ART NEWS:June 01

Athina Kanellopoulou presents her new project “Ma[r]king a Home”, within the framework of the International Performance Art Festival 3rd ASFA BBQ “Dwelling / Κατοικώντας”. The artwork is a participatory performance, where an in-situ facility is installed in the garden of the Athens School of Fine Arts. In “Ma[r]king a Home”, the drawing of the plan in the field is carried out in a scale 1:1. Then seeds, bulbs and roots are used to form the masonry of a home. Thus, the walls of this building are made of plants, performing a unique in-situ installation. Most of the plants, which used in the installation, are edible. Moreover, all the seeds were collected and archived by the artist. Through this utopian action, the re-placement of man into an uncanny matrix/dwelling is intended; this new matrix is structured by plants in the urban environment, in order to reconsider his view towards nature. Info: Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), Peiraios str. 256, Tauros, Athens, Days: 23-24/5/17 & 29/5-4/6/17, Hours: 19:00-21:00, http://athinakanellopoulo.wixsite.com

For more than 30 years, Peter Fischli and David Weiss have collaborated on a body of work that transforms the ordinary into something unconventional. Their first collaboration in Zurich in 1979 set the tone for their future works, consisting of a photographic series of doll-scaled scenes where sausages, salami, and other processed meats. The projects that Fischli/Weiss have made since then are characterized by a quirky sense of humor, a love of poetry, and a fascination for the mundane. Fischli/Weiss’s “Snowman” installation on the Bluhm Family Terrace at Art Institute of Chicago consists of a single snowman encased in a six-and-a-half-foot-high refrigerated vitrine. The sculpture, which is on view during Chicago’s warmer months, creates a paradoxical situation that brings together the snowman. This project is a version of Fischli/Weiss’s 1990 “Snowman” a snowman outside of a thermic power station in Römerbrücke, Saarbrücken, Germany that utilizes the plant’s energy to keep the snowman frozen year round. Info: Art Institute Of Chicago, Duration: 27/4-15/10/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-17:00, Thu 10:30-20:00, www.artic.edu

The exhibition “He Thrusts his Fists against the Posts but Still Insists he Sees the Ghosts” constitutes an environment or stage on which Mark Leckey continues his stubborn, desire-driven yet anxious and frustrated search for an unalienated experience. In his ongoing odyssey into a conglomerate of pop culture, seminal historic events and autobiographical as well as ancient myths, Leckey is returning to particular sources, tropes, and fixations. For the exhibition Leckey has re-created from memory the M53 motorway bridge in the town where he grew up. Together with sodium lights and other objects and effects the phantom bridge is embedded in a new sound work. The sound piece itself develops as something of a cross between a lecture, a radio programme, a quasi-autobiographical tale, and a DJ set. Info: Curator: Marianne Torp, SMK (National Gallery of Denmark), Sølvgade 48-50, Copenhagen, Duration 4/5-3/9/17, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu-Sun 10:00-17:00, wed 11:00-20:00, www.smk.dk

The exhibition “Intuition” intends to explore the theme of intuition is bound to begin from humanity’s first attempts to forge an immediate relationship between heaven and earth: from the erection of totems, to shamanism and mystical ecstasy, from examples of epiphanic moments in religious iconography, such as the Annunciation, Visitation and Pentecost, to the potential for divine revelation through dreams. From there, the field of investigation moves towards modernity: in the nineteenth century the themes of spirituality, dreams, mysticism, and the “panic” force in nature saw new developments and, at the dawn of the next century, played a decisive role in the birth of abstractionism, with the work of Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Hilma af Klint. Info: Curators: Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, Co-curators: Dario Dalla Lana, Davide Daninos and Anne-Sophie Dusselier, Palazzo Fortuny, San Marco 3780-San Beneto, Venice, Duration: 13/5-26/11/17, Days & Hours:   Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-17:00, http://fortuny.visitmuve.it

“Portraits and Surrogates” is Taryn Simon’s first exhibition in Hong Kong. Simon draws from three key bodies of recent work, as well as a video self-portrait made in collaboration with a Russian news program, to examine the reciprocity between portraits and their surrogates. The technical, physical, and aesthetic realization of Simon’s projects often reflects the control and authority that form the grist of her work.The exhibition presents the series: “Contraband” an archive of desire and control, comprising 1075 photographs taken at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Site and the U.S. Postal Service International Mail Facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. “A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII”, “Paperwork and the Will of Capital” and “Cutaways” that is both a portrait and a surrogate of the artist herself. Info: Gagosian Gallery, 7/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong, Duration: 25/5-5/8/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.gagosian.com

The second film of Anton Vidokle’s trilogy on Russian cosmism looks at the poetic dimension of solar cosmology of Soviet biophysicist, Alexander Chizhevsky. Shot in Kazakhstan, where Chizhevsky was imprisoned and later exiled, the film introduces Сhizhevsky’s research into the impact of solar emissions on human sociology, psychology, politics and economics in the form of wars, revolutions, epidemics and other upheavals. “The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun” aligns the life of post-soviet rural residents and the futurological projects of Russian cosmism to emphasize that the goal of the early Soviet breakthroughs aimed at the conquest of outer space was not so much technical acceleration, but the common cause of humankind in their struggle against limitations of earthly life. Info: Esker Foundation, 4th floor, 1011 9 Ave SE, Calgary, Alberta, Duration: 28/5-27/8/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, Thu-Fri 11:00-20:00, http://eskerfoundation.com

“A Pen of All Work” is an extensive retrospective of Raymond Pettibon. The exhibition includes 700 works dating from the ‘60s up to the present. Pettibon’s whole oeuvre is characterised by the inextricable link between text and image. Pettibon is undoubtedly one of the central figures in American contemporary art. His extensive oeuvre is difficult to pigeon-hole, and it forms a separate artistic category in itself, as it were. Since the late ‘70s, the American artist has created over 20,000 works, ranging from drawings, artist’s books and album cover designs to large-scale installations. In the ‘80s, he held cult hero status in the punk rock circuit in L.A. In his interplay of text and image, and his great diversity of themes, Pettibon oscillates between historical reflection, poetic humour and sharp criticism. Info: Bonnefantenmuseum, Avenue Ceramique 250, Maastricht, Duration: 2/6-29/10/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-17:00, www.bonnefanten.nl

In her work, Aleksandra Domanović takes a probing look at a wide range of phenomena of contemporary society, among them cultural techniques, scientific and technological developments, history and culture, popular culture and the shaping of national and cultural identity. In “Kalbträgerin” her exhibition in Bonn, Aleksandra Domanović expands on one of her themes “Bulls Without Horns” and looks at current scientific research and development, namely bioengineering and the breeding of certain traits in cattle, like the lack of horns. She translates these ideas into sculptures, which she produces by means of computer modelling, 3D printing and casting in synthetic plaster. Her votive stelae are transformed depictions of the Greek “Moschophoros” (Calf-Bearer) of the 6th century BC, found on the Acropolis of Athens in the so-called Perserschutt (the rubble of the architecture and sculptures destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC). The artist fuses the science and culture of different eras, subtly and poetically questioning norms and beauty outside of norms. Info: Curator: Susanne Kleine, Director: Rein Wolfs, Managing Director: Bernhard Spies, Bundeskunsthalle, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4, Bonn, Duration: 2/6-24/9/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed 10:00-21:00, Thu-Sun 10:00-19:00, www.bundeskunsthalle.de

The group exhibition “Tidalectics” presents 13 artists whose distinctive works cast oceanic perspectives on the cultural, political and biological dimensions of the oceans, examining the effects of human-made issues, such as climate change and sea-level rise, while reimagining human and “more-than-human” relationships. The exhibition features nine newly commissioned works, many flowing from the Academy’s expeditions in the Pacific Ocean, alongside exceptional pieces from the TBA21 Collection, It will be accompanied by a series of spoken word-performances every Friday. Taking its title from a play on words by the celebrated Barbadian poet-historian Kamau Braithwaite, the exhibition seeks to comprehend our histories as trajectories tossed by waves, from ocean crossings to systems of exchange, myths, and microbial origins. Info: Curator: Stefanie Hessler, Co-Curators: Boris Ondreička and Daniela Zyman, TBA21–Augarten, Scherzergasse 1a, Vienna, Duration: 2/6-19/11/17, Days & Hours: Wed-Thu 12:00-17:00, Fri-Sun 12:00-19:00, www.tba21.org

The joint exhibition “Face … animal ….thing…” is based on a common experience of Vasiliki Pantazi and Voula Ferentinou, the well-known Paper-and-pencil games. Using other media and based on their personal approach the two artists through their convergenceς and differences, want to keep the feel of the game and to compose their own images. On the one hand Vasiliki Pantazi on her canvas depicts scenes of everyday life where the ordinary object, person or living being takes its place in the poetry of the lost moments of a stormy space-time. On the other Voula Ferentinou is using for many years the more “realistic” technique of illustration, In her works she removes the blurry of frames and lines and represents the anarchic arrangement of the figures in an enclosure. Info: Cube Gallery, 39 Miaouli Street, Patras, Duration: 2/6-1/7/17, Days & Hours: Tue, Thu-Fri 10:00-14:00 & 18:00-21:00, Wed & Sat 10:00-14:00, www.cubegallery.gr

The group exhibition “Hybrid Layers” explores the diverse aspects of what can be described as “the digital condition”. The digital becomes the picklock, the a priori, that unlocks the specific cosmos, the cultural and conceptual scenarios revealed by the individual artworks. The exhibition focuses on a generation of artists, who were confronted with the growing presence and impact of the digital sphere; it presents new perspectives on digital technology, the internet, and social networks, and explores both the virtual and the physical appearance of an artistic practice that is profoundly influenced by the digital. Today, to focus on artworks that deal with the wider issues of technology and the digital means entering a highly complex field that cannot be subsumed under any specific category or genre. Recognizing the multiple perspectives made manifest by technology, Hybrid Layers investigates the different strands of a narrative, which is intrinsically open and multifaceted, emancipating the discourse on technology from any restrictive categorization. Info: Curators: Giulia Bini, Sabiha Keyif, Daria Mille and Philipp Ziegler, ZKM|Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Lorenzstr. 19, Karlsruhe, Duration: 3/6/17-7/1/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, http://zkm.de

Ragnar Kjartansson opens “God, I Feel So Bad”, his first museum exhibition in his homeland, Iceland. Kjartansson speaks for himself and the audience, as he acknowledges art’s ever persuasive allure. The artist has explored the transcendental power of art through a variety of forms, repeatedly confronting the illusion it inevitably entails.  The exhibition reflects Kjartansson’s ode to art in all its glory, to music, theater, film, literature and visual arts. This celebration is manifested through selected works, dating from 2004 to the present, live endurance performance, large-scale video installations, photography, sculpture, painting and drawing. Born into a theatrical family, Kjartansson introduces the notion of acting and staging in his performative practice. He moves freely between artforms, rendering music sculptural, painting performative and film into tableaux vivants. Ever present is the scrutiny into the human condition, the emotional layers, the social dimensions and the contradicting elements that make up our everyday lives. Info: Curator: Markús Þór Andrésson, Reykjavík Art Museum, Hafnarhús, Tryggvagata 17, Reykjavík, Duration 3/6-24/9/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:0-17:00, http://artmuseum.is

Marc-Antoine Mathieu is considered one of the most innovative comic artists of the present day in France. With peerless graphic brilliance and forceful creativity, he has continually redefined the medium of comic drawing, challenging his readers on a sophisticated level in the process. Ingeniously and playfully transgressing boundaries, he radically dismantles the customary conditions of our everyday surroundings to create surrealistic visions that merge dream and reality, inside and outside, omnipotence and impotence. Absolute interconnection, absolute knowledge or the existence of God? Mathieu answers all of these questions by freely associating things, modes of representation and languages. Info: Curator: David Beikirch, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schaumainkai 17, Frankfurt, Duration: 3/6-15/10/17, Days & hours: Tue & Thu-Sun 10:00-18:00, Wed 10:00-20:00, www.museumangewandtekunst.de

In his solo exhibition “Leviathan”, Shezad Dawood presents a new and ambitious body of work. The show marks the launch of “Leviathan”, a ten-part film cycle conceived and directed by the artist that will unfold over the next three years. The first two episodes of the film that are on presentation alongside a new series of textile and sculptural works in the newly-restored Palazzina Canonica, which is opening to the public for the first time since the ‘70s. The two-part exhibition will also feature a site-specific intervention in the Fortuny Factory in the island of Giudecca. “Leviathan” is set in an imaginary future whose inhabitants are the survivors of a cataclysmic solar event. Each episode is told from the point of view of a different character and follows them as they drift across Europe, Asia and North Africa, encountering a series of idiosyncratic communities. Info: Curator: Alfredo Cramerotti, Palazzina Canonica, Riva dei Sette Martiri 1364A, Castello, Venice & Fortuny Factory, Giudecca 805, Venice, Duration: 7/5-24/9/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00 (Palazzina Canonica) & Mon-Fri 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00 (Fortuny Factory), https://leviathan-cycle.com

Art is life! “Greek & Foreign Creators GFC” present the group exhibition ‘’Art is Life’’on Monday June 7, 2017 at 19:00 at the Aliko multi-purpose venue in Psyrri, right in the heart of Athens! Dozens of artists that love life & art are participating, artists who live and breathe through color & imagination and create painting, sculpture, hagiography, mixed media and mosaic artworks that they exhibit in order to share their joy of creation with the public! Info: Aliko, 16 Agiou Dimitriou Str., Psirri, Athens, Duration: 7-14/6/17, Days & Hours: Daily 14:00-22:00