Music + video = art

Local bands go high-brow with a collection
of videos on view at the MAC

DROWNING IN SOUND: “Fight & Kiss” by We Are Wolves

by LORNE ROBERTS

At their worst, music videos run the risk of being nothing but glittery infomercials—an attempt to hide banality behind a veneer of pretty but empty images. At their best, they have the power to not just interpret the music, but to transcend it, to become short works of art in their own right. 

Vidéomusique, an exhibit of music videos currently screening at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art as part of their Projection series, celebrates works that fall under the latter category, highlighting not only the power of video as art, but also the strength of local bands and videographers.

Louise Simard, the gallery’s head of multimedia art and the exhibit’s curator, says that this third annual edition is special for just that reason, among others.

“This is the first time that it’s composed exclusively of music and video from Montreal,” she says. “It’s exciting—we have such vitality here in the local scene that we can put together a whole show of it.”

NATURAL PROGRESSION: “Walk the Walk” by the National Parcs

Featuring celebrated Montreal musicians such as We Are Wolves, Alfa Rococo, the National Parcs, Creature, Arcade Fire and a dozen others—as well as some of the city’s top video and computer artists—the works were selected, Simard says, because they showed a particular balance between what was happening in the song and what happens on-screen. 

“Of course, it has to do with editing and the quality of the images, too, but we were looking first for good ideas, ideas that echo what the musicians were saying.”

In this regard, Simard says that two works for the National Parcs, directed by band member Ian Cameron, stand out. Filmed on a canoe trip in Parc de la Vérendrye, “Walk the Walk” features sounds from nature integrated into the song and the video, and then mixed and looped, thereby becoming instruments in and of themselves.

Members of other bands also directed their own videos, such as Kaveh Nabatian of Bell Orchestre, (whose video for “The Upwards March” won the special Jury Prize for Experimental Film at the this years South by Southwest) as well as Sid-Z, the drummer from Creature, whose video for “Pop Culture” showcases the band’s über-fun dance sensibility.

And even when the band members were only in front of the camera, it was usually to work with directors with whom they had a long history. All the way through, Simard says, “there’s a strong connection between the directors and the bands—they really have an understanding of each other’s aesthetic.”

Often, Simard points out, music videos are seen in a context where you don’t look at them very carefully—something that you might watch on your iPod or YouTube, but not necessarily pay much attention to. Putting the videos on display in a major art gallery, she feels, should give viewers a new appreciation for just how artistic these kinds of works can actually be. “When you see them on the giant screen, you’re right inside the image,” she says.  “In this context, the idea is to bring more attention to them.” 

It’s a goal that’s certainly helped by the strength of the videos themselves, a sometimes uneven but unquestionably artistic collection of works that showcase the dynamic creativity of our local scene.

Vidéomusique at the MAC
(185 Ste-Catherine W.)
until Sept. 28.