The Darling Foundry before its conversion into a multidisciplinary arts space
This Sunday is Museum Day, which means that Montrealers will enjoy free access to 29 museums between 9am and 6pm. Here are some highlights that might interest Spacing Montreal readers. Free shuttle buses will run between the museums until 4:30pm; check out the official website for more info.
McCord Museum
690 Sherbrooke Street West, McGill metro
“Simply Montreal,” the McCord’s permanent exhibition, “offers myriad glimpses of this unique city and immerse visitors into the very heart of the rich and varied experience it offers.” If you’ve ever been to the museum, you’ve probably seen it before, but the McCord’s latest temporary show is still worth checking out. “Reveal or conceal?” examines historical perceptions of “modesty and eroticism” in women’s clothing. Like everything at the McCord, it’s undoubtedly Montreal-centric, so it could very well be a nice glimpse at social attitudes throughout the history of this city.
Canadian Centre for Architecture
1920 Baile Street, Guy-Concordia metro
Tour the CCA’s garden and check out its latest exhibition, “Some Ideas on Living in London and Tokyo”: The first North American presentation of residential projects by Stephen Taylor and Ryue Nishizawa reveals their ideas addressing the challenges of building homes in existing city environments. Due to their scale, extensive built environment, and existing efforts to grow the city from within, London and Tokyo face similar urban development issues but occupy cultural contexts in which themes of proximity, privacy, community, and public space take on different meanings and require distinct solutions.
Centre d’histoire de Montréal
335 Place d’Youville, Square-Victoria metro
Along with the Centre d’histoire’s permanent exhibition on the history of Montreal, you’ll be able to see “Qui a mis le feu à Montréal?” about the 1734 trial and execution of Angélique, a black slave who was accused of starting a fire that destroyed Hôtel Dieu and 40 houses. You can also take a look at “Montréal industriel,” an exhibition of photos documenting Montreal’s industrial landscape, as well “Le Vieux-Montréal revisité,” a collection of photos depicting Old Montreal in a new light.
Éco-musée du fier monde
2050 Amherst Street, Beaudry or Berri-UQAM metro
The location alone of this small museum, in one of Montreal’s old public bathhouses, makes it worth a visit. But its exhibition on working-class life in the neighbourhoods of Centre-Sud is pretty interesting, too, especially if you follow it with a stroll through the surrounding streets.
Darling Foundry
745 Ottawa Street, Square-Victoria metro
Currently showing at the Darling Foundry is “Sugar Carpet,” by Aude Moreau. It’s a “perishable installation in refined, white sugar, uses food as the raw material of the art object, transferring it to an architectural space through a game of role-reversal. This installation creates a confrontation between an industrial space and the modern comfort traditionally associated with carpets, ‘edible’ material, and the pollution produced by metallurgy.” Beyond that, it’s great fun just to visit the old foundry, which has been successfully converted into an arts space without losing the texture of its industrial past.
3 comments
What’s even better than free public transport? We will be bicycling between the different museums on Sunday. It’s better than free transport, ‘cuz we get beaucoup de belly-blubber-burning exercise!
Museum day is the traditional start to our annual Culture Fitness Project. Once a week, a museum or two is visited by us on bike.
Museums Day is great – I usually miss it because I have a huge rush of work including an annual conference I work at, but I might actually be able to make it this year (don’t know whether by bus or bike).
I just love the name of the Darling Foundry. There is also a Darling Street – across town from the foundry, in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Of course this is a family name, but darling, isn’t it?
We should have this program in Toronto!