Video Spots Artworks
The Musée d’art contemporain and Télé-Québec exhibit and broadcast ten video spots

 
Montréal, May 14, 2008  — Two major provincially owned corporations, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and Télé-Québec, have pooled their expertise to produce, broadcast and exhibit 10 video spot artworks by some of Québec’s most promising artists.

The two institutions have developed an ideal scenario for showcasing the works of Québec artists who were each commissioned to create a one-minute video spot artwork. The very nature of the video medium means that these works can be shown in both exhibition and televised format and on the Internet. From today, May 14, 2008, through to September 7, they will be broadcast over the airwaves of Télé-Québec and on its website at www.telequebec.tv. In addition, from May 24 to September 7, they will be presented as part of the first Québec Triennial at the Musée d’art contemporain.

Ten video spot artworks

 The participants are all visual artists who have incorporated media-based work into their practices. They were given carte blanche as to the content and scenarios of their video spots. The results are striking, mysterious, disconcerting… and extremely diverse. Broadcasting these works during commercial breaks will introduce an element of surprise into the regular television programming and the way it is perceived by audiences. You will see:

Gwenaël Bélanger, L’Hameçon
Patrick Bernatchez, Pluton
Louis-Philippe Eno, Sans titre
Charles Guilbert and Serge Murphy, Une flamme dans l’univers
Bettina Hoffmann, Effleurer
Manon Labrecque, Contagion
Lynne Marsh, One-Minute Camera Opera
Tricia Middleton, Déclins
Yannick Pouliot, Je te veux
Chih-Chien Wang, Broth 01

…all 2008 works created especially for the project.

In L’Hameçon, Gwenaël Bélanger hooks us with a swirling fan that throws off our perception; with Pluton, Patrick Bernatchez draws us into an apocalyptic duel between a cosmonaut and a force from another dimension; in Louis-Philippe Eno’s Sans titre, the film of a life scrolls by, revealed by a simple flare; Une flamme dans l’univers, by Charles Guilbert and Serge Murphy, takes us on an existential quest hinging on a monologue and a plastic shopping bag; Bettina Hoffmann’s Effleurer revolves around a group frozen in time, re-creating the immobility of photography but with the density of a high-relief sculpture; Manon Labrecque hopes, with Contagion, to induce the spectatorsto yawn; Lynne Marsh uses the television space as a framing device for her One-Minute Camera Opera; with engaging dissolves, Tricia Middleton’s Déclins links together images ranging from the most commonplace and everyday to the sublime; Je te veux by Yannick Pouliot is a series of to-ings and fro-ings, an enfilade of suspended time, in a labyrinth that is furnished yet devoid of human presence; Chih-Chien Wang’s Broth 01 completes the cycle, with its examination of pauses, of disruption in time and space.

A project dedicated to art here and now

Marc Mayer, Director of the Musée d’art contemporain, and Michèle Fortin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Télé-Québec, are delighted to see this innovative joint project, dedicated entirely to the creative endeavour, come to fruition. According to Marc Mayer, “this terrific project allows us to move beyond the places usually associated with contemporary art and promote the visual arts in the media.” For her part, Michèle Fortin is proud of this groundbreaking partnership and the fact that Télé-Québec airwaves will offer an additional cultural showcase for art being created here and now. After the Triennial, the works will join the Musée Collection and become part of our collective Québec heritage. These art videos will also be added to the catalogue of Télé-Québec, which may rebroadcast them at a later date.

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Source and information:                                                           
Danielle Legentil
Public Relations Coordinator
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Tél. : 514.847.6232                                                                       
E-mail: danielle.legentil@macm.org                                   

Anne-Marie Cloutier
Information Officer
Télé-Québec
Tél. : 514.521.2424 poste 2113
E-mail: amcloutier@telequebec.tv