The exhibition showcase the work of young photographers, gifted amateurs, alongside that of established professionals. This year’s selection is as heavy as ever with its documentation of prostitution, childhood obesity, prison and hunting
Paintings on silos, a new capital of Asia, typographic wallpapers, replica of Shanghai hardware store, EU Green card lottery and porcelain human bones for a biennale that celebrated contemporary artists who believe that art has to offer more than a spectacle
In today’s mass-media society, only what becomes image is considered real. In a process of reversal, the representation of the world comes to replace the world itself, a world in which the user operates digitally
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Broomberg and Chanarin’s works questions the role of embedded reporters today. Their task is to take photographs of what happens in the war zones but in accordance with the rigid directives of military command. The images that do not comply are eliminated and only those that make it through the strict censorship process are published
Two artworks i discovered at the Lyon’s 10th Biennale for Contemporary Art. Both by the talented and socially-engaged Pedro Reyes
The exhibition explores the new “updated” textile crafts that are developed by a new generation of serious amateurs, innovative craftsmen, engaged entrepreneurs and political practitioners. Once again the home is the workshop where economic and ecologic innovation happens – not only in the labs of the industrial expertise. After decades of outsourcing, the new modes of production are in the hands of the layperson
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Nelly Ben Hayoun’s installation/performance attempted to demonstrate the visual equivalent of one of those massive sonic booms that take place inside Super K each time a neutrino meets an electron of extremely pure water. As ultra-pure water doesn’t exactly abound in London night clubs, the designer used the water from the nearest fire hydrant and turned the place into a 15 by 5m long swimming pool
Designers and architects have to make decisions regarding color every day. But how does one find the necessary inspiration? The appropriate color? How do other designers and artists deal with the issue? With “Chroma,” the Greek word for color, as its title, this illustrated book provides answers to these questions and makes it clear that color is much more than mere decoration – it is one of the central problems of creative work
Each of the winning projects for Vardø, a city swept in darkness 2 months of the year, is fascinating in its own way. Taken together they form a truly thought-provoking perspective on what young architects can bring to local urban challenges
Moira Ricci delves into the photographs of the past following the tracks of her mother, whose dates of birth and death provide the series with its title and indicate the time span covered by the images. Digital processing of old family photographs enables the artist to appear beside and observe her mother while remaining an extraneous figure, a sort of ubiquitous ghost hovering on the edges of the images and events
Music take center stage in the exhibition but Playlist has also a very physical dimension that deals with the pleasure of manipulating and tweaking the devices and the aesthetic delectation in the vintage look of the game arcades and handheld consoles
Chip music is low-key. Its scene is relatively small, its sound is raw and lo-fi, but more importantly, its tools are outmoded goods of mass consumptions. This obsolescence of the media was at the heart of curator Quaranta’s reflections for the exhibition
The ‘Herbologies/Foraging Networks’ programme of events, focused in Helsinki (Finland) and Kurzeme region of Latvia, explores the cultural traditions and knowledge of herbs, edible and medicinal plants, within the contemporary context of online networks, open information-sharing, biological and hydroponic technologies
Interactive Architecture includes contributions from the worlds of architecture, industrial design, computer programming, engineering, and physical computing. The book examines the vanguard movement from all sides, including its sociological and psychological implications as well as its potentially beneficial environmental impact
The exhibition, curated by Domenico Quaranta for Laboral’s new Mediateca Expandida, explores the role played by music in the adoption and manipulation of obsolete technologies: vinyls, old computers, game platforms, etc. I’m going to be the usual procrastinator and promise that i’ll come back with a report later on this week. In the meantime, here’s a link to the catalog of the exhibition and to videos by the extremely talented Raquel Meyers
Together with the inhabitants of Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh, two artists staged collective performances and actions on the day the Google Car drove through the neighbourhood: a 17th-century sword fight, a dramatic escape using bedlinen, a parade with a brass band and majorettes. These actions now form part of the digital maps of Sampsonia Way made available online by Google Maps
Look what i didn’t bring you back from Rome! Pieter Hugo (of the Hyena Men fame) ‘fiction documents’ the sets of the flamboyant Nigerian film industry
An office is frozen in an arctic winter, plants propagate behind walls, the same person is repeatedly struck by lightning, money goes up in smoke, and a high frequency soundtrack plays only for the dogs…. CHASING NAPOLEON recognizes how a rise and fall can spread to reality itself. A wavering of interpretations, an inversion of values, and a paradox of situations… Here everything happens as if the world has slipped into a parallel universe
The exhibition explores the key role that bartering is fulfilling in developing countries. This kind of informal economy is not only often more important than the official economy, but its importance will increase dramatically in the coming years as the cities in poor countries undergo explosive population growth. Reciprocity examines how this system of barter and returning of favors affects the infrastructure and vitality of Jakarta where a large majority of the population receives its wages in kind, and creates its own alternative chain of supply and demand
The world of fashion and design is inundated with a seemingly endless list of rules. Think of “Less is More,” “Form Follows Function,” “Keep it Simple,” “Dress Your Age,” and the list goes on and on. They’re familiar sayings that some designers consider to be valuable words of wisdom, which serve as a guiding line and source of inspiration. To others, these rules are mere restrictions: design dogmas and fashion formulae that need to be bended, twisted or broken altogether
Refuge – Architectural Propositions for Unbound Spaces explores the causes and spatial impact of migration through voluntary or involuntary “refugees” who are transforming cities around the globe. Individuals or groups are elegantly or forcefully encapsulated from within the context of the city and society. Refuge produces an ever more atomized urban tissue where the “camp” has become both spatial paradigm and everyday reality, be it in the form of a gated community, slum, or humanitarian refugee camp
New York-based Lebanese artist Walid Raad has been working as The Atlas Group for the past 14 years. His new work critically reflects on the the recent emergence of a new infrastructure for the visual arts in the Arab world
Since 1955, the World Press Photo Foundation is awarding the most striking and representative images that have documented and illustrated the events of our times in the press. The winners of the photography contest are exhibited this year in 100 cities in 45 countries and is still expanding. The plethora of exhibition venues hardly justify why World Press Photo is so wantonly careless about the way the images are exhibited
It seems that, given a choice, most Americans choose to live in a homogenous community over an heterogenous one. However, the suburban landscape of semi-public spaces that exist in between these homogenous communities reveal, here and there, what Interboro calls “spaces of encounter” where diverse social and ethnic groups coexist, interact and generate complex relationships and networks
Tomas Saraceno’s Galaxies Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider’s Web was the ultimate photo-magnet at this year’s Venice Biennale. No doubt the work he’s exhibiting at ReThink: Contemporary Art and Climate Change in Copenhagen is meeting with the same fascination from the audience. I’ve seen his pieces in numerous group exhibition. They are always striking of course but i never really took the time to sit down and watch his work with enough attention
Yes, i had already seen sk-interfaces. Exploding Borders in Art, Technology and Society at FACT in Liverpool but the Luxembourg version, i was told by friends, is bigger, bolder and even better than the first one. They were right. A couple of pieces have been added to the show. The performances are well documented and there is a corner to watch videos. The space itself is kinder to the artworks. There’s extra drama as the poor Victimless Leather garments had caught some disease and were slowly eaten by decay
A White Elephant is shedding its skin only to reveal an even older, uneven skin underneath
The current issue of this DVD magazine focuses Middle East, presenting nine artists’ perspectives from both inside and outside of the region. Not only focused on the political, religious, and cultural dissent, these works ruminate on language, food, ritual, media, power, fear, humor, and beauty
Sex Cinema Venus is the oldest sex cinema in the Red Light District of Amsterdam, which will soon disappear as a result of the city council’s regeneration plans. Using a slide show and several single photographs Van der Burg portrays the stories that take place behind the doors of this particular cinema
Whether they take the Skyscraper Index seriously or not, people agree that Architecture is conditioned by the economical climate. Architectural projects were the first casualties of the current financial crash, and architects, along with bankers, were the first who suffered collective layoffs. Rien ne va Plus, an exhibition taking place at Bureau Europa in Maastricht, delves into the economic crisis and its intricate relation with architecture
Xiong Wenyun’s “Moving Rainbow” series incorporates the colors of Tibetan prayer flags into landscape photography, and engages with environmental and social issues related to China’s development in its western provinces
The exhibition The Art of Fashion: Installing Allusions explores the intersection between fashion designers’ boldest experiments and the world of contemporary art. 25 international artists and fashion designers participate to this exhibition. 5 of them were commissioned new pieces that investigate the convergence of art and fashion
The exhibition at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam investigates the borders between fashion and art. Today’s fashion designers use installations and performances, and their designs are often more sculptural than wearable. Five of them have been commissioned to make new work specifically for the exhibition
Scorpio’s Garden at Berlin’s Temporäre Kunsthalle was a very beautiful show. All by Berlin-related artists and curated by Danish artist Kirstine Roepstorff, an explicitly subjective snapshot of a certain scene.
A short selection of the photo works i saw at Turin’s contemporary art fair earlier this month
Artissima never disappoints. It is decidedly the edgiest and most exciting contemporary art fair in the country. In fact, you’d almost think that people come here because they love art, not just because they want to buy, invest and speculate
I first thought Princen’s photograph was fake. How could this be real? Looking online for the location of the photo, Mokattam, i discovered the image is authentic. It’s a suburb of Cairo, called Garbage City. A community of mainly Coptic Christians were allowed to collect and dispose of Cairo’s waste by feeding it to their pigs
I can’t recommend the visit of Persona enough. First, there’s the museum, its colonial-era hauteur is so un-PC, it sometimes made me cringe but it needs to be experienced before the place is renovated to a modern, polite and friction-proof version of itself. The exhibition itself presents the most breathtaking collection of masks i’ve ever seen
Together, the projects featured in Feedforward create a complex picture of the global political and social forces that drive us forward. The exhibition features both the problematic aspects of the present and future, and the potential for collectivity and responsible action. At the nadir of the current global economic crisis, Feedforward is in effect about cleaning up after the 20th century and asks the question, what is progress now?
Part of Thomas Demand’s show Nationalgalerie, Haltestelle is a large-scale photograph of a paper model resembling a nondescript rural German bus shelter, which happens to be the place just outside of Magdeburg where a teen pop band were waiting for their school bus every morning.