Three exhibitions not to be missed at the MAC!

Montréal, September 2, 2014 — Ever since it opened last June at the Musée d’art contemporain (MAC), the exhibition The Grace of a Gesture, organized to mark the museum’s fiftieth anniversary, has garnered countless glowing reviews from both the public and the media. La Presse journalist Éric Clément described the show as “truly a summer delight,” while The Gazette’s John Pohl said in his July 27 column: “The centrepiece of the museum’s anniversary celebration is The Grace of a Gesture, an impressive and engaging selection of artworks donated to the museum since 1964.” But you better move fast; you only have until this coming September 7 to enjoy this multidisciplinary exhibition showcasing some 200 works from the MAC Collection-all of them received as gifts over the museum’s fifty-year history.

In addition to The Grace of a Gesture, the Musée is presenting two other exhibitions, both running till September 7, that have sparked public interest and appreciation: Pulse Room and Citizens Band.  A literally brilliant relational artwork shown in 2007 at the Venice Biennale, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Pulse Room moves and surprises visitors who, through a sensor that captures their heart rate, add their heartbeat to that of thousands of others. These heartbeats are then transmitted in the form of pulses of light in some 300 incandescent light bulbs. Breathtaking!

Writing about Australian artist Angelica Mesiti’s work Citizens Band, John Pohl of The Gazette commented that “Mesiti’s four-screen video installation showing immigrants playing the music of their homelands in public spaces… packs an emotional punch.”

Lecture in Connection with The Grace of a Gesture

On Friday, September 5, 2014 at 5:30 p.m., Marcel Fournier, professor of sociology at the Université de Montréal and member of the Musée Board of Trustees, will give a lecture, in French, on donations of art, in connection with the exhibition The Grace of a Gesture: Fifty Years of Gifts. Taking as his starting point the influential work The Gift by Marcel Mauss, published in French in 1925, Fournier will conclude his presentation with an analysis of the artworks donated to the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal since 1964.
Cost: Regular admission fee, includes access to the exhibitions on view / Free for MACarte holders

A Matter of Abstraction

On display since 2012, the exhibition A Matter of Abstraction will close on September 14 to make way for BNLMTL 2014, L’avenir (looking forward), the first Biennale co-produced by the Musée d’art contemporain and La Biennale de Montréal.

The MAC at Night: Opening hours

The Musée d’art contemporain is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings until 9 p.m.; admission on Wednesday evenings is now half-price.

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 museum gratefully acknowledges their support and that of Collection Loto-Québec, the MAC’s principal partner. The MAC also thanks its media partner, La Presse+.