Friday, October 25, 2024

PAC 2025: Witches


WITCHES OUT OF THE SHADOW

October 25, 2024 - April 6, 2025

Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal’s archaeology and history complex, presents its new exhibition, an immersion into the little-known history of witches and their mysterious world. From marginalized figures, learn how these women influence popular culture and asserted their presence through the centuries. This experience of intersecting myths and reality reveals the essence of witches. 

For Halloween, the Museum is holding a special evening event, Witches’ Night Out. An out-of-the-ordinary experience in the heart of the archaeological remains, offering an immersive exploration of the exhibition and an introduction to the world of witchcraft. Thursday, October 31, 2024, from 7 pm to 1 am.


Evil, helpful, victim or rebel… the witch is a figure whose representations have evolved over the centuries and in our collective imagination. Against this backdrop, this exhibition takes visitors on a journey through 400 objects from the private and institutional collections of over 30 European and North American museums. They represent witnesses of the history of witches and their world.

Witch Hunting – A Historical Reality

In exploring the era of witch hunts in the 16th and 17th centuries, when tens of thousands of women were persecuted and executed, the exhibition takes a tangible approach to the construction of the myth of the diabolical witch: this woman responsible for illness, death, and all other manner of ills in a society in crisis. This historical immersion into Europe and North America allows to pull back the veil on the practices and trials that saw close to 100,000 women meet tragic fates, from banishment to the stake. Among the pieces on display is a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), the misogynistic and ell-known treatise that played a key role in legitimizing and intensifying the practice of witch hunting.


Ancestral Know-How and Esoteric Practices

The world of witchcraft is an open window onto a broad spectrum of know-how and practices. From knowledge of medicinal plants to the art of divination, visitors are invited to explore the rituals of sorcery through a vast array of symbolic objects. Pendulums, crystals, tarot cards, and herbariums—the artifacts that reveal the powers attributed to the practices of sorcery, such as healing, enchantment, protection, and predicting the future.


Click on images to enlarge them.

All Photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information on the current exhibitions, activities and programs, visit the PAC Museum's website.

This article's dedicated internet address, or click on the title above the very first photo.



Monday, October 07, 2024

McCord 2024: Manasie Akpaliapik

MANASIE AKPALIAPIK: Inuit Universe

Immersion in the legends of the Far North

October 4, 2024 - March 9, 2025

The Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum presents a new exhibition, organized and circulated by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and adapted by the McCord Stewart Museum. It features the contemporary artist from Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay) on Baffin Island (Nunavut). It features sculptures from the remarkable Inuit art collection of the late Raymond Brousseau and offers a unique insight into the work of Manasie Akpaliapik.

Considered one of the most gifted artists of his generation, Manasie Akpaliapik uses his favourite materials – whale bone, caribou antler and stone – to create works inspired by oral tradition, cultural values, the supernatural world, as well as the wildlife and environment of the Arctic. Drawing from the mythology of the world of snow and ice in which he grew up, the artist turns to nature for inspiration and raw material, from which his unique, captivating and multidimensional works emerge spontaneously. Manasie Akpaliapik doesn’t plan what his works will look like. He combines materials and his sculptures emerge as individual and unique narratives. His fascination with whale bone - his medium of choice, though particularly rare and difficult to access - adds to the uniqueness of his works.


For five decades, Manasie Akpaliapik’s creations have been objects of fascination. Visitors will discover 40 of the artist’s sculptures at this exhibition. They tell a fragment of the story of the Inuit people and inspire reflection at a time when the relationship between humanity, nature, and climate is at the front-page. Wildlife, the tales and legends of the North of the sea goddess Talilayuq and the sacred Owl, as well as the shamanism, the transmission of knowledge and the Arctic environment are embodied in an impressive amalgam of materials that characterizes each of Manasie Akpaliapik’s creations.

Manasie Akpaliapik elaborated:

Everything that I am doing is trying to capture some of the culture of our traditions, about simple things like hunting, wearing traditional clothing, and using legends. I feel that the only way we can preserve the culture is if people see it.”

Daniel Drouin, curator of the exhibition, stated:

A virtuoso with hammer Manasie Akpaliapik is without doubt one of the most important sculptors of his generation. Equipped with both a masterful sense of material and technical perfection, the artist has succeeded in infusing his work with a highly personal reaction to the upheavals and transformations of his world, the Canadian Far North, and the people around him. At once humble, simple and reserved, Manasie transforms the bones found in the Arctic soil into inspiring stories. His mission: to transmit a sense of pride to succeeding generations.”


Manasie Akpaliapik grew up in Irpiarjuk on Baffin Island. In the 1980s, he migrated to southern Canada, first to Montreal, then later to the Greater Toronto Area. Although he works from his studio in the “South,” his materials come almost exclusively from the Far North. Every year he returns there since his creative process hinges on the use and combination of materials gathered from the ground in the region where he was born. The forty works presented in the exhibition, with a few exceptions, are entirely made from a combination of materials collected during his annual trips to Nunavut. As he explained:

My art helps me preserve my connection between north and south, and thus helps me find my place between the Western world and Inuit culture.”


Art as salvation

While Manasie Akpaliapik’s work reflects Inuit history and traditions, it also touches on his own personal story with a profoundly human and universal sensitivity. Art becomes a means of expressing the challenges he has had to overcome, but also of externalizing the demons he has long battled. In his own words: 

“When life gets really tough, my art is always there to pull me up."

His exceptional work demonstrates the influence of contemporary art and culture.

Anne Eschapasse, McCord Stewart Museum President and CEO stated:

As the custodians of a collection that bears witness to nearly 12,000 years of Indigenous history and presence on the land, the McCord Stewart Museum has long worked to highlight the vitality and diversity of contemporary Inuit, First Nations and Métis artists. Thanks to our collaboration with the Musée national des beaux-arts duQuébec, we are delighted to be able to present the work of Manasie Akpaliapik, who is unquestionably one of the greats of his generation.”


Manasie Akpaliapik

With a career spanning four decades and his art displayed in institutions such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Civilization, and several private galleries, Manasie has created art inspired by his deep love for animals and for Inuit legends and their narratives in which the relationship between humans and animals is one of mutual respect.

Manasie is also a practised drum dancer, drum maker and is versed in kayak building. He continues to travel to the Arctic every year to search the shores for ancient whale bones and to connect with his family and community. He enjoys passing the Inuit legends to the younger generation and works tirelessly to keep the oral tradition of storytelling alive.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information about current exhibitions and special evens associated with this exhibition, visit the McCord Stewart Museum website.


For this article's dedicated internet address click on the title above the very first image or here.




Monday, September 23, 2024

Centaur Theatre: Sakura

SAKURA – After Chekhov

Written by Harry Standjofski

Directed by Eda Holmes

With Deena Aziz, Ravyn R. Bekh, Stefanie Buxton, Marcel Jeannin, Marc-Antoine Kelertas, Howard Rosenstein, and Paul Van Dyck

September 17, 2024 — October 6, 2024

This is a world premiere adaptation of a 19th century Russian play, based on Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece The Cherry Orchard, a story of a pre-revolutionary Russian upper-class (gentry) family forced to sell their estate, including a beloved orchard, to pay off debts that have accumulated from years of mismanagement and self-indulgence. Yet if one cherishes the original Chekhov's plays, the subtle and even elusive way he portrays his characters, their dilemmas and relationships, as well as the general mood and wider social connotations, the Harry Standjofski's reinterpretation of the play for the 21th century is very different. Although he uses the same though renamed characters as in the Chekov's play, with basically the same plot, his play fails to create a deep sympathy for the personages on stage as do the original Chekov's plays.

Moreover, the Standjofski's play is supposed to be a "witty comedy with a hint of nostalgia". Chekov's play was not a comedy. This is where the plays of two playwriters part. The frequent language crudity and the enactment on stage of the sex act bring both plays even further apart.

Harry Standjofski is a Montreal playwright and actor. His play is based on the present day's milieu that surrounds him and that he knows the best: their current sensibilities, the language usage, their relationships, and how they tend to express their frustrations and desires. A great number of the audience could relate to that and even identify with it. However, those who might hope to see a Chekov-type of play might be disappointed.


All images in this article courtesy of Centaur Theatre.

For more information about Centaur Theatre visit the Centaur Theatre website.


Sunday, September 15, 2024

MMFA2024: TWO BY TWO, TOGETHER

TWO BY TWO, TOGETHER

Bringing together over 80 recent additions to the MMFA's collection

September 11, 2024 – October 5, 2025

With this exhibition, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is opening a window into its collecting practices. Two by Two, Together, which brings together a rich selection of works from all over the world that have been acquired over the past five years. Most of them are being shown to the public for the first time and are grouped together in such a way as to create a dialogue between them, while showcasing the Museum's many collecting areas of interest.

Two by Two, Together unveils some 80 diverse works that shine a spotlight on works made in a wide range of artistic disciplines by artists from Quebec, Canada, and around the world. Visitors can admire important paintings by Peter Doig, Pierre Dorion, Wanda Koop, Stéphane La Rue, Robert Clow Todd, Claude Tousignant, Robin F. Williams and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun; sculptures by Louise Bourgeois, Stanley Février, Giuseppe Penone and Kishio Suga; graphic works by Tony Lewis, Nicolas Party and Rembrandt; photographs by Herbert List and Robert Mapplethorpe; and an early Chinese cosmic board (Liuren Shipan) from the Sui Dynasty.

The MMFA's permanent collection is one of the oldest in Canada and consists of close to 47,000 art works and objects from five continents, dating from the Neolithic era to the present day. This collection grows each year through donations, purchases and bequests.

Stéphane Aquin, Director of the MMFA, stated:

"In continuously developing the collection, the MMFA is committed to presenting works by artists who have long been marginalized and underrepresented. We aim to offer our audiences an increasingly inclusive experience, through the diversity and richness of acquisitions from every corner of the globe and spanning thousands of years of history."

Iris Amizlev, Curator of Special Projects at the MMFA and curator of the exhibition added:

"Most of the works in Two by Two, Together are grouped together, such as to create a dialogue between them based on their subject, medium, form, function or period. Through these juxtapositions, we hope to provoke new and enlightening interpretations of the Museum's collection." 

Aside from the creations shown in the exhibition, other recently acquired artworks can be found in the Museum's permanent collection galleries, identified by special labels. In addition, a new rotation of works in the galleries adjacent to Two by Two, Together highlight new contemporary acquisitions by such artists as Esmaa Mohamoud, Christina Quarles and Kareem-Anthony Ferreira.

The acquisition process

Every potential acquisition is subject to the same rigorous process in order to evaluate whether it is a pertinent addition to the MMFA's collection.

The curatorial team conducts extensive research to determine if the object will enhance the MMFA's collections, either by adding depth to or diversifying it, or by introducing new perspectives.

Works are also evaluated by the Conservation department to assess their condition. Factors such as instability, damage or inadequate restoration attempts might influence acquisition decisions.

If the results of these investigations support an artwork's inclusion in the Museum's collection, curators present their acquisition recommendation to internal and external acquisition committees. Each of the four acquisition committees includes at least one member of the MMFA's Board of Trustees as well as external advisors. If committee members agree with the recommendation, and this recommendation is approved by the Board of Trustees, the acquisition can proceed. The work is then catalogued, photographed and restored, as necessary.

Credits and curatorial team

An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
It is curated by Iris Amizlev, Curator of Special Projects, MMFA

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your tickets online.


Saturday, September 14, 2024

McCord 2024: Michaëlle Sergile

Michaëlle Sergile:

To All the Unnamed Women

Exploring the relationship between history and archival violence

September 13, 2024 - January 12, 2025


This exhibition is presented by the Montreal's McCord Stewart Museum. It combines archival records and fiction, and traces the origins of the first collective created by Black women in Quebec, the Coloured Women’s Club of Montreal (CWCM). Michaëlle Sergile is drawing on the concept of critical fabulation theorized by an American author Saidiya Hartman, defined as a methodology that combines historical and archival research with a critical theory and fictional narrative (see here).


For her first solo exhibition at the museum, the artist has created 7 original tapestries on Jacquard looms. Three of them reconstruct images selected from the Museum’s Photography collection, and four illustrate portraits of CWCM members. Archival photographs and objects from the Museum collections complete the installation. The artist stated:

 “When I started working with textiles, I realized there was a disconnect between the visual arts and craft, as if the two notions couldn’t coexist. I thought it fitted in very well with the way I conceptualized archives, because I was very interested in anything that’s put aside. I felt that the medium of weaving itself was being sidelined. I liked that the word métissage (“racial mix”) contains tissage (“weaving”), just like text and textile.”


For Michaëlle Sergile, creation is a way of confronting the limitations of archives, of imagining and fully recognizing the lives of individuals of whom we have only a few traces. Weaving was an obvious choice as a medium for expressing the realities of the Black women featured in the exhibition, as many parallels can be drawn between the themes addressed and weaving. Often associated with handicrafts, this medium is still rarely used by artists. As proof, only 3 computer-assisted Jacquard looms – used by Michaëlle to create her works – are available in Montreal.


Michaëlle Sergile stated about her installation:

 “To All the Unnamed Women doesn’t simply commemorate the past, but offers a profound reflection on the creation of memories and the importance of identification. Through archives, I can say what I can’t always say. It’s a great way to create a link with people who once existed but are no longer with us today, to give a sense of continuity to their discourse. I think there’s something beautiful and powerful about thinking of all the people who have had these thoughts before you, and being able to associate them with the period you’re living in.” 



Michaëlle Sergile

Michaëlle Sergile is an independent artist and curator working mainly with archives from the post-colonial period, from 1950 to the present day. Her artistic practice aims to understand and rewrite the history of Black communities, and more specifically that of women, through the medium of weaving. Traditionally associated with craftsmanship and femininity, weaving allows her to explorepower relations linked to gender and ethnicity

She has recently exhibited her work at the Musée national des beaux-arts duQuébec, the Musée d’art deJoliette, the Fonderie Darling and the OFF, Biennale deDakar, Senegal. She also waslong listed for the prestigious Sobey Arts Award in 2022. In 2023, she won the Visual Artist of the Year Award at Gala Dynastie and began a residency at the Fonderie Darling.

Curatorial and production team:

An exhibition created by the McCord Stewart Museum.

Artist: Michaëlle Sergile

Project management: Caroline Truchon

Project Manager, Exhibitions Curating: Mathieu Lapointe

Curator, Archives Graphic design: David Martin



Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information about current exhibitions and special evens associated with this exhibition, visit the McCord Stewart Museum website.



Saturday, August 31, 2024

World Press Photo 2024

The World Press Photo 2024

Montreal 17th Edition

August 28 - October 14, 2024

At Marché Bonsecours

Equivalent to the Oscar of the photography, World Press Photo is a recurring  annual  event extremely popular with professional photographers, the amateurs, and the general public.

World Press Photo Montreal exhibition is one of the most popular in the world. In order to better meet the public demand (for the second year running) the event is taking place over six weeks instead of the traditional four.


This year, the winning photos were selected from over 61,000 entries submitted by 3,851 photographers from 130 countries, for a total of 24 winning projects and six honorable mentions, as well as two special mentions by an exceptional decision of the jury.

The images cover themes ranging from the war between Israel and Hamas to the climate crisis and the family. The works invite viewers to step outside the general news and take an in-depth look at exceptional but little-known stories from around the world.



A number of various independent and specialized international juries had chosen the regional World Press Photo winners for 2024 as per four individual categories: Single Images, Series, Long-Term Projects and Free Format. The global winners were announced on April 18, 2024, in Amsterdam.


Founded in 1955, the World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization with its headquarters in Amsterdam. The foundation is committed to supporting and advancing high standards of photojournalism and documentary storytelling worldwide. Each year, the exhibition travels to more than 100 cities in 45 countries and is seen by more than 4 million visitors. The World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers). The World Press Photo Montreal exhibition receives support from ICI RDI, La Presse, and the SDC Vieux-Montréal.




Click on Images to enlarge them

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

Visit the World Press Photo Montreal 2023 website

For more information, follow the World Press Photo on Facebook and Twitter. 




Thursday, June 20, 2024

MNBAQ 2024: Helen McNicoll

HELEN McNICOLL: AN IMPRESSIONIST JOURNEY

CELEBRATION OF LIGHT!

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec

June 20, 2024 - January 5, 2025


Helen McNicoll (1879-1915) and her work is featured this summer in an exhibition at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ). The MNBAQ is proud to present the first Québec retrospective in a century of the Canadian impressionist painter’s work. Visitors will discover an artist whose destiny was both quite incredible and fleeting. She is a little-known but a fascinating artist noteworthy for her outstanding mastery of light and atmospheric effects. The visitors will experience the irresistible charm of her work and her outstanding mastery of light and atmospheric effects. “Painter of the sun,” “A painter who spreads sunlight on her canvases,” and “A painter who addresses the senses” are some of the characteristics that qualify this artist.

The Helen McNicoll. An Impressionist Journey exhibition has been conceived through the prism of travel and the effervescence of a period and by examining the themes of independence, friendship, and women’s freedom. The retrospective exhibition assembles more than 65 paintings, of which 25 come from the remarkable collection of philanthropist and art lover Pierre Lassonde, and the remainder from 15 institutional and private collections and also includes sketches, a watercolour, and photographs presented in a refined setting. It invites visitors on a voyage and, above all, to experience an adventure bathed in vibrant, shimmering colours.

The exhibition also highlights the work of a free painter who pushed the boundaries as an independent professional woman at a time when women were often confined to the domestic sphere, thereby contributing to the recognition on the world stage of Québec and Canadian art. The splendidly luminous exhibition reveals a major timeless, indeed essential, body of work

A remarkable destiny

Born in Toronto in the late 19th century, Helen McNicoll grew up in Montréal in a well-to-do environment. Her parents were recent British immigrants to Canada who encouraged artistic practice. Scarlet fever rendered her deaf at the age of 2 and her parents encouraged her from childhood to develop her artistic and musical creativity despite her handicap.

The McNicoll family’s wealth meant that she could paint freely without having to worry about selling her works or teaching to support herself. Moreover, family relationships afforded her contact with Montréal’s leading art collectors at the time.

At the Art Association of Montréal McNicoll studied with William Brymner (1855-1925), who encouraged his students to travel in Europe to further their training. She made London, then a prosperous art centre, her base, where she undoubtedly discovered more progressive work than what was being done in Canada.

Helen McNicoll, who was noteworthy for her love of travel and the discovery of new spaces, undoubtedly perceived her relationship to the world and her artistic output linked to fledgling tourism at the turn of the 20th century.

Her European travels put McNicoll in direct contact with the innovative styles teeming in these artistic communities and gave her a special understanding of the development of impressionism and post-impressionism. Stimulated by all these influences, McNicoll painted landscapes focusing on rural life and genre scenes. She developed a fresh, brilliant style that became her own distinct language.

The artist also played a significant role in bridging North American and European art. She was celebrated in her lifetime for the high quality of her light-bathed rural or seaside landscapes and intimate scenes in which feminine subjects predominate.

Helen McNicoll’s brief but prolific career was shaped by the presentation of scores of works at exhibitions in Canada and England for which she received awards for her mastery of light and her unique pictorial representation. In addition to the other awards, she was elected in 1913 to the Royal Society of British Artists and, in 1914, was one of the rare women elected as associate members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Travel as a way of life

Helen McNicoll settled in London. She travelled in England and Europe and frequently to Canada. She led a cosmopolitan life but at that time many artists withdrew from urban centres, especially during the summer, to paint outdoors in the countryside or in villages in order to explore landscapes.

McNicoll’s research focused on the effects of light and atmosphere, sustained by her numerous trips south of Paris, to Normandy and Brittany, Belgium, the Mediterranean, and Italy, including Venice, and to artists’ colonies, where she spontaneously refined her palette.

Praise for light and women’s work

The artist was often on the move and captured her ever-changing environment remarkably. In Brittany, she painted village market scenes in honey tones. In Venice, her attention focused on the scintillating water of the canals. The hot sand and blue sky of European beaches afforded a backdrop suited to women and girls wearing dazzling white dresses.

This ode to travel and the mastery of light also enabled her to examine the themes of female independence, risk-taking, sisterhood, and freedom for women in the stimulating context of the English suffragettes’ fight for the right to vote.

Her favourite subjects were scenes of everyday life, although her interpretation differed from that of the impressionists by focusing more closely on women’s labour and the intimate lives of women at the turn of the 20th century.

Exhibition highlights

The exhibition comprises six separate areas embellished, in the middle, with central structures, one of which recalls the shape of a compass and its cardinal points to evoke travel. It presents all the key elements of McNicoll’s artistic career: Light and Shadow, The Children’s Playground, Sketchbook, Women at Work, The Water’s Edge, Life en plein air, Lighting the Studio, and On the Boulevard.

The retrospective assembles the artist’s finest paintings, including such major works as Sunny September (1913), In the Shade of a Tree (1915), Picking Berries (1913), Stubble Fields (circa 1912), The Chintz Sofa (1913), Evening Street Scene (circa 1910) and Montreal in Winter (1911).

Sunny September (1913) is a magnificent fall scene that quickly established McNicoll’s renown with art critics and key art market stakeholders. This luminous fall day envelopes the viewer.

In the Shade of a Tree (1915), from the MNBAQ’s collection, reveals scenes of women and children that McNicoll cherished and forges links with the outstanding work of impressionist artists Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot.

Picking Berries (1913) examines the importance that McNicoll attached to outdoor painting and composition but also the context of feminine collaboration essential to the development of her career since this work is reflected in a painting by Dorothea Sharp with whom her friendly and professional relationship was fundamental.

McNicoll produced several works devoted to fields or haystacks following the example of works by Claude Monet. Stubble Fields (circa 1912) is an eloquent example. The artist put into practice in this painting several new theories of colour circulating in impressionist and post-impressionist circles since the late 19th century.

With The Chintz Sofa (1913), McNicoll briefly abandoned her sunny landscapes for interior scenes. In the painting, it is possibly Dorothea Sharp sitting on the elegant chintz sofa in the living room of the workshop that she shared with McNicoll in London. In light of the suffragettes’ struggles in the early 20th century, art historians have proposed a feminist interpretation of this scene that supports Sharp’s involvement in the Society of Women Artists.

Evening Street Scene (circa 1910) proposes an evening scene that is unique in McNicoll’s output. The electric light replaces the sun, thereby conferring on the painting a very modern note that emphasizes the artist’s interest in scenes of everyday life, as do her numerous market scenes, and for all manner of effects of light and atmosphere.

Montreal in Winter (1911) also reveals the importance of McNicoll’s travels between Canada and Europe and her interest in the snowy landscapes of her homeland. The painting reflects works by Canadian impressionists Maurice Cullen, James Wilson Morrice, Clarence Gagnon, and Marc- Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, among others.

The catalogue is the perfect complement to the exhibition

To celebrate the luminous work of Helen McNicoll, her remarkable destiny, and her contribution to the history of Québec, Canadian, and international art, a catalogue has been published to accompany the retrospective organized by the MNBAQ.

The work, which hinges principally on the notion of travel, focuses on most of McNicoll’s works exhibited, including those from Pierre Lassonde’s impressive collection. Edited by the MNBAQ and 5 Continents Editions, the 160-page bilingual (English and French) catalogue is accompanied by four essays, each of which sheds light on a facet of the artist’s work.

The introductory text by Anne-Marie Bouchard examines McNicoll’s work in the context of the mobility of women artists in the early 20th century. It broaches transatlantic travel, American and European destinations, artistic networks, and the social implications of travel. Samantha Burton provides a biographical overview of the artist that retraces the development of the artist’s career with particular emphasis on the importance of her transnational travel. Julie Nash also focuses on the notion of mobility by closely examining McNicoll’s outdoor paintings undertaken throughout her travels, including the practice centred on painting small plein-air oil sketches. Lastly, Caroline Shields and Valerie Moscato also examine the artist’s work methods through a thorough examination of her pictorial technique to attempt to grasp how she began and completed her large canvases, a still unknown aspect of her art.