Mr. John Zeppetelli, Executive Director and Chief Curator Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), I read in The Press that you found certain criticisms made to you about the management of the museum’s expansion “hurtful”. Since I sent this cry from the heart on August 12, I am certainly one of those whom you do not esteem on your side. I take full responsibility for what I wrote, because it is what I think and I found it necessary to say publicly what so many people think.
You probably suspect that I am not the only one who thinks this way. I received hundreds of email messages to support my approach. Artists, curators, critics, gallery owners, professors, art historians, major collectors and MAC enthusiasts have highlighted my courage, have not dared to do so on a social network and many have asked me to keep their message confidential. Fear of your authority reigns in the visual and media arts world. The whole community is worried, a very large part is devastated.
I never thought I would have to say bad things about an architectural firm that I admire, Saucier et Perrotte architects, but after going to check their website, I feel like saying: let’s stop everything. Let’s put the project on ice for a month before submitting the final call for tenders. You have to see the description that the architects give of their project to see the scale of the disaster. Not a word about the role of the museum, of a contemporary art museum, finally, of the only contemporary art museum in Canada. Not a word about the place of this museum, its historical importance and the link it maintains with the metropolis and Quebec society.
This academic text, full of generalities, could have been written twenty years ago because it uses so many clichés of the architectural monument. It may have been formulated by ChatGPT. We see how proud and disconnected this project is from the community it claims to serve.
Then you have to go see the images and illustrations of the project. To anyone who knows anything about it, these images are misleading and disingenuous. They perfectly describe everything that won’t be there and what we don’t want to see. The party, the restaurants, a majestic shopping center atrium are eye-catching, but the art is secondary or decorative in this enterprise. We are not against pomp and celebration, but show us that you took seriously the picture rails, the progress of the visit and the joy of discovering original proposals from artists from here and elsewhere. Show us that you have considered this museum’s glaring lack of display space.
All this time, we were concerned about the delay in the construction and reopening of the museum. We now see that it is no longer a question of doubling the presentation spaces, but of transforming the museum. Have we been fooled? Insufficient space for now, what can we say about what will be needed in the future and which will be physically impossible to find on site.
We need to show more art and in better conditions. We must be able to make room for all Quebec artists who deserve better consideration.
It’s hard to know if I’m wrong or not. All MAC communications are stingy and timid. The information is either absent or timid. The board of directors is strangely silent. The Minister of Culture, absent from the debate.
What you are building is all we will have for at least the next fifty years. Will it be a straightjacket? Is the goal to attract a few tourists and voyeurs or to build a society better nourished and more attached to art as well as artists better rooted in their society?
Mr. Director, I sincerely hope that you are not wrong and that our concerns are unfounded. Convince us, because we have lost confidence. The contemporary art museum is our future.