Out of the Village,
into the gallery

The Montreal Erotic Art Festival puts the
highbrow into the down ’n’ dirty during
Pride Celebration

“WHERE THE BOYS ARE”: By Ross Johnston

by ANDREA ZANIN

“We figured that, with an erotic show, we’d get the people in their 20s and 30s,” says Jennifer-Lee Barker. Barker is an organizer with the Conseil des arts du Québec (CAQ), the not-for-profit artist association that produces the Montreal Erotic Art Festival, whose third annual art show, Provocation, will be unveiled on Thursday, Aug. 13 at the Just for Laughs Museum. “The whole goal of this is that, in the last couple of years, we’ve had a hard time getting younger people to come out and see art. We want to show them that wow, culture is cool, fun, beautiful.”

The strategy appears to be working: the Festival’s first edition in 2007 drew 1,000 people, and last year’s brought in 1,200. Barker expects attendance of 2,000 this year. The Festival’s stated goal is to positively promote sensuality, eroticism and beauty through the arts, including visual arts, dance, performance, fashion shows, music, video, film, books and more.

This year, the CAQ’s exhibition will be showcasing work from artists all over the world. “I have a lot of art from California, from New York, London, France, Geneva. But most pieces are from Montreal this year—more than I would have expected,” says Barker.

But the focus remains close to home. “We applied for three of our artists to be featured in the World’s Greatest Erotic Art of Today—a lavish hardcover coffee-table book produced annually by an American group called Erotic Signature—“and they passed, so we’re going to place them in honour this year,” says Barker. All three stars are photographers, among them Argaive, a well-known artist in Montreal’s fetish scene.

The Provocation exhibit, showcasing the work of more than 40 visual artists, opens Thursday night with a burlesque performance, bondage, fire-breathing and more. The exhibit, open every day, serves as the centrepiece for a full weekend of fun, including a slew of parties and events. Friday features two parties: the Tease Her performance night at Just for Laughs, with pole dancers, drag queens, and E.P. Bergen of Bran Van 3000 on the turntables. Bedtime attire is a must at the Sweet Dreams Bal Érotique that same night at Club Opéra (32 Ste-Catherine W.), billed as “a journey through a sleeping girl’s dreams as the rest of the guests party at the most stimulating pyjama party ever produced in Montreal.”

Saturday night’s closing party takes place at the museum—“We’ve timed it with the Pride festival, to get people out of the Village and see the art!”—but it doesn’t end there. Sunday afternoon features erotic literature and film from 1–3 p.m. as well as live erotic painting. Last but not least, don’t miss the chance to create your own erotic art at a Dr. Sketchy burlesque model life drawing class on Sunday afternoon from 3–6 p.m.

CAQ is dedicated to the cause. “At the Conseil, we’re a bunch of artists that started this together,” says Barker. “It’s not a government-subsidized institution, we have no government funding, nothing institutional. We have two full-time volunteers and the rest is part-time volunteers. I work three nights a week in a pizza place, that’s how I survive. But either you do it or you don’t in culture, nobody else will.”

THE PROVOCATION EXHIBIT ($10)
TAKES PLACE AT THE JUST FOR
LAUGHS MUSEUM (2111 ST-LAURENT),
FROM AUGUST 13–16 (5–10 P.M. THURSDAY,
2–10 P.M. FRIDAY AND SATURDAY,
AND 10 A.M.-6 P.M. SUNDAY). TICKETS
TO THE PARTIES RUN $10–$15.
VISIT CONSEILDESARTS.ORG FOR
MORE DETAILS.