Melvin Charney

UN DICTIONNAIRE…, 1970-2001, 250 plates, each 27.8 x 35.5 cm or 28 x 35 cm, totaldimension of installation: 420 x 2430 cm. © Melvin Charney

Photography’s monumentality derives not so much from the sometimes exceptional nature of the events depicted as it does from the immeasurable volume of pictures that have been taken and reproduced since the 19th century. The constant sedimentation of images forms a thick photographic bedrock into which Melvin Charney cuts. For more than thirty years, Charney has been compiling newspaper pages bearing photographs in which architecture comes into contact with current events. This compilation of images gives rise to an imposing cartography of news events, one that is inseparable, moreover, from a meditation on architecture and time.

Melvin Charney
Born in Montreal, Quebec. Lives and works in Montreal, New York and Paris.

Internationally acclaimed artist Melvin Charney has created a unique body of work characterized by a preoccupation with urban space. He is best known for photographic works like UN DICTIONNAIRE… and for a series of large-scale installations, including the Canadian Centre for Architecture sculpture garden in Montreal (1987-1991). Charney’s works has been often exhibited and are in the collections of many museums. He has represented Canada twice at the Venice Biennale. Recently, his work was featured in an exhibition at the Centre national de la photographie, Paris. Notable among numerous publications on his work is a recent monograph published by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, which examines the essential role of photography in his work.

L’ESPACE VOX Lieux et non-lieux de l’actualité
2 Sainte-Catherine Street East (4th floor)
(514) 390 0382
Exhibition hours: Tuesday to Sunday and holidays from 10am to 6pm
From September 4 to November 2, 2003
Opening: September 3, 2003 at 5pm