Square between Berri and St-Denis.

Best Budgets: It's always nice to fantasize about making art with a budget that's above the poverty line. This fall the Musée d'art contemporain let us see two inspiring well-funded examples in the work of Isaac Julien and Matthew Barney. Just think of the creative wonders that would happen if local artists worked with budgets equal to the salary of a grinder NHL player (or even the $10,000 per month union stipend they currently earn while locked-out).

Best Musical: Les Écoutilles: cabaret de fortune! by Nathalie Derome was an excellent piece of rock 'n' roll performance-theatre. With animated projections, singing, dancing and a live band, she metaphorically and humorously compared her ageing body to the social body.

Best Opening: I missed it, but Joyce Yahouda Gallery's Martin Labrie told me about the jam-packed opening of their The Store. What especially intrigued me was the jazz lounge set-up in the crawl space of the Belgo building, where nobody, including the performers, could stand up.

Who's anti-social now?

Best Hypocrite: The Dinner Project by Iwona Majdan was supposed to be about overcoming fear by being trustful and open with people you don't know. Ironically, Majdan wouldn't trust me enough to write about her work, which "explores unscripted moments with strangers," unless I agreed to send her the article before it was published, which, consequently, never was.

Best New Space: Oboro's beautiful New Media Lab. In the new year expect to see more workshops, residencies and events happening there. Programming director Cheryl Sim says, "Its aim is to make equipment and services accessible to independent artists on both a technical and financial level." Take advantage of this great new local resource.

Best Collaboration: The 1917 fantasy opera Parade that I came across in the enlightening retrospective Jean Cocteau: Enfant Terrible at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. For Parade, Cocteau brought together Pablo Picasso to make the sets, Erik Satie to write the score and Leonide Massine to choreograph the Russian Ballet.

Best Herstorical Work: Toronto artist Nina Levitt remembered female WWII spies in her interactive installation Little Breeze at Oboro. Using old film clips, suitcases and the sound of Morse code, she rekindled our memories of these women whose lives usually ended by being shot, tortured, getting a lethal injection or facing a firing squad.

Best Repeat Performance: The last highlight from 2004 is Ondulation by Thomas McIntosh, Emmanuel Madan and Mikko Hynninen, which was presented during Quebec City's Mois Multi Festival last year. The good news is you can experience this installation made of water, sound and light right here in Montreal this coming February at the MAC.

Wishing you all a very merry holiday and a creative and prosperous new year. Ho, ho, ho.