Thursday 29 August 2013

V22 Young London 2013

«PRESS RELEASE: Young London 2013 is the third in V22’s series of annual exhibitions which present a snapshot of emerging cultural and artistic attitudes and trends in London as perceived by a new generation of young artists.

Mark Barker | Katia Barrett | Lucy Beech | Nicholas Brooks | Susan Conte | Rhys Coren | Natalie Dray | Raphael Hefti | Paul Kneale | Sophie Lee | Hannah Lees | Nicole Morris | Beatriz Olabarrieta | Florence Peake | Ben Sansbury | Richard Sides | Marianne Spurr | Alice Theobald | Holly White | Jesse Wine

Young London 2013 presents both new and recent works, with many commissions and site-specific works produced especially for this exhibition, and offers an eclectic and detailed exploration of the imperatives and artistic practices that resonate today.

The third instalment in the Young London series, Young London 2013 continues V22’s plan for an annual selection of London’s most talented and exciting emerging artists. In iterating this survey each year, Young London provides an opportunity to observe a range of trends set by a new generation of artists that go on to influence and shape the future of contemporary art in London, nationally and internationally. In this way, Young London makes a vital contribution not only to the promulgation of London’s fine art zeitgeist, but also to its assessment and critique.

Young London provides a unique platform for emerging artists to show their work alongside a wide group of their contemporaries in a large-scale exhibition. Previous Young London artists have gone on to produce exciting new commissions and presentations, have been offered representation by leading contemporary galleries, and many have become part of the V22 Collection.

The V22 Collection is collectively owned by artists and investor-patrons, and is listed on the stock market as an innovative and exciting way for many people to share a growing collection of contemporary art. This structure aims to enable artists to retain a stake in the future of their artworks and have more direct input into the wider art ecology.

A multi-disciplinary show, Young London 2013 includes performance, video, film, vlogs, sculpture, installation and painting and takes place in V22’s impressive 50,000 sq ft exhibition space in Bermondsey. The exhibition also presents Young London Friday Lates, a series of weekly events taking place after-hours, providing artists with a more intimate environment in which to present further aspects of their work and for visitors and artists to exchange ideas.

This year V22 is providing a new opportunity for an artist-in-residence at neighbouring Coleman Projects in Bermondsey. An off-site Young London project, this residency begins in August and provides a longer period and a more contained space to build a site- specific installation or project.

Young London artists were selected from nominations received through V22’s existing network, including artists from the collection, industry professionals, academics, young curators, and the Young London alumni. We would like to thank curators David Thorp and Paul Pieroni, and artist Rebecca Warren for assisting V22 in the final selection of artists.»

Thursday 22 August 2013

Leaves Fall in All Seasons

It all started in southern Spain, in Andalucia, with Flamenco; it all started with cante, toque, baile and palmas moving forward into what it is now! A new shopping mall around a big black box in the centre of a round square.
«Cinema on the Steps: Curated by Ahmed Mater
The final night of Cinema on the Steps features artist Ahmed Mater's Leaves Fall in All Seasons, a talk with Abdullah AlTurki about his work, and a screening of the newly restored classic of Egyptian cinema The Mummy/The Night of Counting the Years (Al Momia).

Programme
Leaves Fall in All Seasons, Ahmed Mater, 2013, 20 mins
This film is made up of mobile phone footage shot by immigrant workers on building sites in and around Makkah between 2008 and 2013. Most of the footage was shot for the benefit of the workers’ families. The files were transferred to the artist’s phone using Bluetooth while other material was originally uploaded to YouTube. Some contributors have asked to remain anonymous.

The Mummy/The Night of Counting the Years (Al Momia), Shadi Abdel Salam, 1969, 103 mins
Considered one of the greatest Egyptian films of all time, Al Momia/ The Night of Counting the Years was recently restored by filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation. Set in 1881, and based on a true story, the film follows two brothers from an Egyptian clan, and their involvement in the looting of a recently discovered tomb, subsequently selling the artefacts on the black market. When one of the clan reports the looting to the Antique Services, underlying themes of Egyptian identity and lost heritage are brought to the fore. Unique for its stylised edits and unusual camera angles, this newly restored print captures the unique archaeological locations and artefacts, all set to an original score composed by Italian musician Mario Nascimbene.

'The carefully measured pace, the almost ceremonial movement of the camera, the desolate settings, the classical Arabic spoken on the soundtrack, the unsettling score by the great Italian composer Mario Nascimbene – they all work in perfect harmony and contribute to the feeling of fateful inevitability. I am very excited that Shadi Abdel Salam’s masterpiece has been restored to its original splendor'. - Martin Scorsese

Curator
Ahmed Mater co-founded the non-profit organization Edge of Arabia. Since then his work has attracted an international audience and has been collected by, among others, the British Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Mori Museum of Art in Tokyo. His art practice, encompassing photography, painting, installation, performance and video, explores the narratives and the invention of radical concepts of urban space in Islamic culture in a transformative era of globalisation and consumerism. It is informed by his daily life as a medical doctor in Abha and his Islamic traditional upbringing framing the issues of contemporary landscape with equal measures of documentation and metaphor. His most recent work combines video, photography and online social activism to present an unofficial and subjective commentary on some of the most contested and poignant transformations taking place in Saudi Arabia today. Mater currently lives and works between Abha, Jeddah and Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Presented in association with Qatar Museums Authority. Part of Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture.»

Wednesday 21 August 2013

The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni

«Cinema on the Steps: Curated by Alia Al-Senussi and Abdullah AlTurki
The second night of Cinema on the Steps screens Manal Al Dowayan's silent mix of belly dancing The Legends, three short films by Ziad Antar, and the main feature, Rania Stephan's The Three Disappearences of Soad Hosni.

Programme
The Legends, Manal Al Dowayan, 2013, 60 min
Tokyo Tonight, Ziad Antar, 2003, 2 min 44 sec
Tambouro, Ziad Antar, 2004, 2 min 25 sec
Safe Sounds, Ziad Antar, 2006, 9 min 10 sec
The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni, Rania Stephan, 2011, 70 min

The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni is an elegy to a rich era of film production in Egypt through the work of revered star, Soad Hosni, who from the early 1960s into the 90s, embodied the modern Arab woman in her complexity and paradoxes. Born in Cairo in 1943, Hosni committed suicide in London in 2001. Between the ages of 19 to 49, she acted in eighty-two films with thirty-seven directors. Pieced together exclusively from VHS footage taken from her films, The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni is a classical tragedy in three acts, with the actress describing her dream life in first person.

Curators
Alia Al-Senussi currently holds a number of different posts including VIP Relations Manager Middle East for Art Basel worldwide and Executive for Generation Three Family Partners (London, UK) October 2010 to present; and is a contributing editor for Tank Magazine and Harper's Bazaar Art China. Al-Senussi is the Chairman of the Tate Young Patrons and involved as a patron in a multitude of international non-profit organizations.

Abdullah AlTurki is a leading figure in Saudi Arabia’s contemporary art scene. He is passionate about contemporary art from the region and is a member of Tate’s Middle East North African Acquisition committee. Abdullah AlTurki has a degree in Finance and a Masters in Management from Cass business school and worked in banking before making a shift to supporting and developing contemporary arts in his home country.

Presented in association with Qatar Museums Authority. Part of Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture.»

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Babylon! a displacement

Expected to have a satisfactory out-door cinema night. Surfing through visual images, reflecting on the displacement caused during the Arab Spring. For two hours ate raw food; not cooked! No story, no narrative, no visuals, no involvement or development, no coding, decodying or re-codying, no message, no information, no communication. Two hours of raw moving images gathered together with gaffa tape. Really! quite diluted with what I saw!
The first night of Cinema on the Steps, curated by Abdellah Karroum, features filmmakers Ala Eddine Slim, Ismaël and Youssef Chebbi’s Babylon.

Programme:
Babylon, dir. Ala Eddine Slim, Ismaël and Youssef Chebbi, Tunisia 2012, 121 min
Filmed on the main border crossing between Tunisia and Libya, filmmakers Ala Eddine Slim, Ismaël and Youssef Chebbi’s video essay Babylon (2012) captures the displacement caused during the Arab Spring, as a modern day Babylon is constructed to house the thousands seeking refuge in Tunisia from neighbouring countries. Babylon’s observational style records the temporary camp’s construction, alongside intimate encounters with its diverse population including Africans and Bangladeshis as tensions rise in the uncompromising environment, mediated by humanitarian aid workers and media agencies.

Curator:
Abdellah Karroum is Director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha. The founder of L’appartement 22, Morocco’s first experimental art space, he has also worked on a range of international art events, including the DAK’ART Biennale of African Contemporary Art (2006), Venice Biennale (2007), Gwangju Biennale (2008) and the Arts in Marrakech International Biennale (2009). In 2012 Karroum was Associate Curator for La Triennale at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and Artistic Director of the Biennale Regard Benin 2012. He is also Associate Curator at La Kunsthalle de Mulhouse, France, for the year 2013.

Presented in association with Qatar Museums Authority. Part of Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture.»

Sunday 18 August 2013

Chocolate soufflés’s

Only two tasty Chocolate soufflés’s left from yesterday experiment! Having one for lunch; keeping the other for dinner. Next weekend, more…

Ingredients

* 200g dark chocolate, chopped
* 150g butter, cut into cubes plus extra for the ramekins
* 6 eggs
* 175g sugar
* 125g plain flour

Preparation method

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter 6 medium ramekins. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl over simmering water or in a microwave. Beat the eggs with the sugar until they are very light and fluffy and then fold in the flour. Fold in the chocolate mixture.
2. Divide between the ramekins (put in the fridge at this point if you’re making ahead). Bake for 8-12 minutes, the soufflés should rise and form a firm crust but you want then still to be slightly runny in the middle. Serve with cream.

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Sunday 4 August 2013

A London


A London

«A free community street festival led by the local community. Brixton Splash is aimed at celebrating the area’s diversity, its progress through the years and the fusion of the numerous ethnic groups that now call Brixton home. It is a celebration of peaceful relations, vibrant living in Brixton and Brixton’s contribution to the wider London culture.»[...]

The Photographers' Gallery

The Wall: #citizencurators: An archive of London2012
Mass Observation: This Is Your Photo
Mark Neville - Deeds Not Words
The Photographers' Gallery
Mass Observation: This is Your Photo offers an examination of the role of photography in the Mass Observation Archive. Mass Observation (MO) was founded in 1937 as a radical experiment in social science, art and documentary. Its founders aimed to create a new kind of realism in response to the economic and political conditions leading up to World War II, aiming to create an ‘anthropology of ourselves’ through artistic means and by collecting anecdotal evidence from people’s everyday lives and experiences. The Archive, currently held at the University of Sussex, consists of extensive written accounts of daily life, ephemera and photographs, while other works now form part of national museum collections. [...]
How does social media transform the way we record, share and ultimately remember major events?

#citizencurators is a Twitter project which documents the way Londoners responded to the Olympics of 2012. It aims to show how the contemporary history of London2012 could be recorded by the people who experienced it without the filtering of an institution.

In the project, any citizen of London could become a curator using social networking and tweet their responses in words or images with the hashtag #citizencurators. These were then collected and archived by the Museum of London.

Through this method, the project extended the idea of community participation espoused by Mass Observation and extended it into the realm of crowd sourcing and citizen journalism. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the Games, The Photographers' Gallery presents and reanimates the many photographs and tweets created by #citizencurators.
Deeds Not Words is an experimental documentary and an urgent intervention. For 18 months Mark Neville photographed the town of Corby in Northamptonshire: its people, its culture and the effects of environmental pollution that led to several babies being born with serious birth defects.

Neville followed The Corby 16 as they fought, successfully, to indict the local council for negligent disposal of waste from the town’s steel mills, which had closed in the 1980s. In 2011 Neville produced a book comprised of his photographs, scientific findings and a summary of the case. This was not for sale, but was sent to each of the 433 local authorities in the UK and to environmental agencies internationally, to raise awareness of issues around the handling of toxic waste and the reuse of contaminated land. [...]