ART NEWS:Oct.02
The group exhibition “L’OFFRE” features works that engage with the complex concept of “gift” and its attendant links with notions of exchange, reciprocity, value, labour, trace, ritual, gratitude, altruism, obligation, generosity, and connection. How loaded is a gift? Through this age-old practice of exchange, we are confronted by a range of emotions and questions that are further complicated by a dominant system of market economy. Is it really just the thought that counts? As the giver of a gift, a deluge of concerns come into play, such as what is appropriate, what is “too much/not enough,” or what is actually useful to the recipient. For the receiver there is also a sense of discomfort linked with indebtedness or the urgency of a reciprocal gesture. But there can also exist a sense of selflessness and joy in giving, as well as a gracious and loving acceptance of the gift that is part of the interaction. Gift exchange creates a bond between people, where gifts or, more precisely, the spirit of the gift might continue to circulate. Info: Curator: Cheryl Sim, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, 451 Saint-Jean Street, Montreal, Duration: 5/10/17-11/3/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 12:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, https://dhc-art.org
Screen City Biennial in Stavanger, is the first Nordic Biennial dedicated to the expanded moving image in public space. The 3rd edition of the Biennial presents artworks that explore relations between the moving image, sound, technology and urban space. The architectures of Stavanger will facilitate artworks of the expanded moving image in three-dimensional, multi-sensual and tactile experiences, together with screening programs and gallery installations. Entitled “Migrating Stories”, the 2017 Biennial takes contemporary conditions of movement as a point of departure and thematic framework for examining the complex forms of transition today. The Biennial presents expanded moving image artworks from a broad international range of artists dealing with current complexities relating to migration. Artworks reflect upon journeys, diaspora and post-colonialism, transformation of place, and “alien” realities. Hailing from several different countries across the globe, the artists’ practices will also address topics surrounding a post-oil future and, migration in relation to climate change. Info: Curators: Daniela Arriado and Tanya Toft, Screen City Biennial 2017, Stavanger, Durationj 12-21/10/17, http://2017.screencitybiennial.org
“Go West” is the first solo museum exhibition of Farhad Moshiri. Encompassing several bodies of work created over decades, this mid-career survey focuses on Moshiri’s varied Pop subject matter, deft use of language, and wide-ranging materials and methods. The artist transforms mundane materials such as plastic pearls, glass beads, acrylic paint, crystals, knives, and machine-made Persian rugs into intricate, laborious works of art. While they function as a response to modern Iranian society, they are also strangely familiar to most Western viewers. The exhibition brings together paintings and sculptures that have never been displayed together, many of which are traveling to the United States for the first time. Highlighting Moshiri’s artistic techniques and the subtle transformations unfolding in his work, Go West reveals his evolution as both a painter and a sculptor. Info: Curator: José Carlos Diaz, Andy Warhol Museum, 17 Sandusky St., Pittsburgh, Duration: 13/10/17-14/1/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Thu & Sat-Sun 10:00-17:00, Fri 10:00-22:00, www.warhol.org
Ursula Mayer works across film, sculpture, photography and installation to create “kaleidoscopic” spaces where multiple references converge and boundaries dissolve. Set in Trinidad & Tobago, “ATOM SPIRIT” is a large-scale film installation which acts as a nexus where race, gender, postcolonialism and technology intersect. Traversing simulated and virtual platforms, alongside scientific, ecological and social spaces, the film creates completely mixed, interpenetrating realities where interrogations of the postcolonialism, ecology and queerness can take place. The exhibition comments upon and explores the politicized ecologies of our times, in order to excavate the possibilities and perils regarding our shared techno-natural future. The exhibition’s immersive space, combined with the film’s speculative narrative, emphasises the necessity of reconceptualising and radically reforming our relationships with the environment, non-human entities and each other. The film asserts a politics that both takes apart patriarchal taxonomies and builds up queer ecologies in their stead. Info: Salzburger Kunstverein Künstlerhaus, Hellbrunner Straße 3, Salzburg, Duration 13/10-26/11/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-19:00, www.salzburger-kunstverein.at
“Academy of Tal R” surveys the Danish artist’s career from the past 20 years and presents new works specifically created for the exhibition, with a total of 120 works from private and institutional collections across Europe and the United States. The artist’s early paintings demonstrate profound understanding of painterly tradition while giving the impression of simplicity. Art historical references abound: Dadaism, Expressionsim, Fauvism, and nods to traditional Scandinavian art, Art Nouveau and outsider art run throughout the works. His more recent paintings see an evolution in his methodology, both compositionally and in the application of paint. In addition to his paintings, Tal R is well known for his unique, hand-made sofas, or ‘opiumbeds’, made a from old and new rugs sourced throughout Scandinavia then treated in the artist’s studio in Copenhagen. Info: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, Rotterdam, Duration: 14/10/17-14/1/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-17:00, www.boijmans.nl
The solo exhibition “Prelude: Forever Someone Else” by Desiree Dolron is focused on photographs documenting her extensive travels. The title refers to a book of selected poems by Fernando Pessoa, a writer, philosopher, mystic and astrologer. Pessoa employed as many as 75 alter egos, referred to as heteronyms, which he deployed at will to disseminate various philosophical and theoretical views. This exhibition reveals a body of work from Dolron never previously exhibited. Included are various self-portraits in such distinct environments that each becomes an alter ego of the artist, functioning much like Pessoa’s heteronyms. The viewer witnesses the artist adapting, changing and evolving with each situation. Starting with works from 1991, the exhibition presents photographs taken in Pakistan and India, depicting Romani, the world’s oldest roaming nomad tribe. Info: GRIMM Gallery, Keizersgracht 241, Amsterdam, Duration: 14/10-18/11/17, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 11:00-18:00, https://grimmgallery.com
Luisa Rabbia’s exhibition “Love” includes works on paper and on canvas – representing a significant transition in the artist’s work from drawing to painting – an artist’s book, and an important site-specific work realised directly on the walls of the Collezione during Rabbia’s residence. The title of the exhibition is nection between human beings and their environment. Her works evoke web-like membranes made of delicate markings that co-exist with abrupt breaks and amputations made with decisive lines, and with fingerprints that lead us into the heart of a nebula, a fluid and organic structtaken from a large painting exhibited for the first time, which is a part of the trilogy Love-Birth-Death, her latest major project. In her work Rabbia reflects on the existential condition, the conure that is both intimate and social. Info: Collezione Maramotti, Via Fratelli Cervi 66, Reggio Emilia, Duration: 15/10/17-18/2/18, Days & Hours: Thu-Fri 14:30-18:30, Sat-Sun 10:30-18:30, www.collezionemaramotti.org
“Strata of the Slow, Buried Trench” is the first institutional solo exhibition by Marina Pinsky in the Netherlands. Pinsky moves between photography and sculpture, staging objects and scenarios to be photographed, as well as creating sculptural work. The artist presents new works, both sculptural and photographic, that she has specifically developed over the last year in response to the former town hall with its meat market. For her exhibition, Pinsky metaphorically unearths the trench now buried under filled-in land, and brings in her version of meat stands, sausages and knives. The counts and countesses, who reigned over Zeeland between the 11th and 16th centuries and are positioned on the outside of the town hall in the form of sculptures, will also enter the stage. Pinsky photographed these sculptures, and juxtaposes their projected images with the four sculptures that are placed inside of the Vleeshal. The visitors are invited to join a conversation on past, present and future ways of seeing. Info: Vleeshal, Markt 1, Middelburg, Duration: 15/10-17/12/17, Days & hours: Wed-Fri 13:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-17:00, http://vleeshal.nl
Marking a departure from previous iterations the third edition of Paris Internationale takes place in the former headquarters of Libération, a newspaper co-founded by Jean-Paul Sartre in the wake of the Paris protest movements of May 68. For 25 years, “Libé” occupied the 9 story building in the Haut-Marais district of Paris (next door to Place de la République) and from there helped frame and define the political debate in France. Turning from the idealized setting which defined Paris Internationale’s prior events, this year’s version enacts a more concrete scenario, resonating with current challenges to journalism and urban development. Welcoming 55 galleries and 9 project spaces along with a performance and lecture program Paris Internationale is a joint initiative from five emerging galleries (Crèvecoeur, High Art, Antoine Levi, Sultana and Gregor Staiger) as a collective attempt to develop an appropriate model for fostering new advanced initiatives in contemporary art. Info: Paris Internationale, 11 Rue Béranger, Paris, Duration: 18-22/10/17, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat (18-21/10/17) 12:00-20:00, Sun (22/10/17) 12:00-18:00, http://parisinternationale.com
Palais de Tokyo is giving its entire exhibition space to Camille Henrot for the third installment of its series of carte blanche exhibitions, which began in 2013. The exhibition explores the ways in which the invention of the seven day week structures our relationship to time. It reveals the way the notion of the week reassures us—giving us routines and a common framework—just as much as it alienates us, creating a set of constraints and dependencies. Titled “Days are Dogs”, the exhibition is divided into seven thematic parts, each dedicated to a day of the week. Viewers will experience works that reflect the emotions and activities associated with each day as they move from day to day. Using this structure to organize her exhibition, Henrot emphasizes the impact of the dependencies, frustrations, and desires that emerge while living through the rhythm of the week. The exhibition explores ideas such as submission and revolt, both on a personal level—the dynamic of sexual relationships, for instance—and on a social level, where sociopolitical, economic and ideological power is at play. Info: Curator: Daria de Beauvais, Palais de Tokyo, 13 avenue du Président Wilson, Paris, Duration 18/10/17-7/1/18, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun: 12:00-24:00, www.palaisdetokyo.com