Artipedia - Arts News

Track7

“PURIFYING LOVE”
ANISA ASHKAR - JOSEPH DADOUNE

In participation with Alexia

track7artslaboratorium
Nikolaidou Maria
T: 211 100 7072, F: 211 100 7060
E: nikolaidou@track7music.com
http://www.track7inc.com

Track7 arts laboratorium organizes and presents the artistic exhibition of Anisa Ashkar (1979, Palestine) and Joseph Dadoune (1975, Israel) with the general title “Purifying Love” at track7 art space.

The project consists of an original production by Track 7 for Greece and abroad. The exhibition will open to the public on Monday 15 January 2007.

The exhibition includes two autonomous original projects that are presented for the first time worldwide in Athens. In the specific projects of the two artists, the well known Cypriot singer Alexia collaborates and participates multi-dimensionally (composition, singing, and acting). The exhibition is curated by the art theorist Dr. Sania Papa.

Joseph Dadoune and Anisa Ashkar invited Alexia to collaborate on multiple levels in their two new autonomous works, aiming at the creative collaboration between three artists coming from countries with similar sociopolitical characteristics, traditions and cultural qualities.

In her new photographic work entitled “Wild Eyes”, installation and performance titled “In a blink of an eye” Anisa Ashkar studies, treats on many levels and reinterprets the myth of Perseus and Medusa, placing it in a contemporary context of conflict and contradictions. She treats here the ambiguity of the myth and the “eternal” conflict of gender through a psychological and psychoanalytical interpretation, in favor of exposing the suspended moment of decapitation.

According to the artist, this myth, that was written by men, is redefined through the prevalent role of two women (Medusa and Athina), while the man (Perseus) is exposed as “object” who receives commands and executes them, without questioning his male power and identity, since this is repositioned in the context that suits it. In the performances of Anisa Ashkar, Alexia “assumes” the role of Athina and transforming the roles is presented as ally of mutilated Medusa.

The title of the work by Joseph Dadoune "Bunker Buster" refers to the American bomb Buster, able to penetrate concrete six meters deep and ground to thirty meters. The installation of Joseph Dadoune includes a black and white 35mm high definition film, twenty two minutes long, that was shot entirely in the War Museum of Athens. In this project the artist invited Alexia in a conversation-action that combines fragmented speech, singing, movement and improvisation, elements that cause new "abstractive" situations in a shifted "other" space-time, with an interactive catalytic character of the release of primal characteristics and behaviors. The work records the triadic projective relationship of intellectual, natural and architectural space of the individual (individual space, emotional space, work space, space of the Museum), the white internal room (white cube) in relation to the space of the dictator/master.

Joseph Dadoune, through a "laborious" and long-lasting creative process of the treatment of film (change of color from colored to black and white, chronological shift of actions, interruption of linear narration, expulsion of concrete elements of natural architectural space, and utilization of special effects), presents the analytic conceptual dimension of created cinematographic reality (the film is based on the interjection of the three basic colors white, black, and red): the liberating nature of the natural and intellectual light against the terror of repetitive confinement that intervenes redemptively in a space-time without beginning or end (the viewer may watch the film without a time sequence).

Excerpts of the work of Joseph Dadoune and Anisa Ashkar will be included in the film that will be created for Alexia’s CD rebe.

Exhibition dates: 15 January 2007 - 26 March 2007
Hours: Daily (except Holidays and Monday) 10.00 - 14.00, 17.00 - 21.00
Address: track7 art space, Sidirokastrou & Amfipoleos 1, Votanikos Athens
Tel. 211 100 7082
Entrance: Free

Info :
track7artslaboratorium
Nikolaidou Maria
T: 211 100 7072, F: 211 100 7060
E: nikolaidou@track7music.com
http://www.track7inc.com

maria panayides artproductions
Margarita Gregorakis
Stavros Kavalaris

210 6912331, 210 6913943, 210 6980673
E: panayides@ath.f_rthnet.gr
margarita@panayides.gr
stavros@panayides.gr

For more information go to: http://www.track7inc.com

Forma

Other Plans: artists’ bookworks by Juan Cruz and Michael Dean

Curated by Simon Morrissey
Commissioned and published by Forma

Panel discussions and launch events:
21 Feb 2007, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
22 Feb 2007, BALTIC, Gateshead, UK
Full details at http://www.forma.org.uk

Other Plans was initiated in response to significant regeneration projects in NewcastleGateshead UK and to bids for European City of Culture 2008. The two resulting artists’ bookworks by Juan Cruz and Michael Dean provide subtle critiques of projects that commission artists to respond to particular geographical locations or contexts.

For Other Plans, Dean and Cruz have produced two strikingly original new works that distinctly resist the idea of creating artwork that could be used to serve cultural agendas other than the artists’ own. Both bookworks can be seen to work as displaced critiques of the entangled relationships between commissioner and artist, place and artwork, in this increasingly prevalent type of commissioning. The books are accompanied by an essay by the curator that explores the evolution of the project and its critical ambitions

Juan Cruz - a translation of Niebla (fog) by Miguel de Unamuno
Niebla (fog) is a new English translation of Miguel de Unamuno’s classic 1914 novel.
Cruz draws on the act of translating specific texts to explore the mechanisms of displacement, the construction of identity and to interrogate the creative process. In Niebla (fog) Cruz re-presents Unamuno’s classic text as a meditation on the blurred relationship between autonomy and dependence - the central problematic in making art public.
ISBN: 0954828828

Michael Dean - mountains and triangles
Michael Dean uses the barest language and starkly minimal typography to create an almost physical linguistic space that becomes charged with an unexpected emotional impact. In prioritising an intensely localised way of recording the world, Dean reformulates the idea of context as an intimate, personally constructed space that is continuous and the basis of our relationship with different geographic, social and historical contexts.
ISBN: 0954828836

Juan Cruz lectures in Visual Arts at Goldsmiths College, London and is represented by Matt’s Gallery, London and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid. Cruz has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally. In 1999, he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.

Michael Dean studied Fine Art Practice and Contemporary Critical Theory at Goldsmiths College, London (1998-2001) and since his graduation has exhibited throughout Europe. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1977 and currently lives and works in London.

Simon Morrissey is an independent curator and writer on contemporary art. Recent projects have included commissions for public institutions including Arnolfini, Bristol; The Bowes Museum, County Durham; and The British Council. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Bristol School of Art, Media & Design, UWE.

Forma is a creative production agency for ambitious, interdisciplinary contemporary art.

Working closely with artists over extended periods of time, Forma produces, tours and publishes groundbreaking new projects that seamlessly combine diverse media. Its extensive international touring programme, delivered in collaboration with major venues and festivals world-wide, pioneers new hybrid forms of music, visual art, film, new media, dance, theatre and live art.

For further information visit http://www.forma.org.uk

Forma publications are distributed by Cornerhouse http://www.cornerhouse.org.uk/books

Other Plans is funded by Arts Council England and Bristol School of Art, Media and Design, University of the West of England.

For more information go to: http://www.forma.org.uk

unitednationsplaza

To Whom It May Concern:

unitednationsplaza and ARCO cordially invite you to attend the Public Trial of Anton Vidokle & TIrdad Zolghadr, to take place at the 5th International Contemporary Art Experts Forum at ARCO, Madrid on Sunday, February 18th, 2007.

THE CHARGE: Collusion with the Bourgeoisie & Other Serious Accusations.

THE JUDGE: Jan Verwoert, critic and editor, Frieze magazine.

PROSECUTION TEAM: Vasif Kortun, Director, Platform Garanti, Istanbul; Chus Martinez, Director, Frankfurter Kunstverein

DEFENSE: Charles Esche, Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

EXPERTS & WITNESSES:
Maria Lind, writer and curator, Director IASPIS, Stockholm;
Setareh Shahbazi, artist, Berlin;
Fia Backstrom, artist, New York;
Lourdes Fernandez, Director, ARCO, Madrid;
Dirk Herzog, artist, Berlin;
Javier Garcia Montes, critic, Madrid
Liam Gillick, artist, New York/London;
Anselm Franke, Director, Extra City, Antwerp;
and others.

The trial will begin promptly at 11:00 hrs at Suite N-108 of the 5th International Contemporary Art Experts Forum located at Feria de Madrid. Admission is free with general admission to ARCO.

The trial will be filmed under the direction of Hila Peleg, independent curator, Berlin.

Schedule:

11:00 - A Statement by the Accused.
11:30 - Prosecution Statement: Vasif Kortun & Chus Martinez
12:00 - Defense Statement: Charles Esche
12:30 - Expert Testimony: Maria Lind
13:00 - Expert Testimony: Fia Backstrom - Herd Instinct 360 degrees
13:30 - Expert Testimony: Liam Gillick
14:00 - Court recess (Lunch)
15:00 - Witness Testimony: Anselm Franke
15:30 - Witness Testimony: Setareh Shahbazi
16:00 - Evidence presentation: Dirk Herzog - screening of Multitudes
16:30 - Witness Testimony: Lourdes Fernndez
16:45 - Witness Testimony: Javier Garcia Montes
17:00 - Evidence Presentation: I Can’t Work Like This, Printed Project, Dublin
18:00 - Prosecution’s Closing Statement, Vasif Kortun & Chus Martinez
18:30 - Defense’ Closing Statement, Charles Esche
19:00 - Judgement deliberations, Jan Verwoert
19:30 - The Verdict, Jan Verwoert

About the Accused:

Anton Vidokle is an artist currently based in Berlin. He is the founding director of e-flux and was a co-curator of Manifesta 6.

Tirdad Zolghadr is a freelance critic and curator based in Berlin. He is also a founding member of the Shahrzad art & design collective and is shortly to publish his novel Softcore with Telegram Books, London.

unitednationsplaza is exhibition as school. Structured as a seminar/residency program in the city of Berlin, it will involve collaboration with approximately 60 artists, writers, theorists and a wide range of audiences for a period of one year. In the tradition of Free Universities, most of its events will be open to all those interested to take part. unitednationsplaza is organized by Anton Vidokle in collaboration with Liam Gillick, Boris Groys, Martha Rosler, Walid Raad, Jalal Toufic, Nikolaus Hirsch, Natascha Sadr Haghighian and Tirdad Zolghadr

ARCO
IFEMA - Feria de Madrid
28042 Madrid
Tel.: (34) 91 722 50 80
Fax: (34) 91 722 57 98
http://www.arco.ifema.es
ARCO’07: 15 - 19 Febrero/February 2007
ARCO’08: 14 - 18 Febrero/February 2008

unitednationsplaza
Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14a
Berlin 10249 Germany
T. +49 (0)30 700 89 0 90
F. +49 (0)30 700 89 0 85

For further information, please contact Magdalena Magiera:
magdalena@unitednationsplaza.org

For more information go to: http://www.arco.ifema.es