An essential event of the winter season, the Festival Art Souterrain is back for a 12th edition in the heart of the metropolis. During this festival, activities for the whole family will be offered from February 29 to March 22, 2020. In addition, contemporary art will invest 5 km from Montreal's underground pedestrian network and 7 off-path locations to present, for 24 days, works of contemporary art by fifty-five local and international artists around the theme RESET.

The works selected by the 4 curators, Juliette Bibasse (France), Marie Perrault (Canada), Dulce Pinzón (Mexico) and Lynn Bannon (Canada), will be accessible at all times for free. In addition, the Festival will offer more than 50 free mediation and artistic discovery activities.

RESET:

"And if you could press a button and erase everything, what would you do with this new blank page? If you were asked to start from scratch, how would you imagine the world? Humanity is at a turning point. Should we persist in its habits or be aware of repetitive patterns to start on a new basis? Changing your routine and changing your habits can lead to intense moments of insecurity. This can lead to painful questioning, even loss of bearings. Climate, economic and political upheavals are at the heart of our news. Individually and collectively, if we want to survive, we will soon have to modify our relationship to the world, but also our interpersonal relationships. Is Manichaeism the only solution? Should we think only in terms of utopia and dystopia in order to find paths that have never been marked out?"

The works selected for this 12th edition will allow the public to question and interact with the concept of RESET addressing current concerns.

Artists:

Presenting a serie called "Anarchitechture" Olivier Ratsi will bring visitors to question their own perception of space, and the interpretation of our reality; REST-TOI, TOI-MÊME, by artist Julie Piché, will invite spectators to reflect on the proposal for the Festival theme RESET; Les Nivaux will take over the Palais des Congrès de Montréal with their work STOP Urgence! asking visitor to take a pause and think about the future, a new life, or a new way of consuming; Anna Ridler will offer a series of photographic photos: Myriad (Tulips), an installation made up of 10,000 polaroid photos of Dutch tulips. These images become a "data set" which will allow to train an algorithm so that it "learns," just like artificial intelligence; Martin Le Chevallier, particularly interested in inscribing art in public space presents three sorting bins, a trio of everyday objects whose function is strangely diverted; Undream by Sabrina Ratté will lead the spectator through an isolated landscape, overhung by a monumental structure. The theme RESET will also be addressed through artist Skawennati's films called machinimas, images of avatars and a collection of clothing developed in a digital environment and calico designs. The artist will occupy the entire shopping gallery of the Centre du Commerce Mondial de Montréal.

Other artists presented during the Festival are:

Daniel Corbeil, François Couture, Matthias Dörfelt, Jean-Jacques Ader, Margo Majewska, Les Nivaux, Élyse Brodeur Magna, Marc-Antoine Phaneuf, Anna Ridler, SUZANNE, arkadi lavoie-lachapelle, Damien Elliott, Joanie Lemercier, Rubén Martín de Lucas, Sara Létourneau, Les Soeurs Chevalme, JJ LEVINE, Jaqueline van de Geer, Thomas Vaquié, Myriam El Haik, Maxime Loiseau, Boris Pintado, Chloë Cheuk, Pascal Dufaux & Sarah Wendt, Adam Basanta, DISNOVATION, Cabinet de Fumisterie Appliqué, Micheline Durocher, Anaïs Tondeur, François Winants, Dominique Sirois, Alice Blanchet- Gavouyière, Gab More, Caroline Monet, Manuel Díaz, Sean Mundy, Inflatable Deities, Bonnie Baxter, Mehryle Lévisse, Philippe Boisnard, Julia Piccolo, Victoria Block, Marjolijn Dijkman, Philippe Boisnard...and many more.

The 12th edition of the Festival Art Souterrain will take place from February 29 to March 22, 2020.