montreal fall arts calendar 2024
Arts & Life

Montreal Arts Calendar for Fall 2024

by Savannah Stewart

The most promising plays, dance productions and exhibitions in Montreal this season.

The Arts Calendar for Fall 2024 features the most promising plays, dance productions and exhibitions happening and launching in Montreal in September and October.

Connecting From the Inside Out

Montreal-based artist My-Van Dam’s work exploring trauma and societal pressure’s impacts on the body is on display in this solo exhibition curated by Geneviève Wallen for Montréal, arts interculturels (MAI). Featuring a video installation, sculptures and drawings, Dam charts a pathway to healing for individuals and the collective, with a particular focus on the solidarity of women of colour to tend to shared wounds. Connecting From the Inside Out is at the MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance), Sept. 5–Oct. 26.

Montreal Arts Calendar for Fall 2024

Two by Two, Together

It’s all in the name: to present the Museum of Fine Arts’ newest acquisitions, Two by Two, Together is putting them on display in pairs, allowing the artworks to enter into dialogue with each other and complement or contrast in their subject matter, period, style or medium. The most notable additions include works by Stéphane La Rue, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Rembrandt and Robert Mapplethorpe. Most of the works in Two by Two, Together have never yet been on display for a Montreal audience. Two by Two Together is at the Museum of Fine Arts (1380 Sherbrooke W.), Sept. 11, 2024–Oct. 5, 2025.

To All the Unnamed Women

This year’s artist in residence at the McCord Stewart Museum, Michaëlle Sergile, shines a spotlight on the lives and contributions of Black women in Montreal from 1870 to 1910, with a particular focus on the creation of the Coloured Women’s Club of Montreal. Using weaving, a medium associated with femininity, and archival sources, Sergile presents the stories of the women who founded the club, which aimed to help migrant families begin their new lives in Montreal. To All the Unnamed Women is at the McCord Stewart Museum (690 Sherbrooke W.) from Sept. 13–Jan. 12, 2025.

How to Survive in the Wild 

First an acclaimed French-language play at Théâtre Duceppe, then a TV series, and now an English-language premiere at the Segal Centre: Manuel de la vie sauvage is coming to an English audience as How to Survive in the Wild. The story follows Kevin Bérard, a fictional Québécois entrepreneur who invents an app using AI to allow people to converse with their recently deceased loved ones. His app may have brought him fortune and fame, but Bérard soon realizes it all comes at a cost, and he might not be willing to pay the price. Presented by Persephone Productions, How to Survive in the Wild is a timely tale about success and what it takes to achieve it. How to Survive in the Wild is at the Segal Centre (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine) from Sept. 14–29.

Montreal Arts Calendar for Fall 2024

Sakura

Anton Chekhov is coming to the Centaur Theatre, reimagined for the 21st century. His acclaimed classic The Cherry Orchard gets a modern revamp in the form of Sakura, a comedy recounting the impending sale of a beloved orchard after the family owning it falls on hard times. With its setting along the St. Lawrence River, this play by Montrealer Harry Standjofski will feel just like home to a local audience. Sakura is at the Centaur (453 St-François-Xavier), Sept. 17–Oct. 6.

Montréal – Marrakech

Montreal dance company Le Carré des Lombes teamed up with Marrakech-based company Anania Danses to create this lively quartet inspired by the coming together of their different practices and cultures. Choreographed by Danièle Desnoyers and Taoufiq Izeddiou, the piece features two dancers from each company and evokes questions as political as they are artistic. Montreal – Marrakech is at Edifice Wilder (1435 Bleury) from Sept. 18–20

Clusters

Two prominent figures behind the camera in the Quebec film industry, cinematographer André Turpin and set designer Léa Valérie Létourneau, have collaborated on a series of photographs telling a whole story in a single snap. Soon to be at the PHI Centre, these intricately staged photographs, figments of the imaginations of these two visual storytellers, present the audience with settings bearing the marks left by those living in them. Clusters is an exploration of the marks we humans leave on the spaces we inhabit, displayed in exalted environments. Clusters is at PHI Centre (407 St-Pierre), Sept. 20–Oct. 20. 

Montreal Arts Calendar for Fall 2024

Alanis Obomsawin: The Children Have to Hear Another Story

Renowned Abenaki documentarian Alanis Obomsawin’s large body of work and her remarkable story will be on display at the Musée d’art contemporain, providing a deep dive into the First Nations activist and causes that inspire her to keep filming. Divided by decade and highlighting her most influential films, the exhibition will give vital context to both Obomsawin’s personal sensibilities and the current realities for Indigenous peoples of North America. Alanis Obomsawin: The Children Have to Hear Another Story is at the MAC (1 Place Ville Marie) from Sept. 26–Jan. 26, 2025

Ballet BC

For just four nights, contemporary ballet troupe Ballet BC will grace the stage at Théâtre Maisonneuve. A triple bill with modern takes on Maurice Ravel’s Boléro and Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, the show will begin with a rhythmic crescendo performed by 50 dancers in BOLERO X, choreographed by Shahar Binyamini. Next are two pieces choreographed by Medhi Walerski: an intimate duet entitled Silent Tides and one of his most acclaimed works, Chambers. Ballet BC perfroms at Place des Arts (260 de Maisonneuve W.) from Oct. 2–5

Coded Dreams

In the PHI Centre’s first exhibition dedicated solely to AI, Coded Dreams presents two interactive art experiences created by Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser. Tulpamancer is like a choose-your-own-adventure Virtual Reality journey delving into the audience member’s past and potential future, while The Golden Key presents AI’s fever dreams inspired by thousands of folktales from around the world. Both use AI and machine learning to create an individualized experience for attendees, who influence the works with their own backgrounds and interests. Coded Dreams is on at PHI Centre (407 St-Pierre), Oct. 9–Nov. 3

Montreal Arts Calendar for Fall 2024

For more art events in Montreal, please visit our daily To-Do List and Event listings. This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue of Cult MTL.

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Posted in Arts & Life

by Savannah Stewart

Contributing editor for Arts
Savannah Stewart is a writer, translator and copy editor currently reporting with The Eastern Door. She is happiest writing about art, language and culture in Montreal and Kahnawake.