The future isn't what it used to be. (Statement byFrench poet P. Valery often attributed to Yogi Berra)
A la Recherche d'Expo 67 (In Search of Expo 67) is a special exhibit in Montreal's
Musee d'art contemporain (MAC) 50 years after the momentous
World Expo which in 1967 took place in Montreal on occasion of Canada's 100 birthday. The title is a take on Proust's
A la recherche du temps perdu, and like the book, provides a broad range of ruminations of the past. The World Fair of 1967 is, indeed, fertile ground for an assessment of how the future was imagined and how it actually turned out.
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| Canada pavilion and viewing platform (website) |
The exhibition consists of 19 works by contemporary Quebec and Canadian artists, including 16 new works. Architecture, sound art, visual art, film and music are the poles around which this creative endeavour turns. Driven by committed artistic and archival research, the artworks highlight the exceptional creative liberty given to the artists, architects, filmmakers and designers who took part in the original exhibition (MAC website)
The World Exhibition mania which began 1851 in London and has since transformed many cities. While world fairs continue to this day, this year it is in Kazakhstan, they don't garner much attention anymore. The excitement about them may have, indeed, reached its height in 1967 with Montreal's Expo. The exhibition prophecy of the future also shows that the future didn't come to pass the way exhibitors imagined it....
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Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome in 2017
(Photo: Philipsen) |
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects