Les Nocturnes are back!

Immerse yourself in Saturnalia-inspired revelry for the MAC’s 60th anniversary

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) is pleased to announce the long-awaited return of its legendary Nocturnes, on Saturday, May 17, at the Société des arts technologiques (Society for Arts and Technology–SAT), in a unique format entirely dedicated to the Montreal and Quebec art scene. For the first time, Les Nocturnes will include a daytime segment designed for families, in addition to the evening segment that will bring the MAC’s 60th anniversary celebration to a close in style.

A must-see event in Montreal since 2007, Les Nocturnes du MAC offer a unique opportunity to discover contemporary art in all its forms in a friendly, bold, and festive atmosphere. Paused since 2019, due to the pandemic and the museum’s ongoing transformation, the event returns for an exceptional edition. The public is invited to lose themselves in a joyful artistic chaos in which immersive and multidisciplinary performances, live art, music, dance, creative workshops, and DJs provide an unforgettable experience.

• Daytime: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. ($15/person, free for children under 12)
• Evening: 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. ($30/person)
• Tickets: Nocturnes du MAC

Daytime Program

L’orchestre d’hommes-orchestres, a collective of artist-musicians defining themselves as a permanent construction site for the performing arts, presents two playful sound installation projects. Chambre avec vues comes to life by bouncing music off living tableaux. Transcontinental tricycles questions beauty and celebrates the useless, one pedal-stroke at a time, with its ambulatory sound installation around the SAT.

Dana Michel, a choreographer and performer whose work unfolds at the intersection of sculpture, comedy, and poetry, presents MIKE. This three-hour performance takes place in a space where the public can walk around freely and explores work culture and self-respect.

Daniel Barrow brings together excerpts from their “digital puppet show” I Can’t Stop Looking at You to create The Collector. Conceived largely during the pandemic, the project tells the story of a queer teenage girl who finds herself locked in an erotic staring contest with a museum painting of a sad clown and who indulges in a deep, drowsy reverie about love, isolation, and mortality.

Evening Program

Nadège Grebmeier Forget transforms the imposing visual structures of the SAT with her sensory performance interweaving light, sound, and movement. Navigating between fascination and repulsion, Me.a.rrymaking questions the place of the individual in a collective where the intensity of the moment disrupts and redefines the perception of bodies and mental landscapes.

The duo le désert mauve was inspired by poet Nicole Brossar’s eponymous novel to develop a sensitive relationship between sounds and images in video works and performances that oscillate between fluid landscapes, infinite horizons, and microscopic dances. Abstract tableaux characterized by fluid and scintillating lo-fi images play with our perceptions under the dome of the SAT.

In a punk, apocalyptic, and feminist spirit, the transdisciplinary work of Audrée Juteau, Zoey Gauld, Catherine Lavoie-Marcus, Ellen Furey, and Marilyne St-Sauveur restores the power of dance and exorcises ecological despair. Mystic-informatic takes the matsusake mushroom, which grows like a glimmer of optimism in landscapes devastated by exploitation, as a metaphor and proposes dance and bodies as a force of resistance capable of breathing new life into technological waste.

Filmmaker and visual artist Jamie Ross, along with collaborators Christos Tejada and Han Chen, presents Prayer Machine, a kaleidoscopic montage of 20 years of 8-mm footage, new musical compositions, and performance. Their work invites a total sensory immersion in the reimagining of Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae, in which a xenophobic and sexist head of state is overthrown by the forces of a genderqueer dance god thanks to a collective trance.

Award-winning Canadian Inuk singer Elisapie, multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet, and electronic artist Hologramme join forces to create IKUMAK (“LIGHT”), a unique musical and visual experience in the dome. Blendingcontemporary artistic elements, this work transports the audience on an intense emotional journey, where boundaries are blurred and sensations become visceral.

Evening Program – DJ

Laylit celebrates music and artists from the Arab/SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) world and its diasporas in an atmosphere that values inclusivity and unity across cultures, languages, dialects, religions, identities, and sexual orientations. The collective is distinguished by the true musical journeys it creates, merging electronic music (techno, breakbeat, hyperpop) inspired by the underground scenes of New York and Montreal with the sounds of shaabi, dabke, mahraganat, hip-hop, and Arabic pop.

MUTEK, Montreal’s premier electronic music and digital creativity festival, has carte blanche for the dome’s musical and visual programming. A surprise from Jordan Gardner, Ellxandra, al11z and Myriam Boucher awaits you!

Workshops

A Joyful Chaos
The MAC’s creative workshops, inspired by the work of Daniel Barrow, invite the public to explore approaches to decoupage that reveal symmetrical figures with an enigmatic allure, in an atmosphere that is both mysterious and captivating. Workshop participants can take their creations home with them or display them on-site.

cowboy angel
Drawing on the history of LGBTQ+ country and western dance, SPURS offers an introductory workshop on queer line dancing that blends traditional steps with a wide range of music, from honky tonk to new country and contemporary pop. Noël Transcendance Vezina, a queer interdisciplinary dance and movement artist who leads Montreal’s SPURS community, weaves their passion for queer country line dancing into the world of their latest work, tiny angel creatures. These two workshops are open to everyone—no experience required.

Accessibility
The MAC reaffirms its commitment to inclusive and accessible events. The Société des arts technologiques (SAT) is also accessible to people with limited mobility.

Acknowledgments
This event is made possible thanks to the support of the Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et des Communications. The MAC also thanks its partners for this edition of Les Nocturnes: Rethink, Shoot Studio, La Presse, and Fermes Lufa.

About the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC)
For 60 years, the MAC has brought together Quebec and international artists, their works, and diverse audiences, celebrating art as an essential component of life in Montreal and Quebec. With the Museum’s headquarters in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles undergoing a major architectural transformation, the MAC has temporarily relocated its activities to Place Ville Marie, another iconic landmark in the city. There, the museum connects with the public through temporary exhibitions highlighting exceptional artists and presenting a variety of practices. The MAC at Place Ville Marie also offers a wide range of educational services, creative workshops, and community outreach activities.