“The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” will open in Montreal, Quebec, on Friday, Nov. 4, for an 8-week run at Arsenal Contemporary Art.
The exhibit, created by members of the band working with album sleeve designer Aubrey “Po” Powell, features more than 350 artifacts collected over the band’s career — including handwritten lyrics, musical instruments, letters, stage props, original artworks and more.
The show is designed by Stufish, longtime stage designers for the band, which was founded by the late Mark Fisher.
“Their Mortal Remains” premiered in London in 2017 after a three-year delay from its originally scheduled debut in Milan in 2014; and has travelled to Rome, Dortmund, Madrid, and most recently, to Los Angeles. This will mark the exhibit’s first showing in Canada.
Montreal plays a unique and somewhat notorious role in the history of Pink Floyd. The band first played Montreal in November 1971, at a sold-out show at the Centre Sportif de l’Université de Montréal. They returned to the city several times, performing at the Montreal Forum, the Autostade, and Olympic Stadium.
At was at the Stadium, on July 6, 1977, the final show of Floyd’s “In the Flesh” tour, when Roger Waters, frustrated with an inattentive audience, spat at a fan from the stage. The experience served as an epiphany, as he realized a divide had grown between the band and its audience. That revelation helped inform his creation of “The Wall.”
Base rates for tickets to the exhibit run from $28 to $45 CA, are good for specific times of entry, and can be purchased online.
Curators estimate a walk through the exhibit will take 60-90 minutes. But you and I both know we’ll be there all day.
Learn more at the exhibit’s website.
Designer Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis and photographer Mick Rock shot Barrett crouched on the floor of his London flat for the cover of his The Madcap Laughs album. Prior to the shoot, Barrett painted the floorboards alternating colors of purple and orange.
