Nuit blanche 2011

Montréal, February 1, 2011 — A Petite Nuit blanche for families and early birds, and a program of activities for night owls: that’s what’s on tap at the Musée d’art contemporain for Montréal’s eighth Nuit blanche on Saturday, February 26 from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

This year, the Montreal High Lights Festival will be celebrating women. The MAC is joining in this tribute with performances by the astounding harpist M’Michèle, which will add to the beat of this festive night (10 p.m. to 2 a.m.), while with their off-the-wall sense of humour, rubber gloves and various kitchen utensils, WWKA (Women With Kitchen Appliances) will explore the sonic potential of the Musée’s Bistro Le C (starting at 9:30 p.m.). A Geneviève Grandbois chocolate “shop” will serve up a multisensory experience called Souvenirs d’enfance (Childhood Memories), along with hot chocolate ($3 to $5).

Festival goers will be able to view the MAC’s new shows: Anri Sala, an exhibition meant to be visited as an artwork in itself, by an artist originally from Albania and comprising a dozen works, mainly video installations; and Young & Giroux, featuring a new piece by this Toronto duo, produced specially for the museum: Mr. Smith: a monumental modular sculpture inspired by the work of the minimalist American artist Tony Smith. As part of the Projections series, Epic Journey will be screened in its full-length, eleven-and-a-half-hour version; for this piece, Canadian artist Kevin Schmidt filmed a projection of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on board a boat floating down the Fraser River. Two exhibitions in the museum’s series Point of View on the Collection will also be on display: Blue, which focuses on this chromatic constant, and Acts of Presence, which examines duration in performance art.

Petite Nuit blanche

Because the Nuit also belongs to those who go to bed early, the MAC is offering families and everyone else a Petite Nuit blanche starting at 6 p.m. On the program: visits to the exhibitions, with educators on hand in the galleries, art workshops from 6 to 9 p.m. (age four and up), WWKA performance at 9:30 p.m. (free) and Souvenirs d’enfance at the Geneviève Grandbois chocolate “shop”, along with hot chocolate ($). The workshop titled Seeing Blue invites participants to use spatulas to create a painting inspired by Marcelle Ferron’s Composition en bleu (1950), presented in the exhibition Blue.

All night long

For night owls, Nuit blanche runs until 2 in the morning. Activities scheduled: visits to the exhibitions, with educators on hand in the galleries, performances by the talented harpist M’Michèle, with Stéphane Leclerc doing the mixing and Louis Lalancette on bass, and illumination of the Musée building all night long, in partnership with the Quartier des spectacles.

Nuit blanche à Montréal 2011 at the MAC is a presentation of Nightlife.ca.

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal is located at 185, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Montréal, QC, H2X 3X5 – Place-des-Arts metro. Open for Nuit blanche à Montréal from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Bistro Le C will be open till 8 p.m. for dinner, and from 9:30 to 10 p.m. for the WWKA performance; the Musée Boutique will be open from 6 p.m. till midnight.

Information: 514 847-6226.