En Masse at Montreal’s Musée des Beaux-Arts

I wrote about En Masse some time ago. I know a few of the people involved with En Masse socially and they’re all super-talented artists, so it’s always impressive to see their collaborative work. In any case, the Musée des Beaux-Ars in Montreal got En Masse to cover a bunch of walls in their educational area last year and the work is really amazing to say the least.

En Masse Musée des Beaux-Arts Montreal 2012

In the summer of 2012, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts brought the En Masse Project on board for the creation of their new educational area. On the course of 2 of the hottest weeks of July, 28 artists gathered together in the new sections of the museum to create one of our most impressive piece to date, covering walls and part of the ceiling on 2 levels, a staircase and one of the main access hallway. The new educational zones launched in September 2012, offering a free access and workshops to kids and their adults everyday that the museum is opened. The En Masse piece will be there permanently, giving the project a important presence in the city. Be sure to pass by next time you are visiting Montreal.

I love that the “Museum of Fine Arts” is embracing this alt-art culture that is part of what makes Montreal such a vibrant city and hey, here’s all these graffiti and street art and illustration and pop surrealism people getting together to make something awesome, breaking down the walls between institutional art and … ummm… how can I describe it? Not institutional art?  All the other art? The thing is that there’s art all over the place outside of fine art/ institutional art so it’s kind of hard to pin down.

Anyhow, I’m going to stop blathering now. Just watch this video by Fred Caron of En Masse doing their thing. It’s stellar.