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.


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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.