I’ve written about Artissima, Turin’s contemporary art fair, in my previous post (Artissima, Turin’s contemporary art fair), I’ll let the photos do the talking this time, except when they document performances or installations.

Matej Andraž Vogrinčič‘s installation Untitled (56 Boats) was a collection of 56 upturned rowing boats placed inside the bombed ruins of the Gothic Era St. Luke’s Church in Liverpool.

Matej Andraž Vogrinčič, Untitled (56 boats) at Skuc gallery

Kutlug Ataman‘s two-channel projection Journey to the Moon is a docu-fiction about an urban myth that in 1957, a group of villagers in eastern Turkey were conned by a politician into believing he would build a spaceship factory in cooperation with the US, in return for their votes. The film explores the idea that the villagers were the victim of American style westernisation in Turkey in the late 50s and perhaps also of the early stages of globalisation.

Kutlug Ataman, Journey to the moon, 2009, at Francesca Minini

In 2006, a gas and oil drilling well created an environmental disaster in East Java that continues to this day. Experts speculated that an earthquake in central Java had triggered the eruption of this unstoppable “mud volcano”; many believed that the catastrophe was in fact primarily due to the negligence of mining company Lapindo Brantas.The toxic fumes still spreading from the well include hydrogen sulphide, which causes long-term neurological and physical effects. The attempts at stopping the mud flow, whether they involve inadequate 15ft high dams of earth or the sacrifice of animals, have all failed.

Since the first eruption, 13,000 families (some 50,000 people) have lost their homes and land. Susan Norries dedicated Notes from Havoc to them.

Susan Norrie, Untitled (video print from Notes from Havoc), at Giorgio Persano gallery

Roger Ballen, represented by one of the most interesting galleries i know, Kamel Mennour

Roger Ballen, Room of the Ninja Turtles, 2003

Roger Ballen, Brian and pet pig, 1998

The Bruce High Quality Foundation‘s photographs, Public Sculpture Tackle, documents an ongoing series of performances in which the artists dressed in makeshift sports attire and padding hurl themselves and lunge against various public sculptures in Manhattan. In a contest between individualistic energy and engineered public adornment, we all know who will win.

The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Public Sculpture Tackle, Beuys, 2007, at DUVE gallery

Martina della Valle, Urban Traces 3, 2007 at the Jarach Gallery

Paola Pivi, Leopard sleeping uncropped, 2008, at Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milano

Kelly Nipper, Pipsan Saarinen’s Theater Curtain, 2008, at the Francesca Kaufmann gallery

Lara Almarcegui used the debris of a demolished house from the center of St Truiden in Belgium to raise an antimonumental sculpture.

Lara Almarcegui, The Rubble Mountain, Sint Truiden, 2005, at Ellen De Bruijne Projects

Seen at the booths of Laura Bartlett and Bugada & Cargnel, the Cairns series by Cyprien Gaillard. The photographs depict the aftermath of the demolition of high rise social housing in Glasgow and the Parisian suburbs, shot and printed after Düsseldorf school of photograph‘s codes and photographers such as Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth, while pushing them to their ultimate stage: monumentality, frontality, absence of narration and time reference – ie impossibility to identify the season of the year or the time of the day; but instead of picturing an arrogant modernist building, only remains a pyramid of ruins.

Cyprien Gaillard, Cairns (251/261 Résidence Provence, Dammarie-lès-Lys, 1973 – 2008)

Cyprien Gaillard, Cairns (12 Riverford Road, Pollokshaws, Glasgow, 1967-2008), 2008

Talking of Thomas Struth…

Thomas Struth – Pasaje Gaspar Lima / Peru – 2003 – © Thomas Struth, at Monica de Cardenas

Anne Hardy, Coordinate, 2009, at Maureen Paley, London

Every picture shot by Hans Op De Beeck for his “Room” series features only one protagonist presented in interiors that are computer-designed but which provide information about the presumed life and social background of the person portrayed, as well as about the specific moment and the stage of life that the individual has reached.

Each of the characters has that kind of introspective gaze one can observe in Old Masters such as Rogier van der Weyden. The references do not end there. The series also alludes to the film noir.

Hans Op De Beeck, The Room, at Galleria Continua

Let’s end with a picture seen at the booth of my favourite gallery in Turin

Leigh Ledare, Hot Licks, at Guido Costa Projects

And hop! Another photo set.
Photo on the homepage: Guy de Cointet, At sunrise a cry was heard…
1974 
performance view, 1976, Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles
. Performed by Mary Ann Duganne-Glicksman
 © Estate of Guy de Cointet / Courtesy Air de Paris.