ART NEWS:Sept.02

Jinny Yu’s site-specific installation at the Oratorio di San Ludovico in Venice, comprises of a large three-dimensional painting with sound. Reflecting on the recent migration crises in the Mediterranean Sea and Bay of Bengal, Yu’s new work “Don’t They Ever Stop Migrating?” explores one’s position within an increasingly globalized world. Using Hitchcock’s film “The Birds” as metaphor, the exhibition explores a range of emotional responses and attitudes towards mass migration. The religious context of the exhibition space emphasizes the ethereal aspect of the work, combining the solemnity of the venue with the artwork’s repetitive qualities. Info: Don’t They Ever Stop Migrating, Curators: Elisa Genna, Vittorio Urbani, & Ola Wlusek, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venice, 5/9-22/11, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri: 14:00-18:00, Sat-Sun: 10:00-18:00, http://nuovaicona.org/

Celebrating the 50th birdays of Carsten Nicolai, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz presents “unitape”, amonumental audio-visual installation that has been done especially for the museum. In this work, the artist examines image encodings and notation systems on the basis of the principle of binary-coded information on punched cards which he transposes artistically by means of projections and acoustic elements. Info: unitape, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Theaterplatz 1, Chemnitz, Duration: 6/9-1/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 11:00-18:00, www.kunstsammlungen-chemnitz.de

Francesco Vezzoli’s work explores the power of contemporary popular culture. For his new sculpture, “Eternal Kiss”, exhibited for the first time at Almine Rech Gallery, Vezzoli acquired two life size marble heads at auction: a Roman portrait of a man and a Roman portrait of a woman. Both heads have been restored to their original status through a process of fabrication underpinned by specialist advice. In this sense, the exhibition develops the ideas of beauty and the artifact explored in Vezzoli’s “Teatro Romano” presented earlier this year in New York. Info: Eternal Kiss, Almine Rech Gallery, 11 Savile Row, London, 8/9-3/10/15. Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.alminerech.com

The Kyiv Biennial 2015 presents a new format of an art biennial that integrates exhibitions and sites of public reflection. Works of more than 100 international and Ukrainian artists will be shown in an open display structure, designed as six schools, where artists and intellectuals from around the world will meet and work with the public in collaborative forums. Info: Kyiv Biennial 2015, Curators: Hedwig Saxenhuber & Georg, Schöllhammer, Various Locations, Kiev, Duration: 8/9-11/10/15, http://theschoolofkyiv.org

Part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s program showcasing rarely seen art collections from around the world, a series of four chronological displays highlights works from the Barjeel Art Foundation’s collection of Arab Art. The exhibition is divided into four chapters, each exploring the historic context from which local modernism began in the region. In the first part are exhibited works that explore the emergence and subsequent development of an Arab art aesthetic through drawings and paintings from the early twentieth century to 1967, an important historical period in the region. Info: Barjeel Art Foundation Collection-Imperfect Chronology: An exhibition in 4 parts, Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London, Duration: 8/915-8/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun: 11:00-18:00 except Thu: 11:00-21:00, www.whitechapelgallery.org

Maria Loizidou in collaboration with the City Project of NEON, connects once more contemporary art with the public space. The exhibition “A Transfet” unfolds while passing through a route that starts from the archeological museum of Kerameikos and continues towards six spots of the archeological site. Through this walk, the exhibition showcases the different sides of the female creative craft of weaving, the collective work, the correlation with the notion of time and the artistic depiction of the female psyche on the crafted work. Info: A Transfer, Curator: Sirago Tsiara, Kerameikos Αrchaeological site and Museum, Athens, Duration: 9/9-31/10/15, Days & Hours: Daily: 8:00-20:00, http://neon.org.gr

Layers of paint are applied, then rubbed, scratched, and reworked to create compositions that recall both the physicality of Abstract Expressionism and the mysticism of Redon. In this tension, Varda Caivano negotiates the legacies of abstract painting with a clarity of means and materials. The artist for her new exhibition presents a selection of recent painting and work on paper, which comprises works that suggest lines of evolution, of continuity and departure, in her practice. Info: Victoria Miro Mayfair, 14 St George Street, London, Duration: 9/9-3/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.victoria-miro.com

“Apertura” turns Madrid into a city of contemporary art. In its sixth edition the Madrid Gallery Weekend is an initiative of the 45 contemporary art galleries that invite the visitors to tour the city in a different way by discovering its most recent contemporary creations. For one weekend the art galleries inaugurate all together and at the same time, extend hours and program special actions at the same time the great cultural institutions develop an extensive program of activities. Info: Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend, Various Locations, Madrid Duration: 10-12/9/15, www.artemadrid.com

The first exhibition of Mark Boulos in Norway “All That Is Solid Melts into Air” consists of two video projections positioned on opposite walls in a darkened room. By choosing to film the polar opposites of production and distribution, on one side, the Niger Delta and MEND’s battle against the oil companies, and on the other side, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he examines two “Belief Systems” that, each in their own way, have metaphysical significance. The installation deals with the theme of economic circumstances and conditions in two antithetical societies. Boulos explores the relation between ideas and materiality, as inspired by the Marxist concept “Commodity Fetishism”. Info: All That Is Solid Melts into Air, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Skippergata 24B, Kristiansand, Norway, Duration: 10/9-15/11/15, Days 7 Hours: Tue, Wed, Sat: 11:00-16:00, Thu: 11:00-20:00, sun: 12:00-16:00, www.skmu.no

The first exhibition of the Ethiopian artist Elias Sime in New York will be on presentation on James Cohan Gallery. Sime’s most recent works from the series “Tightrope” are made from the cast-off innards of computers and machines. Braided wires form tight networks of colorful patterns and dismembered motherboards appear as cityscapes viewed from above. While the parts are formally striking, they also speak to the cost of “progress.” Discarded at the Addis Ababa open-air market, the Merkato, the lead-ridden, often toxic materials attest to the pace of disposal as well as the danger posed to countries like Ethiopia, which often absorb the refuse of the first world. Info: James Cohan Gallery, 533 West 26th Street, New York, Duration: 10/9-17/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.jamescohan.com

Today, science fiction might be the best kind of realism. This insight by J.G. Ballard provides the impetus for curated by_vienna 2015, to look at our artistic, political, and economic present from the perspective of an already existing future. Twenty contemporary art galleries in Vienna join their forces to present “Tomorrow Today”, based on the homonym essay by Armen Avanessian, the participating galleries in the project, and the international curators invited by them, embark on an experiment to explore the intersections between art and capital. Info: Tomorrow Today, various locations, Vienna, Duration: 10/9-17/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri: 11:00-18:oo, Sat: 11:00-15:00, https://viennabusinessagency.at

For over a decade, Bitzer has been experimenting with diverse combinations of sculpture, drawing, and painting to expand upon the discursive possibilities of various mediums, styles, and genres. In his exhibition entitled “root / ruin / rhapsody” the artist continues to expand upon his formal and conceptual strategies of engagement, Bitzer looks to Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s modernist short story, Quadraturin, as a loose framework for a new series of works that circulate around the author’s allegory of radical alienation. Info: root / ruin / rhapsody, Armine Rech Gallery, 20 rue De L’ Abbaye Abdijstraat, Brussels, Duration: 11/9-3/10/1, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com

The exhibition of French Feminist and avant-garde filmmaker, Agnès Varda “Photographs Get Moving (potatoes and shells, too)”, proposes a dialogue between still photography and moving pictures. Four recent video-installations will be presented alongside a selection of her photographic work exploring or questioning the polarity between still and moving, broken and continuous, fleeting and fixed or captured. Info: Photographs Get Moving (potatoes and shells, too), Curator: Dominique Bluher, Logan Center Exhibitions, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, 915 E. 60th Street , Chicago, Duration: 11/9-8/111/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat: 8:00-20:00, Sun: 11:00-20:00, http://arts.uchicago.edu

The title of the exhibition “SAMIZDATA: Evidence of Conspiracy”, Jacob Appelbaum’s first solo show in Germany, references the Russian word “samizdat,” an important form of dissident activity throughout the former Soviet bloc in which censored literature was clandestinely reproduced and distributed. Transferred to the 21st century, the activity also resonates with aspects of the Snowden Affair and WikiLeaks as regards the distribution of information that places involved people at risk. Jacob Appelbaum presents artworks that are a critique of the progressive loss of liberty, evolving from within a context of investigative journalism and document-leaking aimed at the higher goal of transparency. Info: SAMIZDATA: Evidence of Conspiracy,Curator: Tatiana Bazzichelli, NOME, Dolziger Straße 31, Berlin, Duration: 11/9-31/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 15:00-19:00, www.nomeproject.com

“Bit Rot” is the name of the first large-scale solo exhibition in Europe by artist and novelist Douglas Coupland. The exhibition presents Coupland’s “mindscape”, combining his own work with loans from his personal collection, as well as a new work stemming from his recent residency at the Google Cultural Institute. Throughout the exhibition Coupland shares his thoughts on globalization, terror, the Internet, pop-culture, social media and the resulting accelerated image economy. Taking its title from the phenomenon in which digital data spontaneously and quickly decomposes, Bit Rot creates an associative and visually playful constellation in which memory, loss, fame, violence, destruction, and creation are subjects for contemplation. Important to the framework of the exhibition is a piece of writing included in the Bit Rot publication, titled An app called: Yoo. This fictional app, conceived by Coupland, creates new and unique visual material based on all of the meta-data individuals generate throughout their lives. Info: Bit Rot Curators: Defne Ayas & Samuel Saelemakers, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Witte de Withstraat 50, Rotterdam, Duration: 11/915-3/1/16, Dates & Hours: Tue-sun: 11:00-18:00, www.wdw.nl

“Like A Prayer” presents works by 14 artists from 11 countries in the Magasin III collection, together with a group of objects from the collection of The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities. The artworks shown are both fragile and forceful investigations of highly personal or collective experiences and memories: Mona Hatoum’s glass hand grenades, Sirous Namazi’s recollections of his flight from Iran, and Ulf Rollof’s processing of pain, to name a few. A central theme in the exhibition is how we humans put great faith in hope when faced with crisis. Info: Like A Prayer, Curators: Richard Julin & Tessa Praun, Magasin III Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art, Frihamnsgatan 28, Stockholm, Duration: 11/9/15-5/6/16, Days & Hours: Thu: 11:00-19:00, Fri-Sun: 11:00-17:00, www.magasin3.com 

For his second exhibition at the gallerie Jerome Poggi, Georges Tony Stoll presents a group of new works relative to his interest into sculpture and architecture, by using different mediua: photography, construction, weaving, drawings, 3D printings, paintings. Well known for his photographs, his iconoclast work defies definition, and explores what he named the “Territory of abstraction”. Simultaneously to the exhibition, the artist presents until 25/10/15 an in situ installation in the garden of Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres. Info: Gallerie Jerome Poggi, 2 rue Beaubourg, Paris, Duration: 11/9-10/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-19:00, http://galeriepoggi.com/

“I must first apologise…” is the first UK solo exhibition of the Beirut-based artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, exploring the history of online spam and scamming through film, sculpture, photography and installation. The artists map out a genealogy of online scamming, revealing a complex world where greed and desire question traditional ethics. As the narrative unfolds, a new colonial map of the world is presented, one where the victim and the scammer have very paradoxical relations. Through these tales, a map emerges, a chronicle of conflicts, a strange history of our contemporary time but also a place of singular encounters and poetic experiences. Info: I must first apologise…, Curators: Omar Kholeif & Sarah Perks, HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, First Street, Manchester, Duration: 12/9-1/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 12:00-20:00, Sun:12:00-18:00, http://homemcr.org

The architect and artist, Didier Faustino, presents his solo exhibition called “Des Corps & Des Astres”, a s monographic exhibition, that crowns 20 years of research by the Franco-Portuguese architect on the relationship between the body and space, dystopia and biopolitical systems. Is a multifaceted blend of work combining architecture, performance, installation, video, design and scenography. With a critical eye Faustino forms an exhibition structure like an incessant proliferation of shapes. These hybrid shapes or narrations question the organisation of social systems that govern exchanges between individuals and hence our ability to perceive the political system. Info: Des Corps & Des Astres, Curator: Reiko Setsuda, MAGASIN, Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Site Bouchayer-Viallet, 8 esplanade Andry-Farcy, Grenoble, Duration: 12/9/15-3/1/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun: 14:00-19:00, www.magasin-cnac.org

 For “Human Traffic”, Rina Banerjee has specifically produced a series of artworks (sculptures, wooden panels, large format drawings) illustrating her reflections on the theme of movement, which she interprets in a positive (journeys that generate a great cultural diversity and richness) as well as a more abrupt way, with the forced physical circulation of bodies due to war, terrorism and poverty, thereby implicating migrations of every kind. Hence colonisation, the uprooting of populations and even human trafficking itself are dealt with in this exhibition, in complex, colourful and powerful forms, into which everyone can delve and find meaning, illustrated by metaphorical titles written like poems. Info: Human Traffic, Gallerie Nathalie Obadia, 18 rue du Bourg-Tibourg, Paris, Duration: 12/9-24/10/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat: 11:00-19:00, www.galerie-obadia.com

For his exhibition “Détours, Hasards & Monsieur Heinzmann”, Thilo Heinzmann invokes detours and chance to gather an ensemble of works, each of which expresses a daring pictorial gesture, challenging chance not in order to abolish it but to celebrate it and thwart any formalism. Thilo Heinzmann manipulates the means of painting, pushed to do so by the demanding creative and poetic gesture confronted to the void, the white backdrop of things, pushed to do so also because of the desire to continue to make Painting the privileged arena of encounters between physical substrates and the work on colours and texture. Info: Détours, Hasards & Monsieur Heinzmann, Gallerie Perrotin, 76 rue de Turenne, Paris, Duration: 12/9-17/10/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 11:00-19:00, www.perrotin.com

The exhibition of Imran Qureshi “Idea of Landscape” brings together a series of paintings, works on paper, as well as a video, which explore the dialogue between life and death. Leaves and nature represent the idea of life, whilst the red color that appears at first glance like real blood represents death. The red also reminds Qureshi of the situation today in his country, Pakistan, and the world, where violence is almost a daily occurrence. Mapping the idea of landscape, Qureshi’s floral ornaments cover canvases and penetrate spaces like vines. The permeability that borders, spaces and bodies experience in the wake of a violent attack, is also a metaphor for social structures that interact with the nervous system. Info: Idea of Landscape, Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 7 Rue Debelleyme, Paris, Duration:12/9-17/10/15, Days 7 Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-19:00, http://ropac.net