Quebecers obviously love Pink Floyd. This week, the Arsenal for Contemporary Art in Montreal announced a second exhibition for its exhibition on the English group. “To achieve such an open, clear and clean success that doesn’t happen every year,” says the museum’s general director, Guy Laforce.
When the exhibition Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains was presented in London for the first time in 2017, the organizers did not think about sending it on tour. But considering the huge audience success – more than 350,000 people visited the Victoria and Albert Museum! –, the producers had given in to the demand and the exhibition had moved to four cities.
88,000 visitors saw it in Rome, says Guy Laforce. In Dortmund, Germany, there were 56,000 people. The cities of Los Angeles (35,000) and Madrid (33,000) attracted fewer viewers.
In just over two months at Arsenal, the Montreal version of the Pink Floyd exhibition has already attracted more than 62,000 visitors. And according to Guy Laforce, the magic number of 100,000 viewers is achievable, with that additional news being announced by March 5th.
“It’s going according to our best hopes,” he said. While remaining very humble, I could say that we applaud this achievement. »
word of mouth
According to the director, word of mouth works very well for this production, which seems to be unanimous on social media. “Usually, often wrongly, you get all sorts of weird comments. But at Pink Floyd we only get flowers. It’s very rare. People are struck by the depth of the exhibition, which is of the highest museum standards. »
At the unveiling last November, organizers told Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains would likely end in Montreal. But given the success of this new version, museums in New York and Paris have now come forward to have it.
At the Arsenal, Guy Laforce does not hide his interest in presenting other musical exhibitions in the future, he who produced concerts for a long time before running the museum. The problem ? Exhibitions like the one about Pink Floyd don’t cross the streets.
“It’s rare that groups have preserved their artifacts and sufficient documentation to put on an exhibition worthy of the name,” he explains. For Pink Floyd they found warehouses with all kinds of material. This made it possible to set up the exhibition. »