BNL MTL 2011: The 7th Montréal Biennale
01 – 31 May 2011
at the former École de beaux-arts de Montréal /
La Fondation Guido Molinari /Le Cinéma du Parc
www.biennalemontreal.org
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(Clockwork from top left) Karilee Fuglem “There’s a place on my back that ins’t there” (2005) courtesy of the artist and Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain; John Bock, “Nothingness under the jaw” (2011) courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects; Lois Andison “Heartbreaking 91″ (2009) courtesy of the artist and Art Mür; David Armstong Six “The Law of the Excluded Middle” (2010) courtesy of the artist and Parisian Laundry; Rodney Graham “Good Hand Bad Hand” (2010) courtesy of the artist and Lisson gallery
BNL MTL 2011, the seventh edition of La Biennale de Montréal will open from Sunday 1st until Tuesday 31st May 2011. Curated by Claude Gosselin, executive and artistic Director of CIAC (Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal) and David Liss, artistic director of MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto), the theme of the biennale is “La Tentation du hazard / Elements of Chance”. It is inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1897 poem “Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hazard / A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance” which pushed formal boundaries by allowing its readers to choose a starting point and reading order; each person’s experience of the poem is therefore unique—and a matter of happenstance. Since its publication, the poem inspired many works of art. According to Gosselin, “Chance touches on the very idea of freedom. To give yourself over to chance is to embrace freedom, the unknown, total openness.”
