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Expo fever
AIRY ARCHITECTURE: Pneuma by Peter Hasdell and Patrick Harrop
Just outside the Jean-Drapeau metro, I spotted two gals dressed in Expo 67 uniforms—think pillbox hat and an above-the-knee skirtsuit in baby blue—and for just a split second, I thought I had stumbled upon a performance that was part of Artefact Montréal 2007. It wasn’t, but I was soon on the right trail, map in hand, looking at temporary and site-specific installations by 20 artists from five continents, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1967 World Fair.
There are some definite highlights. Diane Borsato’s photograph, hanging over the entrance of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, of two girls and a huge snowball is a nice play on the differences we encounter depending on our gender and the seasons. Caroline Hayeur’s photographs of Shanghai preparing for their upcoming World’s Fair in 2010, juxtaposed with construction pictures of Montreal preparing for Expo 67, is the strongest work in the show. Mathieu Beauséjour’s maze for cruising pick-ups is great fun for young and old alike—when I was there, two boys were climbing all over it in a mad game of tag. Catherine Bolduc’s door on a hillside is irresistible, and BGL caught me off guard again with their, as always, hilarious work. Artefact Montréal 2007, located on Île Ste-Hélène, runs until Sept. 30.
by CHRISTINE REDFERN
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Intense introspection!
VALERIE’S VESPER: Poetry + music
Valerie Khayat’s honed her songwriting and poetry skills on an eclectic range of Montreal stages in recent years, from Catcall to Coco Café, and has found an enthusiastic audience for her intense brand of introspection. Her latest project is The Road to Vesper, a debut collection of poems ranging in form from soliloquies to letters.
“Originally, I didn’t set out to write a book, but rather began actively recording different states of emotion and thoughts about a specific experience I was living,” Khayat says. “I have always been deeply interested in exploring and understanding emotions in myself and in others.”
She’s launching Vesper with a live staging of the poetry, featuring a musical score by Kris Mah and a unique visual concept. “It seemed like a natural extension to have a dimension of performance to it,” Khayat says. Tonight Thursday, July 12, at O Patro Vys (356 Mont-Royal E.), 7:30 p.m., $8
by VINCENT TINGUELY
Swing in the wings
“Swing dance in Montreal has never been as big as it is now,” says Luc Rivet, founder of Swing l’été, an outdoor summer dance event that takes place along the St. Lawrence River in Verdun. Last year,  hundreds of people flocked to the open-air dance floor for the free, all-day swing fest that’s celebrating its fifth year of existence.
Throughout the afternoon, some swing dance schools from Montreal, Cat’s Corner, Studio-88 SWING and Studio ConneXion, give introductory and intermediate lessons and a performance. If you’re curious to check it out, but are sans partenaire, Rivet guarantees you won’t end up a wallflower. He’s concocted a game, involving leis, that will get everyone dancing…
Rain or shine, head over to les Serres de Verdun (7000 Lasalle) from 12–6 p.m. this Saturday, July 14. For the complete schedule and directions, visit www.swinginmontreal.com/se/se_fr.html#accueil.
by MARITES CARINO
JFL’s urban art part
The JFL Urban Arts event is back. A 10-day interactive street carnival in the European style, it once again features a slew of acts, from street dance and stand-up theatre to extreme sports, air guitar and puppetry.
For example, a showcase of Quebec street performance called les  Z’ARQ will feature Circo Parodico, an enactment of an anthropological study of the clown; and l’Ensemble Karel, which is part interpretive dance, part electro-acoustic sound sculpture. Also, Spanish-Argentinean dance company Grupo Puja! perform an aerial ballet while suspended 50 metres above ground on a large steel sphere.
Other highlights include performers from the Halifax International Busker Festival, a giant cake for public consumption, a large comedy parade on July 22 and more. The Carnival takes place in the Latin Quarter, around St-Denis, Ontario and de Maisonneuve from July 12–22. For the full schedule, visit www.hahaha.com/en/2007static/arts-rue.html
by JEFFREY MALECKI
Is it art?
MATERIAL WORLD: Libraries have been more than mere havens for bookworms and brown-nosers for some time now. The Grande  Bibliothèque du Québec, opened in 2005, is a testament to this. The innovative library, in addition to an extensive written collection, houses a gallery, multimedia section and music composition studios. Montreal, a hotbed of library activity, is also the site of one of the largest design-friendly libraries in Canada.
Université de Montréal’s Matériauthèque (2940 Côte-Ste-Catherine) boasts the most comprehensive collection of material samples in Montreal. A library geared towards all facets of design, Matériauthèque keeps an up-to-date stock of the latest in material innovations. It holds over 8,000 specimens, updated yearly, with samples difficult to get on this side of the pond represented in over 500 catalogues. However, due to budget constraints, the Matériauthèque’s future looks bleak. To hold the latest in material technology in your hands, go soon, as they’re cutting back on yearly updates of samples.
Arts
hole
Eastern beat: Accès Asie brings the ninth Oriental Dance and Music Festival to the Botanical Gardens (4101 Sherbrooke E.). The four-day event celebrates Asian culture with traditional folk music, drumming and dance. Two performances daily, from July 12–15, 1 p.m. Info: (514) 523-1047. • PROJECTING MUSIC: For the 2nd edition of Music Video, part of the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Arts’ Projections Series, 22 videos, 14 from the past five years and seven from 2006, have been compiled into a 90-minute, chronological feature, with some ’80s and ’90s videos thrown in for good measure (included are videos by Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Gary Koepke, with Montreal credits in the mix as well). Exhibit runs until Sept. 30
Artistat
Number of artists decking the halls of Galerie la Centrale (4296 St-Laurent) with mixed-media installations, ranging from video to video-poetry to sketches and harmonica compositions, from July 13–28, 8 p.m. to midnight: 5 |
