Image+Nation + Borduas Underground

Hey Y’all, quick heads up that:
1. The Image+Nation LGBT International Film Fest starts today in Montreal.
Here are the list of films showing, some of which look awesome.
I’d like to tell you more about it, but there’s little info about the fest itself on the website, hmm. If you know something- share!

2. Métro Borduas, The Underground Landscape of Abstract Art in Montréal starts next week, but still, is cool and exciting. I like Borduas.

Here’s a sample from a translation of the Refus Global, or Total Refusal, written by Borduas and signed by other huge figures in Quebec Canadian art, like Riopelle…

We are a small and humble people clutching the skirts of priests who’ve become sole guardians of faith, knowledge, truth and our national heritage; and we have been shielded from the peri–lous evolution of thought going on all around us, by well–intentioned but misguided educators who distorted the great facts of history whenever they found it impractical to keep us totally ignorant.

As early as 1760, this colony was cast behind slick walls of fear (the normal refuge of defeated peoples) and abandoned there, for the first time. Our leaders sailed away, or sold themselves to the highest bidder, as they have done ever since, whenever they had the chance.

…

We reached beyond Christianity to touch the burning brother- hood of humanity, on which the Church had become a closed door.

And fear in its many forms no longer ruled the land.

Powerful and poetic stuff, eh? And interesting how often civilizations return to this particular complaint about religion, or at least religious leaders, gone awry..
Anyway, Show runs:
November 22 to December 19, 2006
at the FOFA Gallery [Map]
EV Building, Room 1-715, Concordia University
1515 Ste. Catherine Street West, Montréal

Here’s the Press Release:

Montréal, November 14, 2006 – The Faculty of Fine
Arts (FOFA) Gallery is pleased to announce the
opening of Métro Borduas, starting November 22,
2006. The exhibition will feature the work of
Paul-Émile Borduas and 12 prominent artists who
were his contemporaries, rivals and successors.
Joining together the métro underground transport
system with key works of art, Métro Borduas will
encourage viewers to consider the role that
artists have played in the shaping of the city of
Montréal in the last 50 years. The exhibition is
an initiative of Concordia University’s
art-history graduate students, working in
partnership with the FOFA Gallery, the Gail and
Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in
Canadian Art and the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art
Gallery. The works for this exhibition were
selected from the latter’s collection.

Tying the exhibition together is the artist
Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960). A mythic figure
in Canadian art, Borduas paid a steep price for
rebelling against tradition and authority in the
conservative Duplessis era. In 1948, Borduas and
his students drafted the historic manifesto Refus
global, setting off a chain of events that would
revolutionize the arts in Québec.

To enhance the learning opportunity of this
exhibition, the graduate students will host a
public symposium to discuss Borduas’ legacy on
the arts and culture of Québec. This event will
be held on November 26 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
in the EV Building, in the lecture hall 1-605.

The exhibition will be on view in the FOFA
Galleryfrom November 22 to December 19, 2006. The
vernissage will take place on December 5 from
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the FOFA Gallery, and
will be followed by a public talk by Dr.
François-Marc Gagnon at 7:30 p.m. in lecture hall
1-605. This conference is open to all, but since
seating space is limited, reservations are
required for those wishing to attend.

RSVP: Sarah Ciurysek, 514-848-2424 ext 2293,
sciuryse @ alcor.concordia.ca.