Mois de la Photo: Into the Deeps
Roni Horn Some Thames 2000 Detail Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth © Roni Horn
Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal—the city’s international contemporary photography biennial—has once again returned with the 2011 theme “Lucidity: Inward Views.” This year’s guest curator, Anne-Marie Ninacs, is interested in what happens when artists turn the camera onto themselves while in the pursuit of inner clarity or “transparency of the mind.” The selected works investigate photography’s capacity to reveal aspects of the inner self—from meditations and observations to psychological depths and unconscious desires.
Until October 9, a selection of 25 international and local artists and artist collectives, including a strong Canadian contingent, will be showcased throughout the city at 14 locations, which feature both exhibitions and public-space interventions. This year’s main show is located within the recently renovated Arsenal in Griffintown, an impressive contemporary art space that is also the new home to Galerie René Blouin and Galerie Division. Mois de la Photo’s major group show is housed in a specially built temporary structure situated at the centre of an enormous converted warehouse space.
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Rinko Kawauchi Untitled from the series Illuminance 2009 Courtesy the artist and FOIL Gallery Tokyo © Rinko Kawauchi |
This main exhibition, also titled “Lucidity: Inward Views,” features a combination of heavy hitters and emerging talents that includes Scotland’s Douglas Gordon, Japan’s Rinko Kawauchi, South Africa’s Roger Ballen and Canada’s Normand Rajotte. The exhibition is thoughtfully curated, revealing the strength of this year’s theme—a succinct focus that offers a dynamic range of possibility. Although each selected artist positions photography as an introspective process, the end results are captivatingly different. Visitors transition from Corine Lemieux’s detailed eye for daily encounters to Jack Burman’s rivetingly dark documentation of death to Rinko Kawuachi’s transcendental meditations on existence. Installed on the façade of the Arsenal is a series of large blow-up photographs by Montreal artist Yann Pocreau, who taps into the psychic resonance of dilapidated built environments by physically intervening within each of the spaces.
Other highlights throughout the city include Raymonde April’s carefully curated self-portrait drawn from her own archives at Optica, Luis Jacob’s solo exhibition that includes new work inspired by the McCord Museum’s collection, and Roni Horn’s series Some Thames, exploring the fleeting nature of existence at Galerie de l’UQAM.
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Yann Pocreau Se partager l’espace 2011 Detail Courtesy the artist and Galerie Simon Blais © Yann Pocreau |
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