MEN - OFF OUR BACKS
Monday, August 31, 2009
El Museo del Barrio
Voces y Visiones: Four Decades Through El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection
In the new Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries
After undergoing extensive renovations, El Museo del Barrio New York will reopen to the public on Saturday, October 17, 2009, with a landmark exhibition entitled Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis, as well as Voces y Visiones: Four Decades Through El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection, the inaugural exhibition in the new Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries, and an all-day open house celebrating the launch of its expanded public programs.
El Museo's Updated Facilities
Located at 1230 Fifth Avenue, between 104th and 105th Street, the renovated museum features a new glass façade, a redesigned courtyard, modernized galleries, as well as a new café/programming space and an expanded shop. The design by Gruzen Samton Architects received an award for Excellence in Design by the Art Commission of the City of New York, and will bring sparkling new face to the Museum Mile's only Latino institution. Central to the renovation was the need to render El Museo even more welcoming to the public and to enhance its role in the community. The reopening also marks the launch of El Museo's 40th Anniversary celebrations, which will continue all year with a rich array of public programming, events, performances, and exhibitions.
To complement the opening of its renovated facility, El Museo will also launch its new website and unveil a new visual identity that will reflect the vitality of its offerings and programs. The new visual identity is the work of Miguel Sal, executed by Elvira Moran; the website was designed by Hot Studio.
Inaugural Exhibition
The inaugural exhibition, Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis, explores the interactions between U.S.-born, Caribbean, and Latin American artists working in New York in the early twentieth century, who together fomented many of that era's most important avant-garde art movements. Nexus New York is the first exhibition to explore the profound way these artistic exchanges between Latino and non-Latino artists deeply impacted art and art movements in this city and numerous countries for years to come. The exhibition is also deeply representative of El Museo's mission to produce new scholarship on the significant yet sometimes overlooked contributions made by Latino, Caribbean, and Latin American artists.
Nexus New York will be presented with the simultaneous debut of the Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries, El Museo's first-ever galleries dedicated to its permanent holdings of more than 6,500 artworks and objects, one of the oldest and most important collections of twentieth-century Caribbean, Latino, and Latin American art in the U.S. The collection maintains a sustained focus on artists, groups, and schools that emerged, produced, or interacted in New York. El Museo is one of only a handful of Latino museums in the U.S. that has a permanent collection. The inaugural exhibition in the new galleries, Voces y Visiones, will take viewers through the timeline of El Museo's history and the history of Latin American and Caribbean art in New York, the U.S. and internationally.
Following Nexus New York, El Museo will present Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement (March 21 – June 6, 2010); Retro/Active: The Works of Rafael Ferrer (June – September 2010); and Nueva York (September 17, 2010 – February 15, 2011), a collaboration with the New-York Historical Society that explores the role that Latinos and the Spanish-speaking world have played from 1624 through World War II in making New York a world cultural center, an one of the world's Latino strongholds. In the Spring of 2011, El Museo will present El Museo's Bienal: The (S) Files 2011.
Public Programs
With its reopening, El Museo will also be expanding upon its family and adult public programming, which engage a cross-section of artists, writers, scholars and critics across disciplines. Among these programs will be the return of NUEVO CINE: Recent Films from Latin America, IN OUR LINGO: Dialogues Between Latino Authors, and SPIC UP!/Speak Out! Latino Spoken Word Open Mic.
In keeping with its mission to be a community-driven institution, El Museo is launching Super Sabado: Target Free Third Saturdays at El Museo. This new series offers a whole day of free programming, including film screenings, spoken word poetry readings, concerts, and family art-making activities, among others.
Funding and Support
El Museo's Re-Envisioning Campaign, which provided support for increased capacity and program expansion in anticipation of the museum's reopening, received generous support from the Altman Foundation, Altria Group, Booth Ferris Foundation, Charina Endowment Trust, The Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation, Con Edison, the Ford Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Henry Luce Foundation, Time Warner, Carmen and Joe Unanue and Family, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, and the Wallace Foundation.
The Opening Year programs and exhibitions of El Museo del Barrio are made possible through leadership support from American Express, Bloomberg, Jacques & Natasha Gelman Trust, Agnes Gund, JP Morgan Chase, The Henry Luce Foundation, MetLife, Target and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional support is provided by public funds from U.S. Representative José E. Serrano, New York State Senator José M. Serrano, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
About El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio, New York's leading Latino cultural institution, welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic and cultural landscape of the Caribbean and Latin America. The richness of Latino cultures is represented in El Museo's wide-ranging collections and exhibitions, complemented by performing arts events, cultural celebrations, and educational programs. A dynamic artistic, cultural, and community gathering place, El Museo is a center of cultural pride on New York's Museum Mile. For more information about El Museo, please visit http://www.elmuseo.org
In the new Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries
After undergoing extensive renovations, El Museo del Barrio New York will reopen to the public on Saturday, October 17, 2009, with a landmark exhibition entitled Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis, as well as Voces y Visiones: Four Decades Through El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection, the inaugural exhibition in the new Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries, and an all-day open house celebrating the launch of its expanded public programs.
El Museo's Updated Facilities
Located at 1230 Fifth Avenue, between 104th and 105th Street, the renovated museum features a new glass façade, a redesigned courtyard, modernized galleries, as well as a new café/programming space and an expanded shop. The design by Gruzen Samton Architects received an award for Excellence in Design by the Art Commission of the City of New York, and will bring sparkling new face to the Museum Mile's only Latino institution. Central to the renovation was the need to render El Museo even more welcoming to the public and to enhance its role in the community. The reopening also marks the launch of El Museo's 40th Anniversary celebrations, which will continue all year with a rich array of public programming, events, performances, and exhibitions.
To complement the opening of its renovated facility, El Museo will also launch its new website and unveil a new visual identity that will reflect the vitality of its offerings and programs. The new visual identity is the work of Miguel Sal, executed by Elvira Moran; the website was designed by Hot Studio.
Inaugural Exhibition
The inaugural exhibition, Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis, explores the interactions between U.S.-born, Caribbean, and Latin American artists working in New York in the early twentieth century, who together fomented many of that era's most important avant-garde art movements. Nexus New York is the first exhibition to explore the profound way these artistic exchanges between Latino and non-Latino artists deeply impacted art and art movements in this city and numerous countries for years to come. The exhibition is also deeply representative of El Museo's mission to produce new scholarship on the significant yet sometimes overlooked contributions made by Latino, Caribbean, and Latin American artists.
Nexus New York will be presented with the simultaneous debut of the Carmen Ana Unanue Galleries, El Museo's first-ever galleries dedicated to its permanent holdings of more than 6,500 artworks and objects, one of the oldest and most important collections of twentieth-century Caribbean, Latino, and Latin American art in the U.S. The collection maintains a sustained focus on artists, groups, and schools that emerged, produced, or interacted in New York. El Museo is one of only a handful of Latino museums in the U.S. that has a permanent collection. The inaugural exhibition in the new galleries, Voces y Visiones, will take viewers through the timeline of El Museo's history and the history of Latin American and Caribbean art in New York, the U.S. and internationally.
Following Nexus New York, El Museo will present Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement (March 21 – June 6, 2010); Retro/Active: The Works of Rafael Ferrer (June – September 2010); and Nueva York (September 17, 2010 – February 15, 2011), a collaboration with the New-York Historical Society that explores the role that Latinos and the Spanish-speaking world have played from 1624 through World War II in making New York a world cultural center, an one of the world's Latino strongholds. In the Spring of 2011, El Museo will present El Museo's Bienal: The (S) Files 2011.
Public Programs
With its reopening, El Museo will also be expanding upon its family and adult public programming, which engage a cross-section of artists, writers, scholars and critics across disciplines. Among these programs will be the return of NUEVO CINE: Recent Films from Latin America, IN OUR LINGO: Dialogues Between Latino Authors, and SPIC UP!/Speak Out! Latino Spoken Word Open Mic.
In keeping with its mission to be a community-driven institution, El Museo is launching Super Sabado: Target Free Third Saturdays at El Museo. This new series offers a whole day of free programming, including film screenings, spoken word poetry readings, concerts, and family art-making activities, among others.
Funding and Support
El Museo's Re-Envisioning Campaign, which provided support for increased capacity and program expansion in anticipation of the museum's reopening, received generous support from the Altman Foundation, Altria Group, Booth Ferris Foundation, Charina Endowment Trust, The Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation, Con Edison, the Ford Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Henry Luce Foundation, Time Warner, Carmen and Joe Unanue and Family, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, and the Wallace Foundation.
The Opening Year programs and exhibitions of El Museo del Barrio are made possible through leadership support from American Express, Bloomberg, Jacques & Natasha Gelman Trust, Agnes Gund, JP Morgan Chase, The Henry Luce Foundation, MetLife, Target and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional support is provided by public funds from U.S. Representative José E. Serrano, New York State Senator José M. Serrano, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
About El Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio, New York's leading Latino cultural institution, welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic and cultural landscape of the Caribbean and Latin America. The richness of Latino cultures is represented in El Museo's wide-ranging collections and exhibitions, complemented by performing arts events, cultural celebrations, and educational programs. A dynamic artistic, cultural, and community gathering place, El Museo is a center of cultural pride on New York's Museum Mile. For more information about El Museo, please visit http://www.elmuseo.org
Stefano Cagol
THE PROJECT
The starting point is a date: September 11.
A univocal, dramatic date: September 11 or Nine Eleven, as it is commonly referred to since the attack to the Twin Towers in 2001. September 11 is also incidentally the day on which the artist Stefano Cagol was born, thus tying a personal occurrence to this symbolic landmark of the new millennium.
The project by Stefano Cagol starts from this coincidence, as a starting point to initiate a reflection upon the concepts of 'history,' of collective and individual 'identity,' of 'change,' of 'conviction,' of 'repetition,' of 'death' and 'birth,' of 'sharing,' of 'universality.'
Departing from the somehow sentimental ideas of sharing and of identification, the artwork will encompass in a standard LED display case with red running characters a list of notable events which happened on September 11, through time and space. It will investigate the potentially ever-increasing historical consciousness bound to September 11, by exhuming and putting into the public limelight events, whether they be well-known or forgotten, shared or non shared, collective or more singular. In accordance with the concept of shared memory, neither imposed nor closed, the selection will be collected from Wikipedia, a form of collective and open archive, in continuous evolution.
The distinctive versions of the sculpture will be simultaneously on display for a period of one month starting from September 11, 2009 in various museums and art centers in Europe. Considering the personal implication, the artist will personally distribute the displays in each location realizing a real travel from his birth region Trentino South Tyrol to Brussels where he is working at the moment, passing by Austria and Germany.
THE CONTENTS
An excerpt from the list of events:…
September 11, AD 9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends.
September 11, 1847 – Stephen Foster's well-known song, "Oh! Susanna", is first performed at a saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
September 11, 1926 – An assassination attempt on Benito Mussolini fails.
September 11, 1937 – Birth of Queen Paola Ruffo di Calabria of Belgium.
September 11, 1942 – Birth of Lola Falana, American singer.
September 11, 1944 – World War II: RAF bombing raid on Darmstadt and the following firestorm kill 11,500.
September 11, 1965 – The 1st Cavalry Division of the United States Army arrives in Vietnam.
September 11, 1969 – Birth of Stefano Cagol, Italian contemporary artist.
September 11, 1973 – A CIA backed coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet topples the democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
September 11, 1973 – Death of Salvador Allende, President of Chile.
September 11, 1973 – Death of Neem Karoli Baba, Indian guru.
September 11, 1979 – Birth of Nathan Gale, American murderer.
September 11, 2001 – The September 11, 2001 attacks take place in the United States.
September 11, 2007 – Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the Father of all bombs.
…
THE ARTIST
Stefano Cagol was born on September 11, 1969. Works and lives in Trentino South Tyrol and in Brussels. Looking only at 2008, he exposed at MARTa Herford in Germany, at Tina B contemporary art festival in Prague, at HVCCA – Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in New York, at Mart – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto, Italy and at White Box, New York. He held a solo Parallel Event to Manifesta 7 in 2008, in 2006 a solo Satellite Event at Singapore Biennale. His public art installation 'Flu Power Flu' has been on permanence since 2007 on the façade of Beursschouwburg Art Center in Brussels.
Through artworks, actions, propaganda and traveling projects Stefano Cagol faces socio-political themes, underlining the contradiction between beliefs and influences.
THE LOCATIONS
MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Corso Bettini, 43, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
Presented on September 9, h 18
Curated by Gabriella Belli
KUNSTRAUM INNSBRUCK, Maria Theresien Straße 34, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Presented on September 10, h 18
Curated by Stefan Bidner
ZKM – Museum for Contemporary Art, Lorenzstraße 19, 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
Presented on September 11, h 18
Curated by Gregor Jansen
STUDIO – Quai du Commerce 44 X, ground floor, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Presented on September 12, h 18
The starting point is a date: September 11.
A univocal, dramatic date: September 11 or Nine Eleven, as it is commonly referred to since the attack to the Twin Towers in 2001. September 11 is also incidentally the day on which the artist Stefano Cagol was born, thus tying a personal occurrence to this symbolic landmark of the new millennium.
The project by Stefano Cagol starts from this coincidence, as a starting point to initiate a reflection upon the concepts of 'history,' of collective and individual 'identity,' of 'change,' of 'conviction,' of 'repetition,' of 'death' and 'birth,' of 'sharing,' of 'universality.'
Departing from the somehow sentimental ideas of sharing and of identification, the artwork will encompass in a standard LED display case with red running characters a list of notable events which happened on September 11, through time and space. It will investigate the potentially ever-increasing historical consciousness bound to September 11, by exhuming and putting into the public limelight events, whether they be well-known or forgotten, shared or non shared, collective or more singular. In accordance with the concept of shared memory, neither imposed nor closed, the selection will be collected from Wikipedia, a form of collective and open archive, in continuous evolution.
The distinctive versions of the sculpture will be simultaneously on display for a period of one month starting from September 11, 2009 in various museums and art centers in Europe. Considering the personal implication, the artist will personally distribute the displays in each location realizing a real travel from his birth region Trentino South Tyrol to Brussels where he is working at the moment, passing by Austria and Germany.
THE CONTENTS
An excerpt from the list of events:…
September 11, AD 9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends.
September 11, 1847 – Stephen Foster's well-known song, "Oh! Susanna", is first performed at a saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
September 11, 1926 – An assassination attempt on Benito Mussolini fails.
September 11, 1937 – Birth of Queen Paola Ruffo di Calabria of Belgium.
September 11, 1942 – Birth of Lola Falana, American singer.
September 11, 1944 – World War II: RAF bombing raid on Darmstadt and the following firestorm kill 11,500.
September 11, 1965 – The 1st Cavalry Division of the United States Army arrives in Vietnam.
September 11, 1969 – Birth of Stefano Cagol, Italian contemporary artist.
September 11, 1973 – A CIA backed coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet topples the democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
September 11, 1973 – Death of Salvador Allende, President of Chile.
September 11, 1973 – Death of Neem Karoli Baba, Indian guru.
September 11, 1979 – Birth of Nathan Gale, American murderer.
September 11, 2001 – The September 11, 2001 attacks take place in the United States.
September 11, 2007 – Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the Father of all bombs.
…
THE ARTIST
Stefano Cagol was born on September 11, 1969. Works and lives in Trentino South Tyrol and in Brussels. Looking only at 2008, he exposed at MARTa Herford in Germany, at Tina B contemporary art festival in Prague, at HVCCA – Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in New York, at Mart – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto, Italy and at White Box, New York. He held a solo Parallel Event to Manifesta 7 in 2008, in 2006 a solo Satellite Event at Singapore Biennale. His public art installation 'Flu Power Flu' has been on permanence since 2007 on the façade of Beursschouwburg Art Center in Brussels.
Through artworks, actions, propaganda and traveling projects Stefano Cagol faces socio-political themes, underlining the contradiction between beliefs and influences.
THE LOCATIONS
MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Corso Bettini, 43, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
Presented on September 9, h 18
Curated by Gabriella Belli
KUNSTRAUM INNSBRUCK, Maria Theresien Straße 34, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Presented on September 10, h 18
Curated by Stefan Bidner
ZKM – Museum for Contemporary Art, Lorenzstraße 19, 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
Presented on September 11, h 18
Curated by Gregor Jansen
STUDIO – Quai du Commerce 44 X, ground floor, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Presented on September 12, h 18
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), is pleased to announce Slanguage as the fourth participant in Engagement Party, the dynamic program of new artworks by innovative L.A.–based artist collectives at MOCA. Slanguage will be the resident artist group from September through November 2009, presenting a unique public intervention on the first Thursday evening of each month. Their first work, Psychicinema Multiplex, takes place at MOCA Grand Avenue on Thursday, September 3, 2009, from 7 to 10pm. Psychicinema Multiplex brings Slanguage's ongoing series of film screenings to MOCA. For this iteration, the collective will debut videos made in response to the museum's landmark 1992 exhibition Helter Skelter: LA Art in the 1990s. These works will seek to reexamine the dissonance and dark side of the psyche, Los Angeles, and the art world, pushing those ideas further by addressing Los Angeles's polarization and presenting visions for its future. Psychicinema Multiplex will be presented in a "multiplex" format that will allow for simultaneous screenings of different films at various locations around the museum's Grand Avenue campus. Viewers will be invited to discuss the films and their relationship with MOCA's Helter Skelter exhibition both informally as a group and in formal conversations initiated by Slanguage. This event is FREE and open to the public. Cash bar. No reservations are required.
Slanguage
Founded in 2002 by Karla Diaz and Mario Ybarra, Jr., Slanguage is an art collective headquartered in Wilmington, California, a harbor area of Los Angeles County. A diverse group of 12 affiliate members at various points in their careers, Slanguage includes teenage budding artists, street artists, and established mid- to late career artists, the majority of whom live and work in the greater Los Angeles area, especially Wilmington.
Slanguage bases their practice on a three-pronged approach to art-making. Focusing on art education, the collective has organized numerous artist residencies in museums across the United States and abroad. Fostering dialog about the meaning and value of contemporary art, Slanguage has used their studio space and resources to cultivate relationships between diverse artists, students, communities, and organizations. And, creating artworks that have ranged from multimedia installations to performances, public events, and workshops, the collective has enriched, inspired, and provoked viewers' imaginations through local, national, and international exhibitions.Slanguage's recent projects include Sweeney Tate (2007) for the Tate Modern, London; The Peacock Doesn't See Its Own Ass/Let's Twitch Again: Operation Bird Watching in London (2006) for the Serpentine Gallery, London; and The Belmont Ruins (2006) for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2009, the collective hosted workshops at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, as part of the Slanguage Teen Art Council.
Engagement Party
MOCA's Engagement Party presents new artworks in the form of dynamic social events and performances by LA–based artist collectives. Engagement Party is made possible by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.
Parking for MOCA Grand Avenue
Parking is recommended at the Walt Disney Concert Hall garage. Parking is also available in surrounding lots.
Slanguage
Founded in 2002 by Karla Diaz and Mario Ybarra, Jr., Slanguage is an art collective headquartered in Wilmington, California, a harbor area of Los Angeles County. A diverse group of 12 affiliate members at various points in their careers, Slanguage includes teenage budding artists, street artists, and established mid- to late career artists, the majority of whom live and work in the greater Los Angeles area, especially Wilmington.
Slanguage bases their practice on a three-pronged approach to art-making. Focusing on art education, the collective has organized numerous artist residencies in museums across the United States and abroad. Fostering dialog about the meaning and value of contemporary art, Slanguage has used their studio space and resources to cultivate relationships between diverse artists, students, communities, and organizations. And, creating artworks that have ranged from multimedia installations to performances, public events, and workshops, the collective has enriched, inspired, and provoked viewers' imaginations through local, national, and international exhibitions.Slanguage's recent projects include Sweeney Tate (2007) for the Tate Modern, London; The Peacock Doesn't See Its Own Ass/Let's Twitch Again: Operation Bird Watching in London (2006) for the Serpentine Gallery, London; and The Belmont Ruins (2006) for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2009, the collective hosted workshops at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, as part of the Slanguage Teen Art Council.
Engagement Party
MOCA's Engagement Party presents new artworks in the form of dynamic social events and performances by LA–based artist collectives. Engagement Party is made possible by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.
Parking for MOCA Grand Avenue
Parking is recommended at the Walt Disney Concert Hall garage. Parking is also available in surrounding lots.
Aurelien Froment
http://www.bonnierskonsthall.se
Bonniers Konsthall opens its autumn season with magical memories and classical illusions. The French artist Aurélien Froment is showing the video installation Théâtre de Poche (Pocket Theatre) and the performance Le chiffre à la letter (Code Countdown).
Aurélien Froment works with pictures, objects and symbols. He playfully speculates about how things are given meaning by means of language and context. In the video installation Théâtre de Poche(Pocket Theatre) and the performance Le chiffre à la lettre (Code Countdown) we meet illusionists and simple tricks that fascinatingly stimulate our imaginations. Pocket Theatre is loosely based on the story of the vaudeville artist Arthur Lloyd, also known as the "The Human Card Index". Lloyd made a name for himself in the 1930s by fishing pieces of printed matter out of his pockets on request. For the current work, Froment borrows from the magician's randomly selected world and creates an illusion of freely floating images. The chronological narrative soon shifts over into the simultaneity of collage. Like a thought map built up out of associations between form and content, the photographs show classical sculptures, exotic animals, anatomical models and buildings.
Le chiffre à la lettre (Code Countdown), meanwhile, is based on an interview with the French magician Benoît Rosemont. Rosemont talks about magic and ingenious techniques for memorising numbers. He shares his own tricks with us, and reveals the methods of older colleagues. This is Froment's latest work, and it premiered earlier this year at Khastoo Gallery in Los Angeles. In Stockholm, the monologue will be performed by the Swedish actor Johan Holmberg on three occasions during the exhibition period; at Bonniers Konsthall on 27 August at 6.15 pm and on 10 October at 2.30 pm as well as at the Royal Dramatic Theatre on 29 August at 1 pm.
Aurélien Froment grapples with existing worlds of images and generously shares his own. In an expansive motion he expresses himself through books, performances, video, photography and objects. The works are multi-layered and call for a sharp eye, with references that can be traced to feature films, early film technology and literature. Froment is inspired by historical personages who have worked with everything from magic to creating and manipulating images as architects and puzzle makers do.
Aurélien Froment (born 1976) lives and works in Dublin. He was educated at the art schools in Nantes and Rennes, and has contributed to numerous exhibitions internationally, including at De Appel in Amsterdam, Gasworks, London and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, as well as at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
In collaboration with the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Supported by CULTURESFRANCE.
Bonniers Konsthall opens its autumn season with magical memories and classical illusions. The French artist Aurélien Froment is showing the video installation Théâtre de Poche (Pocket Theatre) and the performance Le chiffre à la letter (Code Countdown).
Aurélien Froment works with pictures, objects and symbols. He playfully speculates about how things are given meaning by means of language and context. In the video installation Théâtre de Poche(Pocket Theatre) and the performance Le chiffre à la lettre (Code Countdown) we meet illusionists and simple tricks that fascinatingly stimulate our imaginations. Pocket Theatre is loosely based on the story of the vaudeville artist Arthur Lloyd, also known as the "The Human Card Index". Lloyd made a name for himself in the 1930s by fishing pieces of printed matter out of his pockets on request. For the current work, Froment borrows from the magician's randomly selected world and creates an illusion of freely floating images. The chronological narrative soon shifts over into the simultaneity of collage. Like a thought map built up out of associations between form and content, the photographs show classical sculptures, exotic animals, anatomical models and buildings.
Le chiffre à la lettre (Code Countdown), meanwhile, is based on an interview with the French magician Benoît Rosemont. Rosemont talks about magic and ingenious techniques for memorising numbers. He shares his own tricks with us, and reveals the methods of older colleagues. This is Froment's latest work, and it premiered earlier this year at Khastoo Gallery in Los Angeles. In Stockholm, the monologue will be performed by the Swedish actor Johan Holmberg on three occasions during the exhibition period; at Bonniers Konsthall on 27 August at 6.15 pm and on 10 October at 2.30 pm as well as at the Royal Dramatic Theatre on 29 August at 1 pm.
Aurélien Froment grapples with existing worlds of images and generously shares his own. In an expansive motion he expresses himself through books, performances, video, photography and objects. The works are multi-layered and call for a sharp eye, with references that can be traced to feature films, early film technology and literature. Froment is inspired by historical personages who have worked with everything from magic to creating and manipulating images as architects and puzzle makers do.
Aurélien Froment (born 1976) lives and works in Dublin. He was educated at the art schools in Nantes and Rennes, and has contributed to numerous exhibitions internationally, including at De Appel in Amsterdam, Gasworks, London and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, as well as at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
In collaboration with the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Supported by CULTURESFRANCE.
Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor
The most comprehensive overview of the artist duo's work to date, Surplus Value investigates their critical engagement with defining issues of today such as collective memory and amnesia, the formulation of artistic agency, and the politics of representation. Vatamanu and Tudor's broad-reaching practice has positioned them among the most compelling and literate interpreters of our contemporary post-communist condition, which extends far beyond their native Romania. The exhibition centers upon a number of major new productions that reflect on the current global situation and are grounded in the discourse articulated by the artists throughout the past decade. The new productions on view include Calea [The Path], an installation consisting of tons of rusted shredded metal spread onto the exhibition floor and Lingouri de rugina [Rust Ingots], a pile of ingots produced from shredded metal, both poignant meditations on the vagaries of profit and value, accumulation and loss. Plus valoarea[Surplus Value], a new film that gave the name to and set the tone for the exhibition, documents the whittling down of a piece of metal to nothing. These works are put into dialogue with a selection ofVatamanu and Tudor's older pieces, among which Vacaresti (2006), Das Kapital [Capital] (2007), andAugust (2004–2007) and with the series Intalnire cu Istoria [Appointment with History], 2007–2009, which includes new paintings made for this exhibition. Surplus Value is curated by Cosmin Costinas.
On the occasion of the exhibition, BAK presents the first monograph on the artists' work, Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, published by BAK and post editions, Rotterdam. This major publication includes extensive images of their work since 2000 and four newly commissioned texts by Cosmin Costinas (writer and curator BAK, Utrecht), Vivian Rehberg (art historian and art critic, Paris),David Riff (art critic and artist, Moscow), and Georg Schöllhammer (curator and editor-in-chief ofSpringerin, Vienna). The publication also contains an in-depth interview between the artists and Bucharest-based independent curator and writer Mihnea Mircan. The monograph is edited byCosmin Costinas and Jill Winder.
Surplus Value is the first research exhibition within the long-term project Former West, an international research, education, publishing, and exhibition undertaking (2008–2013). For more information, please visit http://www.formerwest.org.
Mona Vatamanu (born 1968) and Florin Tudor (born 1974) work together since 2000. Their artistic practice spans diverse media including film, photography, painting, performance, and site-specific projects. Their work has been included in numerous international exhibitions including (selection): Blind Spots, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna, 2009; 5th Berlin Biennial, Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2008; Like an Attali Report, but different. On fiction and political imagination, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, 2008; Since we last spoke about monuments, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, 2008; and Low-Budget Monuments, 52nd Venice Biennial, Romanian Pavilion, Venice, 2007. This fall, Vatamanu and Tudor will have solo exhibitions at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster and the Graphisches Kabinett, Secession, Vienna, among others. On the occasion of theSurplus Value exhibition and the monograph the artists took part in BAK's Research-in-Residence program. Vatamanu and Tudor live and work in Bucharest.
On the occasion of the exhibition, BAK presents the first monograph on the artists' work, Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, published by BAK and post editions, Rotterdam. This major publication includes extensive images of their work since 2000 and four newly commissioned texts by Cosmin Costinas (writer and curator BAK, Utrecht), Vivian Rehberg (art historian and art critic, Paris),David Riff (art critic and artist, Moscow), and Georg Schöllhammer (curator and editor-in-chief ofSpringerin, Vienna). The publication also contains an in-depth interview between the artists and Bucharest-based independent curator and writer Mihnea Mircan. The monograph is edited byCosmin Costinas and Jill Winder.
Surplus Value is the first research exhibition within the long-term project Former West, an international research, education, publishing, and exhibition undertaking (2008–2013). For more information, please visit http://www.formerwest.org.
Mona Vatamanu (born 1968) and Florin Tudor (born 1974) work together since 2000. Their artistic practice spans diverse media including film, photography, painting, performance, and site-specific projects. Their work has been included in numerous international exhibitions including (selection): Blind Spots, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna, 2009; 5th Berlin Biennial, Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2008; Like an Attali Report, but different. On fiction and political imagination, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, 2008; Since we last spoke about monuments, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, 2008; and Low-Budget Monuments, 52nd Venice Biennial, Romanian Pavilion, Venice, 2007. This fall, Vatamanu and Tudor will have solo exhibitions at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster and the Graphisches Kabinett, Secession, Vienna, among others. On the occasion of theSurplus Value exhibition and the monograph the artists took part in BAK's Research-in-Residence program. Vatamanu and Tudor live and work in Bucharest.
Nasreen Mohamedi
About Nasreen Mohamedi
Nasreen Mohamedi (1937–1990) was born in Karachi, (formerly India, now Pakistan) before moving to Mumbai. She travelled abroad to study, spending time in London at Saint Martin's School of Art (1954–57) and in Paris. After extensive travels to Iran and Turkey in the 60s, she returned to India and settled in Baroda in 1972; here, she became a teacher at the prestigious M.S.University, Faculty of Fine Arts.
In Baroda, Mohamedi produced her classic works: small-scale, abstract geometric drawings, painstakingly composed using pencil and pen – working with the grid and creating deviations with diagonal lines. Virtually alone amongst her peers in India, who generally favoured a figurative narrative style, her lineage can be traced back to an earlier generation of Indian artists engaged with abstraction, such as V.S. Gaitonde. Other parallels for her practice can be drawn with works on paper by the American artist Agnes Martin, or with the utopian abstraction of Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Suprematists, whom she admired greatly.
Despite Mohamedi's cosmopolitanism, her work also reflects her identity as a female Indian artist working during the second half of the twentieth century, as the subcontinent, its landscapes, urban centres and Islamic heritage are often intimated in her work, particularly her photographs.
About Mohamedi's Work
Mohamedi worked in various media, including drawing, painting and photography. These works are rarely dated, but fall roughly into three different periods. Early works, which include watercolour and ink on paper, oil on canvas, collage and lithography, are lyrical and semi-abstract. Influenced in part by Japanese calligraphy, they often suggest plant life or landscapes.
In the 1970s Mohamedi moved closer to abstraction, producing serial works based on the grid on square sheets of paper, which have become a hallmark of her practice. She constructed these compositions by means of lines rendered in pen and ink and used technical drawing equipment. In her final works from the 1980s, Mohamedi abandoned the grid, and began to compose geometric shapes, combining diagonal lines, triangles and spheres, suspended on an empty ground.
Throughout her career, Mohamedi produced photographs as a visual record of the places she visited. Although she never regarded them as works in their own right, today they stand as an important part of her oeuvre.
Mohamedi's diaries, filled with reflections on her work and personal life, attest to the link between her struggle for equilibrium and a disciplined commitment to her practice. The ephemera from her studio, which includes calendars, pages of letterset and magazine cuttings, along with notes, sketches and photographic experiments, reveal her working process and the way she developed a language that is both visual and conceptual.
Mohamedi's futuristic visions around the grid resonate in time and form with the utopian aspirations of the founders of the city of Milton Keynes itself, built in the late 1960s around a precise and repetitive geometry composed of vertical and horizontal lines. The city provides a fitting context for the artist's most substantial exhibition in the UK.
This exhibition is an expanded version of Nasreen Mohamedi: Notes – Reflections on Indian Modernismcurated by Suman Gopinath and Grant Watson, and organised and initiated by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway in Oslo. It includes an additional section of works from the Artist's Estate and other collections, courtesy of Talwar Gallery, New York and New Delhi. A variation of this exhibition will travel to Lunds konsthall, Sweden.
Nasreen Mohamedi (1937–1990) was born in Karachi, (formerly India, now Pakistan) before moving to Mumbai. She travelled abroad to study, spending time in London at Saint Martin's School of Art (1954–57) and in Paris. After extensive travels to Iran and Turkey in the 60s, she returned to India and settled in Baroda in 1972; here, she became a teacher at the prestigious M.S.University, Faculty of Fine Arts.
In Baroda, Mohamedi produced her classic works: small-scale, abstract geometric drawings, painstakingly composed using pencil and pen – working with the grid and creating deviations with diagonal lines. Virtually alone amongst her peers in India, who generally favoured a figurative narrative style, her lineage can be traced back to an earlier generation of Indian artists engaged with abstraction, such as V.S. Gaitonde. Other parallels for her practice can be drawn with works on paper by the American artist Agnes Martin, or with the utopian abstraction of Kazimir Malevich and the Russian Suprematists, whom she admired greatly.
Despite Mohamedi's cosmopolitanism, her work also reflects her identity as a female Indian artist working during the second half of the twentieth century, as the subcontinent, its landscapes, urban centres and Islamic heritage are often intimated in her work, particularly her photographs.
About Mohamedi's Work
Mohamedi worked in various media, including drawing, painting and photography. These works are rarely dated, but fall roughly into three different periods. Early works, which include watercolour and ink on paper, oil on canvas, collage and lithography, are lyrical and semi-abstract. Influenced in part by Japanese calligraphy, they often suggest plant life or landscapes.
In the 1970s Mohamedi moved closer to abstraction, producing serial works based on the grid on square sheets of paper, which have become a hallmark of her practice. She constructed these compositions by means of lines rendered in pen and ink and used technical drawing equipment. In her final works from the 1980s, Mohamedi abandoned the grid, and began to compose geometric shapes, combining diagonal lines, triangles and spheres, suspended on an empty ground.
Throughout her career, Mohamedi produced photographs as a visual record of the places she visited. Although she never regarded them as works in their own right, today they stand as an important part of her oeuvre.
Mohamedi's diaries, filled with reflections on her work and personal life, attest to the link between her struggle for equilibrium and a disciplined commitment to her practice. The ephemera from her studio, which includes calendars, pages of letterset and magazine cuttings, along with notes, sketches and photographic experiments, reveal her working process and the way she developed a language that is both visual and conceptual.
Mohamedi's futuristic visions around the grid resonate in time and form with the utopian aspirations of the founders of the city of Milton Keynes itself, built in the late 1960s around a precise and repetitive geometry composed of vertical and horizontal lines. The city provides a fitting context for the artist's most substantial exhibition in the UK.
This exhibition is an expanded version of Nasreen Mohamedi: Notes – Reflections on Indian Modernismcurated by Suman Gopinath and Grant Watson, and organised and initiated by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway in Oslo. It includes an additional section of works from the Artist's Estate and other collections, courtesy of Talwar Gallery, New York and New Delhi. A variation of this exhibition will travel to Lunds konsthall, Sweden.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Henie Onstad Art Centre presents Hovikodden Live 09: To be Heard is to be Seen
Events:
August 30th, 2pm: Exhibition opening.
Performances by Tori Wrånes and Simona Barbera.
Stephen O'Malley.
diskJokke + Serena Maneesh.
September 6th, 2pm: Sidsel Endresen + Noxagt .
September 27th, 2pm: Susanna + Maja Ratkje.
October 4th, 2pm: Jaap Blonk performs Schwitters' Ursonate.
Stine Motland.
Performance with Tori Wrånes and band.
October 11th, 2pm: Merzbow + Void ov Voices (Attila).
October 25th 2pm: Sound poetry: Sten Hanson, Famlende Forsøk, Jordan Scott, Pär Thörn, Sarah Granskou, tekstopia and others.
Høvikodden Live 09, this year entitled To be Heard is to be Seen, investigates the voice as a medium and metaphor.
The exhibition and the concert programme focus on the body as a tool for expression, rhetoric and messages – both political and social. To be Heard is to be Seen balances on a cutting edge between three different perspectives: in the visual arts, the voice is used as a metaphor, in performance, as a theatrical effect and in music, as a medium for experimental song techniques. A number of artists and musicians explore the scope of the voice and press back the boundaries of its potential, and of how it is formed:
The Serbian artist Katarina Zdjelar's contribution to the exhibition is A Perfect Voice, a video about how the voice can be trained in order to eliminate audible defects compared to certain norms. By combining visual and historical references in her work Triplight, the Norwegian-American Camille Norment investigates the space between what we hear and what we actually perceive, while in Swing Low, the public must search for the work themselves by listening to an abstract, whistling sound based on the well-known song. Alejandra Salinas (Spain) and Aeron Bergman (USA) are represented at the exhibition with their text-animated video Wildflowers. The video blends the closely linked rhetoric of speech and the written word, while at the same time borrowing elements from billboard aesthetics and the "cut and paste" typical of experimental radio documentaries. In the form of a twelve-metre long mural, Anna Sigmond Gudmundsdottir (Norway) addresses the relationship between questions of normality, the body and those voices that do not get a hearing.
To be Heard is to be Seen presents a number of singers, poets and performance artists who incorporate space as a core element of their concerts and operate in an area somewhere between visual art and the presentation forms of traditional theatre. One of these is the voice artist Jaap Blonkfrom the Netherlands, who investigates sounds in a given space. Many of the younger artists, for example Tori Wrånes (Norway) and Simona Barbera (Italy) work within genres that are a crossover between installations, music and performance and draw on the knowledge and experience of famous singers.
The concert programme includes several different perspectives on the theme of the voice – from the extended voice techniques of Sidsel Endresen, Stine Jarvin Motland and Maja Ratkje, to metal music's use of extreme vocal techniques and stage aesthetics, represented by the acclaimed Japanese noise artist Merzbow and the vocal project Void ov Voices by Attilla (Mayhem), to jazz and rock's more traditional treatments of the voice, as performed by Susanna and Serena Maneesh. A notable events on the opening day will be a commissioned work by the American Stephen O'Malley, perhaps better known as one half of the band SunnO))).
Participating artists:
Anna Sigmond Gudmundsdottir, Aeron Bergman & Alejandra Salinas, Camille Norment, diskJokke, Famlende Forsøk, Jaap Blonk, Katarina Zdjelar, Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Merzbow, Noxagt, Pierre Huyghe, Serena Maneesh, Sidsel Endresen, Simona Barbera, Sten Hanson, Stephen O´Malley, Stine Janvin Motland, Susanna, Tori Wrånes and Void ov Voices.
Curators: Tone Hansen, Lars Mørch Finborud and Lasse Marhaug
August 30th, 2pm: Exhibition opening.
Performances by Tori Wrånes and Simona Barbera.
Stephen O'Malley.
diskJokke + Serena Maneesh.
September 6th, 2pm: Sidsel Endresen + Noxagt .
September 27th, 2pm: Susanna + Maja Ratkje.
October 4th, 2pm: Jaap Blonk performs Schwitters' Ursonate.
Stine Motland.
Performance with Tori Wrånes and band.
October 11th, 2pm: Merzbow + Void ov Voices (Attila).
October 25th 2pm: Sound poetry: Sten Hanson, Famlende Forsøk, Jordan Scott, Pär Thörn, Sarah Granskou, tekstopia and others.
Høvikodden Live 09, this year entitled To be Heard is to be Seen, investigates the voice as a medium and metaphor.
The exhibition and the concert programme focus on the body as a tool for expression, rhetoric and messages – both political and social. To be Heard is to be Seen balances on a cutting edge between three different perspectives: in the visual arts, the voice is used as a metaphor, in performance, as a theatrical effect and in music, as a medium for experimental song techniques. A number of artists and musicians explore the scope of the voice and press back the boundaries of its potential, and of how it is formed:
The Serbian artist Katarina Zdjelar's contribution to the exhibition is A Perfect Voice, a video about how the voice can be trained in order to eliminate audible defects compared to certain norms. By combining visual and historical references in her work Triplight, the Norwegian-American Camille Norment investigates the space between what we hear and what we actually perceive, while in Swing Low, the public must search for the work themselves by listening to an abstract, whistling sound based on the well-known song. Alejandra Salinas (Spain) and Aeron Bergman (USA) are represented at the exhibition with their text-animated video Wildflowers. The video blends the closely linked rhetoric of speech and the written word, while at the same time borrowing elements from billboard aesthetics and the "cut and paste" typical of experimental radio documentaries. In the form of a twelve-metre long mural, Anna Sigmond Gudmundsdottir (Norway) addresses the relationship between questions of normality, the body and those voices that do not get a hearing.
To be Heard is to be Seen presents a number of singers, poets and performance artists who incorporate space as a core element of their concerts and operate in an area somewhere between visual art and the presentation forms of traditional theatre. One of these is the voice artist Jaap Blonkfrom the Netherlands, who investigates sounds in a given space. Many of the younger artists, for example Tori Wrånes (Norway) and Simona Barbera (Italy) work within genres that are a crossover between installations, music and performance and draw on the knowledge and experience of famous singers.
The concert programme includes several different perspectives on the theme of the voice – from the extended voice techniques of Sidsel Endresen, Stine Jarvin Motland and Maja Ratkje, to metal music's use of extreme vocal techniques and stage aesthetics, represented by the acclaimed Japanese noise artist Merzbow and the vocal project Void ov Voices by Attilla (Mayhem), to jazz and rock's more traditional treatments of the voice, as performed by Susanna and Serena Maneesh. A notable events on the opening day will be a commissioned work by the American Stephen O'Malley, perhaps better known as one half of the band SunnO))).
Participating artists:
Anna Sigmond Gudmundsdottir, Aeron Bergman & Alejandra Salinas, Camille Norment, diskJokke, Famlende Forsøk, Jaap Blonk, Katarina Zdjelar, Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Merzbow, Noxagt, Pierre Huyghe, Serena Maneesh, Sidsel Endresen, Simona Barbera, Sten Hanson, Stephen O´Malley, Stine Janvin Motland, Susanna, Tori Wrånes and Void ov Voices.
Curators: Tone Hansen, Lars Mørch Finborud and Lasse Marhaug
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
TACITA DEAN
Tacita Dean is best known for her work in 16mm film, although she utilises a variety of media including drawing, photography and sound. Her films often employ long takes and steady camera angles to create a contemplative atmosphere. Her anamorphic films are shot by cinematographers John Adderley and Jamie Cairney. She has also published several pieces of her own writing, which she refers to as 'asides,' which complement her visual work. Since the mid-1990s her films have not included commentary, but are instead accompanied by often understated optical sound tracks.
Especially during the 1990s, the sea was a persistent theme in Dean's work. Perhaps most famously, she explored the tragic maritime misadventures of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur English sailor whose ambition to enter a race to solo circumnavigate the globe ended in deception, existential crisis and, eventually, tragedy [1]. Dean has made a number of films and blackboard drawings relating to the Crowhurst story, exploiting the metaphorical richness of such motifs as the ocean, lighthouses and shipwrecks.
Since moving to Berlin in 2000, Dean has devoted more attention to the architecture and cultural history of Germany. She has made films of such iconic structure as the Berliner Fernsehturm and the Palast der Republik. Recent projects have concerned important figures in post-war German cultural history, such as W.G Sebald and Joseph Beuys.
LISI RASKIN
LISI RASKIN
Born 1974 in Miami (FL), USA
Lisi Raskin addresses certain correlations between art and science with an interest that has provoked excursions to malignant locations like the Oakridge National Laboratory (TN), the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (Lithuania), and former East German Atomic Bunkers. During these experiences she imagines assortments of devastation while attempting to remain in contact with the logical and illogical elements of a catastrophic event. This part of her practice has informed the making of drawings, objects, videos, and installations that simultaneously quell and stimulate her fear of technological progress and pathology. She received an MFA from Columbia University School of Arts in 2003. Her work was last seen in an installation entitled Command and Control at the Park Avenue Armory during the ADDA fair. And has been exhibited internationally at institutions like Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, CAC in Vilnius, P.S.1 in New York, Moma in Miami and IASPIS in Stockholm.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Hayward Touring: Curatorial Open 2010. Call for Proposals
Hayward Touring invites proposals for an exhibition to be shown in four UK galleries in 2010/11.
You don't have to be a professional exhibition maker to propose an idea. We welcome innovative proposals from artists, writers and imaginative thinkers of all kinds, as well as from people working in galleries and museums. It may be a show you have never seen but would like to; there may be a theme or tendency in contemporary art and visual culture that you think deserves to be explored in new ways. Simply describe your project in no more than 600 words, and accompany it with an initial list of artists and a selection of images.
The exhibition will tour to: John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; QUAD, Derby; Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno; Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum.
The successful applicant will receive an honorarium of £3,000 plus £1,000 for research and travel expenses. S/he will work in collaboration with Hayward Touring and the participating galleries on an exhibition of around 130-150 square metres, to open in July 2010. The exhibition budget will allow for some international loans and a modest publication.
The selection panel will include the Director, Hayward Gallery, Senior Curator, Hayward Touring, an artist (to be announced) and representatives of the participating galleries.
You don't have to be a professional exhibition maker to propose an idea. We welcome innovative proposals from artists, writers and imaginative thinkers of all kinds, as well as from people working in galleries and museums. It may be a show you have never seen but would like to; there may be a theme or tendency in contemporary art and visual culture that you think deserves to be explored in new ways. Simply describe your project in no more than 600 words, and accompany it with an initial list of artists and a selection of images.
The exhibition will tour to: John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; QUAD, Derby; Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno; Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum.
The successful applicant will receive an honorarium of £3,000 plus £1,000 for research and travel expenses. S/he will work in collaboration with Hayward Touring and the participating galleries on an exhibition of around 130-150 square metres, to open in July 2010. The exhibition budget will allow for some international loans and a modest publication.
The selection panel will include the Director, Hayward Gallery, Senior Curator, Hayward Touring, an artist (to be announced) and representatives of the participating galleries.
Luc Tuymans
FIRST U.S. LUC TUYMANS RETROSPECTIVE DEBUTS AT WEXNER CENTER
The first U.S. retrospective of the work of Luc Tuymans—and the most comprehensive presentation of his work to date—will debut at the Wexner Center for the Arts this fall. Jointly organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Wexner Center, Luc Tuymans spans every phase of the influential painter's career and features more than 70 key paintings from 1978 to the present.
Luc Tuymans (b. 1958 in Antwerp) is considered one of the most significant European painters of his generation. Interested in the lingering effects of World War II on the lives of Europeans, Tuymans explores issues of history and memory, as well as the relationship between photography and painting, using a muted palette to create canvases that are simultaneously withholding and disarmingly stark. His work might initially suggest relatively innocuous depictions of everyday life, yet there is almost always another meaning lurking beneath the surface. The artist's more recent work touches on the postcolonial situation in the Congo and the dramatic turn of world events after 9/11.
After the Wexner Center, Luc Tuymans will appear at SFMOMA (February 6 to May 2, 2010), the Dallas Museum of Art (June 6 to September 5, 2010), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (October 2, 2010 to January 9, 2011), and the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (February 11 to May 8, 2011). The retrospective is co-curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and Helen Molesworth, Maisie K. and James R. Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museum.
"Without question, the time is ripe for an in-depth retrospective of Tuymans's work in this country," said Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin. "We are thrilled to collaborate with SFMOMA on this exhibition, which is certain to reveal new insights into the creative, intellectual, and political forces that have propelled Luc's unique and vastly influential body of work over the last 25 years."
The exhibition catalogue will be the most comprehensive volume on the artist to date, with essays by Molesworth, Bill Horrigan, Joseph Leo Koerner, and Ralph Rugoff, with an introduction by the co-curators.
Tuymans will be in conversation with scholar T.J. Clark November 10 at the Wexner Center.
Lead support for the exhibition is generously provided by Bruce and Martha Atwater. Significant support is provided by Carla Emil/Rich Silverstein and by Flanders House, the new cultural forum for Flanders (Belgium) in the United States.
Accommodations in Columbus are provided by The Blackwell Inn.
All Wexner Center exhibitions and related events receive support from Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members, as well as Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council.
Luc Tuymans is represented by David Zwirner, New York, and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp.
The first U.S. retrospective of the work of Luc Tuymans—and the most comprehensive presentation of his work to date—will debut at the Wexner Center for the Arts this fall. Jointly organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Wexner Center, Luc Tuymans spans every phase of the influential painter's career and features more than 70 key paintings from 1978 to the present.
Luc Tuymans (b. 1958 in Antwerp) is considered one of the most significant European painters of his generation. Interested in the lingering effects of World War II on the lives of Europeans, Tuymans explores issues of history and memory, as well as the relationship between photography and painting, using a muted palette to create canvases that are simultaneously withholding and disarmingly stark. His work might initially suggest relatively innocuous depictions of everyday life, yet there is almost always another meaning lurking beneath the surface. The artist's more recent work touches on the postcolonial situation in the Congo and the dramatic turn of world events after 9/11.
After the Wexner Center, Luc Tuymans will appear at SFMOMA (February 6 to May 2, 2010), the Dallas Museum of Art (June 6 to September 5, 2010), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (October 2, 2010 to January 9, 2011), and the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (February 11 to May 8, 2011). The retrospective is co-curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and Helen Molesworth, Maisie K. and James R. Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museum.
"Without question, the time is ripe for an in-depth retrospective of Tuymans's work in this country," said Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin. "We are thrilled to collaborate with SFMOMA on this exhibition, which is certain to reveal new insights into the creative, intellectual, and political forces that have propelled Luc's unique and vastly influential body of work over the last 25 years."
The exhibition catalogue will be the most comprehensive volume on the artist to date, with essays by Molesworth, Bill Horrigan, Joseph Leo Koerner, and Ralph Rugoff, with an introduction by the co-curators.
Tuymans will be in conversation with scholar T.J. Clark November 10 at the Wexner Center.
Lead support for the exhibition is generously provided by Bruce and Martha Atwater. Significant support is provided by Carla Emil/Rich Silverstein and by Flanders House, the new cultural forum for Flanders (Belgium) in the United States.
Accommodations in Columbus are provided by The Blackwell Inn.
All Wexner Center exhibitions and related events receive support from Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members, as well as Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council.
Luc Tuymans is represented by David Zwirner, New York, and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp.
Sigmar Polke
From Clique to Pop to Politics, the three successive parts of the exhibition Sigmar Polke. Wir Kleinbürger! Zeitgenossen und Zeitgenossinnen (We petty bourgeois! Contemporaries) have a joint focus: Polke's 10-part series of works on paper entitled Wir Kleinbürger – Zeitgenossen und Zeitgenossinnen. Created between 1972 and 1976, it is largely unknown to the public and its presentation for the first time in over 30 years at the Hamburger Kunsthalle provides an unprecedented opportunity for viewers to engage with this striking body of work. The second part of the exhibition –Pop – looks at artistic explorations of pop cultural themes and images, and also features Polke's highly unusual series Original + Fälschung (Original + Forgery). As in the first part the paintings and drawings on show are supplemented by films, photographs, and stencils backed up by documentary material and source images, all of which serve to illustrate the diversity of Polke's work across a range of media.
Both Wir Kleinbürger – Zeitgenossen und Zeitgenossinnen and Original + Fälschung were produced in the period when Polke was living on a farm in the Lower Rhine region. The exhibition in Hamburg provides a unique opportunity to view these two bodies of work in a joint presentation: the juxtaposition of the series emphasizes Polke's pioneering role as a figurative painter and his influence upon the anarchic actions of younger generations of artists. In contrast to American Pop art, which by then was long since canonized, the images from everyday life in the work of Polke and his fellow artists were frequently interspersed with references to international countercultures, underground currents and political activism.
The Kleinbürger series marks a turning point in Polke's oeuvre: whereas his work from the 1960s offered ironic visual commentaries on the reality of life at the time of the 'economic miracle', here he begins to challenge social norms. He presents a panoramic view of West Germany in the 1970s, a period marked by the hippie culture, the nascent women's movement and terrorism. Individual and collective dreams and fears are critically addressed, satirized and called into question with a considerable degree of wry humour. Various ways of escaping from bourgeois surroundings are investigated – whether on a small or large scale, by way of consumerism, exoticism, sex or drug use – and possible alternatives to bourgeois existence are explored in images that switch between male fantasy and feminism, peaceful protest and armed resistance.
The presentation at the Hamburger Kunsthalle recaptures for the first time the 'anti-museum' spirit of its first showing in 1973, created for the Kunstverein Münster. In a large-scale installation featuring hundreds of mirrors and coloured neon tubes, Original + Fälschung once again combines a complex critical reflection upon images and authenticity with the glamorous culture of clubs such as the legendary Creamcheese discotheque in Düsseldorf. By directly addressing topics such as art theft and forgery as well as mythic notions of artistic authorship and authenticity, Original + Fälschung exposes the mechanisms of the art market and challenges the ideals embodied in the bourgeois conception of art.
Over the course of the exhibition, more than 100 individual works and series drawn from international museums and private collections will be shown, revealing complex methods of appropriating, copying, sampling and reinterpreting visual material. Innocent-looking visual galaxies are transformed into nightmarish scenarios filled with dark comic figures and grotesque, ghostly apparitions. Here, the garish world of Pop comes face to face with its morbid counterpart, an encounter that is emphasized by the deliberate pairing of specific works. This is the first time since they were made that some of these images are being shown in the form originally intended by Polke.
Curators of the exhibition:
Dr. Dorothee Böhm and Dr. Dietmar Rübel; at the Hamburger Kunsthalle: Dr. Petra Roettig
Both Wir Kleinbürger – Zeitgenossen und Zeitgenossinnen and Original + Fälschung were produced in the period when Polke was living on a farm in the Lower Rhine region. The exhibition in Hamburg provides a unique opportunity to view these two bodies of work in a joint presentation: the juxtaposition of the series emphasizes Polke's pioneering role as a figurative painter and his influence upon the anarchic actions of younger generations of artists. In contrast to American Pop art, which by then was long since canonized, the images from everyday life in the work of Polke and his fellow artists were frequently interspersed with references to international countercultures, underground currents and political activism.
The Kleinbürger series marks a turning point in Polke's oeuvre: whereas his work from the 1960s offered ironic visual commentaries on the reality of life at the time of the 'economic miracle', here he begins to challenge social norms. He presents a panoramic view of West Germany in the 1970s, a period marked by the hippie culture, the nascent women's movement and terrorism. Individual and collective dreams and fears are critically addressed, satirized and called into question with a considerable degree of wry humour. Various ways of escaping from bourgeois surroundings are investigated – whether on a small or large scale, by way of consumerism, exoticism, sex or drug use – and possible alternatives to bourgeois existence are explored in images that switch between male fantasy and feminism, peaceful protest and armed resistance.
The presentation at the Hamburger Kunsthalle recaptures for the first time the 'anti-museum' spirit of its first showing in 1973, created for the Kunstverein Münster. In a large-scale installation featuring hundreds of mirrors and coloured neon tubes, Original + Fälschung once again combines a complex critical reflection upon images and authenticity with the glamorous culture of clubs such as the legendary Creamcheese discotheque in Düsseldorf. By directly addressing topics such as art theft and forgery as well as mythic notions of artistic authorship and authenticity, Original + Fälschung exposes the mechanisms of the art market and challenges the ideals embodied in the bourgeois conception of art.
Over the course of the exhibition, more than 100 individual works and series drawn from international museums and private collections will be shown, revealing complex methods of appropriating, copying, sampling and reinterpreting visual material. Innocent-looking visual galaxies are transformed into nightmarish scenarios filled with dark comic figures and grotesque, ghostly apparitions. Here, the garish world of Pop comes face to face with its morbid counterpart, an encounter that is emphasized by the deliberate pairing of specific works. This is the first time since they were made that some of these images are being shown in the form originally intended by Polke.
Curators of the exhibition:
Dr. Dorothee Böhm and Dr. Dietmar Rübel; at the Hamburger Kunsthalle: Dr. Petra Roettig
FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology)
Abandon Normal Devices (AND) is a major new festival, taking place across Northwest England. A catalyst for production and experimentation at the intersection of Digital Culture and New Cinema, AND invites us to consider what are 'normal' devices? And why and how should we abandon them?
AND will spill from screens and galleries into the streets with screenings, installations, online projects, public realm interventions, debates, workshops and live events. The festival has an emphasis on critique and ideas and at its heart lies a fascination with ideas about social, physical and technological norms, with artistic approaches from the playful to the downright provocative.
AND is presented by FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) (Liverpool),Cornerhouse (Manchester) and folly (Lancaster). The debut festival will launch in Liverpool, with future editions planned in Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria. AND offers an energetic programme across Liverpool's cultural spaces, including A Foundation, BBC Big Screens, the Bluecoat, FACT and Tate Liverpool.
2009 AND highlights:
* Apichatpong Weerasethakul Primitive
The Godfather of independent Thai cinema returns to FACT for his first solo UK exhibition. Primitive is a multi-screen video installation harmonising Weerasethakul's talent as a filmmaker and video artist.
* Carolee Schneemann
AND is proud to present an exhibition and personal appearance by the renowned American artist Carolee Schneemann, who will take over Tate Liverpool's Wolfson Gallery for the duration of the festival. Revered for her pioneering and provocative work in performance and film, Schneemann deploys her own body as both subject matter and a source of knowledge.
* Keep It Slick - Infiltrating Capitalism with The Yes Men
In a European exclusive, AND will present the very first UK solo exhibition of one of the most important political artists of the last decade. The show will also involve opportunities for interaction with the Yes Men themselves.
* Krzysztof Wodiczko War Veteran Vehicle
War Veteran Vehicle is a new large-scale video projection for a public space in Liverpool. Renowned for his socially engaged, politically charged work, Wodiczko is interested in the situation of soldiers who fought during recent armed conflicts and are returning to civilian life, and for the this project will work with men and women from the Northwest who have experienced active duty in the armed forces. He represented Poland in this year's Venice Biennale.
* KMA Strange Attractors - The Anatomy of Dr Tulp
Strange Attractors - The Anatomy of Dr Tulp is a study of embodied discourse; how we use our bodies to move and to communicate in a material world, and how our bodies mediate between the internal and external worlds, at a microscopic and global level. Using light projected onto the ground, it examines the relationship between the motion of real, inanimate, and virtual bodies.
* DJ Spooky presents Rebirth of a Nation
AND joins forces with Culture Liverpool and Walk the Plank to present the finale of On the Waterfront - a season of summer events, located at Liverpool's Pier Head and Albert Docks. Transforming the new Liverpool Museum into a gigantic cinema screen, AND will present a night of remixed and remastered moving image, including a unique version of Rebirth of a Nation, DJ Spooky's audiovisual remix of DW Griffith's infamous Birth of a Nation.
* Action Diana by The Centre of Attention
Artists The Centre of Attention have been creating a cover version of a classic feature film shot for shot using members of the public as the stars. Experimenting with the notion of re-appropriation and re-mix, The Centre of Attention push participation into uncomfortable realms, questioning both the gallery as an exhibition space, and the poverty of video art in relation to cinema.
AND will spill from screens and galleries into the streets with screenings, installations, online projects, public realm interventions, debates, workshops and live events. The festival has an emphasis on critique and ideas and at its heart lies a fascination with ideas about social, physical and technological norms, with artistic approaches from the playful to the downright provocative.
AND is presented by FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) (Liverpool),Cornerhouse (Manchester) and folly (Lancaster). The debut festival will launch in Liverpool, with future editions planned in Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria. AND offers an energetic programme across Liverpool's cultural spaces, including A Foundation, BBC Big Screens, the Bluecoat, FACT and Tate Liverpool.
2009 AND highlights:
* Apichatpong Weerasethakul Primitive
The Godfather of independent Thai cinema returns to FACT for his first solo UK exhibition. Primitive is a multi-screen video installation harmonising Weerasethakul's talent as a filmmaker and video artist.
* Carolee Schneemann
AND is proud to present an exhibition and personal appearance by the renowned American artist Carolee Schneemann, who will take over Tate Liverpool's Wolfson Gallery for the duration of the festival. Revered for her pioneering and provocative work in performance and film, Schneemann deploys her own body as both subject matter and a source of knowledge.
* Keep It Slick - Infiltrating Capitalism with The Yes Men
In a European exclusive, AND will present the very first UK solo exhibition of one of the most important political artists of the last decade. The show will also involve opportunities for interaction with the Yes Men themselves.
* Krzysztof Wodiczko War Veteran Vehicle
War Veteran Vehicle is a new large-scale video projection for a public space in Liverpool. Renowned for his socially engaged, politically charged work, Wodiczko is interested in the situation of soldiers who fought during recent armed conflicts and are returning to civilian life, and for the this project will work with men and women from the Northwest who have experienced active duty in the armed forces. He represented Poland in this year's Venice Biennale.
* KMA Strange Attractors - The Anatomy of Dr Tulp
Strange Attractors - The Anatomy of Dr Tulp is a study of embodied discourse; how we use our bodies to move and to communicate in a material world, and how our bodies mediate between the internal and external worlds, at a microscopic and global level. Using light projected onto the ground, it examines the relationship between the motion of real, inanimate, and virtual bodies.
* DJ Spooky presents Rebirth of a Nation
AND joins forces with Culture Liverpool and Walk the Plank to present the finale of On the Waterfront - a season of summer events, located at Liverpool's Pier Head and Albert Docks. Transforming the new Liverpool Museum into a gigantic cinema screen, AND will present a night of remixed and remastered moving image, including a unique version of Rebirth of a Nation, DJ Spooky's audiovisual remix of DW Griffith's infamous Birth of a Nation.
* Action Diana by The Centre of Attention
Artists The Centre of Attention have been creating a cover version of a classic feature film shot for shot using members of the public as the stars. Experimenting with the notion of re-appropriation and re-mix, The Centre of Attention push participation into uncomfortable realms, questioning both the gallery as an exhibition space, and the poverty of video art in relation to cinema.
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