Christmas

Christmas 2014

... is the time for special things to happen!

Pipa’s waiting for Santa while the turkey is in preparation!

To many choices to eat in front of the fireplace!

Azeitona’ well deserved rest on Christmas Day!

Pipilotti Rist: Worry Will Vanish

Pipilotti Rist
Worry Will Vanish
Hauser & Wirth

"Christmas is the time for special things to happen!"

In «‘Worry Will Vanish’, Rist has transformed the gallery into a fully immersive, sensory environment. Projected against two walls, ‘Worry Will Vanish Horizon’ (2014) is a journey inside the human body, based on a three-dimensional animation. Rist delights in patterns created by manipulating creases of skin, caressing, pushing and pulling to depict the varied textures of human flesh. These corporeal images periodically overlap with close-up fragments from nature as Rist blurs the boundaries between the self and organic structures. She explores the relationship between internal and external, how individuals are linked to the tissues and blood vessels of other organisms, and in so doing, she suggests relationships with the universe at large.» [... MORE ...]

«Pipilotti Rist was born in Grabs in the Swiss Rhine Valley in 1962. Since emerging on the international art scene in the mid-1980s and 1990s with famous single channel videos such as ‘I’m Not The Girl Who Misses Much’ (1986) and ‘Pickelporno’ (1992), Rist has had numerous solo and group exhibitions and is one of the most celebrated video artists working today. In 2009 Rist was awarded the Joan Miró Prize for her wide-ranging creative activity and her outstanding contribution to the current artistic scene by Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain. For her first feature film, ‘Pepperminta’ (2009), in 2009 Rist was awarded the President of the Jury’s Extraordinary Award at Spain’s 6th Seville European Film Festival and in 2010 she received the ‘Cutting the Edge Award’ by Miami International European Film Festival. In 2012, Rist was awarded the Harper’s Bazaar Art China prize for ‘Best Artist’ and in June 2013, she was awarded the Zurich Festival Prize 2013.

Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Gentle Wave in Your Eye Fluid’, Times Museum in Guangzhou, China (2013); ‘Pipilotti Rist. A la belle étoile’, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle WA (2012); ‘Pipilotti Rist – Spear to heaven!’, LEEUM Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; ‘Blutbetriebene Kameras und quellende Räume’, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (2012); ‘Eyeball Massage’, Hayward Gallery, London, England (2011) which travelled to Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany (2012); ‘Parasimpatico’, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Cinema Manzoni, Milan, Italy (2011); ‘Pipilotti Rist. Partit amistós – sentiments electrónics’, Fundació Joan Miró & Centre Cultura Caixa Girona Fontana d’Or, Barcelona / Girona, Spain (2010); ‘Elixir – The video organism of Pipilotti Rist’, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2009); ‘Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Metres)’, MoMA, New York NY (2008) and ‘A la belle étoile’, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2007).» [... MORE ...]

A London

A London in December.

Martin Parr: Black Country Stories

Martin Parr
Black Country Stories
The New Art Gallery Walsall

«The New Art Gallery Walsall is a modern and contemporary art gallery sited in the centre of the West Midlands town of Walsall, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery and additional money from the European Regional Development Fund and City Challenge. Its first Director was Peter Jenkinson. In May 2005, former BALTIC director Stephen Snoddy was appointed as Director.»

«Over the last 4 years, Magnum photographer, Martin Parr, has created a photographic portrait and archive of life in the Black Country through photography, film and oral histories.

Martin has made many visits to Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley, meeting a wide range of local people. He has visited shops and markets, places of worship, football grounds, factories, pubs and clubs, dances and parties, cafés and restaurants, dog training classes, summer fêtes and street parties celebrating the Royal Wedding and Diamond Jubilee.» [... MORE ...]

At least in China you can still smoke inside public spaces... not like in the demagogue Western free world!

«Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey, UK, in 1952. Martin Parr studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic, from 1970 to 1973. Since that time, Martin Parr has worked on numerous photographic projects. He has developed an international reputation for his innovative imagery, his oblique approach to social documentary, and his input to photographic culture within the UK and abroad. In 1994 he became a full member of Magnum Photographic Corporation. Martin developed an interest in filmmaking, and has started to use his photography within different conventions, such as fashion and advertising. In 2002 the Barbican Art Gallery and the National Media Museum initiated a large retrospective of Martin Parr’s work. Martin Parr was Professor of Photography at The University of Wales Newport campus from 2004 to 2012, and Guest Artistic Director for Rencontres D’Arles in 2004. In 2006 Martin Parr was awarded the Erich Salomon Prize and the resulting Assorted Cocktail show opens at Photokina. In 2008 Martin Parr was guest curator at New York Photo Festival, curating the New Typologies exhibition. Parrworld opened at Haus de Kunst, Mucich, in 2008. The show exhibited Parr’s own collection of objects, postcards, his personal photography collection of both British and International artists, photo books and finally his own photographs. At PhotoEspana, 2008, wins the Baume et Mercier award in recognition of his professional career and contributions to contemporary photography. More recently Martin has just completed a 4-year project documenting the Black Country, an area of the English West Midlands, in conjunction with Multistory. Phaidon have published the third volume of the highly influential History of the Photobook in Spring 2014 and Martin is also working on a book about the History of Chinese Photobooks to be published by Aperture in Spring 2015. Martin Parr has published over 80 books of his own work and edited another 30.» [... MORE ...]

I am here seated and thinking about an interesting angle on Tate’s 2014 Turner Prize

I think it is amazing what time-lapse can cause to a particular cause. People complaint about the 80s, for instances, but it may not be the proclaimed principle. The main thing about it is that it worked on the subcultural level, with extreme levels of creativity to inform about a cause deserving our attention, a movement that advocated a deep commitment to support a socio-political whatsoever - being it a lesbian or gay cause, negritude or colonialism, or, even, Samantha Fox's completely dressed performance in 'Touch Me', which is still more social-cultural provocative than Miley Cyrus almost naked performances.

We need public interventions like those, when the questioning was also relevant, not the cynical entertainment that we are offered on a constant base, by the present days, of abstract ideas documenting our ordinary everyday life routines; go and redefine off so terrible moments. The abysmal thing to say, to transform a dull language, either it be about (gratuitous) images from nipples, dicks, vaginas, anus or a person's pubic hair… whatever! Do not want to trivialise, but this idea is packed of trivial topics. Definitely, if the 80s were whatever they were, the 00s and the 10s are worse!