
Free
Water Road
Nov 24 → May 24
The PHI Centre building comes to life with an interactive multimedia installation of a motion-activated river on its four-story windows on Saint-Pierre Street
PHI Foundation
451 Saint-Jean Street
Montréal, Québec H2Y 2R5
July 6, 2022—September 5, 2022
Wednesday to Friday: 12 PM—7 PM
Saturday and Sunday: 11 AM—6 PM
Monday: open for groups & PHI Centre ticket holders (details to come)
September 7, 2022—January 15, 2023
Wednesday to Friday: 12 PM—7 PM
Saturday and Sunday: 11 AM—6 PM
Free admission Reservations required
Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when timed tickets will be released.
• Masks are mandatory in our spaces for visitors aged 10 and older and are recommended at your discretion for children between 2 and 9 years old
• One-way visiting path
• Gel hand sanitizing stations
• A specialized air filtration system
• Cleaning of spaces during opening hours
In celebration of its 15th anniversary, the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present Yayoi Kusama: DANCING LIGHTS THAT FLEW UP TO THE UNIVERSE.
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Yayoi Kusama is one of the most popular living contemporary artists in the world today. Over the past seven decades, she has created painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, and film, as well as performance, fashion, design, literature, and immersive installations such as her celebrated Infinity Mirrored Rooms. Bolstered by social media and the artist’s acclaim, these works have drawn massive audiences globally over the last ten years. However, beyond the intensive publicity surrounding the installations, Kusama’s practice has consistently engaged with the vastness of the cosmic realm and her—as well as our—place within it: a concept imbued with both disquiet and wonder.
This exhibition will introduce visitors to the spiritual and philosophical depth of the artist’s work. Since her early forays into painting, sculpture, and performance, Kusama has long explored the conceptual and formal aspects of phenomenology and immersion in her work. At a time when the digital and virtual have overwhelmed our sensibilities, Kusama’s environments proffer analog experiences that both situate viewers within and beyond our universes. The exhibition in Montréal will present three of her signature bronze pumpkin sculptures in different sizes, two new 'peep-in' mirrored rooms, a grid of her vibrant My Eternal Soul paintings, as well as two striking Infinity Mirrored Rooms. Infinity Mirrored Room - DANCING LIGHTS THAT FLEW UP TO THE UNIVERSE (2019), from which the show takes its title, is filled with hanging light globes that alternate colors before abruptly going dark. The viewer is absorbed into darkness for a moment before the glowing spheres slowly flicker back on, initiating again a cycle akin to life and rebirth.
The exhibition will also include a reading room with a historical timeline of the artist’s life and career. Kusama has made prodigious contributions to the history of art through her work, and she continues to operate as a key figure in contemporary art. At this difficult and turbulent time, compounded by the isolation and uncertainty of the last two years, her body of work facilitates feelings of comfort and peace.
This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in Québec. We expect that this will be a highly anticipated event for the Montréal and Québec public, as well as a major draw for local and international tourists.
While admission is free, a reservation for timed entry will be required in order to ensure low waiting times and a pleasant passage through the exhibition.
With special thanks to Yayoi Kusama and the team at David Zwirner and Ota Fine Arts.
This year marks two significant milestones for PHI: we are thrilled to be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art and the 10th anniversary of the PHI Centre.
Free
The PHI Centre building comes to life with an interactive multimedia installation of a motion-activated river on its four-story windows on Saint-Pierre Street
As an extension of your Lashing Skies experience, PHI has retrofitted the popular Living Sound space housed at the PHI Centre to welcome the sounds of artist and composer William Basinski
Lashing Skies, is a captivating 45-minute immersive audio journey of 5 imagined stories on the edges of disaster during the events of September 11th, 2001 designed and directed by multidisciplinary artist Brigitte Poupart
Presented for the first time in Canada, ETERNAL is a 20 minute immersive audio experience for one person, alone in a bed
Collaboration
A multi-faceted project consisting of drawings, texts, posters and the powerful and moving short documentary film Pouvoir, directed by Paul Tom
Collaboration
The PHI Foundation, in collaboration with Onishka Productions and the Centre du Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui (CTD’A), presents the sound walk Marguerite: la pierre.
An exhibition at the intersection of music, art, pop, media and technology in relation to the multifaceted techno scene, genres and political projects stemming from the subcultures of the 1980s to today and traces the processes of cultural and economic appropriation
At the SAT
Presented by PHI, the Society for Arts and Technology and the Goethe-Institut Montreal in conjunction with the TECHNO WORLDS exhibition