The Grand Balcony
October 19, 2016 - January 15, 2017
La Biennale de Montréal, Montréal
Installation view of The Grand Balcony, La Biennale de Montréal, 2016
Photo: Guy L'Heureux, La Biennale de Montréal
Press release
La Biennale de Montréal is pleased to announce the artists who will take part in its 2016 edition (BNLMTL 2016), on view to the public from October 19, 2016 to January 15, 2017. Entitled Le Grand Balcon, BNLMTL 2016 calls for a materialist and sensualist approach and recasts the pursuit of sensual pleasures, making a case for its decisive role in everyday life and political decision-making. The project bets on the liberatory potential of art and invites us to rethink both the (im)possibility of an emancipation through pleasure—and its urgency. It summons us to mobilize both the brain and the body’s capacities to their fullest to affirm the pleasure we must take—a hedonist politics—far from the easy rewards of consumption and the indifference of (mere) knowledge.
Le Grand Balcon combines a multi-site exhibition, publications and a dynamic series of performances, concerts, film screenings, talks, tours, conferences, encounters and experiences. Le Grand Balcon was conceptualized and curated by Philippe Pirotte in dialogue with curatorial advisors Corey McCorkle, Aseman Sabet and Kitty Scott, and in close collaboration with Sylvie Fortin, Executive and Artistic Director of La Biennale de Montréal. BNLMTL 2016 is presented by La Biennale de Montréal and co-produced with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), in collaboration with 14 other local partners and venues.
Exhibited works
The Intermediate – Asymmetric Quadrupedal Bushy-head, 2016
The Intermediate – Naturalized Klangkörper, 2016
The Intermediate – Dragon Conglomerate, 2016
Rooted Stones on Parallel Dimensions, 2016
Sonic Sphere – Horizontally-striped Brass and Nickel, 2015
Can Cosies Pyramid – Tulip 340 g Silver, 2011