by CHRISTINE REDFERN

The last time I had a chance to see Milutin Gubash’s videos in Montreal was when he was part of a group show called Télétaxi in 2005. The only problem was that I couldn’t get the taxi that contained the exhibition to pick me up. In 2007, it will be much easier to see this Calgary-born, now Montreal-based artist’s work: He will be occupying the downstairs projection room at the Musée d’art contemporain from Jan. 24–March 4.

I finally saw the video I missed in the taxi. The film circles deliriously around two people passionately kissing on a rooftop. Then the camera angle changes and reveals, not some high-end film equipment, but instead Gubash’s mother driving a car around them in a circle while his father shoots the scene on an antiquated Russian camera with a little hand crank. It is very humorous.

“I’m interested in putting things together that really aren’t supposed to go together,” says Gubash. “In a small way, that has to do with looking at who is around me and what is around me and trying to transform what exists. My mother, my father, my partner, my little girl and my friends, including my oldest friend from childhood, are in my work. But everything is extra or enhanced, transformed in a way that we don’t tend to think about in our common daily lives.”

There will be approximately an hour and a half of video material, comprised of very short works that are self-sufficient on their own, but connected to each other. Accompanying this work is a series of “false commercials,” ads Gubash has made that are condensed versions of the actions from the videos. They will be airing on TVA during the run of the exhibition.

Other spots to catch Gubash in ’07: a solo show at Toronto’s YYZ gallery and Images Festival, a group show in Paris, a book project to be published by Quebec City’s VU in the fall and a live performance, with invited guests Women With Kitchen Appliances at the museum on March 3 as part of Nuit Blanche.