Summer is for the pool and weekends at the lake, and it’s for dancing in the streets and going to the movies. But it’s also the season when we have time to take the time to see an exhibition.
Montreal has plenty of exhibitions all summer long, for movie lovers, sports fans, environmentalists, contemporary art enthusiasts, and everyone else.
Tribute to Gabor Szilasi at the Cinémathèque Québécoise
The exhibition was first presented as “Face à face: Gabor Szilasi Photographs Cinema” in 2004 and features portraits of filmmakers with their cameras.
To pay tribute to the photographer, who passed away this year, these portraits are being shown again, along with a beautiful photograph of Béla Tarr.
For its spring exhibitions, PHI has featured two contemporary artists whose works exist in the liminal space between the real and the unreal, creating a third reality in which visitors lose themselves with great delight.
Come See, Lies, Lies by Paola Pivi
The exhibition, presented by PHI and guest curator Kanika Anand of Calgary Contemporary, is half fairy tale and half satirical installation about the modern world.
Other Worlds byJakob Kudsk Steensen
Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s “Other Worlds” consist of six major works created by the artist over the past ten years. The Danish artist prepares each of his works through in-depth ecological research, and each of his virtual “worlds” is rooted in a changing environment: Bora Bora, volcanic seabeds, and geothermal springs.
Montreal 1976: An Olympic Challenge, at the McCord Steward Museum
Online tickets (+$2 at the door): Adults: $20 | Seniors: $19 | Students (ages 18–30): $15 | Indigenous people: free | Ages 17 and under: free* | Museum members: freennnWednesday evenings: free (3rd-floor exhibition and permanent collection) or $10 online (+$2 at the door) (2nd-floor exhibitions, Montreal 1976: An Olympic Trial)nnFirst Sunday of the month: “Pay What You Can” option
In true Montreal tradition,the lawns in front of the Olympic Village were almost entirely covered with half-dressed people, their eyes closed as they gazed up at the warm summer sun during the 1976 Olympics.The photos scrolling across a screen feature the vibrant colors of the Olympic rainbow and come from the vast archival collection of the McCord Stewart Museum. One would almost give anything to be able to spend a week (or a month) poring over them…
In the meantime, we can’t help but be fascinated by the exceptionally cool graphics, the vintage photos, the very biting caricatures of Jean Drapeau, and the magazines created by artists for the 1976 Summer Olympics, held for the first time and with great fanfare in Montreal. It’s been 50 years this year, and it’s time to revisit the ’76 Olympics.
Less than an hour and a half from downtown, you can soak up the sunshine with SOLEILS, a four-part work by artist Étienne Paquette that showcases the beautiful town of Saint-Norbert in the Laurentians.
It is divided into four contemporary works that will be on view all year long;
- a Solar Organ, a monumental interactive steel sculpture that, like an organ, produces soft sounds based on real-time data regarding temperature, UV rays, and light levels. There are resting areas around it where visitors can sit and listen to the sun for a while. (The Solar Organ will not play during the winter.)
- the Virevents Musicaux, which are on display in the main hall of the former church. These are six monumental musical instruments carved from wood and metal, which can be activated by touch or breath to create a soundscape. Visitors can see the Virevents during free guided tours on Friday mornings throughout the summer
- the Iris Portal, a monumental sculpture installed at the entrance to the SOLEILS site and created using photos of the eyes of 150 children from the village’s elementary school
- the Narrative Facade, which can be seen at sunset, illuminates the former church
HORS SOCLE, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Museum of Fine Arts is exhibiting 19 sculptures from its collections, made of various materials (wood, metal, glass, plastic), to paint a portrait of sculpture and its evolution since 1960— “at a time when sculpture was leaving its pedestal to take over the floor, walls, and surrounding space.”
On the Track! Sports Inspire Art!, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Summer Olympics, held in Montreal—one of the events that contributed (along with Expo ’67) to the city’s patchwork architecture and its reputation as a very cool city for design, bell-bottom pants, and top athletes.
To mark the occasion, the Museum of Fine Arts has curated a selection of his works inspired by or depicting sports, highlighted with labels throughout its exhibitions.
