July 29, 2024
Michel “Away” Langevin brings his Rebel Robots art exhibit to Fantasia Festival.
As if the world premier of We Are Connected, the brand new Voivod documentary film from director Felipe Belalcazar wasn’t already ample for the Fantasia film festival going music aficionado, we also get a two-day long art exhibit at Bbam! Gallery titled Rebel Robots, showcasing the artwork of Voivod drummer Michel “Away” Langevin.
Today is the second day of the exhibition which is presented as part of the Fantasia Film festival and coincides with the premier of the We Are Connected documentary film that screened at the festival. Yesterday, an estimated 400 people showed up to see the exhibition, with Away in attendance – as he was today as well.
See Also: Voivod : We Are Connected at Fantasia Festival 2024
Away’s work and vision has been the backbone of Voivod since the start, both visually, conceptually and lyrically, to a point, and to see his drawings and artwork on display in a gallery is further testimony to the importance of Voivod both as a band and from a social standpoint.
Perhaps the most moving part of the exhibit though, was having the late, great Denis “Piggy” D’Amour’s unique guitar on display. There are but three in the world and nothing else even remotely like it anywhere in the world. One is owned by Piggy’s sister, another by Jason Newstead who had a hand in the creation of all three and this one, owned by Away.
Made entirely of aluminum, and shaped to represent a space craft, complete with NASA markings and an alien face behind the strings, it is an iconic instrument and a piece of music history. Anyone that knows anything about guitar playing can tell you how unorthodox and groundbreaking Piggy’s work was, in terms of complexity but more importantly his choice of chords and how he paragraphs his writing. There was only one Piggy and I dare say nobody will ever fill his shoes on the mortal coil again. So, being in the presence of this guitar was special. It was moving and, between you and I, I needed to touch it. Just a solitary finger tip. Only briefly; and out of respect for a great musician from a great band.
There were several interesting items for sale, too. From the usual fanfare you’d find sold by a band. Shirts and albums, that sort of thing. Art books showing Away’s work, written by well-known Torontonian journalist Martin Poppoff – and guitar tab books, for the very, very few that could even begin to pull off what Voivod does with ease.
The Bbam! Gallery is owned and operated by Ralph Alfonso; a former employee of Attic records, beat poet and formidable photographer, who once tried to sign Voivod to Artic records.
“They kicked me out of their dressing room”, said Alfonso. “I had snuck backstage, I guess I had heard their tape or read about them in that fanzine (the one mentioned in the film we had both witnessed the previous night.) and might have already been signed by that time. Either way, I had snuck backstage at a show they were playing in the Old Port and knocked on their door” he laughs.
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Fast-forward nearly forty years and he were, in Alfonso’s art gallery, showing the career of one progressive music’s great gems. We truly are all connected in one way or another.
While We Are Connected, the Voivod documentary will begin hitting the film festival circuit in the near future – perhaps if you’re lucky, Rebel Robots, the art exhibit might too be taking place nearby.
