Francoise Sullivan / Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto / Scores

Starting October 20, 2018, through January 20, 2019, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) is pleased to present Françoise Sullivan, Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto and Scores, as part of the final series of exhibitions to be presented at the MAC before its transformation project begins in 2019. During the renovations, the MAC will move in a smaller temporary space in Montréal and will keep offering an artistic programming to the public.

Françoise Sullivan
This major retrospective exhibition highlights the versatility and rigorous journey of Françoise Sullivan, a leading figure of Québec’s avant-garde, as well as a co-signer of the Refus global manifesto. A luminary in the history of Québec and Canadian art, Sullivan began her career in the 1940s, where she was part of the emerging Automatist movement, and never ceased reinventing herself. Some 50 works are brought together in this exhibition, including paintings, sculptures, and archival documentation. The retrospective is accompanied by an impressive series of unique performances from guest artists inspired by Sullivan’s work. Invited artists include Dana Michel (associate artist at Par B.L.eux), The Two Gullivers (Flutura Preka & Besnik Haxhillari), Dorian Nuskind-Oder, Simon Grenier-Poirier, Catherine Lavoie-Marcus and Maryse Larivière.

A substantial catalogue (288 pages, 180 illustrations), featuring essays by Mark Lanctôt, exhibition curator, Vincent Bonin, Ray Ellenwood and Noémie Solomon is published for this retrospective.

The exhibition will embark on a multi-city Canadian tour organized in collaboration with two Ontario museums: the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, and the Art Gallery of Windsor. It will then be shown in the Musée régional de Rimouski (Québec) and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (British Columbia).

Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto
Through this 13-channel video installation, German artist Julian Rosefeldt pays tribute to the eloquence and literary beauty of artist manifestos. The artwork/event, which lies at the crossroads between film, performance and installation, presents a modern take on and meaning to texts that shaped art history throughout the 20th century.

Each of the 13 screens in Manifesto shows the same actor (Cate Blanchett) taking on various roles: schoolteacher, homeless man, factory worker, puppeteer, scientist. 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 13 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, Kasimir 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 Australian Centre for the Moving Image Melbourne (ACMI), the Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney, the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Sprengel Museum Hanover. 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
This exhibition bridges the two others by combining manifestos and original documents used in Julian Rosefeldt: Manifesto with Refus global, and other manifestos from the dance, conceptual art and performance art scenes across Québec and Canada. Said documents are presented as “scores” designed to express the constantly evolving power of language to transform the world.

Information:
Roxane Dumas-Noël
Head of Public Relations
T +1 514 847 6232 / roxane.dumas-noel@macm.org