If the various hazy streams of art in the city finally began to freeze into a more or less reductive vision of what constituted Contemporary Art around the Québec 75 exhibition , this gradual movement was further solidified a decade later with the inauguration of the Cent jours d’art contemporain, and its first exhibition Aurora Borealis , which ran in the summer of 1985. The media declared it “the biggest contemporary art event ever held in Canada, (in the Promenades de la Cité du Parc) [welcoming] some 15,000 visitors (including schools, colleges and universities who have booked a visit in the coming weeks).” [Jocelyne Lepage, “Aurora Borealis: 15 000 visiteurs et bonne presse,” La Presse , September 12, 1985, B1.] This was less than half of the attendance that had been projected, and, the journalist added, significantly less than the two blockbuster shows occurring simultaneous to it, Ramses II (500,000 visitors) and a Picasso show (300,000 visitors). But if it scarcely competed
A critical revue of contemporary art in the city.