Ian Wallace (pictures), “Les Pages répandues” (2011), Acrylic and photolaminate on canvas, variable dimensions, Courtesy of Yvon Lambert New York, Photo Credit: the artist / David Armstrong Six (sculptures) “L’Esprit de l’escalier” (partial view), 2011, wood, steal, bronze, paint, plaster and glass, Variable dimensions, Courtesy of Parisian Laundry, Photo: Ludovic Beillard / BNL MTL 2011
The seventh edition of the Montreal Biennale concludes this week from a month-long program of exhibitions, screenings, workshops and more, themed this year by quoting Stéphane Mallarmé’s “Un coup de dé jamais n’abolira le hazard†(A throw of dice never will abolish chance), first published in a collection of poems from 1897. Historically, this “coup†went on to instigate several artistic revolutions, such as the schools of Dada, Surrealism and Futurism. Not only playing a pivotal role in the history of modern art after The Great War, chance also represents a central element in Fluxus as in the quieter revolution of Quebecois Art, like 1950’s Automatism. The Biennale’s affiliation to such movements is reiterated upon visiting the Guido Molinari Foundation, a satellite venue of the Biennale, within which hangs a series of paintings by the same artist, produced in 1951 whilst blind-folded. Artistic director Claude Gosselin, co-curator David Liss and electronic arts curator Paule Mackrous put into perspective the enduring prominence of chance in contemporary art, with a comprehensive exhibition acknowledging both national and international talents.
John Bock, “Monsieur et Monsieur” (2011) scale model of biennale installation, Courtesy of the artist
Using Montreal’s former School of Fine Arts as its main venue, where Automatiste founder Paul-Émile Borduas once studied and rebelled against his superiors, the Biennale proposes a challenging context for its invited artists. The numerous narrow spaces do little to help the presentation of some artworks, whilst others struggle to go beyond the obligé presence of dice, cut-up pages and calligrams. But most artists do take the topic in stride and find elegant solutions to accommodate the School’s quirky architecture. Championing this is John Bock’s multi-room installation Monsieur et Monsieur, a tongue-in-check collection of exaggeratedly dysfunctional areas, aged mid-20th-century interiors stratified with air vents, dodgy wiring and makeshift wall divisions. On the alternate pole sits Karilee Fuglem’s Film, a wonderfully understated arrangement of clear polyester sheets, blowing in the wind of consumer-grade ventilators, as if hanging out to dry. Nearly invisible without the light reflections of nearby windows, Fuglem’s work would not have survived if she hadn’t paved the floor underneath with plywood, a Povera but subdued surface consistent with the suspended films, and most importantly, covering up unevenly beige carpeting.
Jean Dubois “Brainstorm” (2011) Interactive In Situ video installation, Photo: the artist
Jean Dubois chose more extreme measures to dampen the venue’s architectural eccentricity, by blacking out the walls, windows and lights of his assigned space. Although we have seen flying typo before, Dubois’ video installation Brainstorm scores with an inventive interactive component. A single beam of light points to an Anemometer in the middle of the room, inviting us to blow into its cups, to energize the volatile and colliding words projected on the surrounding walls. Jeremy Shaw less successfully darkened his space to add atmosphere to an otherwise commendable collection of electro-chemically photo-processed fingerprints, each print allegedly altered by the subject’s mood. As chance would have it, Keith Tyson’s Nature Paintings are ill-matched with the harder metal works of roommate Daniel Spoerri, as are pieces by Rodney Graham and Lois Andison, confined in vexatious office cubicles.
Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead “Template Cinema†(2004-2011), Networked installation. Internet connection, monitor screen, speakers/headphones, Photo: Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead
The Biennale’s single-channel video program suffered a similar fate within other cubicles, but found solace online, to be viewed more comfortably from CIAC’s website. Template Cinema by Thomson & Craighead for example, jest the spectator’s expectations and position us as screen addicts when transmitting randomly selected images, texts and other data, rendering every new viewing again and again into unique experiences.
Walead Besthy “Fedex® Medium Kraft Box ©2004 FEDEX 155143 REV 10/04 BP, International Priority, Los Angeles-Montréal, trk# 797011682234” (2011), Copper, accrued shipping labels, 50,8 x 50,8 x 30,48 cm, Courtesy of WALLSPACE Gallery, Photo : Ludovic Beillard / BNL MTL 2011
As we climb higher up the five-story former art school, rooms become more spacious, regular, and a higher ratio of unbridled works come to fore, such as those of Scott Lyall, Gareth Moore, Jean Dupuy and Derek Sullivan. By this, artist tandem Cozic play a loose game of biomorphic associations, organizing a trophy room of found objects. Usually hidden away from view, packaging materials from the many product boxes of our consumer world are transformed into cute animal heads hanging on the wall, the prize collection of a cardboard safari. On the top floor, Walead Besthy continues to deliver with his FedEx series, shipping glass cases to galleries worldwide, with little more protection than a same-sized cardboard container. Once couriered to the Biennale, the FedEx box becomes a pedestal for the glass sculpture to stack on, and reveal its cracked surface from rough handlings in transit.
Guido Molinari (left) “Untitled” (1951), Oil on Masonite, 61 x 45,9 cm, Fondation Guido Molinari Collection, Photo: Guy L’Heureux / Ian Wallace (right) “Les Pages répandues” (2011) Acrylic and photolaminate on canvas, 204 x 152 cm, Courtesy Yvon Lambert New York, Photo: the artist
Our rise through the former beaux-arts school comes to its apex into the farthest top floor room, to find a lively dialogue between the works of Ian Wallace and David Armstrong Six. Wallace’s cleverly restrained canvases integrate photos of the artist’s studio amidst larger segments of neutral-coloured acrylic rectangles. The painted shapes of Les Pages Répandues unobtrusively pull back to allow more focused attention on the picture within: Antique editions of Mallarmé books are sprawled on a studio table, some opened to offer Lettrist constructions of the Biennale’s flagship quote, perhaps providing modernist how-to’s to the adjacent color blocks. Armstrong Six also generously nods to Mallarmé, in his case to his influence over surrealists. Occupying an expansive floor area, L’esprit de l’escalier balances a colourful system of linked tubes of various calibers, over blocks of wood and glass, adorned with a few well placed bronze baguette castings. The bread moulds, undeniably hinting to one of Dali’s favourite visual puns, agreeably add a figurative dimension to Armstrong Six’s otherwise line-based sculptures.
Keith Tyson (left) “Nature Painting KTP2104†(2010), Mixed media on aluminium, 61 x 61 cm, Collection of the artist, Courtesy of CIAC / BNL MTL 2011, Photo: Ludovic Beillard / Jeremy Shaw (right), “DMT (detail)”, (2004), Polaroid photographs, wood, acrylic, and metal vitrine, variable dimensions, Courtesy of Blanket Contemporary Art, Vancouver, Photo Credit: the artist
At the end of this visit, our verdict on the Biennale’s success remains unsettled, but ultimately this indecision elevates 2011’s edition into a conversation piece. Curatorial choices and other issues continue to spark debates within Montreal’s art community, the burning question continuing to tackle Mallarmé’s monopoly over randomness (a word more likely to encapsulates contemporary understandings of Hasard, especially within digital arts). Closer to 21st century art lies an abundance of artists working with Le Hasard, in ways that owe more to organised chaos, occurring at the social and participatory level. Albeit, a critic’s aversion to century-old references could simply be indicative of the neo-futurist world we live in, a youth culture constantly racing forward to new iPhone upgrades and Lady Gaga remixes. Allowing the old to live alongside the new is possibly becoming an emerging zeitgeist for the current art world, as also demonstrated with this year’s Venice Biennale, integrating Renaissance Art into their curatorial program.
The 7th edition of The Montreal Biennale is held from May 1st to 31st, 2011, bring together works of artists from QueÌbec, Canada and abroad. Its three main venues are
The former École des beaux-arts at Montréal
Open daily from noon to 6 pm, Thursday extended until 9 pm.
3450, St. Urbain Street at the corner of Sherbrooke Street West.
Place des Arts. Bus : 80 or 129.
La Fondation Guido Molinari
Open Wednesday to Sunday, from noon to 5 pm, last entrance at 4:30 pm.
3290, Sainte Catherine East Street.
Papineau, Frontenac, Préfontaine. Bus: 34, 29 or 125.
Le Cinéma du Parc
Open every Sunday from May 2011.
3575, Avenue du Parc
Place des Arts. Bus : 80 or 129.
by Oli Sorenson
READ INTERVIEW WITH BIENNALE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR CLAUDE GOSSELIN