Exhibitionists
Artists and galleries collaborate with musicians for a full-sensory season
by STACEY DEWOLFE
September 16, 2010
FLORA IN 3D: Robyn Cumming’s Second Hand Centerpiece with Gels
at Push Gallery
It was only a few years ago that the MAC’s Sympathy for the Devil exhibition traced the storied history of the relationship between art and rock. This fall, the love affair continues as a number of museums and galleries add musical performances to their slates.
The Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa) kicks things off on Sept. 23 with a performance by experimental musician Malcolm Goldstein, whose collaboration with Lani Maestro in The Forgetfulness of Air has been described as a work of audio-visual poetry. The 23rd also sees the launch of Mathieu Latulippe’s Contre-faire: entre construction et anti-matière, as well as viewings of works-in-progress by international artists-in-residence Eva Jung and Justin Long.
Maison Kasini (372 Ste-Catherine W., #408) is also on the musical tip, collaborating with the Portmantô Ensemble to produce a series of intimate chamber music performances they’re calling Living Room. In addition to these events, the gallery plays host to Art, Commerce and Catastrophe on Sept.18 and Pindemonium on Oct. 16.
Over at the CCA (1920 Baile), the Improvisation lecture series examines the ways that improvisational practices in music and architecture influence each other. The series gets started on Oct. 14 with a discussion and performance by Eric Lewis, Myra Melford, Stefan Smulovitz and Lori Freedman. The following week, on Oct. 19, sees the launch of Journeys: How Travelling Fruit, Ideas and Buildings Rearrange Our Environment, an exhibition that explores the impact of migration on the built environment.
CATHEDRAL STUDY: Ashes by Marc Séguin
Art Pop (Sept. 29–Oct. 3), which runs each year in conjunction with Pop Montreal, teams up with DHC/ART (486 St-Jean) to produce a series of Jenny Holzer-inspired poster-sized newsletters whose contents will be created by a collaborative team of writers, music critics and designers. Visitors are welcome to observe the production process.
Also in October, a gala fundraiser for artist-run centre DARE-DARE on Oct. 8 is enlivened by visually heavy performances from Donzelle, Elfin Saddle and other local acts. The show will also include a series of videos by some of the artists short-listed for the prestigious Sobey Award, including Montrealer Patrick Bernatchez. Before heading down to Studio Juste Pour Rire (2109 St-Laurent) to see the show, swing by the MAC, where in addition to this year’s shortlist, you can check out the work of past Quebec nominees Pascal Grandmaison, Adad Hannah, Karen Tam and BGL.
FUNDRAISERS, FASHION AND FASCISM
COLLISION: Monster Anthem by Melanie Authier at FOFA
The MAC (185 Ste-Catherine W.) is also the place to be on Oct. 15, when they play host to an interdisciplinary conference entitled Literature and Public Spaces. The two-day event brings together a celebrated group of artists, art historians and critics to explore the inclusion of literature and text in public art works and interventions.
If you continue to find yourself in a giving mood, head down to the Darling Foundry on Oct. 14 for another celebration, this time a joint effort in support of the Foundry and the Griffintown Horse Palace, which aims to build a historical museum that will further enrich the cultural corridor along Ottawa Street. You can also celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dazibao (355 de Maisonneuve W.,)—which has recently moved from its Berri location to take up residence at the Cinémathèque—on Oct. 22 with musical interludes by Think About Life and a retrospective video of the centre’s 30-year history by Olivia Boudreau.
The Museum of Fine Arts (1079 Sherbrooke W.) has two big shows opening this fall: Denis Gagnon, a Couturier at the Museum, which opens on Oct. 19 and offers a retrospective look at the Quebec designer’s work, and Rouge Cabaret: The Terrifying and Beautiful World of Otto Dix, which opens on Sept. 24. Dix, a German printmaker and painter whose work continues to fascinate, both in its beauty and in its haunting portrayals of the horrors of World War I and the rise of Fascism in Europe, is considered one of the most important artists of the movement known as Neue Sachlichkeit, or New Objectivity.
Artist Marc Séguin presents his latest work Ruines at Galerie Simon Blais (5420 St-Laurent) opening tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 18.
COLOURFUL, KOOKY: A work by Kristi Ropeleski
October also sees new shows opening across town, including Charles Stankievech’s Ghost Rockets World Tour at Donald Browne Gallery (372 Ste-Catherine W., #524) on Oct. 9 and the brilliantly-hued paintings in Ben Merris’s Happy as an Asteroid at Galerie Push (372 Ste-Catherine W., #425) on Oct. 21. This Saturday, Sept. 18, Push kicks the season off with Frisette, new work by photographer Robyn Cumming. Early in October, a group show exploring the relationship between vision and beauty at Concordia’s FOFA Gallery (1515 Ste-Catherine W.) opens on Oct. 11. On Oct. 14 there’s the video installation Le Miroir de Magritte by Daniel Olson at Dazibao. One that I’m looking forward to in particular, on Oct. 16, is David Khang’s A Measure of War at Articule (262 Fairmont W.), a site-specific performance that looks at the lingering effects of the October Crisis on our collective memory. Also at Articule, painter Kristi Ropeleski presents her solo show Blue Skies on Nov. 5. ■
Grotesque beauty
Otto Dix at the MMFA
“A friend of Otto Dix once said he was like a natural catastrophe,” says Nathalie Bondil, the director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Together with the Neue Galerie in New York, the museum has organized Rouge Cabaret: The Terrifying and Beautiful World of Otto Dix, a huge exhibit of 220 works by the German artist, which opens at the museum Friday, Sept. 24.
KINFOLK: The Artist’s Family
“There are two main reasons for bringing the exhibit to Montreal,” says Bondil. “Number one, the macro reason, was that there has never before been a solo exhibition on the work of Otto Dix in North America. Reason number two is on a micro level. In the early ’80s there was a fight to conserve one of his paintings, ‘Portrait of the Lawyer Hugo Simons,’ which was here. The city rallied behind the museum. Never before had the city come out to support a piece of art in such a way.” Considered one of the most important artists of the New Objectivity movement, and one of the greatest German artists of the 20th century, Dix was known for this haunting, sometimes grotesque work, which included his depiction of the horrors of World War I, life in the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Third Reich. “He was accused of perversity in his work but it was really a denunciation of horror,” says Bondil. “He always stayed very neutral.” Along with the works, there will be historical notes in order to put his work into the proper context. “The sarcasm and complexity that he captured in his paintings and their subjects—it’s still relevant.”
—SACHA JACKSON
ROUGE CABARET: THE TERRIFYING AND BEAUTIFUL
WORLD OF OTTO DIX OPENS SEPT. 24
AND RUNS UNTIL JAN. 2, 2011
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