Photo Credit: macm.org

🎪🎶📣📯 Make It the Mac This Fall! Enjoy Our Audacious Multisite Exhibition Program, Along With a Slew of Activities


Sunday, 10 September 2023 04:33.PM

The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) unveils a bold fall cultural season featuring six exhibitions at three sites across the city, as well as a series of activities inspired by contemporary art. The program brings together contemporary and committed local and international artists whose works are deeply rooted in current political and social issues and criticize the institutional dogmas in place. The MAC also announces the arrival of a new $30 season pass that offers unlimited access to exhibitions on view between August 16, 2023 and March 10, 2024, as well as free access to certain activities with curators, experts and artists, and preferential registration rates for creative workshops

Upcoming programming

Fall-Winter 2023-24

I Want All of the Above to Be the Sun [Je veux que tout ce qui précède soit le soleil] by Lili Reynaud-Dewar at PVM until September 17, 2023

Ongoing. Bringing together sculpture, performance and video, the exhibition I Want All of the Above to Be the Sun is an incursion into the major currents in the recent practice of French artist Lili Reynaud-Dewar. Here, the MAC brings together for the first time more than thirty videos produced by the artist, including the award-winning choral video installation Rome, November 1-2, 1975 (2019-2021), which reconstructs the last interview given by filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini before his assassination.

Official unveiling of Anna Binta Diallo's Fossiles fluides at PVM on September 7, 2023

The unveiling of Anna Binta Diallo's mural in the presence of the artist will take place on September 7, 2023. Anna Binta Diallo is a multidisciplinary artist who questions the traces left to future generations, exploring themes of memory and nostalgia to create surprising works on the theme of identity. Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1983, she grew up in Saint-Boniface, Manitoba, and lived for over fifteen years in Montréal/Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba School of Art, located on Treaty 1 lands, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene and Métis Nation.

The work will be accessible to the public free of charge starting August 25, 2023, in the Galerie PVM corridor alongside the museum.

Presentation of Nightlife [La vie nocturne], a 3D film by Cyprien Gaillard, a work from the MAC collection co-presented by the MAC and the Cinémathèque québécoise - September 7, 2023

In Nightlife, Cyprien Gaillard weaves a visual narrative around the life of African American athlete James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens, who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Shot entirely at night, the film is devoid of any human presence, yet evokes the political, social and environmental impacts of human actions and interactions.

This nearly 15-minute work presented in a loop will be screened at the Cinémathèque québécoise's Norman-McLaren theatre from September 7, 2023 to November 5, 2023. Nightlife will be accessible free of charge and without reservation. 3D glasses will be provided on site.

The MAC increases its footprint at PVM by presenting the video work SocialSim by Hito Steyerl - As part of MOMENTA Biennale de l'image - September 7 to October 22, 2023

The MAC will host the video installation SocialSim by world-renowned Berlin artist and theorist Hito Steyerl in a temporary space opposite her current location in Galerie PVM. The official unveiling of the work produced by the partnership between MOMENTA and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, with the support of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, will take place on September 7, 2023, the evening of the opening of the 18th edition of MOMENTA Biennale de l'image. The immersive installation is accessible free of charge during regular MAC opening hours.

Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot's Russia, the North American premiere of the anti-exhibition at MAC - October 25, 2023 to March 10, 2024

Pussy Riot fights Vladimir Putin and tyranny. The feminist collective produces performances, music and videos characterized by provocative, politically charged lyrics and actions. Maria Alyokhina, the creator of this exhibition and other Pussy Riot members have been imprisoned and repressed in Russia. Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot's Russia brings together the last ten years of Pussy Riot's activism.

A meeting in Moscow between co-founder Maria (aka Masha) Alyokhina and Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson was the impetus for the project. The exhibition documents the diversity of Pussy Riot's actions, as well as the reactions and punishments meted out by the authorities. Ragnar Kjartansson curated the exhibition alongside Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir and Dorothee Maria Kirch.

Pussy Riot's presence in Montreal will be the driving force behind several activities. The opening of the exhibition is scheduled for October 24, 2023 at 6 p.m. at the MAC in PVM (participation by invitation only). An inaugural conference in the form of a conversation between Maria Alyokhina and Ragnar Kjartansson will take place on October 25, 2023at the Gesù . Presented and moderated by John Zeppetelli, General Director of the MAC and curator of the exhibition. Tickets on sale late August / early September. Maria Alyokhina and John Zeppetelli will meet again the following day, October 26, at 5:30 pm, to offer a guided tour of the exhibition. The exhibition Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot's Russia will be open to the public from October 25, 2023 to March 10, 2024 at the MAC in PVM.

MAC invests the Fonderie Darling with Jeremy Shaw's Phase Shifting Index - December 12, 2023, to February 25, 2024

The MAC takes over the Fonderie Darling with Phase Shifting Index (2015), the culmination of recent work by Vancouver artist Jeremy Shaw. A vast seven-channel video installation, the work is a spellbinding parascientific reverie of immense intellectual and artistic ambition. Jeremy Shaw's Phase Shifting Index, 2020 is presented in collaboration with Polygon Gallery (Vancouver).

The immersive installation is accessible free of charge to season pass holders. Otherwise, tickets for the exhibition are available for $10 from the MAC's online ticketing service or on site at the Fonderie.

New season passport available from August 9, 2023

A new season passport will be offered to art enthusiasts from August 9, 2023, giving unlimited, privileged access to the six exhibitions on view between August 9, 2023 and March 10, 2024. The season passport also provides free access to the following activities: curatorial visits, point-of-view visits with art experts, selected lectures and vernissages (by invitation only). It also offers preferential rates for creative workshops offered during the passport period. Activities and workshops can be booked in advance.

The season passport will be available for purchase online and at the MAC reception desk at Place Ville Marie during regular opening hours.

Spring 2024, a taste of things to come femmes volcans forêts torrents – April 11 to August 18, 2024

The group exhibition femmes volcans forêts torrents brings together the work of nine women artists currently based in Quebec. The works of asinnajaq, Jacynthe Carrier, Maria Ezcurra, Caroline Gagné, Anahita Norouzi, Nelly-Eve Rajotte, Sabrina Ratté, Sonia Robertson and Malena Szlam are permeable to the territories they investigate and the natural elements on which they cast their gaze and root their reflections. The exhibition is intended to draw our attention to the way we see, look at and consider different ecologies. Details to follow.

"This year's MAC program opens up to the city and the world, offering contemporary art lovers a selection of works and powerful off-site experiences that encourage reflection as well as taking a stand. Viewers will discover immersive works by committed artists whose approaches are in tune with the political, critical and technological issues of the day. These include Hito Steyerl's installation SocialSim, presented as part of the 18th edition of MOMENTA, Jeremy Shaw's video installation Phase Shifting Index at the Darling Foundry, and the retrospective Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot's Russia by the Pussy Riot collective at PVM, whose visit to Montreal will also include a conference. This daring program will surprise enthusiasts at various venues across the metropolis, and introduce as many people as possible to contemporary art. – John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator, The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal

The MAC, accessible to all

The MAC continues to make progress in its stated desire to make contemporary art accessible to as many people as possible. For example, the MAC at Place Ville Marie offers a single admission fee of $10 and free admission for children and young adults under 18 as well as schools and community groups.

The MAC participates in the "Borrow a Museum" (Empruntez un musée) program, which allows visitors to Montreal libraries to borrow a pass to visit the MAC in the same way as any other library book. The Museum has also developed a partnership with Canoo, which provides free access to participating cultural institutions, including the MAC, to newcomers to this country.

SOURCE: Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal