Reinventing the Performing Art
SOLIDE SALAD PLACE DES ARTS MONTReAL 2004
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For the past 30 years, Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon have been transforming the performing art landscape. Their internationally acclaimed productions stand apart from the current multidisciplinary trend, having anticipated it by many years. Michel Lemieux’s very first performances in 1983 set the tone: unique, original, innovative. His encounter some years later with the visual artist Victor Pilon propelled the pair into unexplored creative territory, fuelling the international notoriety of Lemieux Pilon 4D Art.
Above and beyond the simple juxtaposition of artistic disciplines, Lemieux and Pilon have mastered the perfect integration of theatre, film, dance, visual arts, music and sound in unparalleled stage productions. As a team or individually with key collaborators, they produce awardwinning works combining intelligence and poetry, universal appeal and an avant-garde aesthetic. Recently named Officers of the Order of Canada, Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon have been recognized among the ranks of those artists establishing Quebec’s creative reputation around the world. They are also engaged in a number of collaborations, including projects with Cirque du Soleil and the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon: The Art of Reinvention.
LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE on tour 2012
C eLeBR ati n g
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To mark their 30 years of creative collaboration, Lemieux and Pilon are inviting the public into their world. Fans and neophytes will discover the team’s creative process, from the first spark to the realization of an artistic project, through a multilayered yet unpretentious multidisciplinary exhibition that replicates the sensory experience of their works. Three cornerstones of culture will host this encounter with the world of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon. A three-part retrospective of three remarkable decades at Place des Arts, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
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Lemieux et Pilon at work
MAQUETTE OF FIVE TIMES the montreal museum of fine arts
2014
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From April to mid-June 2014, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will offer an unprecedented museum experience: the art of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon. As the first foray into a brave new world, this immersive exhibition will reinvent the retrospective.
After exploring their artistic work in a more traditional fashion in the first gallery, visitors will be fully immersed in Lemieux and Pilon’s work. They will become actors in an impressionist yet anachronistic re-creation of various productions from the last 30 years. In this vast space filled with giant, constantly metamorphosing projections on the Museum walls and on a series of semi-transparent screens —accompanied by sound clips— visitors will (re)discover the characters, images and scenes from shows such as La Belle et la Bête, the Tempest, Grand Hôtel des Étrangers, Delirium and Orféo. An immersive, interactive and unprecedented foray into the sensory world of Lemieux and Pilon.
THE BIRTH OF A WORK AT PLACE DES ARTS In counterpoint to the immersive experience at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in April and May 2014, the Place des Arts will be delving into the singular spirit of the Lemieux-Pilon team. This retrospective exhibition, which will be held in the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme, will retrace the genesis of their works. Lemieux Pilon 4D Art’s productions result from a lengthy creative process that intersects with and generates new artistic avenues. Intuitive and impulsive, their performing art practice is constantly developing and evolving. Sketches, plans, maquettes, photographs, videos and objects pulled from the archives of the last 30 years will introduce visitors to the original elements of these extraordinary creations. A tour of the Lemieux-Pilon workshop.
Pres e nt i n g a C LAS S IC As part of the events surrounding the 30th anniversary of Lemieux and Pilon’s creative collaboration, the Place des Arts is presenting 13 new performances of Norman at the Cinquième sale in April 2014. Originally produced at the Place des Arts in 2007, Norman has become a classic of the LemieuxPilon repertoire, as well as of the performing arts in general. The show, which combines performance and documentary, pays tribute to the great Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. The incredible success of this work was topped off with a world tour. An evening of magic created by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon.
a nd a B R A ND -NEW PrO DUCTI O N ! In January 2014, at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, Lemieux and Pilon will premiere a brandnew production: Icarus. Created with playwright Olivier Kemeid, Icarus stars Robert Lalonde, Renaud Lacelle Bourdon and Noëlla Huet. This production explores questions both contemporary and timeless about unchecked ambition in individuals, companies and society in general. Is happiness possible in our sped-up era, with its relentless growth and progress at any cost?
Inspired by the myth of Daedalus, a son challenges his father at the end of his life about his career, his personal choices, his ambitions. He forces his father to revisit the turning points of his life, to dig into his labyrinthine memory, to recall deeply buried moments and to confront his inner shadow, his own Minotaur. ICARUS, a fresh look at the father-son relationship, according to Lemieux Pilon.
IN ADDITION TO THE 30th ANNIVERSARY EVENTS La Belle et la Bête's World Tour
La Belle et la Bête continues its remarkable run after 44 soldout performances in Montreal in 2011, and appearances at Toronto’s Luminato Festival last summer and Boston’s ArtsEmerson in fall 2012, the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris and a tour of France. The show will make its New York debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) after a tour of Asia (South Korea and Taiwan).
DELIRIUM Cirque du Soleil 2006
CONTINUUM rio tinto alcan planetarium 2013
© Espace pour la vie (Daniel Choinière)
Shows and events
La Belle et la bête 2011 English Tour, 2012
in collaboration with the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM), Espace Jean Legendre de Compiègne – Scène nationale de l’Oise (France), Luminato (Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity)
Starmania: The Opera 2008
direction and set design, Opéra de Montréal and Opéra de Québec
Norman tribute to Norman McLaren 2007–present
co-produced with Montreal’s Place des Arts, Quebec Scene at the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Luminato and Espace Jean Legendre de Compiègne – Scène nationale de l’Oise
La Tempête 2005-2010
in collaboration with the TNM, Espace Jean Legendre de Compiègne – Scène nationale de l’Oise
Délirium 2006-2008
for Cirque du Soleil
Midnight Sun 2004
to mark Cirque du Soleil’s 20th anniversary and the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s 25th anniversary.
Anima 2002-2004 Orféo 1998-2001
co-produced with the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.) and Montreal’s Usine C.
Pôles 1996-2000
co-produced with Pierre-Paul Savoie Danse, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Softimage, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art and the CanDanse Network.
Grand Hôtel des Étrangers 1994-1998
co-produced with the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art and the Groupe Fortune 1000.
Free Fall – Voix de passage 1990-1992
Mutations 1988-1990
Solide Salad 1984-1986
L’Oeil rechargeable 1983
Le Tympan de la cantatrice 1982
Museum exhibitions and shows
Awards and nominations
Continuum 2013
2013 Order of Canada Officers: Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon
2004
Les Planètes 2003
Gascon-Roux Award: best direction, set and lighting, La Belle et la Bête
2012
2000
Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, immersive show
televised production for Amérimage Spectra, broadcast by the CBC and Radio-Canada
Ceci est une sphère / This is a Sphere 2000
multimedia presentation, Montreal High Lights Festival
Océan d’espoir 2000
Pier 1, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Time Travel 1997
Cité de l’Énergie, Shawinigan
Reach for the Stars 1995 Cosmodôme, Laval
2010
Journal de Montréal’s best 10 shows of the first decade of the millennium, Delirium and Starmania: The Opera
2008
Félix Award nomination for best soundtrack, Anima
Masque nomination, special contribution of the virtual and stage projections in Orféo, Académie québécoise du theatre Winner of the competition to integrate arts with architecture and the environment Montreal’s new conference centre
The Argus newspaper’s Angel Awards for artistic excellence (Britain), Norman
1998
Nomination for the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s Grand Prize, The Tempest
1992
2006
Grafika Award, www.4dart.com website design
Félix Award, direction for Michel Rivard’s show Naïf
Gascon-Roux Award for best direction, lighting and music, The Tempest
1990
2005
1985
Act of Faith 1993
Quebec’s Notre Dame Basilica
Masque, special contribution of the multimedia concept behind The Tempest, Académie québécoise du theatre
Nocturnal Parade for Montreal’s 350th Anniversary 1992
Technical award for The Tempest, Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology
Félix Award nomination, best direction for Voix de passage
Winner of (4) Félix Awards for the show Solide Salad in the following categories: show of the year, lighting design, stage manager of the year and director of the year; and nominations in three other categories
Starmania: the Opera Opéra de Montréal and Opéra de Québec 2008-2009
Upon the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon’s creative collaboration, we offer you a unique opportunity to support the duo by becoming a partner and contributing to the 30th anniversary activities in 2014. Contact
Marie-Christine Dufour
Executive Director
Lemieux Pilon 4D Art mcdufour@4dart.com P 514.284.5005
We can do [even] more… together!
joiN us!