In 2007, under the title Crack the Sky, the Biennale de Montréal has assembled a selection of recent, unpublished works from more than forty artists. Under different themes, this edition proposed a broad look at the contemporary art production of a new generation of Canadian artists, to which was added the works of international artists touching on similar problems.To give an account of the most stimulating production contemporary art has to offer, guest commissioner Wayne Baerwaldt let himself be guided by aesthetic and socio-political issues that mark our paradox-rich times. Whether they draw their inspiration from tribal art, explore the notion of document and artefact or create the curio shops of the xxist century, the selected artists take an interest, among other subjects, in the crossbreeding of individual and collective identities, the shift in national borders and the impact of religious beliefs.Today's world is full of contradictions. Thus we believed that societies, by growing more educated and modern, would become secular, and that tribalism and nationalism would give way to new world institutions. There has been nothing of the sort: religion has become stronger, if not more radical, on several continents, including North America. Nationalisms have not disappeared, and transnational organizations, like the United Nations, are now weaker.Drawing from the range of media now available to them, the artists of Crack the Sky use different tools – sociology, anthropology and history, among others – to interpret these realities and give them an aesthetic form. In so doing, they generate unique representation systems and works that are provocative as much as they are inspiring.

Wayne Baerwaldt's profile page

Claude Gosselin's profile page