Mont et merveilles, an exhibition worth seeing
May 23, 2013
The HEC Montréal Archives Department has collaborated on mounting a large-scale exhibition saluting the Université de Montréal’s 70 years on Mount Royal, where it was joined over the years by Polytechnique Montréal (1958) and HEC Montréal (1970). The exhibition, entitled Mont et merveilles – Sept collections universitaires étonnantes et les coups de cœur de Michel Dallaire, will continue until December 8, 2013, at the Université de Montréal exhibition centre.
The exhibition gives visitors a chance to explore some little-known treasures owned by the Université de Montréal, HEC Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal. They are drawn from seven university collections, compiled mainly for teaching and research purposes. Internationally renowned Montréal designer Michel Dallaire was invited to explore the collections and choose a favourite piece from each one.
Mont et merveilles offers a glimpse of the knowledge related to these seven collections and reveals their scientific importance and deep historical roots. It also underscores the contribution of the three university institutions in assembling and preserving these collections for the benefit of current and future generations. The 300 objects, works of art, specimens, artifacts and documents on display are from a number of sources: the international collection of musical instruments of the ethnomusicology and organology laboratory (LEO/OICRM), the collection of ethnographic objects of the Université de Montréal Anthropology Department, the Musée Eudore-Dubeau, the Université de Montréal art collection, the HEC Montréal institutional and private archives and the Polytechnique Montréal geological engineering collection.
Note that another exhibition recognizing the Université de Montréal’s 70 years on the Mountain is also being presented, this time at the Centre d’histoire de Montréal, until April 13, 2014. In a setting evoking a forest path, La face cachée de la montagne invites visitors to discover the treasures and mysteries of the “hidden face” of Mount Royal. They can learn more about the natural, architectural, sociocultural and scientific heritage of the north slope of the Mountain, and the many changes it has seen over the years, as it has been transformed from farmland, producing food, to educational institutions that are temples of knowledge.