Art Souterrain 2018

Kelly Mark (Ontario) | The Kiss 

Art Souterrain 2018
10th Edition - Labor Improbus

March 3 - 25, 2018

Art Souterrain is an Montreal's annual event that invites a broad audience to discover contemporary art. It is spread over the seven buildings that make up its downtown underground pedestrian network, and nine additional satellite cultural venues.

The 2018 edition's theme is Labor Improbus and will launch on March 3, as part of the Nuit Blanche in Montreal. Art Soutterain festival will spotlight some 98 projects by 94 visual artists from Belgium, Canada, Chile, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, the Netherlands, Quebec, Russia, Spain and the United States.

Karine Giboulo, Hyperland 2014,
Expression

Johannes Zits | Staying on top

 (2017) Performance

Festival-goers will have three weeks to see a great number of installations, sculptures, videos, photographic and digital works, as well as performance art forms that all tie into this year’s theme. They can also participate participating in numerous daily activities.

Carole Condé, Karl Beveridge (Canada / Toronto) | Public Matters 2012 

(Work in Progress) | Photograph

The title Labor Improbus of this year's Art Soutterain festival was selected by Frédéric Loury, principal curator and artistic director, as well as Pascale
Beaudet and Emeline Rosendo, guest curators. The artists participating this year have a plurality of perspectives on the role of an individual in the modern workplace that reflects on new forms of alienation and prescribed conformity within the present global economy.

Frédéric Loury states:

“Labor Improbus stems from the location of the festival in downtown Montreal as well as the remarkable evolution of working tools in the West. Each day, more than 300,000 individuals pass through our exhibition area on their way to many working spaces. In sheer numbers, workers make up the main indirect audience for our annual event. It seemed pertinent to us that we reflect on notions of labour – its diversified and contradictory mechanisms. Citizens

have never been as free to choose their work environment as they now are, and yet they’ve also never been as exploited and vulnerable.” 

John Pilson, Mr Pickup (Video) 

Two main exhibition circuits are available free of charge:

The underground circuit will be spread across the seven following buildings: 1000 de la Gauchetière, Place Bonaventure, Place de la Cité Internationale/OACI, Édifice Jacques-Parizeau, the World Trade Centre Montreal, the Guy-Favreau Complex and the Palais des Congrès de Montréal.
Signage on the ground will guide visitors along the trail of artworks. Additionally, a Frenchlanguage audio guide, available free of charge on the Art Souterrain Festival website, will enrich the visitor experience.

The satellite circuit will, for its part, unfold across nine cultural spaces in Montreal, all of which are festival partners: Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal, Art Matters Festival, the Centre de diffusion et d'expérimentation de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (CDEx), the Cinéma du Parc, Espace d’exposition Ubisoft, the Darling Foundry, The Fridge Door Gallery, Galerie Simon Blais and the Grande Bibliothèque, on this milestone year during which Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec.

Art Souterrain Poster

Click on images to enlarge them.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Access to both exhibition circuits as well as to festival activities are free of charge, save for Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal, the Darling Foundry, the guided tours and the Focus visits ($7).

The festival brochure is available in both print and electronic formats.

Programming, activities and audio guide: www.artsouterrain.com

https://www.facebook.com/artsouterrain/

https://twitter.com/artsouterrain

https://www.instagram.com/artsouterrain