Artist Centrefold: United Nations, ISO 216.

Parachute was co-founded in 1975 by Chantal Pontbriand and France Morin, in the wake of what Marie-Eve Charron calls "Quebec's May 1968." (1) Between 1968 and 1975, students and cultural workers in Montreal sought to secure a social function for artists in the city. Their aims were accomplished. The occupation and consequent closure of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Declic intervention at the Bibliotheque nationale and, crucially, the emergence of artist-run centres such as Vehicule (est. 1972) and Optica (est. 1972) put a premium on socially conscious art practices in Quebec for years to come. These events form an historical backdrop for the emergence of Parachute.

      The magazine's double mandate--to provide a critical language
   appropriate to emerging art practices in the 70s and a forum for
   international developments in contemporary art (2)-expressed the
   interests of cultural workers across Quebec at the time. Early
   coordinated efforts to legitimize cultural work in the province
   paid off. A guide to artist-run centres in Quebec and Canada
   published by the Regroupement des centres d'artistes autogeres du
   Quebec (RCAAQ) (est. 1986) lists a total of 55 parallel spaces in
   Quebec and only 63 in the rest of the provinces combined. The
   Quebec art press, as well, fares better than the rest of the
   country's with 10 magazines or reviews (in 2006) compared with
   Ontario's eight and BC's three. At the time of Parachute's
   suspension of publication in 2006, the magazine was utterly unique
   in the Canadian art press. With a network of 400 Canadian
   contributors and 125 international contributors, 1,200 subscribers
   in over 40 countries, and 4,000 to 5,000 copy print runs, Parachute
   was way ahead of the pack. It comes as no surprise then that the
   magazine's "suspension" sent shock waves throughout the art
   community in Quebec and beyond.

   CHARMED BEGINNINGS

      Parachutes immediate pre-history can be traced back to a
   friendship forged at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM)
   between Rene Blouin and Chantal Pontbriand. The two joined the
   administrative board of Vehicule in 1972 to work with the
   organization's other members on developing a "vehicle for
   current artistic thought" (3) and a space in which to show local
   and international artists. Blouin and Pontbriand recall that
   this mission was urgent in the early 70s as there was no private
   support for the ephemeral art practices emerging at the time.
   Minimalist and post-minimalist practices had taken the bottom
   out of the art market--the few collectors that existed in Quebec
   were, as elsewhere, stymied by the proliferating traces of
   mail-art projects and performance pieces of the 70s. The parallel
   gallery system filled this gap. Blouin and Pontbriand excitedly
   recall Vehicule's installation of a work by Sol LeWitt sent in
   characteristic fashion by mail as a set of instructions, and
   performances by Vito Acconci and Dennis Oppenheim.

Along with this international roster of artists, Vehicule supported Quebec's emerging poets with a modest press: Vehicule Press (est. 1973) was run on the barest of means, with an ATF Chief 20 printing press used for posters and flyers, originally purchased by artist Tom Dean to print the magazine Beaux-Arts. At the time, there was no public funding for art periodicals in Canada, but Blouin managed to secure a study grant to research current modes of documenting ephemeral art practices in France, Sweden and England. During the course of his "feasibility study," Blouin prepared two grant applications--to the Ministry of Culture and The Canada Council for the Arts--for a documentation centre and publication. The grant from the Ministry of Culture came through. Shortly after, Blouin was offered a job by the Canada Council for the Arts and, after much deliberation, left Vehicule for "greener" pastures (i.e. an adequate paycheque and a chance to work with artists from across the country). Pontbriand remarks that Blouin's move was understandable: "we were all looking for jobs."

      Pontbriand's own search for a "more professional structure" (4)
   led her to team up with France Morin to co-found Parachute in 1975.
   The Ministry of Culture grant secured by Blouin was transferred to
   Pontbriand and Morin for the publication. Montreal's cando culture
   of artists' books, documents and ephemera, in retrospect, seems to
   have anticipated the emergence of the magazine. Pontbriand and
   Morin worked out of makeshift living-room offices in the
   neighbourhood of Parc la Fontaine for the magazine's first two
   years. Morin's partner, sculptor Roland Poulin, would contribute
   the design concept for the first issue and the Helvetica title that
   would stay with the magazine for its first 100 issues. Pontbriand's
   partner, artist Raymond Gervais, would also contribute to the first
   issue with a Phillip Glass interview. Tnereafter, Gervais would
   oversee Parachutes new music content. The magazine emerged from the
   trenches of independent publishing within its first two years.
   Public funds from the Canada Council were added to the operating
   budget, and in 1977, Pontbriand secured a "real" office on Mentana
   Street. There, too, the communal spirit of the times pervaded:
   Betty Goodwin produced an installation--her Mentana Street
   Project--in a space she rented on the first floor of the new office
   building. Parachute moved into its next, long-term office on
   St-Laurent in the heart of Montreal's Plateau in 1981. The space
   was purchased by Pontbriand along with several other
   (real-estate-savvy) artists who would set up studios in the same
   building.