Photo cycles
CRUSHED: From MacDonalds Cycle Killer“I’ve been looking for a space for about a year and a half,” says Robert Armatta, whose Galerie Armatta (5283-A Parc) is set to open its doors to the public tomorrow, Friday April 3 at 7 p.m. with its first vernissage. “It’s strictly a photography gallery for emerging artists—artists just coming into the world of galleries with their first solo show.”
Cycle Killer, the inaugural exhibit by Kyle MacDonald, is a collection of images of winter-worn bicycles taken within a few blocks of each other during last spring’s thaw. “Kyle’s a friend,” Armatta says, “he’d been telling me about the photos for a long time and I told him when he was ready, we could do a show.”
MacDonald, a local and up-and-coming photographer, also helps set the right tone for the gallery. “For the first year, I want it to focus on artists from Montreal and Quebec,” Armatta says. “I’d eventually like to have artists from all over Canada as well, but for the first year, I’m focusing on local artists. Ideally, I’d like to showcase a different artist every month.” Shouldn’t be too hard in this city.
by SACHA JACKSON
Art meets AIDS
IDENTITY AND ILLNESS: Still from Chevalier’s
So...when did you figure out that you had AIDS?
Concordia’s HIV/AIDS art exhibition inter- started earlier this week and runs until April 10, but things really get going tonight with an artist talk and vernissage at the VAV Gallery (1395 René Lévesque W.) at 5:30 p.m.
The annual event, now in its 15th year, was originally conceived as a requirement for an interdisciplinary course on the cultural, social and scientific aspects of the pandemic, but has since expanded into something more global in scope, involving professional artists, community activists and AIDS organizations.
As head curator Erin Silver explains, the theme for this year’s event—AIDS, interdisciplinarity and intersectionality—was chosen because the curatorial team wanted to “reject clichéd representations of, and rhetoric on, HIV/AIDS” and to choose work that “moved away from traditional AIDS narratives of loss… and that reflected on HIV/AIDS in a more nuanced, personal way.”
Vincent Chevalier’s So… when did you figure out that you had AIDS?, the performative artist talk that precedes tonight’s vernissage, is a perfect example of their mandate. Focusing on issues of identity, representation and disclosure, Chevalier describes the work as a performance that documents the development of an “AIDS identity throughout his practice.”
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Festive factory
When is a film screening not a film screening? When it’s a happening. With 12 short films, 11 DJs and three VJs all on the agenda, Art(e)Factory aspires to harken back to the days of Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York (presumably with a little less heroin, bad wigs and films of people sleeping).
“There’s a lot of film festivals around, but nothing like this. It’s really a cinematic  happening,” says programming director Jean-Philippe Desjardins. “The idea was to put a lot of artists together to just hang out in a festive atmosphere.”
The event showcases the work of graduates from the film schools of Concordia, UQÀM and the Cégep de Vieux Montréal, some of whose work has been featured at festivals like Fantasia and L.A.’s Outfest.
Profits will go to provide prize money for artists in competitions organized by Ikebana Productions, a non-profit that offers services to upstart video producers.
It takes place this Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m. at the Union Française (429 Viger E.). Tickets are $10–$15 and are available at Off the Hook and Atom Heart. For more info, e-mail agencenivuniconnu@gmail.com.
by MATT JONES
Dance 365
The last piece Montrealers saw by Vancouver-based choreographer Wen Wei Wang was in 2006. Wang says Unbound, a work that artistically addressed the practice of Chinese foot binding, “was all about history, but Three Sixty Five is about now, where we are and how we feel. In a way, this piece is closer to me.”
Wang, who immigrated to Canada from China almost 20 years ago, takes the stage again in his new choreography with five other dancers. His piece is set to an electronic deconstruction of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by Italian composer Giorgio Magnanensi and performed by an on-stage cellist.
Wang didn’t want to do a simple interpretation of the music. He says the piece isn’t really about the seasons; instead it’s about “our everyday life and how our emotions change by the moment and not just by the season.”
At the Centre Pierre-Péladeau (300 de Maisonneuve E.), April 9–11, 8 p.m., $20, (514) 987-6919. If you get there early, lounge in the lobby for a discussion each night an hour before showtime.
by MARITES CARINO
Is it art?
RIDE THE SKIES: During the Cold War the Russians developed the Mil V-12, intended to be the largest helicopter ever made. Forty years later, a U.S.-based company has taken this model to produce the Hotelicopter, the worlds first flying hotelwhich basically operates like a tour bus for the skies.
But before you get too excited, this is for the sophisticated, affluent traveller,  someone who finds security checks and putting liquids into plastic bags a hassle. Presumably, its also for people with time on their hands, since the Hotelicopter travels at a mere 237 km/hr, a veritable snails pace in comparison to a regular flight (a Boeing 747 cruises at 913 km/hr).
The inaugural summer tour kicks off in New York before hitting up the Bahamas, Montego Bay and Miami among other hotspots on the 14-day trip. A European and California tour are also on the books but prices are currently unavailable. As grandma used to say: if you have to ask the price, you cant afford it.
hotelicopter.com
Arts
hole
NEW SPACE, ESTABLISHED GALLERY: Occurrence (5277 Parc), which recently moved from the downtown Belgo building to its own space in Mile-End, presents Banquet et Vestiges, the latest show by artist Hélène Lord, which opens this Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m. • POETRY TO PLEASE: Fortner Anderson presents his regular popular series Poetry Plus at the Arts Café (201 Fairmount W.) this coming Wednesday, April 8 at 8 p.m. Anderson, Kelly Norah Drukker, Neale McDevitt and Lesley Pasquin will read and the What Four will supply the music. Free.
Artistat
The time of night you can catch Pawa Up First at the MAC (185 Ste-Catherine W.), Friday, April 3 as part of their live music in the gallery’s Vendredi nocturne series: 7 p.m. |
