download - Art Toronto

BNL MTL 2011
CIAC / BNL MTL, C.P. 760 succ. Place du Parc, Montréal QC H2X 4A6, Canada
Tel: 514 288 0811 Fax: 514 288 5021 Email: ciac@ciac.ca Web: www.biennalemontreal.org
Presented by CIAC–Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal
May 2011, Montréal
Ian Wallace
Un Coup de Dés (Les Pages),
work in progress
2010
The 7th presentation of La Biennale de Montréal (BNL MTL) will take place from May 1 to 31, 2011. It will bring together
groundbreaking work by artists from Canada and abroad under the theme of “Chance”.
The co-curators of this 7th presentation are Claude Gosselin, Executive and Artistic Director of CIAC–Centre international
d’art contemporain de Montréal and producer of the biennial, and David Liss, Artistic Director and Curator of MOCCA –
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto.
The BNL MTL will focus more specifically on Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1897 poem entitled Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira
le hazard (A throw of the dice will never abolish chance). The unique form of this poem was a benchmark in modern
typography, in some way foreshadowing the book as an art object, and what some describe as the origin of contemporary
art by opening the concept of space and time to the visual arts.
Likelihood, coincidence, games of chance, good luck, etc.—these words are all associated with chance. In different ways,
chance determines a major part of our lives. The human condition is such that we move forward without knowing what
tomorrow will bring. We venture into something that we know little about. Chance intervenes and plays its role in our
understanding of the world.
The BNL MTL offers a diversified program of exhibitions, performances, conferences and art film projections.
22 2010 Special Projects