“We wanted to call this show We’re So Fucked,” says music producer Bob Ezrin.
By using the expression fucked in his native language, he knows that was going a little too daring for an exhibition that is intended to be “general public”.
Why didn’t you do it?
“Maybe next time,” replies Ezrin, who suddenly seems to find that the title of the retro, The Abstract Landscape, is ultimately a very “conservative” choice, which is not at all.
Rock fans know Bob Ezrin very well. He is a Canadian musician and producer who has worked with the greats of this world. Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Kiss, Pink Floyd – he is one of the authors of the song Learning to Fly.
And he’s a friend of Ed Burtynsky. Both were gathered in Montreal this week for the opening of the photographer’s retrospective at the Arsenal.
Ed Burtynsky’s work is a punch in slow motion. As if we saw it coming, but everything was going more slowly, almost in a poetic spirit. We know it’s going to hurt, but the suspended moment is beautiful.
About thirty photographs and mural works hang on the walls of the Montreal art center which has drawn crowds in recent years for its immersive exhibitions of paintings by great masters.
We are obviously very far from Van Gogh’s sunflowers in Burtynsky. Although many of the huge photos feature landscapes so unusual they look like painted canvases. The textures of industrial landscapes sometimes act as trompe-l’œil.
It’s the perspective that changes everything, explains the Ukrainian-born photographer.
Behind the irrigation sites in Saudi Arabia, the Turkish fields and the Spanish salt marshes, there is this ecological drama that has been playing out for too long.
At first glance, the images are nevertheless of plastic beauty.
This duality between beauty and drama has always been present in art, according to Ed Burtynsky.
“Shakespeare had magnificent prose,” recalls the artist, specifying that it was often a question of betrayal. “I think aesthetics and drama often come together,” he says.
“And so much the better if it’s beauty that attracts first,” adds his friend.
“Then you’re going to read the explanations and you’re going to be horrified,” predicts Bob Ezrin.
For 40 years of documenting our actions on the environment, Burtynsky admits he is annoyed. “Unfortunately, we are here,” he says, deploring the politicization of the ecological debate which causes one part of the population to react in opposition to the other, without regard to the subject.
“There have been 10 times more fires this year than last year in Canada,” says the musician, met at the beginning of September, when the temperature felt outside exceeded 40.
The two Ontarians believe the phenomenon will be exponential. Who says there won’t be 10 times as many next year? they ask.
The artists are also not kind to Ontario’s environmental policies, the worst in the country, according to them. When it turns out that even Alberta is doing better, they say, things are not going well.
“And we don’t see any change soon,” Burtynsky said.
Fortunately, there is art. “Art can raise awareness,” says Ed Burtynsky. And this awakening is the first step leading to change. »
“I don’t think artists can change things,” Bob Ezrin continues. Artists must change things. They have to tell those stories. Raise awareness. It all starts from there. »
So, is this Abstract Landscape a general public exhibition? Absolutely ! And for everyone. But we nevertheless recommend that you take the time. To appreciate both the beauty and to absorb the punch, which eventually comes.
“I hope that the people who come here will be motivated and join the movement to protect our environment. And start the revolution in Quebec. Maybe this is where it will start, because it’s not happening elsewhere in Canada,” concludes Bob Ezrin.
