Experience Québec
Le Mois de la photo
Montreal breaks out of the frame
Le Mois de la Photo invites you to look at photography through a different lens. It’s about taking photography beyond its usual limits and situating it in physical time and space, without diminishing its authenticity or its role of witnessing life. From September 10 to October 11, 2009, The Spaces of the Image, consisting of 24 exhibits from 13 countries and it's free...for your enjoyment!Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal is constantly re-inventing itself. This year marks its 20th anniversary and the 11th presentation of the event. By utilizing photography as a 21st century means of expression, artists lift it out of its frame and offer us a new 2D dimension that is like adding a third dimension.
We see that the photo is no longer this static, boring, traditionally framed work. It has become an interactive performance. It is now mounted in unexpected places. But it still makes us dismount and look at our world from a new angle.
Breaking out of the frame
It is by exploring the other arts that photography has broken out of its frame. Sculpture, installation and ephemeral or video art are so many ways of exploring photography, whether silver or digital.
The work of Frenchman Pascal Convert illustrates this new trend well. His sculpture, La Madone de Bentalha, fashioned after a famous press photo (Massacre à Benthala, 1977, Hocine, Algeria, Agence France-Presse) is on exhibit at the Galerie de l’UQAM. Made of wax and playing on the visual effects of full and empty spaces, it is a good example of how photography is moving beyond its traditional limits. 
Quebecker Pierre Tremblay relies on the new technologies of interactivity between the work and the viewer. He offers a long photographic sequence of his daughter: as visitors walk, they discover a moving image that does not use video. Sound intriguing? You will find it even more so in person.
See the world differently
When photography gets political, it is often to decry the abuses in our society. Summer Camp shows moving images that Yael Bartana puts opposite one another. The video juxtaposes two stories: one about an Israeli pacifist group who rebuild, on Palestinian territory, homes that were destroyed in 2006 and a Zionist propaganda film made in 1935. 
Oscar Muñoz of Colombia, Aliento [Breath] represents a visual political allegory about disappearance. Metal disks hang on the wall. There is nothing remarkable about them except our own reflection. When the moisture of your breath comes in contact with the disks, the portraits of political victims appear, and disappear again as you take your next breath.
A world to discover
In the photographer’s lens, a vast world appears, a sensitivity that makes us dream, a point of view often overlooked or unknown. Le Mois de la photo (official progam , click here) is an opportunity for discovery that you can’t afford to miss. Until October 10, lectures and workshops are being offered to the public and to school groups. Step outside the box and see the world differently.
André Quenneville
Photos: Le Mois de la photo à Montréal
2009-09-28
