Exhibit Review: Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains in Montreal

Every brick in the wall of Pink Floyd’s successful legacy revealed

The Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition welcomes Montreal fans into the world of Pink Floyd from Nov. 4 to Dec. 31 at the Arsenal Contemporary Art Museum. This 60- to 90-minute-long experience transports visitors into the wonders of Pink Floyd, diving into the core of the rock band’s creativity and incredible legacy.

Whether you are someone who barely knows the surface of who the band is, or if you are a hardcore listener, any opportunity to visit the exhibition is worthwhile.

It is an interactive experience that gives new meaning to the artist-and-fan connection. Visitors are given headphones to watch exclusive interviews of the band members, studio recordings, original songs, and the creative minds who brought their famous album covers to life. The atmosphere is silent yet powerful as all eyes are drawn right to the band talking through little screens, revisiting moments from their career. Some of these moments have never been known before.

As soon as you walk into the museum, a black wall filled with images of the band’s past concerts in Montreal catches the eye, and Roger Waters in a Montreal Canadiens jersey right in the middle is impossible not to miss. Walking through the legacy of Pink Floyd starts with the band’s creation in 1965 by the late and great Syd Barrett, his fellows Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, and ends with their later projects in the 2000s.

Pink Floyd Exhibit at the ACAM – Emma MEGALAS

The sections are dimly lit, letting the artifacts take the centre stage. The guitars, basses, drum sets and keyboards on display are the originals used by the band members. The scratches on the guitars are faint yet surreal to spot upon closer inspection. It is worth taking the time to observe the details on the instruments, to point out the marks and have that they-really-played-these moment. It is even more surreal watching Roger Waters or David Gilmour strumming on that exact guitar on video, as if you’re right there with the band.

I have always been intrigued by Pink Floyd — by their style, psychedelic experimentation, musical textures, and storytelling through their art and music. Their strange yet beautiful experimental combo manifests into every single album they released.

Each section of the exhibit represents an album of the band, namely The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Division Bell. Oversized images of the album covers are hung on a white wall, allowing the colours to pop and make a statement. Right beside them are the framed original images of the covers.

The Wall’s section was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Enormous inflatables from their previous albums floated above, watching everything unfold below. Cages with more guitars and archives of Roger Waters, who is simultaneously heard describing the struggles the band had with the inflatable pig for the Animals album, were eye-catching and humorous. With The Wall being one of Pink Floyd’s most successful albums, it is incredible to find out that the idea came to Roger Waters during a concert at the Olympic Stadium back in 1977 — a reason why Montreal is a special place for the band.

Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains is a breathtaking exhibit and a must-see for anyone who enjoys and appreciates their music. I was able to appreciate the band in a way that I have not in the past. The magic in the silence created by the exhibit is intoxicating — it’s just people looking, admiring, listening, and traveling through time with Pink Floyd that makes the experience so memorable.

Rafael Lozano Hemmer’s newest exhibition is all about human connection

I entered Arsenal Contemporary Art on a sunny September day looking for a refreshing escape from reality during this pandemic, and that is exactly what I got.

Arsenal’s imposing building swallows you whole and spits you out after giving you a new experience. At least, that has happened to me every time I’ve visited, and this time was no exception.

When I entered the gallery space, there was no room for small thoughts, small artwork, or small expectations. It was the perfect setup for an exhibition of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work.

Blinded by the sunlight that illuminates the main hall of the gallery, my transition to the temporary exhibition was abrupt and numbing, in a good way. The entire right wing of the giant building is dark and furnished with Lozano-Hemmer’s artifacts, inventions, creations, innovations, tricks and treats to the senses. In other words: Art (with a capital ‘A’).

I made sure to take a picture next to the title of the exhibition: Cercanía. Through this souvenir, I can later savour the delicacy of that specific word in Spanish. The word literally translates to ‘proximity’ or ‘closeness’ but cercanía is much more than that, and denotes a sense of human connection beyond physical presence that is untranslatable. It is intimacy, vulnerability and honesty. And that is what the exhibition is all about.

Cercanía has been very judiciously adapted and created around COVID-19 protocols. Even though every piece is meant to be experienced while adhering to the two-metre social distancing rule, I felt connected to everyone that has passed through it and those who will pass later.

I walked to the main room where different rays, projections, screens, and spotlights created light and played with the senses. One of them had sensors that followed and projected my steps and shadows, combining them with those of other visitors. Another took a picture of my face and overlapped it with the faces of others creating new identities, connections and funny faces.

Another one captured my heartbeat through a camera — I didn’t even need to touch a thing — and placed me in a virtual space where I could communicate with other heartbeats around the world.

The piece in the corner translated data from people murdered by guns in North America into an inverted noose that vibrated every ten seconds. I wished it wouldn’t move at all.

The installation in the other room ephemerally recreated my portrait on water mist in the most magical way. I did it at least five times until I noticed people waiting in line behind me. My misty portrait stayed for others to see, so, actually, it is not that ephemeral.

The big work blinded me, in a way that was different from how the sun does. There were movement sensors that detected me approaching the two giant screens filled with random letters. As soon as I walked, they followed me. I lay on the ground facing this “tableau vivant” and let letters arrange, move and fill the space before me, under me, next to me and above me, until I saw sentences form and disappear in the same way they had come. I stayed until I got dizzy.

My favourite piece, Field Atmosphonia, welcomed me to lay on the ground again and look up at over 2000 speakers (2304 to be exact) suspended from the high ceilings of the Arsenal. I didn’t care that the ground was cold because I heard the ensemble of arranged individual sounds coming from each one and it was mesmerizing. The experience was visual, audible, presential, intuitive, interactive, confronting and vulnerable. I wouldn’t expect less from Lozano-Hemmer.

I left the space while the speakers behind me resonated with the sounds of waterfalls, birds, children laughing and a breeze rustling through trees. As I walked away and increased the distance between me and Cercanía, I thought about the ways in which we can be close while being apart.

Due to government safety measures, Cercanía has been suspended until further notice. Learn more about Cercanía and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work at https://cercania.ca/

Photos courtesy of Jean-Charles Labarre.