Banking on art

>> Humour figures big in two new exhibits

by EVE MACLAUREN

A bank robbery and a behind-the-scenes look at the art world are the subjects of two intriguing exhibits on now at the Musée d'Art Contemporain. Though not usually considered humorous subject matter, they both, oddly enough, made me laugh.

First, with the installation "The Third Memory," the French artist Pierre Huyghe reconstructs John Wojtowicz's 1972 Brooklyn bank robbery that inspired the 1975 movie Dog Day Afternoon starring Al Pacino. Wojtowicz's motive for the robbery was to pay for his lover's sex change operation. Huyghe combines live footage of the original holdup, along with excerpts from the film and scenes recently shot with Wojtowicz reenacting the events and providing a colourful narrative.

Huyghe takes a look at film reality, reality as memory and as constructed by the media. His video entitled Blanche-Neige, Lucie, continues this mixture of reality and fiction. Here he tells the story of Lucie Dolène, the woman who was the French voice of Disney's Snow White. Dolène tells of how she eventually ended up in court, fighting over the rights to her voice.

Next is Barcelona-born, New-York-based Antoni Muntadas' Muntadas on Translation: Le Public, an exhibit that exposes the art world, not artworks. It's explored in three different installations, each one focusing on a different aspect of setting up an exhibition. Though this exhibition is not visually arresting, it sure is entertaining.

The best part of the show is the initial installation, "Between the Frames: the Forum." Muntadas conducts video interviews with the dealers, collectors, media, critics, museum directors and museum guides. He often combines these video interviews with repetitive images that reinforce the speaker's role. The dealers speak of the value and price of the art, while views of real estate fill the screen; the collectors' ideas are accompanied by images of the Tokyo stock exchange. Each group is housed in its own different, coloured architectural space that reflects its activity: the critics are in a tower, the guides in the hallway. An exemplary exposé of the business side of art to wake up any neophyte who thought that great art was made only by the poor artist-genius eating peanut butter sandwiches up in the garret. :

Comments: EveMacLauren@aol.com

At the Musée d'Art Contemporain, 185 Ste-Catherine W., until Jan. 7. Info: 837-6226