Matters of Time and Space
at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal

Montréal, April 15, 2005. From April 23 to October 9, 2005, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal presents Matters of Time and Space, a brand-new exhibition of recent additions to the permanent collection.

The show contains thirteen works—photographs, paintings, installations and videos—acquired over the past three years, by thirteen artists from Québec and beyond. According to Josée Bélisle, curator of the permanent collection, the works featured suggest “particular connections to the space-time continuum, through representations or narratives in which the notions of personal space and territorial ground, historical time and present moment, private and public, geopolitical, poetic and didactic contexts freely intertwine.”

James Casebere’s fictional Parlor, 2001, and Lynne Cohen’s very real Spa, 2000, for example, share similar architectures devoid of any human presence. In Denis Farley’s Paysage étalonné, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Québec, 1997, the artist becomes a sort of yardstick in the middle of the image. Claude-Philippe Benoît telescopes time in his Sans titre no 17, Chapitre…du Prince, Les lieux maîtres, 1999,by juxtaposing computers and antique furniture. Inspired by the writings of Pinelo, Sergio Vega relocates the Garden of Eden to South America in Il primer dia, 2003. Francine Savard, for her part, turns Canada over sideways from east to west in her polyptych Ici/Là-bas and Toi/moi, 2004. The configuration of bed sheets in Serge Tousignant’s Ouragan Fran, 1996-1997, recalls weather charts and diagrams. Examining memory and landscape, the four diptychs Nothing Ever Stays the Same, 2004, by Henri Venne blur the boundaries between painting and photography, between taking the shot in the past and experiencing the work in the present. Martin Bourdeau tackles the portrait theme in Fig. 62 (Le déjeuner sur l’herbe de Manet), 1999, a work referring to the history of painting and painting genres. Pascal Grandmaison offers five portraits of young people: fragmented close-ups of faces and musical instruments incorporating the reflected full-length portrait of the viewer. William Kentridge pays tribute to the main archetypes of art and culture in Learning the Flute, 2003, with its allusions to Mozart’s Magic Flute. Through landscape features, Trevor Gould explores the social and cultural history of plants in Le monde dans notre ville : les cent dernières années. Jardin botanique, Montréal 1997. And Greg Curnoe’s America, 1989-1990, deals with the notions of history and territory.

Reading room

Throughout the exhibition, the public is invited to use the reading room set up in the Senator Louis P. Gélinas Lounge next to the galleries showing Matters of Time and Space.

Other recent acquisitions

From April 23 to September 18, 2005, the Musée is also presenting a holographic installation by Michael Snow entitled Maura seated, 1985, in the Omer DeSerres Gallery, and Irises, after Van Gogh (from Pictures of Magazines), 2004, by artist Vik Muniz, in the foyer. The latter work is a conceptual photo based on Van Gogh’s most famous work, but on a monumental scale. In connection with this presentation, the documentary Worst Possible Illusion: The Curiosity Cabinet of Vik Muniz (director: Anne-Marie Russel, 2001. New York: Mixed Greens, 54 min) will be screened in the Gazoduc-TQM Room from April 26 to September 18, 2005, at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., and Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m.

The MACM is a provincially owned corporation funded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. It receives additional funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts. Several of the works included in the exhibition were purchased with the support of the Acquisition Assistance program of the Canada Council for the Arts.

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Source and information:
Danielle Legentil
Media Relations Officer
Tel.: (514) 847-6232
E-mail: danielle.legentil@macm.org