Elisabeth Belliveau, Still Life with Fallen Fruit (after A Breath of Life, Clarice Lispector), still, 2017–19, video, 4 min 15 s. Courtesy of the artist.
Meagan Musseau, ewipkek / flat bay, nl, from the [re]claim series, 2017, appliqué beadwork on commercially tanned and dyed rabbit fur. Courtesy of the artist.
Bridget Moser, Every Room is a Waiting Room Part 1, still, 2017, video, 12 min 22 s (images and sound: Paul Tjepkema). Courtesy of the artist.
Anouk Kruithof, Stonewall, 2017, inkjet print on latex, polystyrene, fibreglass, paint. Courtesy of the artist.
Felicity Hammond, Public Protection, Private Collection, 2016. View of the installation at Space In Between (London, UK), 2016. Courtesy of the artist.
Taus Makhacheva, Tightrope, still, 2015, video, 58 min 10 s (tightrope walker: Rasul Abakarov; collection of the Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts named after P.S. Gamzatova). Courtesy of the artist, Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts named after P.S. Gamzatova (Makhachkala) and Cosmoscow Artists’ Patrons Programme (Moscow).
Maeve Brennan, The Drift, still, 2017, video, 50 min 29 s. Courtesy of the artist.
Juan Ortiz-Apuy, The Garden of Earthly Delights, still, 2017, video, 6 min 32 s. Courtesy of the artist.
Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Der Lauf der Dinge, still, 1987, video, 30 min. Collection of Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Courtesy of the artist and Icarus Films.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Bridget Moser and Elisabeth Belliveau), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Elisabeth Belliveau), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Bridget Moser), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Taus Makhacheva), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Anouk Kruithof and Meagan Musseau), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Juan Ortiz-Apuy), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Juan Ortiz-Apuy), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Maeve Brennan), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Felicity Hammond), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Felicity Hammond), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
View of the exhibition MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image. The Life of Things (Peter Fischli + David Weiss), VOX, from September 5 to October 13, 2019.
VOX, Elisabeth Belliveau, Maeve Brennan, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Felicity Hammond, Anouk Kruithof, Taus Makhacheva, Bridget Moser, Meagan Musseau, Juan Ortiz-Apuy, Galerie de l'UQAM, Laura Aguilar, Kader Attia, Patricia Domínguez, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Gauri Gill, Jérôme Havre, Keyezua, Rafael Ortega, Victoria Sin, Cauleen Smith and Camille Turner
Curators
María Wills Londoño, Audrey Genois, and Maude Johnson
Opening on Wednesday, September 4, 2019 at 6:30 pm
This exhibition is made possible in part by the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the Government of Canada, the gouvernement du Québec, the Ville de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, Brio, Desjardins, Éco-quartier Saint-Jacques, and Photo Service.
For the 16th edition of the biennale, which will take place from September 5 to October 13, 2019, MOMENTA presents The Life of Things. Curated by María Wills Londoño in collaboration with Audrey Genois and Maude Johnson, this edition of MOMENTA brings together 39 artists from 20 countries, in 13 exhibitions.
MOMENTA 2019 proposes a piercing look at the life of things, bringing into dialogue their consumerist and symbolic dimensions. The exhibited works testify to the different ways in which objects are experienced and what they tell us about how we think and live. Objects sometimes bear the fragments of the living, and, in other contexts, they have their own life.
Presented simultaneously at two locations—VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine and the Galerie de l’UQAM—the thematic exhibition generates a conversation fueled by the works of twenty-two artists and meshes four components: Cultural Objects and Material Culture; Thingified Beings or Humanized Objects; The Absurd as Counter-Narrative of the Object; Still Life in an Age of Environmental Crisis. At VOX are explored:
The Absurd as Counter-Narrative of the Object
Through the prism of the absurd, objects are diverted from their meaning in order to probe the weight of the real; codes are deconstructed, and contradictions emerge to disrupt beliefs and restore a capacity for wonder in contemporary societies. Staging and theatricality become strategies for generating irrational yet enchanting images and narratives that ultimately reveal a need for liberation.
Still Life in an Age of Environmental Crisis
As a pictorial genre, still life engages reflection on the way artists today represent everyday life and organize objects. It also enables a political consideration of the excessive accumulation of goods in contemporary societies and of the environmental crisis—the death in “nature morte,” or the stilling of life.
Event
What Will Stay You Alive. Performance by Bridget Moser
2019.10.02
As part of MOMENTA x VOX. The Life of Things, see you on Wednesday, October 2nd for a performance evening with Bridget Moser…
Read moreEco Still Life workshop
MOMENTA Creative consists of several educational activities and creative workshops developed in response to the biennale theme and based on the works on display. Designed with inclusion and representativeness in mind, these activities are free of charge.
The creative and reflective workshop Eco Still Life takes place at VOX: offered in collaboration with Éco-quartier Saint-Jacques and geared towards children 9 to 12 years old and their families, the activity invites kids to discover a few of the thematic exhibition’s artists, and then to create their very own three-dimensional still life using recycled materials! The workshop will be offered on Sunday, September 29 and Sunday, October 13, ongoing from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm (no reservation required). Eco Still Life is also intended for student groups (grades 4 to 6), and they can be welcomed (almost) anytime!
Follow this link to discover the full program or make a reservation.