Wednesday 29 February 2012

Algirdas Šešku: Lyrics of Love

For over 30 years, while officially working as a camera man on a Soviet TV and radio channel, Algirdas Šeškus, cultivated photography without any specific trend or direction: without proper topics, objects of artistic research, and conceptual projects, choosing the aesthetics of “amateurism” instead. This strategy enabled Šeškus to balance between the underground and official Soviet art scene, between collectivism and individualism. His work has influenced many photographers from the former Soviet Union, including Boris Mikhailov, Alfonsas Budvytis, Vytautas Balcytis, Remigijus Pacesa and Gintaras Zinkevicius. In 2010 he was the subject of a major retrospective at The National Art Gallery of Lithuania.

Lithuanian art critic Lev Anninsky describes Šeškus as rebel against “romantic photography”. He describes himself as a “provincial with a camera”, a man from the sticks, who has come to a sea-side resort or a big city. His photographs are indistinct, blurred, void of any order, messy compositions; toneless, soft, reduced images, and unexciting, nonessential content. Šeškus does not title his photographs or indicate where and when they were taken. He proclaims that photography has to be taken back to its origins: to the moment of fixing “when the very act of photography becomes an object of art.”

In recent years he has published three volumes of his, almost unknown, photographic archives from 1970s: Green Bridge, 2009, Archive (Pohulianka), 2010. His latest book “Lyrics of Love” is a profound statement against today’s indifference and alienation. It’s content primarily emotional, the images are light, intimate and warm, seemingly from a country that no longer exists.

For more information: White Space Gallery

Tuesday 21 February 2012

SALON de la PHOTO


8-12 November 2012
Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles, Paris

SALON de la PHOTO returns to Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles, Paris from 8 to 12 November 2012. 5 days to find out about the latest products from the world's leading brands, to talk to fellow photography enthusiasts, and to buy exciting new equipment.

In 2011, 71.805 visitors flocked to the event, once again showing the growing public interest in photography. The SALON DE LA PHOTO is for both professionals and the general public; it's THE annual photography event where over 100 exhibitors, manufacturers, and importers are there to welcome you and show off their new products and services, from image capture to processing, printing and sharing. Video now also forms part of the constantly growing and increasingly popular world of photography.

Thursday 9 February 2012

WKN (HollwichKushner) Selected as winner of the 2012 Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1 in New York

WKN (HollwichKushner) Selected as winner of the 2012 Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1 in New York

HWKN'S Wendy to Provide the Setting for the Warm Up Summer Music Series in the Courtyard of MoMA PS1

NEW YORK, February 8, 2012—The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 announce HWKN (Matthias Hollwich and Marc Kushner, New York) as the winner of the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) in New York. Now in its 13th edition, the Young Architects Program at MoMA and MoMA PS1 has been committed to offering emerging architectural talent the opportunity to design and present innovative projects, challenging each year's winners to develop creative designs for a temporary, outdoor installation at MoMA PS1 that provides shade, seating, and water. The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling. HWKN, drawn from among five finalists, will design a temporary urban landscape for the 2012 Warm Up summer music series in MoMA PS1's outdoor courtyard.

The winning project, Wendy, opening at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City in late June, is an experiment that tests how far the boundaries of architecture can expand to create ecological and social effect. Wendy is composed of nylon fabric treated with a ground breaking titania nanoparticle spray to neutralize airborne pollutants. During the summer of 2012, Wendy will clean the air to an equivalent of taking 260 cars off the road (...)

Photo: Rendering of HWKN’s Wendy, winning design of Young Architect’s Program 2012. Image courtesy of HWKN.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Cristina Lucas: Delinquere

"La exposición que presenta Cristina Lucas lleva por título Delinquere que significa abandonar, apartarse del buen camino, alejarse del sendero señalado por la ley.

Tiene como eje principal el vídeo titulado HACIA LO SALVAJE (16’) 2011. En él, una joven decide de motu propio someterse a un proceso legal cuyo fin es la desintegración de los vínculos sociales.

El mundo ilustrado que hemos construido desde occidente parece tener como característica la imposibilidad de evitar sus normas. El individuo/ciudadano queda sujeto a un comportamiento político del que resulta imposible escapar. Sin embargo esta valiente joven desafía al sistema a través de sus propios mecanismos. Lo que un día fue un castigo común para faltas menores, en toda Europa y sus colonias, sirve ahora como válvula de escape, una clave de retorno, el proceso institucional hacia lo salvaje.

Este castigo se aplica desde la Edad Media hasta incluso nuestros días. En España era exclusivo para las mujeres y consistía en cortar su cabello, cubrir su cuerpo con alquitrán, llenarlo de plumas, pasear al reo por las calles y por fin desterrarlo abandonándola extramuros de la sociedad. Aquí se conoce como “Emplumar”, en inglés es “Tarring and Feathering “, en francés “Goudron et des plumes”. En “Vigilar y castigar” Foucault lo categoriza como suplicio, que es la manera de purgar el alma infringiendo dolor al cuerpo como fórmula de redención.

El animal en el que acaba convertida la joven se encuentra finalmente libre de “la civilización”, se inserta en la Naturaleza, se relaciona con ella y, como si se tratase de un personaje de Friederich, contempla su nuevo hábitat.

Radicalmente opuestos son los personajes desnudos que se contemplan de una manera ultracultural a través de la pintura clásica occidental, expuesta en grandes museos. El conflicto surge aquí de la ausencia de permiso para realizar un gesto “natural”, como es desprenderse de las ropas en un intento de comunicación no verbal. Los mecanismos que tiene la institución ante esta performance es parte del contrasentido cultural. Existe un vacío legal ante la presencia de un cuerpo desnudo real frente a otro esculpido o pintado. Lo real se convierte en insoportable y solamente es tolerado a través del Proceso del Arte.

El documento de la performance concilia de nuevo este conflicto en la serie DESNUDOS EN EL MUSEO, 140 x 180 cm, que de momento cuenta con cinco intervenciones. Estas se han realizado en: La Walker Art Gallery de Liverpool, El Louvre, El Prado, El Kröller-Müller de Holanda y El Museo Nacional de arte Antiga de Lisboa.

El resto de las series hacen referencia al conflicto entre el cuerpo natural y el cuerpo social, como así se muestra en la serie PEINADOS… el cabello como la expresión de lo salvaje y lo primigenio es transfigurado para la representación de roles sobre el sexo el poder o la rebeldía.

En la serie MONTAÑAS. Se observan estas transformaciones radicales de los iconos románticos. La naturaleza vista por la economía. Disciplina triunfante de las ciencias ilustradas domina el paisaje del planeta. Capitalizando y sistematizando sus elementos. Creando paisajes artificiales ya no es posible huir a las montañas sino convertirlas en stocks. Ya no se mueven en eras geológicas sino que suben o bajan * migran o se erosionan debido a los valores de mercado y las bolsas.

En el Homoceno la transformación de lo natural en artificial y sus categorías es una cuestión osmótica y quizás el arte sean el único vehículo para vivir en sus contradicciones.

Delinquere... el abandono de los buenos caminos como rutina existencial * se convierte en la manera ortodoxa de proceder."

La exposicion de Cristina Lucas, Delinquere esta presente en la Galeria Juana de Aizpuru de 8 de Febrero a 24 de Marzo 2012

Saturday 4 February 2012

newsfromlondon201202

12h10 > 12h52 "Paintings Made By a Fire Breather"
(...)
13h54 > 14h21 "Public Transported Between 2 Locations of Guatemala City"
14h21 > 14h26 "The Trap"
14h26 > 14h47 "245M Cubed"

Friday 3 February 2012

Art Paris Art Fair 2012

A new start for Art Paris Art Fair, the springtime fair for modern and contemporary art in Paris. Held from 29th March to 1st April 2012, ART PARIS ART FAIR is the springtime event for modern and contemporary art in France that brings together 120 galleries from 15 countries under the majestic glass roof of the Grand Palais.

Under a new leadership, the fair has been renamed ART PARIS ART FAIR and has undergone a complete transformation. This year sees 56% of newcomers to the fair, with some 40% of participating galleries from abroad. Also new is a VIP programme of visits entitled “Springtime in Paris,” a series of talks, a new section dedicated to cutting edge contemporary design called “Limited Edition.” Another novelty is “Large Format”, a project presenting close to a dozen monumental works within the fair
itself.

Fresh ambitions
A high quality European fair with a focus on the international art scene

As an event aimed at the general public, Art Paris Art Fair is working to promote what is a wide variety of arts scenes from around Europe - from Marseille to Helsinki and from Lisbon to Vienna. The objective is to discover and highlight some of the more singular local scenes such as that of Hungary which is exceptionally well represented this year with seven modern and contemporary galleries.

Particular attention is also paid to the present trend which sees contemporary artists questioning the heritage of European modernism and reassessing recent historical movements. Art Paris Art Fair also gives pride of place to modern work: a surrealist cabinet at Levy Gallery (Berlin), Viennese actionism at Konzett (Vienna) and Zimmerman Kratochwill (Graz). Also on show are examples of cinetism and research into optical phenomena at Lélia Mordoch (Paris) and Meyer Zafra as well as geometrical abstraction at Anne Lahumière (Paris) and Müller and Gimpel (Paris/London). Amateurs of lyrical abstraction will find much to see at the French galleries Berthet Aittouarès (Paris) and Jacques Elbaz (Paris).

Contemporary work also has its place, in particular with a number of leading galleries that are taking part in Art Paris Art Fair for the first time, notably Filles du Calvaire (Paris), Laurent Godin (Paris), Jérôme Poggi (Paris), l’Espace Beaumont (Luxemburg) which is unveiling a monumental work entitled « Europe » from the Atelier Van Lieshout, Germany’s Bourouina, Stefan Roepke and Anna Klinkammer. Photography is well represented with the arrivalof Priska Pasquer (Cologne) who is specialized in Japanese photography but is also showing paintings by Peter Halley and Philip Taff. Other photography specialists include Magnum (Paris), Michèle Chomette (Paris), Flatland (Utrecht) and Confluence (Nantes).

Art Paris Art Fair 2012 also provides an unprecedented platform for galleries to showcase trends on the international art scene with a particular focus on Asia with two Chinese and four Korean galleries. These come in addition to Europeans specialized in Asian and particularly Chinese art such as Paris-Beijing (Paris) or Kashya Hildebrand (Zürich). The Middle Eastern scene is showcased by Paris galleries Imane Farès (who brings a solo exhibition by Iraqi artist Halim Al Karim), Patrice Trigano and Albert Banamou, as well as Beirut’s Alice Mogabgab. For Latin America, Inception Gallery et Vanessa Quang will show artists such as Argentina’s Marina de Caro who attracted considerable attention at the last Biennale de Lyon and is the subject of a solo exhibition by Quang.