Montréal plus ou moins, 1972: Urban Knowledge Meets Conceptual Attitude

The 1972 exhibition Montréal plus ou moins, curated by the architect Melvin Charney, treated the city’s Museum of Fine Arts as a kind of urban laboratory. Displays created by activist groups as well as artists expressed critical views on Montreal’s urban planning, housing and architectural heritage, while the ambition to reclaim the everyday space of the city resonated with the contemporaneous urban theorizing of Henri Lefebvre. By also featuring performance, give-away artworks, the presentation of documents, and moments of institutional critique, Montréal plus ou moins successfully merged conceptual art strategies with countercultural urban activism.