Pointe-à-Callière, the Montréal Archaeology and History Complex, present the world premiere of the original exhibition The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great. The exhibition spans over 6,000 years of Greek history and culture and takes visitors on an exceptional and fascinating journey back to the origins of the cradle of Western civilization, its heritage and the traces it has left in the hearts and minds not only of the Greek nation but of all the people.
The exhibition brings together more than 500 priceless of artefacts from 21 Greek museums, coordinated by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Greek Antiquity is a rich period populated by mythical heroes and historical figures, under the watchful gaze of the gods on Mount Olympus. The exhibition is divided into six zones that introduce this great civilization and showcase rare and priceless artifacts. Visitors will meet many famous characters in Greek history, from Homer to Aristotle, Plato, King Philip II of Macedon and King Leonidas of Sparta. The heritage of ancient Greece, which we can still see all around us today in our politics, philosophy, arts and literature, mathematics, architecture, medicine and sports, is clearly illustrated in the exhibition. Visitors are invited on a tour of Greek history, starting in the 6th millennium BC, explaining all the roots.
The exhibition takes us all the way up to the days of Alexander the Great, a larger-than-life figure who was only 20 years old when his father, Philip II, was assassinated. But Alexander was ready to succeed him, thanks to his education, his training and the formidable Macedonian army. Within barely a single generation, the ancient world was transformed from a series of independent city-states into a unified empire under Alexander the Great. The young prince who became king, emperor then god in the eyes of the world, died of a malignant fever at the age of 32. But his legend survived, as did Greece’s extraordinary legacy to the Western world.
The exhibition offers visitors a whole range of interactives and items to handle, from a Cycladic female figurine to a reproduction of a warrior’s helmet and a sword. There are over twenty videos in the various exhibition zones, most of them produced by the National Geographic Society, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens and the Canadian Museum of History.
Click on any image to enlarge it. Hover your mouse over images to see credits. Visit the Point-à-CallièreMuseum's website for more information.
THE END OF THE BEGINNING - Le Début de la fin December 12, 2014 - March 15, 2015
The McCord Museum, as part of its Artist-In-Residence Program, is presenting an installation and a video work created by a Montreal artist Frédéric Lavoie who selected objects and images from the Museum's collection. His work offers a highly personal interpretation of the Museum's collection.
Frédéric Lavoie has been given complete freedom to explore at length the McCord Museum's Notman Photographic Archives, ethnological and archaeological objects, costume and textiles, decorative arts and paintings, prints and drawings. He decided to create a work that examines the strange nature of our relationship with objects from the past. "I approached the McCord Museum collection from the perspective of post-apocalyptic fiction. The traces of events like war, natural disasters and epidemics in its archives led me to a cross-curricular exploration of the various collections that focussed on the diverse nature of the types of objects preserved at the Museum. The final work is presented as a video narrative constructed from the remains of a fallen civilization."
Some of the objects selected by the artist are displayed in showcases and trace the film's narrative. To shoot the video, in addition to working with images from the collection, Frédéric Lavoie made copies of several objects with the help of other visual artists.
The basic idea of the exhibition is that the history repeats itself, and the end of one phase becomes the beginning of the next historical reality which yet proceeds in the same circular manner as the one preceding it. Their are many allegorical comparisons from the present and even imagined future to the North American past events and realities.
Click on any image to enlarge it. Hover your mouse over images to see credits. For more information visit the McCord Museum's website: http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en
Love In Fine Fashion November 20, 2014 - April 19, 2015 McCord Museum will present the exhibition Love In Fine Fashion, featuring some thirty elegant wedding dresses and an equal number of accessories, shoes, bags, gloves, stockings, garters and caps dating from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, all from the Museum's extensive Costume and Textiles collection, which includes 150 wedding dresses.
Every item on display has borne witness to a true love story, beyond the one constructed for the exhibition. The oldest among them–a cap and collar–date back to 1816, while the most recent are a 2008 wedding gown created by Helmer Joseph and a dress by Marie Saint Pierre from the same year, worn as a wedding dress by a young woman who loved the design. A grande dame of mid-20th century Montreal fashion, Gaby Bernier, is represented by one of her creations, as are designers Serge & Réal, with a dress created for a lavish 1984 Montreal wedding, and Michel Desjardins, whose elegant silk duchesse satin dress dates from 2006.
The exhibition is divided into eight themes that form the backbone of the story, which evolves along with the idiomatic expressions that express the sweethearts' shifting sentiments. Their initial meeting is haute en couleur[colourful] (zone I). He thinks she is fine comme une soie [fine as silk--lovely] (zone 2). Is she la perle rare [that rare pearl--the one] (zone 3)? And are they cut from the same cloth (zone 4)? For she does not alwaysfait dans la dentelle [wear kid gloves] (zone 5). Quelle tournure pendront les choses [How will things turn out] (zone 6)? For things can come apart at the seams (zone 7). But she is not à la traîne [hemming and hawing] (zone 8). Will their union be couronnée [crowned] with success?
Click on any image to enlarge it. For more information visit the McCord Museum's website:
