Their Mortal Remains – The Pink Floyd Exhibition Montreal Preview

The celebrated Pink Floyd retrospective, Their Mortal Remains, is opening its doors to Canadian audiences this week at Montreal’s Arsenal Gallery. The exhibit premiered at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London five years ago, and has captivated fans on subsequent stops in Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United States. By putting an emphasis on the artwork and stage props that set Pink Floyd apart from their contemporaries, the curators avoided the cliches of other rock music exhibits that resemble glorified storage lockers. Their Mortal Remains is an unparalleled music exhibition guaranteed to inspire Pink Floyd fans of every generation.

At the exhibit’s opening, Nick Mason was joined by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell of Hipgnosis, the creative director and co-curator of the exhibition, and Michael Cohl from S2BN, a long-standing collaborator of the band and executive producer of the exhibition around the world. Although his memories of Pink Floyd are quite sharp, Mason revealed that recently his kids asked him to complete an online Pink Floyd Quiz and he received a score of 56%. “Clearly I needed a lot of help for this entire exhibit to come together,” said Mason.

Montreal has always shared a special connection with Pink Floyd, who played the first and highest attended concert at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium on July 6, 1977. It was at this concert that Roger Waters famously spat on a fan, which inspired him to write The Wall. Each of the 78,322 spectators present that night continue to claim to have been the fateful saliva recipient all these years later. Nick Mason joked that every person who attended that show should hire a good lawyer to recoup their due share of The Wall’s profit from Roger Waters. In an interview with Northern Transmissions last week, Mason said that Pink Floyd resonated with Montreal audiences from the start due to the city’s French influence. As Mason views it, Pink Floyd found an audience here that was equal parts North American and French, resulting in some of the band’s most memorable performances this side of the Atlantic.

Michael Cohl, Nick Mason, and Aubrey Powell at the premier of Their Mortal Remains in Montreal on November 3, 2022. Photo by Stewart Wiseman.

The members of Pink Floyd always put a heavy emphasis on the artistic side of their music, and their iconic album covers have only become more renowned over time. Walking through the exhibition, it becomes quite evident that the visual creations of Hipgnosis were just as crucial to Pink Floyd’s success as the band’s music. The prism design on Dark Side of the Moon is perhaps the most instantly recognizable album cover in popular music, and Aubrey Powell recalls that he had initially proposed a dozen different cover ideas to the band. Famously acrimonious, the members of Pink Floyd were unanimous in selecting the famed prism artwork. Mason says that the image resonated right away with him as the perfect image to present Dark Side of the Moon. As Powell recalls, there was no hesitation in the room when the various proposals were presented to the band at Abbey Road Studios. As part of the exhibition, fans can view rough sketches of the prism artwork prepared by Powell and his creative partner Storm Thorgerson.

Their Mortal Remains is organized chronologically, from the early Syd Barrett fronted albums to 2014’s The Endless River. Upon entering the exhibit, attendees are handed an audio guide device that seamlessly plays selections from the band’s catalogue as you venture from room to room. The exhibition brings together over 350 artefacts from the band’s archives, from inflatable pigs to handwritten lyrics, to hypnotic audio-visual performances. My personal highlights include a remastered video of the 1972 Pompeii concert, a room dedicated to the 1988 live album Delicate Sound of Thunder, and the original Polaroid photo taken by Nick Mason of an unrecognizable Syd Barrett when he visited the band as they were recording Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Nick Mason and Aubrey Powell said that rather than having a favourite object in the exhibition, they take much more pride in the fact that several individuals responsible for shaping the Pink Floyd imagery and legacy are finally getting their due, including Mark Fisher and Gerald Scarfe. The exhibition culminates with a dazzling video display that Michael Cohl said simply took his breath away. With a reunion unlikely to ever happen again, Their Mortal Remains is a must-visit for fans clamouring to experience the magic of Pink Floyd up close.

Words by Stewart Wiseman

The Pink Floyd Exhibition – Their Mortal Remains will run at Arsenal Contemporary Art in Montreal from November 4 – December 31, 2022. Tickets are available online at www.pinkfloydexhibition.com.

Division Bell artwork, as seen at Their Mortal Remains Montreal exhibition. Photo by Stewart Wiseman.

Inflatable pig from a Pink Floyd concert, as seen at Their Mortal Remains Montreal exhibition. Photo by Stewart Wiseman.

Delicate Sound of Thunder artwork, as seen at Their Mortal Remains Montreal exhibition. Photo by Stewart Wiseman.