Wednesday 31 October 2012

William Klein + Daido Mosiyama

An overwhelming jubilation of photos. Confronting and provocative street-photography. Together with Robert Frank, William Klein is one of the greatest American street photographers. We all have learn from them and want to be on their level when engaging contemporary society and questioning social habits. We (public in general, professionals and socially' wannabes) are all photographer' sons of William Klein, Daido Mosiyama and Robert Frank.

Man and God!!!

Man and God!!!
LONDON: One of these past evenings, while having dinner at the embassy, the topic on discussion with G. and M. was why so many writers go for any skirt that passes-by in front of them and have being jumping from one bed to another, from one woman to other, throughout their mature life. One of the questions debated was if we do Love women? The immediately answer that comes to mind would be: Yes/No! A second thought about it and it would be: Yes! But we love ourselves much more; part of our nature of being humans is to search for physical satisfaction and sexual pleasure. So they (women) are just a practical form, a body used in a physical necessity that we have to engage with through life, though! However, what I really would had said, but didn’t said, was that I’m just a man that is all alone in this world, which is looking for someone to be with (as she is), a being that wants to be with me in the same way (as I am), and, together, we can develop a life project in common. We, writers, being beings that expresses abstract ideas in concrete terms are more sensible to the lack of someone walking by our side than other human beings. Since, they, the others, tend to be more practical, more abstract than our way of being. What we do doesn’t mean but is, and it is only through its meaning. “We know now that a text is not a line of words realizing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend an clash.” (Barthes in ‘The Death of the Author’). We’re Man and God! At night, alone in bed, is when, this lack of ‘walking companion’ becomes more bodily overpowering; it makes us to be in a constant, perpetual pursuit of a way to fill our emptiness; to have a warm body embracing our words, thoughts – the practical side. A recent acquaintance reminded me of it when I had to stay and slept at her house, in her bed, intertwining our bodies’ warmness through the night while we recover from strenuous physical exertions with our eyes closed, muscles relaxed and consciousness practically suspended. These moments are when we feel Life! Rather than emptiness!

It is written that throughout my life I will have three women that will pervade intensely my emptiness. The Third, and last, I know who she will be, but not what she will be. The First has been over more than twenty years ago. She has been with me since my youth! More than lovers, we are friends that have gone together through different situations and experience in a particular time of our life, intertwining what we have learned with each other. It was the learning experience period! The Second, which will go from now all over until the end – which will give me the Third - I’ve think, I’m sure, already have met her. How I know? Because I knew who she was before she has had come- and passed-by. When she has gotten-by, I knew! I knew on the First as I know about the Third. It is my expression of an abstract idea in concrete forms. It is just their, project in space, until that human being - the Second - fills the space with her body and it fits like a dream, and then I say, without doubts, ‘You Are The One I Have Been Waiting For’!

There is always a threshold, an in-between from the First to the Second She has become an extremely good friend. In the same way, there will be another threshold in-between the Second and the Third, but it will be from a completely different kind. In the meantime, however, what will happen is that I will continue on to jump from one bed to another, writing rich, unusual and daring small textual exercises after another as a way on to gather pictures that will feel the blank canvas from which life is; fill the emptiness with some small taste of life and to compensate the lack of a embracing harm body that will make me create, later in life, major and more enriching pieces of texts. So, now, that was pass the in-between One and Two! In-between the First and the Second! Is time to be with the Second! But, be aware, ‘geographical distance’ can’t be a value in the proposition.

The idea is not to know her in her infinity, to know her deepest secrets and spending the rest of my life living up to them – for this, I can hire a hacker to get into the Lawyers Firm' dossier about her, go through her bank account, or, then, use the old way, go and ask her neighbors' – it is more, instead, day-to-day process of learning something new about each other; wanting to tell about a line in a book, a frame in a movie, a person or an expression in a conversation by a passer-by; it is about the small things, the everyday life moments that enrich Life. Because out little secret, is that there is not secret at all! Writing a text, painting a canvas, burning a film is an intense personal and private act that is extremely open and public. Its interpretation is what makes those pictures gathered during life unique, private and personal to each one. The way they talk to us – otherwise it would be always an empty medium. At the end the more images we have the wealthier we are.

Getting back into the topic of discussion, my answer was that they - the writers - do have so many women in their life because they don’t Love them!

Friday 26 October 2012

Interview : Francisca Benitez

O conjunto de entrevistas agora iniciado, para o programa Molduras - Antena 2, RTP, centra-se no campo da prática artística contemporânea neste período da globalização e nos dilemas do paradigma actual. Esta série de entrevistas consiste numa única questão, colocada a artistas contemporâneos, nacionais e internacionais, sobre como estes testam as condições políticas, em particular as estruturas económicas. Ou seja, de que forma é que a prática artística corrente informa sobre os processos de globalização, e durante o processo transforma e faz visível as condições políticas da sociedade contemporânea.

RGC: de que forma é que na tua prática controlas e informas sobre ‘Geografias’ e ‘Limites’?

FB:

On 24 October 2012 07:36, fran benitez <--------.-------@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Rui,
I am well, thank you. Back to NYC with all that it entails.
I thought a lot about your question and attempted to write an answer but I think this video is a much better answer than anything I wrote.
warm regards
f.

Q.: In which way do you think 'geographies' and 'boundaries' are controlled and inform in your work?
A.:


450 W 42 (2006) from Francisca Benitez on Vimeo.

Francisca Benitez (1974, Santiago, Chile. Vive e trabalha em Nova Iorque desde 1988. Exposições Individuais: 2011, “ORO DULCE” Die Ecke (Santiago, Chile); 2009 “EIGENTUMSGRENZE”, Nada Lokal (Viena, Austria), “Chamber”, Lokal Int, (Biel-Bienne, Suiça); 2008, “450 W 42”, Jersey City Museum (New Jersey, EUA); “Prétesis del Nuevo Exodo”, Die Ecke (Santiago, Chile); 2006, “The making of Golden Warriors”, Medianoche (New York, EUA). Exposições colectivas (selecção): 2012, “To the Stars on the Wings of an Eel”, Gowanus Ballroom (Brooklyn, New York, EUA), “Retorna”, Centro Cultural de España (Santiago, Chile), “Brucennial 2012”, The Bruce High Quality Foundation (New York, EUA); 2011, “L’œil sur les rues”, Parc de la Villette, (Paris, France), “The Street Files”, El Museo del Barrio (New York, EUA), “30: A Brooklyn Salon”, BRIC Rotunda Gallery (Brooklyn, New York, EUA), “Réplica2”, Azerty (Paris, France).

Wednesday 17 October 2012

The challenge

The world's most valuable resource is human talent. No country growths enough of it. However, we're loosing it to other countries. For every generation lost, it would take more than three decades just to recover back to the starting point. This time the generation is highly qualified, professional, competent, serious and knowledgeable. So the impact would be even negatively stronger since their will be no legacy left to future generations. School books will stay the same for years to come. The transmission of knowledge and know-how will get older and up-dated; stuck in a dusty basement of an empty building. Those countries receiving this valuable wealth enjoy from the colossal achievements brought by us: we come; we study; we work; we are entrepreneurs setting up business; we create jobs; we bring wealth and give it all back in to this new society.

Witness II: Krakow


Howson

Witness II: Krakow
Exhibition by Gerald Howson and Bogdan Frymorgen

exhibition is online October 20, 2012

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Nocturne dalliance

Nocturne Dalliance
LONDON: After slightly over two weeks of special and intense streams of feelings, activities, networking and working, spending, drinking and eating, meeting friends, and some that are not, late night parties and dinners, visiting art fairs and seeing exhibitions, publishing texts, a writing performance, and opening a curated photo exhibition online, life returned to what it use to be - debt and credit movements.

When we take time to observe it seemed that I had gone through, done and achieve more in twenty days, while living in London, than in two years, when living in Never Ever Land. Which is obvious! London is at the centre. NEL is peripheral. A return of parallel moments reflecting, bearing similar resemblance to situations and experiences which I had gone through in the last ten, twenty years; on others occasion it seemed to reflect the last four, five years (even if, virtually, it is always exhilarating to find someone, which we don't see for ages, running through the streets of the lost city of Aleppo, in Syria, with a naughty smile, as someone that has just behaved badly, while behind him, someone is shooting things). But, while in the time of observation, life made me realize, that the outcome scape of the time of conception is different.

- So, you're left quite early from the improvised dance floor last night! S. Lucas was doing a crazy dancing on top of a table until the bouncer came and finish all our pleasure.
- ...
- Call you in two weeks time. Do you have an address where I can send something?
- Yes, ... ; is it a postcard?
- You will see when you see it!

When, before, it was almost everything downstream; now, it is almost all upstream. T. M. J. T. A. C. they all fill unique moments of time - Thank You All! While I'm expecting to embody my role, to be just another actor in this great baroque performance.

At the end of this period of slightly over two weeks, it was Bruno's birthday. I went for a pint at The Approach. However, it was then changed the Hemingway. I finish the brief London dalliances with an intensively warm and profound emotional photographer. Knowing that the stage was set for another play. Their are two things that would be always part of my life: photography and performance! images and culture! human sound and silence!

Monday 15 October 2012

Exhibition Text : Silence and black & white images


Silence and black & white images

Silence is the last thing one would associate with human civilization. It is more easy to link it to nature's expression of her immensity. For this reason one of the first things I've look for in a picture is to see if it talks; I want to put a colour in someone's voice. See if it talks directly to me, so I can understand what is going on and create my own narrative about the story it wants to tell. For Cartier-Bresson it was a 1930s' picture, by Martin Munckácsi (1896-1963), with four boys (c. 1930) running towards Lake Tanganyinka; we can hear the waves crashing down on them. Thus, the first thing I look for in Bogdan Frymorgen' pictures was his voice, I wanted to find Krakow's soundscape. Instead, the only thing I've got was silence. As Frymorgen's wrote about his images that he “filtered out the crowds of tourists and focused on the metaphorical emptiness of the place.” Black and white images that tell a silence story about Krakow in general, and, in particular, from the Jewish Ghetto on the now gentrified Kazimier district.


We are submerged by a vastitude of silence. The same boundless absence of sound that for many decades has characterised any news coming from the other side of the wall. Which, from an Eurocentric (Western) perspective, had prohibit, prevented people from speaking, from having a voice, from being heard – as Hannah Arendt puts it, people must be able to speak to develop a social conscience. The efforts to retain control over peoples destinies in life's melting pot of political affairs in Easter Europe, in post-World War II, seems to bear resemblances to those efforts made a decade before, by Nazi Germany towards the Jewish people. To silence them and undress them from a voice which could question public political decision affecting the social milieux.

In opposition to colour, black & white picture have become to symbolise these people own search, their own feeling of being swept along by powers beyond themselves. With Gerald Howson's photos, although those are black & white images, it is the colour of his voice one hears. When we go through them, we see kids playing and laughing in a derelict field, people shouting out loud what they are selling in the market, and, even, the view from the city centre, taken from above, is full of urban noise of the times immediately after World War II.

Within the western society we are told and taught about the rule of two thirds when conceiving or reading an image; we are told and made aware on the presence of the photographer in the scene, and about all the implications that his or her presence, his or her decision to frame and take a photograph have and implies; we also learn to read from left to right up down the text.

What this milieux doesn't teach us is the contingency on other ways of seeing – beyond what John Berger defends in his book – and in how to read them. What I'm meaning is on what the geocultural influences' determine. For this we have to undress ourselves from all the acquired social cultural capital. And have the strength enough to be open to acquire a new one, while giving to the other permission to attack and plunder what was previously taken for granted and accepted as the ruling principle.

The way an image is read in the Western world is dominated by Alberti's window of optical projection. The one-eye perspective is only one way of seeing, and one that separated us from the rest of the world. Specially, when the world relationships are becoming increasingly borderless, we are confronted, on an everyday base, with images with a moving focus, so they can be read by distinctive people, from distinctive parts of the whole, but, still, keeping the same intention while appealing to different set of geocultural rules.

“By accepting the camera image as real we become oblivious to its limitation. […] I have a reproduction of a Chinese landscape scroll originally painted in 1347. Only details can be reproduced in books as the page turns over on itself and a scroll does not – it unravels. It is not Alberti's window. You are not outside the scene; instead, you take a stroll through a landscape with which you are quite connected. You have many different viewpoints (not just one), as we do if we move through the world.”i

The same basic framework should be applied when reading images “coming”, for instance, from the Middle East, Africa or, even, from Eastern Europe.

“The scroll I have begins with the view looking down on a small village by a lake […]. You then move down to the water's edge, and can look across the lake to the mountains beyond. […] one realised that if there was a vanishing point anywhere it would mean you had stopped moving – that you are not there.”ii

Without realising Frymorgen's photos play around with us and with this way of seeing. If, for example, in the image with the bridge over the Vistula river, where, on the same side of the river, we stand together with Bogdan Frymorgen, our eye would rest on the lower right-hand corner where a man walking while smoking his cigarette; whereas, in the image where a woman follows what could be an organised procession of repetitious figures drawn in to the wall, our eyes would, instead, rest on the lower-left-hand corner, in the black sorrowed female figure. The vision lay to rest in different positions in these two different images. What he states, in his pictures, is that the focus of attention is constantly moving. What constitutes the challenge is not the confrontation of opposites but the mutual antagonisms brought of by those same opposites – Gerald v. Bogdan; West v. East; Post-World War II v. Post-Berlin Wall; Physical v. Virtual; Colour v. Black & White; Colour v. Silence, etc. – and the active and vigorous manner in which they invade one another.

The selected images for this exhibition are first of all a duel of arguments, an affair between two backgrounds; two different ideas about life; two walks-of-life with different interpretations about the same picture, which is then followed by the creation of different stories. Each side emerges from the conflict marked as if by a wound or a depredation. This is one of the reasons why this exhibition, with Bogdan's body of work becomes so challenging. In particular, when coming into a place where the dialogue between his images and those made, almost half-a-century before, by Gerald Howson, come to be involved one with the other. Since both talk to us in different ways about the same territorial story.


© Rui G. Cepeda
London, September 2012

i. Hockney, David (2006) Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the lost techniques of the Old Masters. New and Expanded Edition. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 230.
ii. Ibid.

Published at VASA-Project: Witness Exhibitions: Witness 2: Photographs: Krakow: Gerald Howson and Bogdan Frymorgen.

Friday 12 October 2012

Monday 8 October 2012

Bjarne Melgaard: A House to Die In

Who said that Paris is the romantic city?! have never had a look at the other side of the channel. Way through the night you feel that you're one lucky kunst.

Friday 5 October 2012

A London

俺たちの愛情で世界中を燃えあがらせてやるぜ。やりまくるぞ。at Angus Hughes gallery (T)

Thursday 4 October 2012

A London

Embodied an disembodied in a pub down South London (T)

Bat for Lashes - Laura 2012

 Saw 'Laura' live some time ago...
"...
You'll be famous for longer than them
Your name is tattooed on every boy's skin
Ooh Laura, you're more than a superstar

You're the train that crashed my heart
You're the glitter in the dark
Ooh Laura, ..."

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Paris Photo


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October, 3rd 2012

For its 16th edition, Paris Photo welcomes beneath the nave of the Grand Palais, 151 exhibitors (128 galleries and 23 publishers) coming from 22 countries.
Come discover an outstanding panorama of photographs from the 19th century till today.

BUY YOUR ENTRANCE TICKET ONLINE !

PARIS PHOTO SEEN BY DAVID LYNCH

In 2012, Paris Photo proposes to "visit" the Fair accompanied by an exceptional personality.
In the form of an original journey through the heart of the galleries and with a book published by Editions Steidl, we leave it to David Lynch to share with us his favorites.

FOCUS



THE
EXHIBITIONS

Paris Photo presents the recent photographic acquisitions of three international institutions (LACMA, Huis Marseille and Fotomuseum Winterthur) with RECENT ACQUISITIONS, as well as "Collected Shadows", a selection of works from the « Archives of Modern Conflict » in PRIVATE COLLECTION.



PARIS PHOTO
PLATFORM

Proposes 4 days of live events directed by Roxana Marcoci, curator of the Photography department at the MoMA ofNew York, with the special contribution of Paul Holdengräber, director of « LIVE from the New York Public Library »,
Participants feature an international roster of leading artists, architects, filmmakers, cultural historians, and theorists in the field exchanging ideas on the relational contexts in which photography operates today.



A TRIBUTE TO
THE PHOTOBOOK

- A space dedicated to publishers and booksellers
- The OPEN BOOK exhibition around the project « Bernd & Hilla Becher – Imprimés 1964-2012 »*
- The announcement of the 30 shortlisted books for the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards

DISCOVER ALSO THE ASSOCIATED EXHIBITIONS

ACQUA #2 of Giorgio Armani around his favorite theme, water, Spectacular Vernacular, a selection from the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection and "Ici, par-delà les brumes", an exhibition by Alexandra Catiere produced by BMW Art et Culture

VISITOR INFORMATIONS:

ADRESS
Grand Palais
Avenue Winston-Churchill, 75008 Paris

ACCESS
Metro : lines 1, 9, 13 / Stations : Franklin-D.-Roosevelt, Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau
RER : lines C / Stations : Invalides
Bus : lines 28, 42, 52, 72, 73, 80, 83, 93

OPENING HOURS
Thurs. 15 nov from 12.00 till 8.00 pm
Friday 16 nov from 12.00 to 9.30 pm
Sat. 17 novembre from 12.00 to 8.00 pm
Sun. 18 nov from 12.00 to 7.00 pm

FARES
Entrance fees : 28 € / 14 € for students
Catalog : 25 €
Entrance + catalog package : 45 €

DON'T MISS IN OUR NEXT NEWSLETTER:

• The Platform program

• The signing program

• In Paris during Paris Photo
• The SFR Jeunes Talents – Paris Photo laureates
* The « Open Book » exhibition is supported by DLA Piper

Giorgio Armani et J.P.Morgan, Official Partners.


Copyrights, from left or right:
(1) Catherine Opie (1961) Self Portrait / Cutting, 1993 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Audrey and Sidney Irmas Collection
(2) Marc Domage
(3) Bernd Becher (1931-2007) & Hilla Becher (1934) Kunst Zeintung N°2 Anonyme Skulpturen
Verlag Michelpresse Düsseldorf, Allemagne. Janvier 1969 © Marc Domage

A London