PAC 2025: ALLEY-OOP

ALLEY-OOP: AN INTERACTIVE ADVENTURE EXHIBITION

Pointe-à-Callière presents a playful and immersive experience on Montréal’s alleyways.

June 20, 2025 - January 11, 2026

Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal’s Archaeology and History Complex, unveiled a new exhibition: Alley-oop - An Interactive Adventure. Designed for young and also for people of all ages, it’s an invitation to explore the history and cultural richness of Montréal’s alleyways through an interactive experience in which visitor’s movements trigger various games. This exhibition that gets one moving, takes the participants on a journey back in time.

Watch a YouTube video of the exhibition.

Anne Élisabeth Thibault, Executive Director, Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex stated:

“Discreet witnesses to the city’s evolution, Montréal’s alleys have stood the test of time. From simple service lanes in the 19th century, they have been transformed over time into real living spaces where people meet, garden, have fun, and where they create and build neighbourhood bonds. It is this history and this vitality that we have sought to bring to life in this new exhibition which invites visitors to explore, to play, and to remember. In combining technology and the museum experience, we are aiming to offer our visitors a lively, fun, and multigenerational journey.”

 

Let’s play!

Used for decades for children as playgrounds par excellence, Montréal’s alleyways come to life in this exhibition. Using innovative technology that combines visual projections and motion detection, the exhibition space becomes a true playing field! Visitors can interact with the environment to play, test their speed and agility, and have fun. Five immersive stations offer a variety of games to experience alone or in teams, with each season featuring a colourful new setting and new challenges.

The History of Montréal’s Alleyways

This fun exhibition invites visitors to discover the rich history of Montréal’s alleys, tracing their evolution from passthroughs and commercial laneways to real places for living, playing, and meeting—a key element of Montréal’s identity. Through archival photos, iconic objects, and period toys, visitors can re-experience the changing face of the city’s alleys with a touch of nostalgia. Interactive zones also give visitors a chance to explore the flora and fauna that can notably be found in our famous green alleys, as well as the cultural and artistic wealth that has developed in laneways in recent years.

Help us find our cat Louis Hector!

The cat Louis-Hector has disappeared somewhere in the alleys! Equipped with a booklet and guided by clues hidden in the exhibition, visitors can lead the investigation. It is an adventure filled with surprises that one can follow throughout your entire visit.

Tickets and Reservations

The exhibition can welcome a limited number of visitors per time slot. We therefore strongly recommend booking your tickets online before your visit. The reservation, included in the ticket price, guarantees access to the exhibition at a specific time, which must be respected.

Acknowledgements

The Alley-oop - An Interactive Adventure exhibition is produced by Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal’s Archaeology and History Complex, in collaboration with Exhibits Development Group and Electric Playhouse. The Museum thanks Hotel InterContinental Montréal, La Presse, Tourisme Montréal, and the City of Montréal.

About Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology and History Complex

Inaugurated in 1992, on the city’s 350th anniversary, Pointe-à-Callière is today the largest archaeology museum in Canada and the busiest history museum in Montréal. Rising above a concentrated number of historic and archaeological sites of national significance (ncluding the birthplace of Montréal), the Museum has a mission to preserve its collections and to further knowledge, while showcasing and fostering an appreciation for Montréal’s archaeological and historical heritage. This mission is carried out through various activities focused on conservation, research, presentation, education, and inclusion, along with community initiatives benefiting both Montrealers and visitors to the city. Pointe-à-Callière, proud partner of the City of Montréal.

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The first top-most image in this article is courtesy of the Pointe-à-Callière Museum. 

All other photos in this article @ Nadia Slejskova 

For more information visit the Pointe-à-Callière museum website.

Musée des Hospitalières: Jana Sterbak

CORPUS INSOLITE: JANA STERBAK

Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal

29 January 2025 - 24 August 2025

The Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, renowned for its unique collections of historical, medical and religious artifacts, presents a new exhibition, Corpus Insolite: Jana Sterbak.This exhibition invites visitors to experience Sterbak’s thought-provoking works in dialogue with the museum’s collections.

Jana Sterbak is a globally acclaimed, Montreal-based artist. She explores in her works the themes of power and desire, often incorporating unconventional materials. Her works explore the themes of mortality, transcendence, and transformation, which in this exhibition are brought into dialog with the medical and religious artifacts from the museum's collection.

For this exhibition, Jana Sterbak and curator Johanne Sloan worked closely together to integrate Sterbak’s artworks into the museum’s exhibition spaces, while also selecting objects to be brought out of storage for the first time. 

For example, Sterbak’s internationally recognized Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, (the so-called meat dress), which was first shown in 1987, has been re-made for this exhibition, and is displayed in the proximity of anatomic models and holy relics. This offers a unique opportunity to re-discover the work of Jana Sterbak in dialog with the exhibits from the museum’s collection.

In addition to the two works Sylvanus and Hot Crown, which have never before been shown in Montreal, Jana Sterbak's internationally acclaimed Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, first exhibited in 1987, was remade for this exhibition, contrasted with the museum's anatomical models and sanctified relics. It is a long, white feminine dress with the real male chest-hair woven into it.

The sculpture of a crown which lights brightly every 80 seconds also seems to reflect on both the worldly and spiritual powers.

Also of interest are the skeleton bones displayed under the glass and looking very much like real human skeleton bones, especially in contrast with other bone remain in the same room, are actually made of chocolate. 

The Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de MontréalThis offers a unique opportunity to rediscover the work of Jana Sterbak while, at the same time, discovering the museum's collections through an artistic imagination.

Sterbak's pieces also reflect on the human stages of life, like the closed circle and the spiral-like progression.

The top-most image in this article, curtesy of the the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal.

All other photos @Nadia Slejskova

For more information visit the museum's website.

About the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal

The mission of  the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal is to transmit the history of Montreal and its foundation, to publicize the history of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, to exhibit the tangible and intangible heritage of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, and to explore the history of healthcare and the health sciences.

Four centuries of history can be traced through the museum’s unique collection, which is linked to the development of Montreal, to hospital, medical and pharmaceutical practices, and to religious art.

Located within Mount Royal’s protected area, in a special natural setting, the museum is a part of one of the city’s best preserved convent complexes, home to the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph. The ensemble, built in 1861 to plans by the architect Victor Bourgeau, includes the order’s original monastery and garden, the hospital, three chapels, a crypt and the museum itself, housed in the former chaplains’ residence.

McCord 2024: MC Snow

Presence of the Past by MC Snow

Visual poetry rooted in tradition and the transmission of knowledge

March 1 - August 18, 2024

McCord Stewart Museum new exhibition Presence of the Past by MC Snow is a part of the Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA). MCShows' Kanien’kehá:ka installation immerses the viewer in a space filled with the objects from the Museum’s Indigenous Cultures collection including some contemporary works.

MC Snow explored the Museum’s reserves and selected forty objects from which he drew inspiration to create two original sculptures at the center of the exhibition.

Through the emotions and messages conveyed by the Kanien’kehá:ka cultural objects conserved by the Museum, the artist puts forward a contemporary interpretation of the teachings, traditions and know-how transmitted by the objects in the collection. With Presence of the Past, MC Snow wishes to emphasize the importance of researching and preserving Indigenous cultural property, essential to transmitting the knowledge and safeguarding the cultural traditions of Indigenous peoples.

Some of the cultural objects that are presented at the exhibition date back to the 14th century. By juxtaposing those objects – mostly of Kanien’kehá:ka origin – with the contemporary representations of his reflections on the past, MC Snow explores his personal visceral emotions towards them and focuses attention to the ways in which they convey meaning.

Presence of the Past focuses on poetic metaphors relating to truth, care, protection, transmission and memory. Those metaphors express the teachings that emanate from the creation story, forming a visual poetry rooted in oral tradition.

 MC Snow explained:

  “For me, pots have always been objects that carry something. We place things in pots to contain and protect them. The same applies to baby carriers. Just as we carry ideas, we carry our children. These are objects and knowledge that we preserve for the future, and therefore for generations to come. The Girl with the Basket (one of two works by MC Snow in the exhibition) is also a character who communicates ideas through her basket. She communicates them to the children she carries in her baby carrier.” 

 Research and knowledge preservation

The artist’s concern with emphasizing the importance of researching and preserving Indigenous cultural property is reflected in the objects selected by MC Snow and Jonathan Lainey, Curator, Indigenous Cultures at the McCord Stewart Museum. The public will be able to view some forty rarely exhibited cultural items from the Indigenous Cultures collection: pottery, baby carriers, dolls and arrows. For MC Snow, the arrows represent self-preservation and the protection of Indigenous languages and cultures. The dolls embody the stories that Kanien’kehá:ka elders tell their children to explain the world around them. Baby carriers and decorated pots are used to pass on these values and teachings to future generations. The pot fragments are preserved so that their past remains accessible. The artist insists on the importance of treating objects with dignity, because for Indigenous nations, cultural property is more than just an object; it holds the spirits of their ancestors.

MC Snow stated:

 “Seven years ago, I embarked on an ambitious project that teamed up the City of Montreal and the Kanien’kehá:ka territory of Kahnawake to address and valorize the theme of truth and reconciliation. I believe that every time we, as a First Nation community, engage in any kind of meaningful way with Tiohtià:ke, it furthers our way on this path of reconciliation and respect. We are, after all, very close neighbors. Through the Peel Street Project, the BACA, and now the McCord Stewart Museum, I take responsibility to accept and uphold my end of the bargain: to engage in a truthful and meaningful dialogue to promote this idea of peace and mutual respect.

If one memory or emotion is taken away from this Presence of the Past, let it be that the spirit it was done in was one of good-minded collaboration, much conversation and opinion sharing, and enthusiastic effort from both sides. This was my desire in this work, to take part in building a new vessel that could carry our hopes and stories into the future. My time with the McCord Stewart Museum has been a turning point in my own personal journey of truth and reconciliation. I hope to pass on and send people home with something good to share.”

MC Show presenting his exhibition

 MC Snow

MC Snow is a multidisciplinary Kanien’kehà:ka artist living in Kahnawá:ke. MC is a graduate of the University of Ottawa fine arts department (BFA). He has been working and exhibiting in Canada and the United States since the 1990s. His mostly sculptural work combines traditional materials and techniques. While reflecting contemporary concerns, his work contributes to preserving traditional artistic value and defending Kanien’kehà:ka cultural identity. 

Two photos below capture MC Show working on one of his sculptures at the exhibition at his studio.

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 photo.

Horizon of Khufu 2024

The Horizon of Khufu:

A Journey in Ancient Egypt

North American premiere

in the Old Port of Montreal

More than 26,000 tickets sold already

February 16 - May 31, 2024 or longer if extended

The Horizon of Khufu is an immersive virtual reality expedition of immense scope that transports visitors into the heart of one of the Seven Wonders of the World: the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

Considered to be a true Wonder of the World, this pyramid, the only remaining one of seven, has stood the test of time. Remaining a witness to Egypt’s 4,500-year-old architectural expertise and powers, the Great Pyramid of Khufu has dominated the Giza Plateau and the city of Cairo for millennia. Erected between 2,590 and 2,565 BC, the 146-meter-high stone edifice was originally the largest ever built by man. Conceived to house King Khufu in his final resting place, the pyramid continues to this day to attract and fascinate visitors from all over the world.

This unique 3D virtual Journey in Ancient Egypt is a 45-minute experience, and the result of three years of research and development by Emissive. Their VR headset will transport the audience over 8,000 km from Montreal for a journey back to the third millennium B.C. when the Great Pyramid of Khufu has dominated the Giza Plateau. Starting at the base of the tallest pyramid in Egypt, the audience is than brought inside the pyramid, at the top of the pyramid, and then on an ancient boat and a journey along the Nile river.

This is a truly unique experience not to be missed. The audience is nit only introduced to the Millenia old architectural marvel, but also to some religions believes and customs of the ancient Egypt.

Just remember, in case you might start feeling dizzy at some point, that at all times you are actually standing on and walking along a solid floor.

Your guide on this virtual, historical, and mystical journey will be Mona, a 3D virtual personality who will guide you along.

About Emissive | Excurio

Emissive was founded in 2005 by Emmanuel Guerriero and Fabien Barati, both immersive technologies passionate professionals. Today, Emissive is a group of 25 talented people all working from their Parisian offices: designers, 3D artists, developers, animators, project managers who all embody creativity and technological innovation. Here at Emissive, we all believe that Virtual Reality is an opportunity to tell a better story, a story that you live, not that you consume.

PHI Studio, the organizer of the Montreal event

PHI Studio has developed a reputation as an incubator for talent at the vanguard and as a catalyst for the conception and implementation of immersive multidisciplinary projects. We are continually exploring the ways in which technology can lead to new forms of artistic expression and storytelling. PHI Studio is committed to collaborating with artists, producers, and partners to foster the creation and development of innovative artworks at the vanguard, shaping the future of the immersive experience.

Click on images to enlarge them.

6 first photos courtesy of Emissive and PHI Studio.

3 bottom photos @ Nadia Slejskova

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

Visit The Horizon of Khufu website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your tickets online.

McCord Stewart 2023: Séamus Gallagher-MOMENTA

Mother Memory Cellophane by Séamus Gallagher

MOMENTA Biennale de l’image - 18th Edition

Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis

A phantasmagoric theatre haunted by past visions of the future

September 8, 2023 - February 4, 2024

This Séamus Gallagher's MOMENTA installation was inspired by an event that took place at the 1939 New York World’s Fair entitled “World of Tomorrow" where DuPont company presented it's "Wonder World of Chemistry" exhibit with  a specific emphasis on introducing their new product nylon to the public. Their major attraction was a model called "Miss Chemistry" who wore nylon hosiery and demonstrated its durability and elasticity to the Fair's attendance.

With this installation, Séamus Gallagher presents an imagined phantasmagoric theatre that includes a video projection and a series of five lenticular photographs with the Miss Chemistry theme weaving through his entire work. His Miss Chemistry is a plastic embodiment of a woman that reflects the omnipresence of synthetic materials in our contemporary lives and projects that into the future.

Personifying this allegory, which symbolizes both stereotypical femininity and the period’s synthetic material culture, Séamus Gallagher invites the audience to reflect on this plastic embodiment of the woman of the future and the omnipresence of synthetic materials in our contemporary lives.

Séamus Gallagher explains:

“As microplastics become increasingly prominent in our body, the borders of ourselves and these materials get a bit looser, similar to how Miss Chemistry was viewed as the plastic woman of the future. We’re all a bit of Miss Chemistry now, so I wanted to use these ideas as a foundation for the show. In performing as this ghost of Miss Chemistry for the exhibition, I wanted to think about the ways in which we’re all haunted by these old futures of the past, and what responsibilities we might have to these ghosts.”

The year after the 1939 World’s Fair, a survey ranked Mother, Memory and Cellophane as the most beautiful words in the English language. In his work, Séamus Gallagher appropriates these words to create a mashup of stereotypical femininity and synthetic material culture in a drag reincarnation of Miss Chemistry—or, more specifically, her ghost.

Séamus Gallagher’s work explores the transformation of identities through the interweaving of physical, virtual and online worlds. He designs 3D models and materializes them in paper. The artist creates costumes and sets, as extravagant as precarious, and translates them into paper templates. 

Séamus Gallagher is a lens-based artist currently living in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia. His work has been shown at the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, the Portrait Gallery of Canada, and the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, among others. He is a recipient of the Scotiabank 2022 New Generation Photography Award, the 2022 Nova Scotia Emerging Artist Recognition Award, and the 2019 BMO 1st Art Award, and a finalist for the 2023 Sobey Arts Award.

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 photo.