General Overview

Elements of Chance :
All Thought Expresses a Throw of the Dice (Stéphane Mallarmé, 1897)

The 7th edition of La Biennale de Montréal - BNL MTL has been held from May 1st to 31st, 2011 and has brought together the works of artists from Québec, Canada and abroad. Under the theme of chance, the BNL MTL has presented a rich and varied program.

Elements of Chance, has been held under the co-curatorship of Claude Gosselin, Executive and Artistic Director of CIAC - Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal and David Liss, Artistic Director of MOCCA - Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto.

The BNL MTL 2011 was inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé's poem Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard, published in 1897. Some people feel that this poem, given its unique text and graphic design, heralded the birth of contemporary art, or at the very least marked the beginning of a new concept of art that has impacted all artistic disciplines.

Chance hides behind different words : randomness, gambling, probability. Chance plays a significant role in our lives. We move forward, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. This reality molds our lives, our imagination and influences our understanding of the world around us.

For the longest time, and more specifically since the middle of the 20th century, artists have integrated the notion of chance in the conception and creation of their works.

In the field of visual arts, Marcel Duchamp has incorporated randomly chosen every day objects to works of art via the concept of the "ready made". He rejects the notions of vituosity and know-how and defends the idea that art is the result of perception rather than of creation.

In music, John Cage, will develop a musical score constructed on the principle of indetermination.

Merce Cunningham, in dance, will offer up improvisation and randomness.

Artists from the Fluxus movement have encouraged the accidental assimilation of external elements to their works in order to narrow the gap between art and life.

Finaly, work in progress and the unpredictable participation of the general public to the works of artists are increasingly widespread trend in contemporary art, exploring various components of chance: doubt, destiny and chaos.

This 7th edition of La Biennale de Montréal has proposed various avenues of relexion - visual arts, music, film, conferences, seminars, workshops and mediation activities - on a subject that plays an essential role in art as in life, i.e. the role of chance.

Indeed, there is a political component to recognizing chance in our behaviours. In today's societies where our daily lives are becoming increasingly "pre-determined" by restrictive laws and regulations, it is urgent that we recognize chance in the simple way the world unfolds. To recognize chance is to recognize freedom, randomness, the undisplined forces of nature, our nature. To recognize chance is to open ourselves to others, to the undetermined, and to receive the unexpected positively.

To illustrate this theme, curators have been hosting some 40 artists hailing from 10 different countries.

Everything in the universe is governed by chance and probability, by Claude Gosselin
Elements of Chance, by David Liss