At a moment when going to the movies is difficult or altogether impossible, The Musical Years: 1920\u20132020 <\/em>at VOX, centre de l\u2019image contemporaine in Montr\u00e9al offers a unique glimpse into the art of experimental filmmaking. With their perpetual flickering of light and colour, the gallery\u2019s exhibi-tion spaces emulate a movie theatre dedicated to exploring the relationship between image and sound. When the terms \u201cmusical\u201d and \u201ccinema\u201d are presented together, one might think of the dazzling extravaganzas produced by the wizards of Hollywood during the so-called Golden Age of American filmmaking, but that is not the focus of this exhibition. Rather, The Musical Years <\/em>showcases innovations in audio-visual production, making it possible for viewers to trace the evolution of music\u2019s relationship to moving images, and vice versa. To do this, a broad selection of films produced over the last century are displayed alongside contemporary installations that rethink the tangled histories of cinema and sound. The exhibition centralizes the role of the experimental filmmaker, featuring historical works by Ralph Steiner (1899 \u2013 1986), Oskar Fischinger (1900 \u2013 1967), and Ren\u00e9 Jodoin (1920 \u2013 2015), as well as recent examples by Martin Arnold and Michaela Grill.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Throughout the gallery-turned-screening room, headphones are required to focus on each work\u2019s fundamental musical accompaniment. Given the thesis of The Musical Years<\/em>, this is a wise curatorial decision. Upon entering the exhibition, rapidly flashing colours of Jodoin\u2019s animation Rectangle et rectangles <\/em>(1984) emit from the first of many screens. The first gallery is separated with dividing walls, each one presenting a different experimental film by the pioneers of the field. The relative openness of the space allows viewers to interact with the films in ways that a conventional theatre would not. For example, multiple projections may be watched simultaneously, prompting a comparative reading of the works. When removing headphones in this gallery, the sonic elements of the exhibition are silenced. As a result, the viewer is confronted with a dissonant flurry of moving images devoid of any soundtrack, demonstrating the absolute necessity of sound in the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
 With too many works to adequately describe here, The Musical Years <\/em>is a reminder of cinema\u2019s affinities with other artforms. As Marie J. Jean writes in the curatorial essay, the relationships between image and sound are directly linked to the interests of abstract painters such as Wassily Kandinsky, whose \u201ccoloured hearing\u201d (a form of synaesthe-sia) allowed him to distinguish \u201cchromatic sensations when he heard sounds, associating, for example, yellow with the brassy blast of the trumpet.\u201d This phenomenon is observed in Oskar Fischinger\u2019s An Optical Poem <\/em>(1938), in which multicoloured shapes dance along to the orchestrations in Franz Liszt\u2019s \u201cHungarian Rhapsody No. 2\u201d (1847). In order to achieve this effect, Fischinger cut pieces of coloured paper and photographed them in stop-motion. It is worth noting that An Optical Poem <\/em>was co-produced by Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, the Hollywood studio that produced many of those aforementioned musical spectacles during the same period. Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism are also represented in the selected experimental films. Filmmakers associated with these movements, such as Hans Richter and Ralph Steiner, became increasingly interested in live-action subjects and visual effects. In Filmstudie <\/em>(1926), Richter puts geometric forms in dialogue with figurative objects, such as human faces, flocks of birds, and disembodied eyeballs. Paired with Darius Milhaud\u2019s ballet, \u201cLa cr\u00e9ation du monde Op. 81a\u201d (1922 \u2013 23) and overlaid with sounds of sirens, engines, and bird calls, Filmstudie <\/em>is an unsettling dive into the psyche. By contrast, Steiner\u2019s Mechanical Principles <\/em>(1930) prioritizes live-action subjects. Close-up shots of moving gears, pistons, and other mechanical objects are perfectly choreographed to the score for strings by Eric Beheim in an homage to the machine age and modern engineering. The relational power dynamics between sound and image are solidified in the two entirely different tones expressed in these works by Richter and Steiner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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