A Bountiful Fall Season at the MAC!

Montréal, August 26, 2015 — This fall, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) will present exhibitions featuring three artists with very different approaches. Visitors will be captivated by the diversity of media used and themes addressed. From October 17, 2015, to January 10, 2016, Québec artist Patrick Bernatchez invites you into his world where he examines the many facets of the dimension of time, painter Dana Schutz surprises with her vivid colour palette, her free hand and her astonishing compositions, and Camille Henrot, in her video work, tells the story of Creation through images and spoken-word narration. With these exhibitions, the MAC is proud to provide its ever-growing audience with new visiting experiences and the opportunity to discover artists who are making their mark in the contemporary art world. In addition, the SéminArts educational program on the art of collecting contemporary art will be offered for the sixth time at the Musée. The five-session program aims to equip all those who aspire (but haven’t yet dared) to build their own collection of contemporary art. Be warned… spots are going fast!

Patrick Bernatchez

This exhibition presents a significant body of works taken from two major projects: Chrysalides (2006-2013) and Lost in Time (2009-2015). The artist’s process involves creating distinct pieces–drawings, photographs, films, sound pieces, installations–that form part of a larger conceptual project. Lost in Time examines the multiple facets of the dimension of time: space-time, cosmic time, performative time, imaginary time, time travel, temporal distortion. The works in Chrysalides revolve around questions of life and death, decomposition and entropy, as well as the cycle of the seasons, and the passing of time over a day, a month, a year. This exhibition is a co-production of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and the Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, in partnership with Argos – Centre for Art and Media, Brussels, and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto.

Dana Schutz

New York artist Dana Schutz’s paintings are filled with strange portraits or group scenes, in which the figures are often stripped naked, carved into silhouettes of raw flesh and shown in the form of schematic dolls or malleable sculptures placed in various situations. These figures give in to idleness or act incongruously, moving in bizarre, comical and sometimes cruel ways, within interiors or landscapes flooded with kaleidoscopic light that shatters space and matter into vividly coloured fragments. In addition to borrowing from the tradition of Synthetic Cubism, the freehandedness of Schutz’s works and her acid colour palette are reminiscent of the primitive impulse of German Expressionism. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition at a Canadian institution.

Camille Henrot

Winner of the Silver Lion for a promising young artist at the 55th Venice Biennale, French artist Camille Henrot is making her debut at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal with Grosse Fatigue, a fascinating 13-minute video installation produced during a residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Inspired by the encyclopaedia concept as she delved into the Institution’s collections and databases, the artist undertook to form a narrative about the universe by mixing scientific history with various Creation stories. While a myriad of images taken from the Smithsonian’s collections or found on the Internet pass before our eyes, an off-screen voice uses spoken word to tell Creation stories belonging to different religious, oral or other traditions.

SéminArts at the MAC

From September 30 to November 25, the Musée d’art contemporain will offer SéminArts to members of the public who would like to learn about collecting contemporary art. In a relaxed atmosphere, conducive to discussion and exchanging ideas, the program’s five sessions will allow participants to meet various players involved in the art world: artist, private collector, corporate collector, gallerist, and exhibition or museum curator. Held on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., this series of five encounters is offered at a price of $225 (with a 15% discount for MACarte holders). The SéminArts program was created through the generosity of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation. For more information or to register: 514 847-6244.

Acknowledgments

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal 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 museum gratefully acknowledges their support and that of its principal partner, Collection Loto-Québec. The MAC also thanks its media partners La Presse and Cogeco.