The MAC exhibits its new acquisitions at the Musée des Beaux Arts this autumn

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The Musée d’Art Contemporain (MAC), as most Montrealers know, has been closed and under renovation since summer 2021. Of course, you can still see the MAC’s exhibitions at Place Ville-Marie, and we’ve heard that, contrary to the rumours we’ve heard in recent years, the MAC continues to acquire contemporary works during its long architectural slumber.

Starting today, these new acquisitions can be seen at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where the MAC has taken over a space with an exhibition entitled Le confort et l’indifférence: acquisitions récentes du MAC.

Comfort, indifference and a disparate portrait of modern Quebec life

The 37 contemporary works presented by the MAC during this exhibition, which is installed in one of the Musée des Beaux-Arts’ liminal spaces, were produced by artists from Quebec or living and working in Quebec – and acquired by the museum in the last 5 years.

Stéphan La Roche, director of the MAC, describes the exhibition as a “living tableau of the role of artists in our society”.

The exhibition is entitled Le confort et l’indifférence after Denys Arcand’s cult documentary filmed during and after the 1980 referendum on Quebec independence. The film, released in 1981, is almost satirical in its look at the divergence between patriotism and the lure of the good life.

Marc Lanctôt, curator of this exhibition, draws a parallel between the film and Quebec society’s attitude to the global crises of recent years. Introducing the collection of works, he speaks of “the difficulty of using (privilege) to promote change”, the apparent complacency of the younger generation in relation to global issues, and above all, the place of artists and the importance of their view of their own society.

While the themes of comfort and indifference can largely be associated with each of the works, it is above all with great pleasure that we discover (or rediscover) the work of Quebec artists since 1975. When it comes to the great artistic movements -political or otherwise- in the history of art, there’s nothing more obscure or exciting than contemporary art.

A few uncomfortable pieces for the new world

Comfort and discomfort are explored in different ways by the works chosen by Marc Lanctôt.

Between the well-organized domesticity of Valérie Blass’s Carte Mentale , the face glued to Chloe Wise’s welcome mat and Lorna Bauer’s glass-blown sculptures through restrictive metal constructions, we feel the gentle discomfort of a society in constant doomscrolling , which the curator gently criticizes with a selection that scratches our faces.

There’s also a beaded BDSM mask by Dayna Danger, an aboriginal artist (Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer, Métis-Saulteaux-Polish) who talks about sex, consent and territory, and a photo by Michel Huneault as a document of irregular border crossings.

We also loved Jannick Deslauriers’ Sentences, Souffle et Linceul (Sentences, Breath and Shroud), a car made of fabrics consumed by fire on snow, assembled by the artist as a safe object that has become incredibly fragile.

All in all, this is an exhibition that verges on the uncomfortable, but with the reassuring aura of contemporary artistic visions that seem to reflect a generalized sense of societal divergence-between modern comfort and global chaos.

Practical info

Where? at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1380 Sherbrooke Street West

When? November 4, 2025 to May 3, 2026

How much? $31 for those aged 26 and over, $15.50 on Wednesday evenings, free for those aged 25 and under, members of aboriginal communities and people with disabilities and their companions.