Chantal Pontbriand not so quick to give up her power

Howdy!

It appears that Ms. Pontbriand is in a death match (or something like that) with Johanne Lamoureux. First there was this. Second there was this. And now third there is this.

And then, because it was there, I went and looked at the responses that Ms. Pontbriand has been receiving as a consequence of her actions. As of now (Dec 15, 2006 about 10AM), there are 145 responses. I'd love to know how many of the responses were by people who had had something published in Parachute.

Although I think my absolute favorite has to be from Phyllis Lambert, of the Bronfman family, who wrote

Je suis toute a fait ahurie d'apprendre que Parachute disparaîtra. There goes Montréal. Comment pourrions-nous maintenir notre conscience de nous-mêmes en tant que métropole culturel ? Nous avons vécu en toute sécurité, sachant que Parachute était là, et que nous appartenions au monde international des penseurs et praticiens en art. Il faut ensemble garder et même augmenter ce statut dans une continuation de Parachute.

I am completely stunned to hear that Parachute will disappear. There goes Montreal. How can we continue to think of ourselves as a cultural metropolis? We lived comfortably, knowing that Parachute was there, and that we belonged to the international world of the thinkers and experts in art. Together we must protect and increase this position in honor of Parachute.

After which she closed down the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery. Obviously the LDT Gallery did not do anything to increase Montreal's position in the international art world and that is why it got turfed.

And I am making certain assumptions about the Bronfman family, their foundation, and who actually controls the direction that the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts takes. If any of my assumptions are wrong (and I seem to have been wrong a lot this week) please don't hesitate to let me know.

But as this is about Parachute, 145 responses in three weeks, in this age of the internet is bupkiss. That's 6/day, or if you prefer more than 10% of their subsciption base.

And my absolute favorite is how despite not publishing, the Parachute team is still going to participate in the "Documenta 12 Magazine Project as one of the eighty journals around the world which works to link artistic practices, theoretical discourse and the public. These journals are collaborating on the creation of a web site on the theoretical and artistic issues being raised by the next edition of Documenta in Kassel in the summer of 2007."

And I think Georg Schöllhammer, the guy organizing the Documenta Magazine Project nailed the definition of Parachute: It is a "specialist publications operating in minority discursive fields beyond the major art centres."