Those who haven’t had a chance to visit the 2014 edition of La Biennale de Montréal will be happy to know that, after the Holidays, the presentation of L’avenir (looking forward) will be extended, at least in part, at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
From January 6 to February 8, 2015, visitors will be able to take this last opportunity to admire artists’ works on display in the MAC’s southern galleries. These artists are: Abbas Akhavan, Nicolas Baier, Charles Gaines, Ryan Gander, Isabelle Hayeur, Thomas Hirschhorn, Simone Jones and Lance Winn, Emmanuelle Léonard, Li Ran, Basim Magdy, John Massey, Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen, Susan Norrie, Althea Thauberger, Suzanne Treister, Susan Turcot, Anton Vidokle and Pelin Tan, and Hajra Waheed. On view in La Rotonde is the piece by Étienne Tremblay-Tardif. As well, Nicolas Baier’s sculpture Eternity, which won the people’s choice award, the Prix Coup de cœur Loto-Québec, last December 18, will still be on exhibit in the galleries.
L’avenir (looking forward) examines recent developments in contemporary art in relationship to speculation, futurity and the history of future projection, and the currency of projecting into the future. The idea of “what is to come” provides a framework for considering our current condition from geopolitical, environmental, technological, scientific, social, cultural, ideological, economic, ethical and metaphysical perspectives.
Accordingly, BNLMTL 2014 will present film, sculpture, photography, painting and installation that respond to current conditions by considering “what is to come”. It will include works that are socially responsive to challenges presented by possible futures and situational, performative and temporal practices that address the vexed questions of the current agency of art, its transformational potential and ability to influence the future.
States of performance and temporality are evoked in the project title by the idea of “looking forward”, which involves an action that simultaneously engages the present and future. To look forward implies picturing a future moment: this process is intrinsic to the project, which examines the relationship of sight to consciousness and its role in both witnessing the present and imagining the future. Ultimately,L’avenir (looking forward) aims to look backwards from possible futures to consider the present and to address the connectedness of the local to the global.
BNLMTL 2014 is presented by La Biennale de Montréal and co-produced with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.
Artists presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
