About us / contact

To have a sensitive and sensible impact on the world around us by means of images.
We bring this intention to life by:

• Contributing to artistic, cultural, and social innovation
• Increasing the outreach of artists
• Raising public awareness of today’s issues in the contemporary art field
• Acting as a social agent and catalyst

Our mandate is to implement unifying and structuring initiatives for art dissemination and education, thus encouraging reflection on and access to contemporary art.
We achieve this by:

• Connecting Québec and Canada art scenes with the other localities of the art world
• Conveying the composite and varied realities that foster contemporary art practices
• Encouraging encounters and exchanges, motivated by a sustained concern for the presentation and mediation of artworks
• Offering a friendly and empowering space for expression, to the public and all persons with whom we collaborate

MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image is a contemporary art event taking place in various venues in Montréal (Canada) every two years since 1989. Founded as Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal, the organization was renamed MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image in 2017.

The first Mois de la Photo à Montréal was organized by VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine in 1989 to mark the 150th anniversary of photography. Until 2002, the event was held under the responsibility of VOX. In September 2002, it became an autonomous corporation. This administration change was followed by the adoption of a new model of artistic direction. For every biennale, a curator is invited to propose a theme around which a series of exhibitions and many public activities are organized. A publication is produced to accompany the program. Between twenty and forty artists are selected and their works are presented in fifteen venues throughout the city of Montréal. On the occasion of its 15th edition in 2017, the organization wanted to update its identity and assert its biennale status, thus becoming MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image.

The plural of the Latin word momentum, the name MOMENTA was chosen as a nod to the “decisive moment,” a key notion of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s, and to the photograph, which constitutes the organization’s founding medium. It also brings out the event-based nature of the biennale by inscribing it within a broader temporality–the moments of images, of artworks, of events. Finally, it underlines the fact that the biennale, once centred essentially on the field of photography, now encompasses all image-based practices, in an era when they are being produced in different media, at various places, and in constant transformation.

Over the last nine editions, the biennale has presented more than 500 artists and 2,300 artworks, and attendance totalled 2 million. More than 100 partners join the biennale for each edition, and almost 200 actors from the cultural field participate in it. More precisely, the 2019 edition of MOMENTA reached 210,028 visitors, presented the work of 69 artists, and offered thirty activities of mediation and audience development.

info@momentabiennale.com 
+1.514.390.0383

Office
MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image 
5445 de Gaspé Avenue, room 335
Montréal (Québec) H2T 3B2
Canada

Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm