Venturing into MTL's International Music and Arts Festival for a Taste of Culture
To christen this new blog of mine, what better than to cover one of the big festivals happening in September? I decided to drop by on the last day of Pop Montreal 2017, an international music and independent arts festival showcasing live concerts, public discussions, visual art installations and film screenings, to get a taste of some really interesting sights.
Peeking into White Death
Gliding through a small gallery space called La Biblioteque, I was met with Johanna Heldebro's White Death. This photo installation was inspired by Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper nicknamed "White Death" who protected Finland from the Soviets in World War Two, specifically during the Winter War of 1939. According to Pop Montreal, Heldebro's photographs are an interpretation or an abstraction of this historical figure, who lived as a hunter and farmer but was responsible for the deaths of about 500 Soviet soldiers.
When standing in front of these photographs and having read the opening sign explaining the installation, I could sense that Häyhä's ability as a hunter was an important facet of his character because it was his skill that dubbed him as the White Death. It was interesting how Heldebro didn't include any blatant elements of war to depict his prowess, like a portrait of the man himself or war medals or weapons, but instead mixed in still life and nature photography such as wintry forests, snow and a white camouflage jacket to explain the tools and environment he took advantage of in order to excel as a sniper.
I also felt that the images paired with single sentences describe how plausible Häyhä might have been against the idea of being part of a war and of being the murderer of so many people.
What Does It Mean To Be Happy?
Stepping into a small white walled room in the Salle De Cours on the third floor of Pop Montreal HQ, I sat down to view Kathy Lewis's Happy Victims. I didn't know what to expect but I was blown away at the, dare I say, trippy experience.
Happy Victims is a series of five clips blending audio, single images and colour to illustrate a girl's memories, that are bittersweet and utterly relatable experiences, whilst returning home in the rain. Lewis stated that she was influenced by the stylized narratives of shoujo manga. The shoujo manga narrative heavily focuses on a character's inner world and emotions through distinct visual storytelling. In the film, single stock images pop in and out on a white screen with their own baby pink backdrop, which reminded me of a moving version of a webcomic with added sound. The short film lasts about six minutes and is kept on a loop.
From the sound of rain and a backdrop of raindrops cascading down slowly on a windowpane to the pouring of tea into a cup and a single teary eye, water is important to link the thoughts appearing in the protagonist's mind.
We also never actually see the protagonist in the film, we hear her voice in the single lines repeated over and over in specific memories, hear her layered gasps, sighs, moans and sobs mixed to the sound of chimes and a clock's clicking, read her thoughts at the end of her memories and see her disembodied hands moving. Without putting a face to our protagonist, it's easier for the audience to fully immerse themselves when watching the film. I did feel like I was drowning in a sensory overload of a stream of conscious brought on by the rain.
An interesting thing about the film is how the images shift to adopt a dark nightmarish version of what they originally look like, which I think represents the character's sombre thoughts and emotions that are attached to a specific memory. When the character's hands are clothes in black satin gloves, it feels like the garments are an extension of those sombre thoughts and emotions.
Notably in the memory called "Losing Things" -- the images of a yellow and black stripped bird alone in a dark pink backdrop and the same bird sits comfortably in the palms of the protagonist donning black satin gloves, which suggests her sadness and grief over the death of her pet (if we take the image literally) or an allusion to a happier time that she no longer has a hold on (if you want to be an edgy analytical type). In addition, the words "I'm sorry" spoken by the protagonist is layered and repeated with her gasps, moans and sobbing to emphasize the guilt and sadness of having lost something tangible. The grouped bundle of shadow appears on screen toward the end of the memory before being revealed to be small purple flowers suggesting that although the death of losing something tangible is a huge bummer, there is always something to be appreciated or learned from it. Happiness coexists with pain and loss, because it leads to an understanding of what it means to be human.
Combine Art, Body and Community Space
As the last spectacle I saw at this year's Pop Montreal festival, I attended Maya Stovall's live performance art titled "Manifesto 2" outside Pop Montreal HQ where she read aloud texts she penned and danced along side two local artists, Hanako Hoshimi-Caines and Mistaya Hemingway. The performance opened with a monologue explaining Stovall's work, "Liquor Store Theater" and her interest in modern dance's connection to community and public spaces.
It proceeded with three modern dance performances, encouraging the audience to join in on the activity, but the synergy of the crowd was focused as active viewers instead.
Stovall, Hoshimi-Caines and Hemingway's impromptu live reading of texts they wrote in the span of five minutes-or so was an interesting look at their personal thoughts on artist objectivity and artist subjectivity on art performance.
Part of me is sad that I didn't get the chance to cover the entirety of the festival but there is always the next few events hosted by POP in the coming months and next year.