Fall 2018 at the MAC: A fresh new take on Françoise Sullivan and the first Canadian presentation in a museum of Julian Rosefeldt's Manifesto

MONTREAL, Aug. 16, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Performances, paintings, sculptures, video installations and artist manifestos are on the program for this fall at the MAC. From October 20, 2018, to January 20, 2019, visitors will have the chance to discover a unique retrospective on Françoise Sullivan, the tremendous Québec artist who co-signed the Refus global manifesto, and to experience Julian Rosefeldt's Manifesto featuring an extraordinary performance by actor Cate Blanchett. To bridge the Françoise Sullivan retrospective and the Manifesto exhibition, the MAC will also present Scores, a documentary exhibition presenting the original copies of historical artist manifestos. The exhibition will be interspersed with three artworks by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Romany Eveleigh and Mathieu Beauséjour, which also highlight the importance of the materiality of the manifesto. To round up the fall program, there will be interactive tours, creative workshops and two new SéminArts series, an educational program on collecting contemporary works of art. Until then, and until September 9, visitors can immerse themselves in Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's interactive technological exhibition, Unstable Presence. As the MAC will be setting up its new exhibitions from September 10 to October 19, the exhibition rooms will be closed to the public. However, it will continue to run its educational activities for visitors.

Françoise Sullivan ? October 20, 2018 to January 20, 2019

This retrospective exhibition highlights the key role of artist Françoise Sullivan in the history of modern and contemporary art in Québec. It's a chance for visitors to discover or rediscover an artist whose major impact on Québec and Canadian culture deserves to be more fully recognized. In addition to presenting the artist's diverse and multidisciplinary practice, the exhibition offers an in-depth exploration of some of the milestones in her career. The various styles and approaches adopted by Sullivan over the years are contextualized with the help of archival documents.

To complement the exhibition, the MAC will present a cycle of performances inspired by Sullivan's artistic trajectory. Invited choreographers include Catherine Lavoie-Marcus, Dana Michel and Dorian Nuskind-Oder.

The exhibition will be touring in Canada in 2019 and will be accompanied by a scholarly publication providing an overview of the artist's career and including essays by Vincent Bonin, Ray Ellenwood, Mark Lanctôt and Noémie Solomon, as well as an illustrated chronology tracing the artist's life and career.

The Françoise Sullivan exhibition reaffirms the MAC's role as a major institution engaging in a deep exploration of the artistic processes of the most significant figures in Québec's recent art history.

Julian Rosefeldt : Manifesto ? October 20, 2018 to January 20, 2019

Produced in 2015, Manifesto is a thirteen-channel immersive video installation that stands as a tribute to the tradition and literary beauty of artist manifestos. The artwork/event, which lies at the crossroads between film, performance and installation, gives the MAC's audiences an opportunity to personally experience a work that has created a sensation wherever it has been shown.

Each of the thirteen screens in Manifesto presents the same actor, Cate Blanchett, taking on various roles: schoolteacher, homeless man, factory worker, puppeteer, scientist. In a performance that "invokes immediate awe," according to The Independent, and was described by The New York Times as a "tour de force," the actor becomes a chameleon, displaying the full extent of her extraordinary talent.

All of the monologues spoken?actually, the only words spoken in the piece?are formed out of various artists' manifestos published over the last 150 years or so. Rosefeldt offers us thirteen collages, drawing on the writings of Futurists, Dadaists, Fluxus artists, Suprematists, Situationists, Dogme 95, and the musings of artists, architects, dancers and filmmakers such as Claes Oldenburg, Yvonne Rainer, Kazimir Malevitch, André Breton, Elaine Sturtevant, Sol LeWitt and Jim Jarmusch. The result is a fascinating installation that reveals both the performative component and the political significance of these declarations.

Manifesto has been co-commissioned by the ACMI ? Australian Centre for the Moving Image Melbourne, the Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney, the Nationalgalerie ? Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Sprengel Museum Hannover. The work is co-produced by the Burger Collection Hong Kong and the Ruhrtriennale. It was realized thanks to the generous support of the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and in cooperation with Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Scores ? October 20, 2018 to January 20, 2019 
This documentary exhibition, conceived as a link between Manifesto and the Françoise Sullivan retrospective, presents originals of most of the major historical manifestos quoted in Julian Rosefeldt's video installation. To mark the seventieth anniversary of the publication of Refus global, a copy of that celebrated album (which includes a text by Françoise Sullivan entitled "Dance and Hope") is also on display, along with archival documents and other manifestos that arose from the intersection of dance and performance with the visual arts in Québec and the rest of Canada, from the 1960s to the 1990s.

This series of historical documents is interspersed with three artworks, by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Romany Eveleigh and Mathieu Beauséjour, that also highlight the importance of the materiality of the manifesto and its essentially performative nature: meant to be put into practice, played out, and reenacted, the manifesto operates as a framework for language's constantly renewed involvement in the transformation of the world.

Interactive tours and art workshops for adults, groups and families

Through personal observation of works, the Interactive Tours help visitors develop their eye for the art object. Visitors will be able to enjoy the tours until September 9, and then from October 20, 2018, to January 20, 2019. Details and links are in the table below.

Every Sunday from September 16 to October 14, teenagers and adults can participate freely to the With Fingertips workshop, a pigment transfer workshop inspired by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's spectacular Pulse Spiral (2008) installation. The workshop will also be available for group reservations from September 14 to October 12. Details and links are in the table below.

The full program of educational activities related to the Françoise Sullivan and Julian Rosefeldt exhibitions will be announced in September.

Fall 2018 SéminArts: two series on collecting contemporary artworks

The SéminArts educational program aims to demystify the world of contemporary art. Conducted in an atmosphere conducive to discussion and the sharing of ideas, this educational program gives participants a chance to discover the art world and the workings of the art market through five sessions with various players in the arts community, including artists, gallerists, private collectors, corporate collectors and exhibition or museum curators.

A regular series (in French) and an advanced series (in English) will be offered this fall. The advanced series is intended for participants who have attended the regular series or who are already familiar with the contemporary art world and who want to learn even more. Dates, details and links are in the table below.

FALL AT THE MAC IN A NUTSHELL

Photos
Françoise Sullivan, Chute en rouge, 1966
Collection of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. 
© Françoise Sullivan / SODRAC (2018) 
Photo: Guy L'Heureux 

Julian Rosefeldt, Stills from Manifesto, 2015
13-channel film installation 
Julian Rosefeldt, Manifesto, 2015 © Julian Rosefeldt and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Françoise Sullivan, Hommage to Paterson [Hommage à Paterson], diptych, 2003
Acrylic on canvas.
137 x 226 in. 
Photo: Guy L'Heureux / Galerie Simon Blais 
© Françoise Sullivan / SODRAC (2018)

Acknowledgments
The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal 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 MAC welcomes the support of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a partner for educational activities, and of the National Bank of Canada, a partner of the Museum's and the Foundation's events. Lastly, the MAC would like to sincerely thank its media partners: La Presse, The Gazette, and the Beaubien and du Parc Cinemas.

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Located in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal makes today's art a vital part of Montréal and Québec life. For more than fifty years, this vibrant museum has brought together local and international artists, their works and an ever-growing public. It is also a place of discovery, offering visitors experiences that are continually changing and new, and often unexpected and stirring. The MAC presents temporary exhibitions devoted to outstanding and relevant current artists who provide their own particular insight into our society, as well as exhibitions of works drawn from the museum's extensive Permanent Collection. These may feature any and every form of expression: digital and sound works, installations, paintings, sculptures, ephemeral pieces, and more. In addition to its wide range of educational activities familiarizing the general public with contemporary art, the MAC organizes unique artistic performances and festive events. It is a window onto a myriad of avant-garde expressions that extend the reach of art throughout the city and beyond. macm.org/en/

SOURCE Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal