by CHRISTINE REDFERN

The following list of happenings is pretty much free and often, during openings and events, involves free food and/or cheap drinks, not to mention a heapin' helpin' of good art. So what are you waiting for?

Diane Landry wants you to lift up the covers and discover what's taking place in the three beds she has installed at Oboro. But don't expect any messy sheets or sexy action, for these electronic audio and video installations evoke, says programming director Cheryl Sim, "undercover moments of the non-human kind." It opens on Sept. 17. The mechanical pleasure at Oboro picks up again from Nov. 5-Dec. 11, when Chicago artist Sabrina Raaf installs five of her large automated robotic sculptures.

From Sept. 22-24, Champ Libre presents a series of night-time projections outside on the side of the new Grande Bibliothèque. This event is conceived as a bit of a warm-up for next year's biennial Invisible City that will also take place in and around the library. Check out works that illuminate ideas surrounding architecture and the city by, among others, François Girard, Nelson Henriks and Thomas Kroner (winner of the Ars Electronica Prize, 2004).

DARE-DARE's art festival Périmètre starts Sept. 29 and runs until Oct. 2 in Viger Square. Everyday there will be interventions, installations and performances that reflect the architecture, traffic and history of this urban space. While each night, a multidisciplinary concert will take place on the stage located in the centre of the square's fountain. Depending on when you pass by, you may see Noeli tending her flock of chickens, Olivier Grossetête building and then destroying some monumental cardboard architecture, or Pascale Malaterre and Jimmy Lakatos performing their poetic sound-and-light multimedia collaboration.

Sense and the city

At the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Sense of the City, which opens Oct. 26, explores some common city experiences involving sounds, smells, garbage, asphalt and graffiti. There's also a free lecture series where you can hear Jim Drobnick talk about Guarded Breaths: Art and Smell in the [cough] Metropolis. For a complete list of dates and topics, see www.cca.qc.ca.

Yes, the city is the big star this fall. The Musée d'art contemporain also jumps in with its examination of the urban environment with Urban Territories, opening Oct. 7. The exhibition brings together photographs and videos by Christian Barré, Martin Désilets, Isabelle Hayeur, Emmanuelle Léonard, Pavel Pavlov and Myriam Yates.

Clark presents Apocalypse Poof 2 - The Poof Strikes Back an evening of XXX amusements on Sept. 22. Host Jim Hollands shows his super8 film - a meditation upon animal abuse, fat gay men and the entertainment industry - alongside eight other spicy (film) shorts.

There are more arty flicks from the the MMFA's Art Film Matinees series every Sunday until Oct. 9. The matinees showcase the winning art films from last year's FIFA festival (info: www.artfifa.com). The MAC launches a new projections series with Jean-Luc Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma - Moments choisis showing until Oct. 2. The series continues from Oct. 5-Nov. 6 with three works from faraway places by Fikret Atay (Turkey), Yang Fudong (China) and Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba (Vietnam). Info: www.macm.org.

Meet the artist Alexandre Castonguay on Wed. Sept. 21 at 5:30 p.m. for the opening of his new exhibition Elements at the MAC. On Oct. 1, Studio 303 presents Full Time at the Belgo, a site-specific project conceived by Lin Snelling. Inspiring and disturbing performances involving dances, stories and images will happen throughout the Belgo building (372 Ste-Catherine W). Join the artists for lunch and discussion from 12:30-1:45pm. Finally, Tracey Moffatt's exhibition is on view until Dec. 4 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Hear Mois de la photo curator Martha Langford talk about this photographic oeuvre on Nov. 16 at 6 p.m.

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