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From Montreal to the world: Parachute Magazine--1975-2006? Tammer El-Sheikh looks at the history of Parachute and talks with the magazine's editor, Chantal Pantbriand, about its future as a publication--and a brand.

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The magazine's ambition "to develop a critical language" (5) for a borderless discourse on current art practices was signalled by Poulin's design for the craft-paper cover of Issue 1: a reproduction of Vladimir Tatlin's sketch for a Monument to the Third International (1919-1920). A "hybrid criticism" (6) was sought using tools developed by writers from both sides of the pond. Pontbriand explains that the magazine's critical tool kit was developed out of the work of French thinkers like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, as well as that of Anglo-American critics working in the long shadow of Greenbergian formalism, such as Rosalind Krauss and Annette Michaelson (whose journal October would also appear in 1975). In the 70s, the formalist criticism of Clement Greenberg and Roger Fry was, according to Pontbriand, "begging to be challenged at the insistent demand of new theoretical and practical approaches in art." (7) The medium-specific bias of formalist criticism came up short in an art world increasingly characterized by internationalism and ephemeral artworks. A worldwide market of ideas circulated by multiple media was decentring the traditional structures of the museum system and challenging the assumptions of object-centered art-writing practices. The best way to address these changes was in print. Pontbriand explains that while the parallel system was a step in the right direction, a magazine could "respond much more quickly to developments in the expanding art world than could exhibition spaces." (8) In an editorial essay for Issue 90 entitled "Prolegomenes a une nouvelle critique," Pontbriand characterized the magazine's project as follows: "It is in the dialogue of cultures that the community of the future can be born ... it is this voice that we have tried to find with Parachute." (9)

Over the course of its 31 years, Parachutes "voice" had become decidedly polyphonic. By 2000, after 25 years, the magazine became a fully bilingual publication. In addition to bridging a divide between European French and Anglo-American criticism, Parachutes translations mediated between two linguistic communities within Canada. Additionally, after 2000, the magazine adopted a new formula. Thematic focuses of broad social interest would structure the content of three out of four issues every year, (i.e. Democracy, Resistance, Work, Community, Violence) and the remaining issue would be dedicated to covering an "emerging city." (10) For the city issues, articles were solicited from leading art writers and cultural critics in Mexico, Beirut, Shanghai and Havana, to name just a few. These articles were often submitted to Parachutes editorial staff in the writers' native languages. Parachutes bilingualism then, was part of a more ambitious multilingual campaign of translation.

THE DEATH KNELL

Amid the chorus of voices that Parachute generated, there were, toward the end of its prodigious three-decade run, murmurs of an executive decision to "halt." Rumours about Parachutes "suspension" were confirmed on November 21, 2006 in a communique circulated via e-mail by Parachutes board of directors. The news was not taken lightly. Stephane Baillargeon, writing for Le Devoir, identifies the "lethal formula" (11) offered by the board's communique that sparked a furor among the magazine's contributors and readers worldwide:...

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