The New MAC’s Permanent Artwork
Province-Wide Competition for the Integration of Art into Architecture and the Environment
The new Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal will have a voice of its own! Winner of the province-wide competition, Mouvements d’air is a sound artwork by the trio of Steve Bates, Alexandre Burton and Marc-Alexandre Reinhardt. It will be installed in the new MAC’s public spaces for the Museum’s opening, scheduled for 2028 at Place des Arts.
Mouvements d’air: A Voice for the MAC
Mouvements d’air will turn the new MAC into a true musical instrument. Long, narrow rectangular openings will discreetly punctuate the walls of the open areas across four levels. Step close to any one of them and you will hear the voice of the Museum: music all its own, composed of sounds recorded on site and played to the rhythm of the air circulating through the building and the movement of visitors.
A Province-Wide Competition Devoted to Sound Art
The ministère de la Culture, du Patrimoine, des Communications et de la Langue française organized this province-wide competition for the integration of art into architecture and the environment in collaboration with the MAC and the Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal, to create a permanent work for the new Museum.
The competition was open to professional Quebec artists in visual arts and fine crafts whose practice includes digital arts, and more specifically sound art. Whether linked to speech, noise, the environment or movement, this art form can spark the imagination, change how we perceive a space or forge new connections between hearing and sight.
The proposed integration spaces ranged from the basement to the second level of the building, offering a variety of architectural settings. The winning work will become a lasting part of the new Museum’s bright, versatile and resolutely contemporary public spaces.
Four Finalists, One Winning Work
- Ludovic Boney
- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
- Sandra Volny
- The collective of Steve Bates, Alexandre Burton and Marc-Alexandre Reinhardt
These four finalists were selected from some thirty eligible applications. Their practice in digital and sound art stands out for its singularity, diversity and richness, in perfect alignment with the competition’s vision.
In October 2026, the finalists presented their proposals to the selection committee, which chose the winning work: Mouvements d’air, by Steve Bates, Alexandre Burton and Marc-Alexandre Reinhardt.
Want to follow the Museum’s transformation? Discover every stage of the project on our MAC in Transformation page.
The Winning Artists
Steve Bates
Steve Bates is an artist and musician based in Montreal. Sound is at the core of his practice and it manifests through music, transmission, video, sound art and installation. He has exhibited and performed in Canada, the United States, Europe, Chile and Senegal. His work is released through his music and publishing project, The Dim Coast. Bates works in the field, on the airwaves and in museum, gallery and performance settings. These shifting territories also reflect the themes explored in his practice.
Alexandre Burton
As an artist and digital luthier, Alexandre Burton explores technology to reveal its unique sensibility. His approach focuses primarily on connecting sound, visual and somatic phenomena, which he orchestrates into devices in which the machine merges with sensory experience. His work is regularly presented at international digital art and electronic music events. A founding member of artificiel.org, Burton also collaborates with numerous artistic and cultural organizations as an architect of generative sound and visual processes, as well as a consultant in technology integration. His work combines technical rigour and formal research into a distinctive digital poetics.
Marc-Alexandre Reinhardt
Trained in comparative literature, Marc A. Reinhardt has developed a practice at the intersection of writing, installation and performance, using sound primarily as a poetic, speculative and sculptural medium. He has presented works in Quebec, Europe and South America. He lives in Gatineau, where he runs Le Clinique, a small experimental publishing house. He is currently guest curator at the DAÏMÔN centre and teaches at the École des Arts et des Cultures (ÉdAC).
