ART NEWS:June 03
The title of Alex Israel’s previous exhibition at Almine Rech Gallery (13/-25/71) was “Summer”. He has titled his new solo exhibition “Summer 2”. In doing so, he has adopted the strategy of the sequel, commonly used by Hollywood studios. However, while Israel’s art certainly has narrative ambitions akin to those of a fictional movie or TV show, its overall purpose is arguably closer to that of a documentary (dedicated to Los Angeles) or a biopic (dedicated to Alex Israel). No matter what, his work exemplifies the ways in which art and entertainment coexist and cross-inform one another in our current day and age. His works always seem extraordinarily simple, belying the complexity of the processes through which they came into being. They present themselves with an immediacy that makes them seem benevolent, friendly, or almost compassionate in a way. Info: Almine Rech Gallery, 64 Rue de Turenne, Paris, Duration 10/6-29/7/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com
The group exhibition “VOICE = SURVIVAL” examines voice as a medium and a metaphor used by artists and activists confronting oppression amid the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. The exhibition inverts the ACT UP movement’s rallying cry of SILENCE=DEATH, and is comprised of works that demonstrate the efficacy of vocal empowerment to fight for individual and communal survival. Exploring the entanglement of the voice with battleground concepts in HIV/AIDS activism like agency, citizenship, language, representation, inter-subjectivity, and the body, the exhibition weaves together sound and video works, including excerpts from the seminal “Tongues Untied” (1989) by Marlon Riggs, alongside Mykki Blanco’s 2016 video of Zoe Leonard’s 1992 poem, “I want a president…” directed by Adinah Dancyger. Info: Curators: by Claudia Maria Carrera and Adrian Geraldo Saldaña, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, The 8th Floor, 17 West 17th Street, New York, Duration: 15/-118/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-18:00, http://the8thfloor.org
Three letters making up the title of an exhibition. Three interchangeable letters in action, that also make up a word eau. French for water. And it’s very much a question of water in the exhibition “e’ a’ u’” by Jarbas Lopes. Water is even there in person, sometimes descending the staircase. He works together with the building. He is one with its thick walls, long corridors and high windows, with its inhabitants and its environment—with us. And we are many and varied. He thinks “with,” loosens us up, tests our conductivity, elasticity and resistance. With a hand in every pie he weaves the craziest interrelationships. And if this weaving draws on one of his favourite technologies it also looks like a metaphor for intertwined thinking, for muddle almost. Info: CuratorElfi Turpin, CRAC Alsace, 18 rue du château, Altkirch, Duration: 15/6-17/9/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat-sun 14:00-18:00, www.cracalsace.com
“Conditions of Political Choreography” is a research project and performance exhibition initiated by Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Tel Aviv. International artists working with diverse performative strategies (from the fields of visual art as well as dance, theater, and film) were invited to conceive new works. Over the period of four weeks the artists present their works, every week focusing on a different theme. While the question of how the shared memory space between Germany and Israel in the 21st Century constitutes itself against the backdrop of the Holocaust and not only that, is one starting point of the project, “Conditions of Political Choreography” seeks to form a sense of topicality of history in the face of increasing racism and populism in democratic societies. In the light of global migration and local oppression, the project reflects multiple perspectives and the formation of transnational memory contrary to the trend of memorialization. Info: Curators: Marius Babias, Sergio Edelsztein, Sophie Goltz and Chen Tamir, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Chausseestraße 128/129, Berlin, Duration: 16/6-16/7/17, Days & Hours (see the site) www.nbk.org
This is the first time A Night of Philosophy is held in Sweden. The night between the 17th and 18th June, Moderna Museet metamorphoses when it is taken over by 50 Swedish, French and German philosophers, thinkers and artists. In presentations and talks, mostly in a 20-minute format, these guests scrutinise nature and artifice from every angle. The evening also invites Swedish artist Henrik Håkansson to show two new works. He has a long international career, and has always explored nature and technology. At midnight, A Night of Philosophy moves into Moderna Museet’s restaurant and bar where the party takes place with the restaurant’s panoramic view as a backdrop. Pour Nous presents a musical performance with visual elements. Info: Moderna Museet, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, Date 17/6/17, Hours: 19:00-03:00, www.modernamuseet.se
In “Covered in Time and History” Bildmuseet presents Ana Mendieta’s captivating oeuvre through 21 films as well as a selection of photographs, graphic works and objects. It is the largest presentation of Mendieta’s artistry shown in Sweden to date. Ana Mendieta grew up in Cuba and in the United States. After studying art in Iowa, she moved to New York, where she was active until her untimely death at the age of 36. During her brief career, Anna Mendieta (was astoundingly prolific. Gender and identity were recurring themes in her art, as well as metaphors for life and death, trauma and exile. She was influenced by many of the movements of her day (earth art, conceptual art, performance and feminism) but her particular merging of art forms stands as a unique and innovative artistic expression. Info: Bildmuseet, Östra Strandgatan 30B, Umeå, Duration: 18/6-22/10/17, Days & Hours: Tue 11:00-20:00, Wed-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.bildmuseet.umu.se
Over the last 70 years since Konrad Zuse invented the first computer, digital development overtook society so quickly that barely any time remained to consider its dominant impact on everyday social life. In their work, the Düsseldorf artist duo Banz & Bowinkel focus on the computer as an every day device and its influence on humanity. The focus here is on the perception of the world, which people understand as reality and is now simulated via the computer. The solo exhibition “Substance” shows simulations of material things from our experiential environment such as liquids, surfaces, materials and textures, even entire worlds which can be reconstructed on the computer. With their work, Banz & Bowinkel question the concept of simulated reality and thereby human perception of the world in virtual space. Info: DAM Gallery, Seydelstr. 30, Berlin, Duration 19/6-29/7/17, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 13:00-18:00, Sat 12:00-16:00, www.dam-gallery.de
The new site-specific exhibition by Kara Walker, conceived in a dialogic relationship with both the original elements of the exhibition space and with the landscape which surrounds it. The project will transport “Figa”, the left hand of the sphinx-like monument of the A Subtlety installation made with polystyrene and sugar, from its “new world” location at the Domino Sugar Factory in New York to Greece, the birthplace of Western civilization. In its new location, the sculpture’s transformation from art object to holy relic will be completed by further applying copious amounts of sugar to its surface in a collective act of “sweetening” the loss of home, country, ideology, or faith that is our global zeitgeist. Appealing to the condition of slaves, migrants, refugees, outcasts, and marginalized peoples “Figa”, like “A Subtlety” before her, draws on the pilgrim spirit in all of us that seeks spiritual and material fulfillment at the end of a catastrophic journey. Info: DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra, Duration: 20/6-30/9/17, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 11:00-13:00 & 19:00-22:00, http://deste.gr
An exhibition is a place where narratives unfold that are at once distinct from reality and intimately connected, in this capacity, the exhibition “Belonging to a Place” by Fogo Island Arts sets the stage where notions of “place” play out. Reflections on the concept of place are put forward, examining where we feel we belong and how we relate to multiple notions of belonging. A collaboration between Art en Valise, Fogo Island Arts and Scrap Metal, the exhibition features a selection of artists who are alumni or forthcoming participants of Fogo Island Arts’ residency program. However, the works presented do not speak solely of Fogo Island but of other places as well, raising ideas on the complexity of the fabric that fashions and situates places in constant transformation. Info: Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen, Scrap Metal Gallery, 11 Dublin St, Unit E, Toronto, Duration: 22/6-3/9/17, Days & Hours: Fri-Sat 12:00-17:00, www.scrapmetalgallery.com
“Remembered Light: Cy Twombly in Lexington” is Sally Mann’s first solo exhibition in Rome. Taken between 1999 and 2012, she records in fleeting impressions the Lexington, Virginia studio of the late Cy Twombly, her close friend and mentor. Twombly and Mann were both born and raised in Virginia. The landscape to which he returned each year is also the memoryscape of Mann’s connection to him. In her recent and celebrated memoir Hold Still, she recalls his elemental nature, his Southern courtesy, his wry and gentle humor. Recalling their friendship she writes, “Our part of the South, remote, beautiful, and patinaed with the past, allows us such a remove, the distance of another time”. Mann is known and regarded for her images of intimate and familiar subjects rendered both sublime and disquieting: children, landscape, family, and the nature of mortality. In previous projects, she explored relationships between parent and child, husband and wife, brother and sister, nature and history. Info: Gagosian Gallery, Via Francesco Crispi 16, Rome, Duration: 22/6-8/9/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:30-19:00, www.gagosian.com
Eric Baudelaire’s work often creates or exploits tension between stories and histories, the objective and subjective, text and image, underlining the ways in which political narratives are constructed. His solo eshibition “The Music of Ramón Raquello and his Orchestra” draws its title from a fictional conductor whose radio performance was continuously disrupted by newsflash broadcasts heralding an alien invasion in Orson Welles’ rendition of the War of the Worlds, aired in 1938. Spanning a decade of artistic production including installation, print, photography and film, the exhibition follows Baudelaire’s sustained attempts to find a form that accommodates the catastrophic complexity of contemporary life, interweaving fiction with considerations on fear, the media and the power of words and images. Info: Tabakalera, Andre zigarrogileak plaza 1, Donostia, Gipuzkoa Duration: 23/6-110/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Thu 12:00-20:00 Fri 12:00-21:00, Sat 10:00-21:00, Sun 10:00-20:00, www.tabakalera.eu
The group exhibition project “WELT KOMPAKT?” focuses on transdisciplinary artistic practices that have come into play along with our increasingly more direct access to information, communication tools, and social media. The use of social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook alters our sense of near and far, our awareness of intimacy and distance, of bodily presence, absence, and political mobility. What influence does social media have on how so-called “glocal” (global & local) projects and ways of living are organized? The exhibition raises questions pertaining to how various social media change our view of the world and to which subliminal political dynamics are made visible by them. As a project, deals with the interlacing of art and life in works by artists living at Brazil and artists based at Austria, including how they deal with local living conditions and engage in exchange with their colleagues. Info: Curator: Ursula Maria Probst, frei_raum Q21 exhibition space / MuseumsQuartier Wien, Museumsplatz 1, Vienna, Duration: 23/6-3/9/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 13:00-20:00, www.q21.at