In 2009, when Miles Greenberg was 12, he saw Marina Abramović’s performance The Artist is Present at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. For three months, Abramović sat in front of an empty chair, waiting for audience members to fill it.
The performance cemented Greenberg’s resolve to be an artist. “Understanding that the body could work as raw material inside of the context of a museum exhibition,” he told Interview magazine, ” .... fundamentally shifted something in me.” The year he turned 17, he dropped out of high school in Montreal and enrolled in an independent research study on movement and architecture.
Now Greenberg is 26, and recently presented his latest performance work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto. He’s also showing alongside Douglas Gordon at Albion Jeune, in London. Here, the artist shares his guide to Montreal—“personal classics,” he says, “as remembered through the eyes of a 17-year-old art school dropout.”
Olive et Gourmando
The ultimate classic. This café and brunch spot is mega buzzy now, but when my mom and I moved in around the corner in 2001-ish, it was basically only us and them in the then-empty (now Soho-esque) Old Port district. It’s still such a staple after all these years. (oliveetgourmando)
un po’ di più
Olive + G’s slightly less famous, slightly more studious Italian cousin is right on the harbor. Easily my favorite sit-down lunch spot. (caffeunpodipiu)
AUX VIVREs
I survived on their Salade Deluxe with tempeh more or less every single day for five months during Covid, and I’d do it all over again if I could. (auxvivres)
Eva b.
A behemoth thrift shop that my friends and I used to stomp around in almost every weekend. There’s a garden café in the back. (boutiqueevab)
Phi foundation FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
I may be biased, but I think this is objectively the best art space in Canada. (phi)
chinatown
I’ve always loved Montreal’s Chinatown—it’s kind of small and a little unkempt, but the sights and smells defined my adolescence. I used to sit around for hours at one dingy bubble-tea shop with my friends after school. Apparently, Canadian ginseng is very famous among Chinese medicine doctors, and all the herbs shops in the neighborhood advertise their special, locally-grown dried roots—I buy them in bulk and make a tea out of them every morning. Highly recommend. Also, if you’re hungover, go to Noodle Factory.
THE EMERALD, A.K.A. NO-NAME BAR
There once was a time when there was an off-menu item here named after me, which was a Negroni variation made with white vermouth and some secret ingredient instead of Campari. My friend Chris invented it for me. It’s probably long gone, but this cozy cocktail bar is still my favorite.
BAR LE STUD
The best for last. Imagine the trashiest little gay bar on earth, and then imagine it oh-so-much worse. Now, add slot machines. Everything about this place is bad in all the best ways. It’s been around since God-knows-when, and every surface inside is perpetually sticky. If you radiocarbon-dated the gin & tonic residue on the tables, you’d probably find it’s from the year Princess Diana died. If you want a silly night out with a couple of friends with bad music where you’ll never run into anyone you meet ever again, this is your spot. You may or may not see me there. (lestudmontreal)
