Andrew Norman Wilson
In the Air Tonight
From November 16, 2023 to January 20, 2024
Opening on November 16, 2023 at 6 pm
— Facebook event
Summoning a shimmering and hallucinatory ambiance of the American dream, In the Air Tonight explores personal myth-making and the dissociative effect of mass media. Inspired by an urban legend about Phil Collins’ 1981 hit, Andrew Norman Wilson narrates the supposed events involved in the writing and recording of the overnight sensation by editing together clips from neon-lit, neo-noir eighties films. Like fame and Hollywood, the gloss and seduction of the images work towards a believability that engulfs the listener, practically altering their sense of self and reality.
Films like Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo (1980) and Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) — not to mention the aura and legacy of prog rock as a whole — perform a white male universalism, which is complicated by the artist’s reframing of the clips. Concentrating the standard film ratio into the pre-2000s TV 4:3 ratio, the artist eliminates the faces of various protagonists, and by extension their specificity. This vagueness, almost magically, accumulates influence. Initially releasing In the Air Tonight onto a Subreddit thread and thus posing as some version of true, the artist relatedly manipulates thresholds of verisimilitude and delusion.
Andrew Norman Wilson is an artist and director based between Europe and America. Festival screenings include the Sundance Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His work is in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and he has exhibited at LUMA Arles, MoMA PS1 (New York), and the Gwangju and Berlin Biennials. He has taught at UCLA, SAIC, and Cooper Union, and lectured at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University, and Yale University. His work has been featured in Artforum, ArtReview, BOMB, Frieze, The New Yorker, and Wired, and he has published writing in Artforum, The Baffler, and Paris Review.
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and beneath these clouds
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Leila Zelli
Elles font tourner les ciels
From November 16, 2023 to January 20, 2024
Mediation
À l’image — Takeover 6
À l’image — Takeover is a participatory art series in which, over two years, a group of young Montrealers intervenes and responds to Dazibao’s exhibition programming, collaborating with each other and their mentor, artist Veronica Mockler.
Dazibao thanks the artist for his generous collaboration as well as its advisory committee for their support.
Dazibao receives financial support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications and the Ville de Montréal.
Dazibao acknowledges that it is located on the unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá: ka Nation and that Tiohtiá:ke / Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations, and today, is home to a diverse population of Indigenous as well as other peoples. Guided by ethics of respect, listening, and awareness, Dazibao commits to a continued reflection regarding the deep-rooted and systemic challenges tied to accessibility and inclusivity in the arts and beyond, and endeavors to apply such reflections to all aspects of its activities and governance.