MONTRÉAL, Feb. 1, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - The MAC is pleased to announce its programming for 2018, which includes a number of large scale exhibitions. For this final year at its current location before the significant transformation planned for the Musée in 2019, and on the heels of its Leonard Cohen exhibition, the MAC will present three new exhibitions. First, visitors will have the chance to enter the universe of Mexican and Montréal artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, whose work will be showcased as a major solo exhibition. In the fall, the public will be invited to explore a retrospective of Françoise Sullivan, a Québec multidisciplinary artist and co-signatory of the Refus global, and to view Manifesto, a multi-screen cinematic work by Julian Rosefeldt, starring Cate Blanchett.
With this programming, the MAC is pleased to continue to put forward "powerful and probing exhibitions that are a continuing manifestation of the Museum's core commitment to presenting the most exciting and relevant home-grown and international art," says John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator.
RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER – MAY 24 TO SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is one of the most prominent international artists working in Canada today. Over the past few decades, he has earned a reputation for large-scale, participatory installations that frequently incorporate technology, light and the architecture of public spaces. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's work has gained international prominence and is regularly shown by major art institutions.
More than a mid-career survey, the exhibition offers a new conceptual perspective on the artist's work over the past decade, exploring its poetic and political dimensions from the standpoint of one of its central principles: the notion of co-presence. This concept refers first and foremost to the coexistence of voices, perspectives and singular experiences in Lozano-Hemmer's works: to the interactions between strangers, to the situations elicited by the dialogic devices deployed by the work. However, co-presence also evokes other, more asymmetrical relationships, such as forced cohabitations and power relations, and speaks to the interplay of gazes and bodies subjected to contemporary techniques of surveillance and control. Staying clear of techno-optimism, Lozano-Hemmer's work reminds us that new technologies are often double-edged swords.
Coproduced by the MAC and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the exhibition will be presented at the Museo de arte contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico, from March to August 2019 and the SFMOMA from April 25 to September 6, 2020.
JULIAN ROSEFELDT: MANIFESTO – OCTOBER 18, 2018 TO JANUARY 20, 2019
Julian Rosefeldt is Professor of Digital and Time-based Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. Inspired by the histories of film, art and popular culture, he is internationally renowned for his visually opulent and meticulously choreographed moving-image artworks, mostly presented as complex multi-screen installations.
Manifesto is an immersive video installation consisting of thirteen large-screen projections that stands as a tribute to the literary power of artistic manifestos. This artwork/event, which lies at the crossroads between film, performance and installation, allows audiences to experience a series of scenes screened simultaneously showing us the same actor, Cate Blanchett, taking on various roles. In a performance that "invokes immediate awe," according to The Independent, and was described by the New York Times as a "tour de force," the actress becomes a chameleon, showcasing the full extent of her extraordinary talent.
All of the monologues spoken—actually, the only words spoken in the piece—are formed out of various artistic manifestos published over the last 150 years or so. From schoolteacher to homeless man, the thirteen characters embodied by Blanchett pronounce the manifestos of Claes Oldenburg, Yvonne Rainer, Kazimir Malevich, André Breton, Elaine Sturtevant, Sol LeWitt and Jim Jarmusch, among others.
The MAC is particularly proud to welcome this work to Montréal for its second North American presentation, following the one at the Park Avenue Armory, in New York, in 2016. This famous installation was also presented in the world's largest artistic cities, including Paris, Berlin and Melbourne.
FRANÇOISE SULLIVAN – OCTOBER 18, 2018 TO JANUARY 20, 2019
This retrospective exhibition highlights the key role of artist, painter, sculptor, dancer and choreographer Françoise Sullivan in the history of modern and contemporary art in Quebec. It's a chance for visitors to discover or rediscover an artist whose major impact on Quebec and Canadian culture deserves to be more fully recognized.
In addition to presenting the artist's diverse and multidisciplinary practice, the exhibition offers an in-depth exploration of some of the milestones in her career. The various styles and approaches adopted by Sullivan over the years are contextualized with the help of archival documents.
The Françoise Sullivan exhibition reaffirms the MAC's role as a major institution engaging in a deep exploration of the artistic processes of the most significant figures in Québec's recent art history.
MANIFESTES – OCTOBER 18, 2018 TO JANUARY 20, 2019
In connection with the exhibitions of Françoise Sullivan and Julian Rosefeldt, the Musée will be presenting a documentary exhibition consisting of original manifestos, including a number of the ones cited in Manifesto.
The presentation will also showcase local manifestos, such as the famous Refus Global, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2018, and was co-signed by Françoise Sullivan.
PERMANENT COLLECTION: PICTURES FOR AN EXHIBITION
Ongoing since November 2016, Pictures for an Exhibition is an evolving cycle of exhibitions based on works from the collection and intended to generate new connections between historical works and recent acquisitions, between the different media and artists of various generations. This evolving series takes on various forms, the most recent being The Gaze Listens (presented until March 25, 2018) and That's How the Lights Gets In (presented until August 26, 2018).
Pictures for an Exhibition will also take the form of two new exhibitions this year: The Prophets (April 6 to August 26, 2018) with artworks from Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens, as well as Josef Albers, Jack Bush, Sol LeWitt and Jana Sterbak, and Alone Together (May 16 to August 26, 2018) with artworks from Sarah Anne Johnson, Graeme Patterson, Jon Rafman and Jeremy Shaw.
Acknowledgements
The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) 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. The MAC would also like to thank its partners Loto-Quebec, Ubisoft Montreal and National Bank.
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Located in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal makes today's art a vital part of Montréal and Québec life. For more than fifty years, this vibrant museum has brought together local and international artists, their works and an ever-growing public. It is also a place of discovery, offering visitors experiences that are continually changing and new, and often unexpected and stirring. The MAC presents temporary exhibitions devoted to outstanding and relevant current artists who provide their own particular insight into our society, as well as exhibitions of works drawn from the museum's extensive Permanent Collection. These may feature any and every form of expression: digital and sound works, installations, paintings, sculptures, ephemeral pieces, and more. In addition to its wide range of educational activities familiarizing the general public with contemporary art, the MAC organizes unique artistic performances and festive events. It is a window onto a myriad of avant-garde expressions that extend the reach of art throughout the city and beyond.
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