Tickets to Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Phi Foundation are a hot commodity

Spots for each month are made available on the 15th of the month prior, and are scooped up within the hour.

It’s the hottest ticket in town. Internationally renowned Japanese visual artist Yayoi Kusama’s dazzling exhibition Dancing Lights That Flew Up to the Universe opened at the Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art on July 6 and runs until Jan. 15. Admission is free, but you need a reservation. Spots for each month are made available on the 15^th of the month prior, and are scooped up within the hour, making for many a disappointed art fan.

Laïla Quasar Yovo has been trying to get tickets since July, with no luck. A nurse working in intensive care, she logged on to Phi’s website July 15 to find all the tickets already gone. So in August, Yovo went on 45 minutes early and checked the page during breaks at work, but still came away empty-handed. In September, she had a day off and logged on two hours before, with the same result.

“It doesn’t bother me not to get tickets,” she said. “But it’s the time I wasted.”

Servonne Ku almost scored tickets in June (for July). After waiting for over an hour, she was allowed to select a time slot from a calendar, but when she went to choose, a message kept appearing saying that spot was full. She tried again in August and September, getting nowhere.

“I was on my computer and my phone,” she said, “but I had the same issue both ways. I can understand there being no tickets, but when the slot says ‘available’ it gives you fake hope.”

Sylvie Lachize has given up hope.

“I tried two or three times in a row, and it was the same problem each time,” she said. “I think I was 5,000^th in line once.”

The user experience designer says it would be better if people could sign up for tickets and, following a virtual raffle, receive an email if they were selected.

“That way it would be easy, and nobody waits,” she said.

So how are people getting tickets?

Persistence, say Mizar Fuentes and Elyse Brodeur. Fuentes tried in vain, sitting in front of his computer for hours, two months in a row.

Brodeur tried, too, in September.

Fuentes got as far as being offered to choose a date, but he, too, had the problem of tickets disappearing before he could confirm. He finally gave up and called the Phi Foundation. After waiting on hold for nearly an hour, he explained the situation and was given a pair of tickets.

“It was really limited (slots they offered me),” he said last Wednesday. “I would have liked to come Friday afternoon, but they said, ‘These are the availabilities.’ So we left work (to come).”

Marine Robert and Ollie Schmitt got lucky. Originally from France but based in Berlin, the two arrived in Montreal on vacation a couple weeks ago. The first time they visited the Phi Foundation website, tickets were long gone, “but two days later, we managed to go on and get (tickets),” Robert said.

“Maybe some people cancelled, and they released a few tickets,” Schmitt offered.

Louise Mineau and Suzy-Ann Morin heard about the exhibition on Radio-Canada and promptly signed up for the Phi Foundation’s newsletter, which informed them of the reservation process.

“I thought it would be mission impossible,” Morin said. “But in the end, it worked out.”

After spending an hour in the waiting room on Aug. 15, she was able to secure a pair with no problem.

“I’m not very tech-savvy,” Morin said, “so I’m happy we got tickets.”

Emerging form the exhibition, Mineau was still reeling from the experience.

“I loved everything,” she said. “It’s a totally different universe. And it’s free — incredible. It’s well worth the trouble.”

Phi Foundation managing director and curator Cheryl Sim says Kusama has been drawing crowds to her “happenings” since the late ‘60s, and her appeal has increased with the popularity of her Infinity Mirrored Rooms on social media.

“This has created a perfect storm for whipping up an overwhelming appetite for her work, selling out entire exhibition dates in a few hours wherever she exhibits,” Sim said. “Montreal follows in that trend.”

This exhibition is meant as an introduction to Kusama’s work, as part of the Phi Foundation’s 15^th anniversary celebrations — “15 years of giving exhibitions with major international artists such as Sophie Calle, Bill Viola and Yoko Ono, all free of charge,” Sim said.

The Phi Foundation releases more than 5,000 tickets per month, limiting crowds in order to ensure a comfortable experience and reasonable wait times for Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Rooms, which must be viewed one person at a time (for 45 seconds each).

To accommodate as many people as possible, the Phi Foundation offers other ways to access tickets including walk-in hours, with 40 tickets given out on a first-come basis, Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon, guided tours on Tuesdays, ticket giveaways on its Instagram page and corporate group packages, while maintaining guided visits for schools and community groups.

“It’s amazing that Kusama, a Japanese artist and 93-year-old woman, is one of the most popular living artists in the world today,” Sim said. “It’s also wonderful Montrealers are coming out to experience contemporary art and helping us honour the mandate we’ve been carrying out for 15 years, of breaking down entrenched perceptions of what contemporary art is and who it’s for.”

AT A GLANCE: Phi hosts a free party to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Phi Foundation and 10th anniversary of the Phi Centre, Fri., Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. at the Phi Centre. For details, visit phi.ca

tdunlevy@postmedia.com

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