Kota Ezawa at Musée d'Art Contemporain Montréal

November 7, 2017

Kota Ezawa will be featured in the exhibition Leonard Cohen – A Crack in Everything at Musée d'Art Contemporain Montréal. A multidisciplinary exhibition combining visual art, virtual reality, installations, performances, music and writing, the exhibiton offers the public a collection of brand-new work commissioned from and created by local and international artists who have been inspired by Leonard Cohen’s style and recurring themes.

Ezawa will present a new animated video work, Cohen 21, from his Geometry of Rock and Roll series, which pairs the works of visionaries in the fields of visual arts and music. The film depicts a 32-year-old Cohen as he delivers a stand-up comedy routine to an enthusiastic crowd. The clip comes from the 1965 film Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen, a documentary which captured Cohen's career as a noted poet and novelist before he launched his career as a singer-songwriter in 1967. 

The film of Cohen is overlaid with the work of another pioneering artist of the 20th century, the avant-garde painter and experimental filmmaker, Hans Richter. Richter's first film Rhythmus 21 (1921), depicted in Ezawa's animation, is one of the earliest examples of abstract cinema. 

Leonard Cohen – A Crack in Everything is the first major exhibition devoted to the imagination and legacy of the great singer/songwriter and global icon from Montréal, and is part of the official program for Montréal’s 375th anniversary celebrations. It will be on view from November 9, 2017 - April 9, 2018.