CCA 2019: Americanizm in Russian Architecture

Building a New World:
Americanizm in Russian Architecture

November 13, 2019 - April 5, 2020

Building a new New World examines the history of Russian architecture and urban design in light of an enduring Amerikanizm. It focuses on an expanded definition of architecture and culture, as well as industrial and graphic design, music, photography, film, and literature. It also provides examples of various buildings, factories, industrial infrastructures, urban planning and product design.

The exhibition presents a wide-ranging succession of images and objects in which architecture serves as the unifying thread, including photographs, books, maps, drawings, magazines, portraits, models, postcards, and film excerpts. It examines numerous themes: imagined forms and buildings inspired by American sources, recurring investigative journeys undertaken by Russian explorers, political leaders, and architects; the multitude of Russian publications devoted to the United States, ranging from technical reports to poetry and novels.

Jean-Louis Cohen, the exhibition’s curator, stated:

“The bilateral relationship between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America was paradoxical. Americans never aspired to turn their nation into a ‘new Russia,’ neither from a political nor a cultural standpoint, while generations of Russian politicians, intellectuals, and engineers envisioned modelling their country after the United States, hoping to cast it as a new America.”

CCA Director Mirko Zardini explained:

“Through the CCA’s critical curatorial framework and calculated exhibition design, Cohen interprets Amerikanizm as a multifaceted phantasmagoria—borrowing Walter Benjamin’s term for the stimulating and ominous spectacle of the commodity—that helped shape not only the built form but also the consciousness of one of the greatest global powers.”

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Building a new New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture is the result of extensive research by curator Jean-Louis Cohen and features drawings, photographs, posters, books, publications, models, historical documents, and films from both Russia and the USA. The decades-long dialogue between Russia and the USA is reflected in the materials on display, which include rarely seen Russian holdings from the CCA’s own collection—including rare books and magazines, evocative drawings, and important photographs—shown alongside loans from important international institutions and lenders including, among others, the Alex Lachmann collection, with 33 objects on view in the exhibition; an emblematic and rare illustration from the MOMus - Museum of Modern Art - Costakis Collection in Thessaloniki, Greece; the Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation in Vienna; the Library of Congress; posters and key visuals from the Collection Merrill C. Berman; and works on loan from the Albert Kahn records at the Bentley Historical Library of University of Michigan and Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. The exhibition content is structured along specific themes including America and the Modernization of Czarist Russia; American Industries for Russia: Taylor, Ford, and Kahn; Amerikanizms of the Avant-Gardes; Amerikanizm in Stalinist Architecture and Culture; From War to Triumph; and The Post-Stalinist USSR: Reaching and Surpassing America. Throughout the succession of images and projects on display, architecture embodies the phenomenon of Amerikanizm that was also apparent in literature and film. Indeed, throughout the exhibition, film remains an important leitmotif, with excerpts from works by Sergey Eisenstein and Grigory Alexandrov, Mikhail Chiaureli, Esfir Shub, Frank & Lillian Gilbreth, Lev Kuleshov, Sergey Komarov, Alexander Medvedkin, Mikhail Kalatozov, and Charles & Ray Eames on display in key locations within and between galleries.

THE PUBLICATION

Building a new New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture is accompanied by a book of the same title by Jean-Louis Cohen, available in English and French editions in February 2020. Co-published by Yale and the CCA in English and Hazan and the CCA in French, the book follows the themes of the exhibition within a broader interpretive narrative and is illustrated by 450 colour and black and white images of drawings, photographs, maps, charts, and posters. The book will be available online and in-store through the CCA Bookstore, and distributed to select bookstores internationally.

RELATED PROGRAMS

Public programs related to Building a new New World will include a series of talks titled Search for a new New World by invited guests whose work relates to the themes explored through the exhibition. Adding examples beyond the terrestrial focus of the exhibition, this series looks to Russian science fiction as a site of social and technological fantasy: reflection and experimentation beyond what was possible in Russian reality. In parallel to the exhibition chronology, Russian society is read through four case studies from science fiction texts, images, and films. 

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All photos © Nadia Slejskova.

For more information about CCA projects, visit the CCA website.

CCA 2019: Gordon Matta-Clark - Rough Cuts and Outtakes

ROUGH CUTS AND OUTTAKES
GORDON MATTA-CLARK
Curated by Hila Peleg

September 27, 2019 - January 9, 2020

The exhibition is dedicated to the works of trained architect and conceptual artist Gordon Matta-Clark whose writings, photographs, films, correspondence, and selected artworks were produced between 1969 and 1978. They were donated to the CCA by the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark in 2011.

Structured as a study in three acts, this series of exhibitions invites three guest curators from different curatorial backgrounds ranging from contemporary art, film and archival research, to social practice studies, to explore Gordon Matta-Clark’s critical practice within the architectural scene of the time. His architectural deconstruction performing pieces are a direct social statement and a pointed comment huge industrial and residential complexes that were condemned to be demolished. His works were fleeting. They existed only for a very short time and than destroyed by the demolishion crews.

It is the second exhibition of this Out of the Box series. It showcases Gordon Matta-Clark’s filmmaking process through a selection of outtakes, many largely unseen until now, drawn from Matta-Clark’s documentation of three of his major building cuts (SPLITTING, DAY’S END, and CONICAL INTERSECT). Additionally a fourth section is presented at the exhibition entitled FOOD which depicts the community restaurant conceived by Matta-Clark and ran by his supporters and friends.

The exhibition, which is being held at the CCA Octagonal gallery, reveals the broader social and spatial context of Matta-Clark’s projects.

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All Photos courtesy of © CCA.

The Gordon Matta-Clark Collection can also be studied online. Visit the online finding aid for personal reference.

Read about the first Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition in this series here.

For more information about CCA projects, visit the CCA website.

CCA 2019: Gordon Matta-Clark

Gordon Matta-Clark
Out of the Box

June 7 - September 8, 2019

The Montreal's Canadian Center for Architecture is dedicating its 2019–2020 Out of the Box exhibition series to the works of a trained architect and conceptual artist Gordon Matta-Clark. The items on display were all donated to the CCA by the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark in 2011.The donation consisted of Matta-Clarke's archives: his professional works such as writings, photographs, films, correspondence, and select artworks that were produced between 1969 and 1978.

Though Matta-Clark had a rather short life (he died at age 35, 1943-1978), he is best remembered for his monumental deconstructive pieces, the bold artistic statements created inside and out of the condemned masonry soon to be demolish. In one such case, the area was zoned for the future iconic building of the Paris' Pompidue Center.

This exhibition is the first part of the study of the CCA Matta-Clark archives, that will be presented to the public in three acts. To explore Gordon Matta-Clark’s critical practice within the architectural scene of the time, the CCA has invited for this series of exhibitions three guest curators from different curatorial backgrounds ranging from contemporary art, film and archival research, to social practice studies.

This first series is curated by Yann Chateigné. It reflects on Gordon Matta-Clark’s material thinking as deducted from his highly diverse personal library. It classifies the books into four main categories of his reading interest: Alchemy, Gravity, Networks, and Inner Spaces. 

The exhibition reveals lesser-known references in Matte-Clark's work that artist expressed during the decade of his artistic practice.

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Hover over images for description and credits.

Additionally, the Gordon Matta-Clark Collection can be studied online. Visit the online finding aid for personal reference.

To find more about this exhibition and other projects exhibitions, visit the CCA website.

CCA 2019: Our Happy Life

Photo by Stefano Graziani, ”Rankings of Happiness 2015–2017”

World Happiness Report 2018. © CCA

Architecture and Well-Being
in the Age of Emotional Capitalism

8 May - 13 October, 2019

Can architecture contribute to general human happiness? Do sleek building designs combined with the equally sleek interior designs and landscaping alter a person’s mood from negative to positive? Does the comfort of plush carpets and bright lights have the power to alter your mood and make you happy?

Can the sense of grounding, freedom, peace, and even unconditional love one feels when being in nature be labelled as a hedonistic pleasure, as if it were something unnatural, superfluous, not really a basic human need to be connected to the source of all that is alive on Earth?

Can an architect or an urban designer create a sense of pleasure and deep satisfaction that has a power to border on a spiritual experience purely by artificial, artistic, and commercially strategic means?

To what an extend a human being becomes a commodity to be studied intensely with surveys and computer algorithms in order to determine how to structure the living environments in such a controlled way as to provide an illusion of a well being while constructing a sustainable, commercially profitable venue?

This new Canadian Center for Architecture (CCA) exhibition is offering its visitors to ask just these types of questions and seek personal answers.

Curator: Francesco Garutti
Curatorial team: Irene Chin, Jacqueline Meyer
Visual identity and design: OK-RM, London 
Exhibition design: Bernard Dubois, Brussels 
Design development: Sébastien Larivière, Anh Truong

To find more about this exhibition and other projects exhibitions, visit the CCA website.

McCord Museum Reinvented

New Montreal Museum

April 30, 2019

McCord Museum, located in the heart of Montreal, announced major re-structuring and construction of new museum extensions on its present site. While preserving its Sherbrooke and Victoria Streets façades, it will expand upwards from the present historical McCord Museum building. It will also overflow into the adjacent Victoria Street that runs along the west side of the museum, as well as southwards into the lot that houses the former Caveau restaurant on President Kennedy Avenue. The combined area of these sites will enable the museum to meet its needs for additional space.

Working closely with the City of Montreal that granted the right to build on Victoria Street, the Museum selected the site after conducting a feasibility study. The new building will house under the same roof three recently merged museums: McCord Museum, Stewart Museum and Fashion Museum. Instead of the present 1%, this will allow to display 4-5% of items from the combined permanent collection consisting of 1.4 million artifacts. In addition, the Museum wishes to change its name. The preliminary name proposed is Montréalais.

The new museum will triple the space and will double the number of visitors per year from the current 300,000 to 600,000. It will also triple its educational space and will allow for a far greater number of school group visits, as presently McCord Museum is unable to satisfy all school trip requests.

The project is expected to cost $180 million. It is projected that 1/3 of the cost will be covered by the Federal Government, 1/3 by the Provincial Government, and the remaining 1/3 by private donations.

New museum to receive historic donation

The McCord Stewart Museum also announced that La Fondation Emmanuelle Gattuso had pledged to donate $15 million towards this project. It is the largest single private monetary donation to a Quebec museum in over 30 years. In 1987, the J.W. McConnell Foundation donated $50 million to the McCord Museum for its expansion and the creation of an endowment to preserve its collection.

Madam Emmanuelle Gattuso, Vice President, Public Affairs of Gattuso Inc. food company founded by her parents, stated:

"Although I have lived in Toronto for many years, I am still a Montrealer at heart. This donation is in memory of my parents, Lina and Pasquale Gattuso, Montrealers of Italian origin who chose this city to raise their family and start a food business that still bears their name and has thrived across the country since 1936. It is my hope that this new museum will break ground very soon and that my donation will encourage the various levels of government, Montrealers and ex-Montrealers to mobilize for this magnificent project that will enrich Montreal’s cultural life."

All pictures of the new museum in this article are only preliminary concepts. McCord Museum will be launching soon an architectural competition for the best new museum design.

McCord museum will be closed during the construction works. Visit the museum now to be able to compare it later to the all new museum.

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All photos by DMA, courtesy @ McCord Museum

For more information on current exhibitions, visit the McCord Museum website.

MAC 2018: New Museum Plan Unveiled

MAC Transformation

On April 9, 2018, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal - MAC) has unveiled the winning project of the architectural competition launched in June 2017 for the museum's renovation and transformation. The images in this article show the design and preliminary drawings for MAC's new look.

MAC enters a pivotal stage in its development. Museum attendance has increased steadily over the last 5 years, culminating with this year’s record of over 600,000 visitors. As an important national museum dedicated exclusively to the promotion of contemporary art, the MAC in its current condition faces a desperate lack of space to exhibit its vast collection.

It was the proposal of Saucier+Perrotte Architectes / GLCRM & Associés Architectes, a consortium of Quebec architects, that captured the top honours. This proposal was selected unanimously by the jury as inspiring, luminous, and relevant, and as resulting in a striking contemporary construction fully coherent with the Museum’s raison d’être. With this transformation, the MAC will embark on a new chapter in its existence and to embrace its full potential. 

Highlights of the new MAC:

• Close to a 100% increase in exhibition spaces and rooms, including three new exhibition rooms.
• Every space, from lobbies to circulation areas, has been redesigned to showcase contemporary art.
• New and expanded educational spaces.
• An exterior façade that has been transformed by the expansion of the main entrance and the added area on the 2nd floor.
• The optimization of the Beverly-Webster-Rolph multimedia room.
• New spaces for the Restaurant du MAC, including an outdoor terrace on the 2nd floor.
• New spaces for the MAC Boutique, including a bookstore and a coffee shop.

The new Museum’s architectural vision

The proposal by Saucier+Perrotte Architectes / GLCRM & Associés Architectes builds on open and light-filled spaces to strengthen the special connection that joins the MAC to the quadrilateral defined by Place des Arts and to the Quartier des spectacles. In particular, the essential link between the MAC and the Place des Festivals will be maintained with a new transparent, light-filled expansion. On level 2, a large window will showcase the Museum restaurant, a double-height space that will open onto an outdoor terrace.

The museum will enjoy far greater visibility on the lower, Sainte-Catherine Street of the Esplanade, with the angular overhang of the expansion. Under this jutting structure, the museum square will naturally guide visitors to the main entrance, while freeing up the space necessary for holding the festivals.

From an urban planning perspective, several features will link the new MAC to its context. On the ground floor, the Museum will glow with transparency and the hustle and bustle of its public spaces, while on the Place des Arts Esplanade level the architectural proportions and expression will integrate with the existing architecture. he upper section will be composed of an envelope of folded metal blades revealing the interior spaces and filtering natural light. The created verticality will express and harmonize - in a contemporary manner - with Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier and Théâtre Maisonneuve.

A new Museum in 2021

On the current timetable, the main project phases are scheduled as follows:

• April 2018 Start of architects’ mandate
• January 2019 Temporary closure of the Sainte-Catherine Street MAC
• Spring 2019 Opening of the temporary MAC
• Summer 2019 Start of the Sainte-Catherine Street MAC construction
• Fall 2021 Opening of the new MAC

The temporary MAC

The MAC must remain active and on hand throughout the construction period in order to maintain its relationship with the city and community presence. Between the closing and reopening, the MAC will set up headquarters in a permanent location and all the while make its influence throughout the city with multi-site and ephemeral exhibitions.

The programming, while limited, is nevertheless planned to be of excellence and rigour. None withstanding that this transition period will come with its share of challenges, it will also give the MAC an opportunity to explore both new partnerships and new exhibition spaces, and will challenge to display greater creativity.

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All images in this article courtesy of @ MAC

For more information about MAC, visit the museum's website.

MMFA 2016 - Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion

INAUGURATION OF THE MICHAL AND RENATA HORNSTEIN PAVILION FOR PEACE

DEDICATED TO INTERNATIONAL ART AND EDUCATION

November 4, 2016

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' new pavilion will be opening to the public on November 19, 2016.

FREE VISIT: November 19, 2016 - January 15, 2017

MICHAL AND RENATA HORNSTEIN’S GIFT
The pavilion is named for collectors and patrons Michal and Renata Hornstein, both of whom passed away earlier this year. In 2012, they donated seventy‐seven Old Masters paintings to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Recognized as the largest private donation in the modern history of museums in Quebec, it is a unique legacy for the MMFA, Montreal, Quebec and Canada. Subsequent to this major donation, the museum received a $18.5‐million grant from the Quebec government to build a new pavilion for Montreal’s 375th anniversary. Along with their previous gifts to MMFA, this couple, who survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Montreal in 1951, donated some 100 paintings, in addition to their other major financial contributions to the Museum, and to education, and also to healthcare in their adopted city.

With the addition of close to 5,000 square metres on six floors, for a total area of 53,000 square metres, the Museum, which is experiencing rapid growth with two expansions in five years, has doubled its visitors and expanded its size by 30%. The Montreal architectural firm TAG, in consortium with Jodoin Lamarre Pratte, was chosen in a competition which took place in 2013 to design the pavilion. Its architectural quality upholds the Montreal’s position and commitment as a UNESCO Design City. The artistic direction and exhibition design was supervised by Nathalie Bondil in collaboration with Sandra Gagné, and with the support of Hilliard T. Goldfarb and Sylvain Cordier.

STRINGENT MANAGEMENT: ON TIME AND ON BUDGET
Work was on time and on budget. The total cost of this project was $25 million. The construction costs for the Museum’s two most recent pavilions were significantly lower than those of other Canadian museums: $505/sq.ft² for the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace and $577 sq.ft² for the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art. Like the Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art, the building’s design respects sustainable development and energy efficiency standards.

The Museum also established a self‐financing fund with the contributions from the private sector, and notably from Michal Hornstein. With this new method, the investment earnings from the fund will cover all operating costs. The MMFA ranks first among Canadian museums for its percentage of self‐generated revenues (55%).

The photos show fine examples of classic perspective used in designing architectural elements of the new pavilion.

Thanks to a new major gift from a patron (Michel de la Chenelière), two floors of the new pavilion will house, in addition to the existing workshops in the Desmarais Pavilion, the new Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy, bringing the number of the MMFA  educational workshops from 7 to 12. Several new logistical spaces will also embrace educational activities, whose numbers are growing and are now the highest in Canada. This is the largest education dedicated space of its kind in any art museum in North America.

Inauguration of the new Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion took place on November 4, 2016, in the large open area on the pavilion's ground floor. The photo below shows the white ribbon cutting ceremony.

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions, visit the museum's website.

You can also read about the art at the new MMFA Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace and the publication about it in these two articles:

MMFA 2016: New Pavilion - International Art Collection

MMFA 2016 - Pavilion for Peace Art Catalogue