The Disorderliness of Things in Galerie De L’Uqam, Montreal

January 9 - February 21, 2015
Opening: January 8, 5:30 pm
Exhibition tour with the curators: January 27, 12:45 pm to 1:45 pm

Curated by Marie-Ève Charron and Thérèse St-Gelais, The Disorderliness of Things features works exploring democratic dimensions of disobedience and disorder that defy authority and convention. Visitors will discover works by Edith Brunette, Michel de Broin, Arkadi Lavoie Lachapelle, Mathieu Lefèvre, Emmanuelle Léonard, Christine Major, Maria Marshall, Catherine Opie, Melanie Smith and Rafael Ortega, Pilvi Takala, and Rosemarie Trockel. The curators and several of the artists will attend the opening.

The Disorderliness of Things

The works in The Disorderliness of Things give voice to the positive aspects of disobedience.

How can art express insubordination in liberal democracies? In this context where our freedoms are relative, how does contemporary art serve as a critic without assuming a militant stance?

Defying authority and convention, all these works create zones of counter-cultural resistance. They unmask what seems, under the inoffensive guise of normalcy, devoid of meaning and offer a political critique of banality. They shake up our predefined realities, often diverting them with humour.

Unconventional scenarios and objects are subjected to the restrictions of customary rules in an urban space. Through simple actions, characters reveal their ability to act and their refusal to be bound by norms or canons. The works defy artistic traditions and imagery. Standard artistic venues are occupied by intrusion. Division within debate takes precedence over the management of the social order by consensus. Some of the works contain blatantly improper figures while others coolly unmask the regulated environments of closed communities. Thus the selected works reveal various forms of conditioning while questioning their authority.

In The Disorderliness of Things, dissent is not an evil to be eradicated, but rather the exercise of critical vigilance where vitality is the ultimate value.

GALERIE DE L’UQAM
Université du Québec à Montréal
1400, Rue Berri, Pavillon Judith-Jasmin, Local J-R 120
Montréal, Québec
Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.
Free admission

galerie.uqam.ca