In Search of Expo 67 Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal

MONTREAL, QC To mark the 50th anniversary of the city’s World’s Fair, curators Lesley Johnstone and Monika Kin Gagnon bring together new works by contemporary Quebec and Canadian artists for this blockbuster exhibition. Here, artist Geronimo Inutiq discusses his dynamic, archive-based commission for the show: Ensemble/Encore (2016) is a multimedia installation in discussion with different ideas about katimavik, which in this context means “gathering place” in Inuktut. It was the official title of the fair’s Canada Pavilion, constructed in the shape of an inverted pyramid, and of an electronic composition by Otto Joachim that was commissioned for the fair. I am also exploring the space and time that distance us from and also bring us closer to the 1967 Montreal World’s Fair. Using film and television clips, still pictures, prints and vinyl floor appliqué—as well as a spattering of French, English and Inuktut phrases—this work seeks to engage the public in different perspectives relating to the idea of katimavik.