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Press release
For immediate release Urban territories
Montréal, October 5, 2005 - The advent of a global urban society poses new challenges to our conception of the city as a spatial and social entity. With the exhibition Urban Territories, presented from October 7, 2005 to January 8, 2006, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal takes a look at our evolving environment. “Territories” is in the plural since the subject here is not only physical space but also the territory covered by the interests and preoccupations of six young Quebec artists: Christian Barré, Martin Désilets, Isabelle Hayeur, Emmanuelle Léonard, Pavel Pavlov and Myriam Yates. UrbanTerritories consists of some thirty photographic and video works, all executed in 2004-2005 and most previously unseen or created especially for the exhibition. As curator Réal Lussier explains, all these artists use their work to express a particular vision of urban reality, “either the physical territory or the social space, while displaying a real concern for this constantly changing environment and the new situations it gives rise to.” In his project titled “Dignity,” for example, Christian Barré explores the question of urban anonymity and solitude. He photographs women like Jessie Dumont (2005), who either are, or have been, homeless. Borrowing poses from the worlds of fashion and advertising, he restores their freedom of the city. Martin Désilets examines the traces, however small, left by humans on the urban space. In Aménagement de la voie publique, gestion des végétaux, from the “Marquer le territoire-Transformer l’espace” series (2004-2005), he shows us a tree immediately prior to its transplantation. In Blindsight, from her “Excavations” series (2005), Isabelle Hayeur continues her investigation of urban transformations, revealing in this case the hidden strata of super-consumerism that lie beneath a suburban development. In the video installation Guardia, resguárdeme (2005), Emmanuelle Léonard pursues her examination of the boundaries between public and private in the urban space. Opposed to surveillance systems, she filmed armed security guards – without their knowledge – operating in the streets of Mexico, thus comparing two strategies of control. In Paysage avec cabanes II (2004), Pavel Pavlov takes a concentrated look at the artificiality of landscape. By means of photographic sequences picturing small identical buildings on Île Notre-Dame, Pavlov “maps” the landscape, and in so doing highlights the distancing of the spectator from the fragmented panorama. What can be said about our relationship to the city, about our individuality within public space? This is the question posed by Myriam Yates in her video installation Occupants (2005), which creates links between abandoned public places like Montréal’s Hippodrome and such private indoor spaces as a sports commentator’s booth. The work’s soundtrack enhances the connections between the various sites. UrbanTerritories – an exhibition that explores the urban environment from the perspective of its most recent mutations. Meetings with the artists Two dates to remember. First, on the day the exhibition opens, Thursday, October 6, 2005, meet artists Christian Barré, Martin Désilets, Isabelle Hayeur, Emmanuelle Léonard, Pavel Pavlov and Myriam Yates in the exhibition galleries (meeting in French). This event will be followed at 6 p.m. by the official opening. Then, on Wednesday, November 23, 2005, at 6 p.m., as part of the Point(s) de vue series, curator Réal Lussier will give a talk on the exhibition (in French). The meetings will be coordinated by Marie-France Bérard, Guided Tours Officer at the Musée.
An 88-page catalogue in English and French has been published by the Musée to accompany this exhibition. It includes an essay by the curator Réal Lussier, together with texts by the six artists, photographs of their works, a list of works and a biobibliography. It may be purchased for $19.99 at the Musée’s Olivieri bookstore, at the Librairie ABC livres d’art or from your local bookstore. The MACM is a provincially owned corporation funded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. It receives additional funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts. The Musée also thanks the Lichen advertising agency for its financial support for this exhibition.
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