In May 2019, workers at the Louvre Museum in Paris went on a day-long strike. A single day that provoked public outrage and led to numerous media reports.
Updated at 5:00 yesterday.
In Montreal, the contemporary art museum has been closed for almost two years. Everyone seems to care.
Yes, it takes a little bad faith to compare the MAC to the Louvre, which welcomes between 7 and 10 million visitors each year.
Nonetheless, we are still talking about two important museum institutions in their respective cities.
The MAC is already enjoying great popularity throughout Montreal. Remember: the monsters are lining up to visit the 2017 exhibition dedicated to Leonard Cohen. Or the resounding success of David Altmejd’s exhibition in 2015. And Janet Werner’s in 2019.
In 2018, director and chief curator John Zeppetelli was delighted with half a million visitors. The museum was relevant, having carved an enviable place in Montreal’s cultural landscape.
Today the premises in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles are empty. Its doors are locked and its collections are preserved. All this in almost universal indifference. During this period we have been able to see important exhibitions such as Kusama, Yoko Ono or Pink Floyd at the PHI Foundation and the Arsenal for Contemporary Art.
Let’s remember some important dates. In 2014, the museum management presented their vision of doubling the area of the MAC. Project appraisal: $44 million. The project was stopped five years later. The forecasts point to an excessive cost overrun. Then in 2022 a new tender with a budget of 88 million dollars. The tender is canceled a few months later in the hope that the construction market will calm down a bit after the pandemic and that the offers will be 50% over budget. Since then there has been radio silence. But the longer we wait, the more expensive the work becomes.
It should be noted that the Société québécoise des Infrastructures (SQI) is the museum’s partner in this matter and manages the project. The same SQI whose execution speed is not expressed at the Institut des Sourdes-Muettes, to give just one example. But like all these major projects involving multiple government partners, there is never a single person responsible for the deadlines, they all delegate responsibility.
The file is said to be on Federal Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s desk and announcements will be made shortly. We’ll believe it when we see it. But if we’re optimistic, it would be surprising if we could enter the new MAC at least four years ago. Then it’s almost six years since the institution closed its doors.
The MAC is still not the first museum institution to have to manage large works
The Pergamon Museum in Berlin will remain closed until 2037! The Center Georges-Pompidou, which will carry out its work from 2025 to 2030, has teamed up with the Louvre and the Grand Palais to present exhibitions during this break.
MAC, on the other hand, presents rather special exhibitions in a former Chinese restaurant on Place Ville Marie, in a high-rise office block frequented by busy workers.
Only a single Quebec artist has exhibited at this temporary downtown gallery in the past two years, while promoting contemporary Quebec art is part of the museum’s mission.
The MAC collections are in the depot and are therefore not accessible to other museums wishing to borrow works.
And this state of affairs would continue for another four or five years?
We understand that the extension, which includes an architectural component by Saucier+Perrotte, is not done with scissors. Nobody wants this work to be screwed up. But while the MAC withers away, other Quebec institutions have begun and completed renovations.
Could the management of the museum have been more dynamic and visible in the public space, while exerting more pressure on governments to make things move faster?
Director John Zeppetelli must convince skeptics he’s still the man for the job in order to get the job done and lead the MAC into its next incarnation.