Artipedia - Arts News

CCNOA - Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art

A BIT O’ WHITE
EEN BEETJE WIT
UN PEU DE BLANC

March 15 , 2007 - May 6, 2007

CCNOA
Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art
Boulevard Barthélémylaan 5
1000 Brussels
Belgium
T + F: (32) (0)2 502 6912
E: info@ccnoa.org
W: http://www.ccnoa.org

CCNOA center of contemporary non-objective art Brussels, Belgium, is pleased to present the group exhibition A BIT O’ WHITE, which – after Double Exposure, minimalpop, Painted Objects, and 2step – is the fifth touring group exhibition produced by TEAMCCNOA. A BIT O’ WHITE features the work of 16 international artists working in the reductive mode: Matilde Alessandra (I), Tom Benson (UK), Julian Dashper (NZL), Ward Denys (B), Zipora Fried (A/USA), Klaas Kloosterboer (NL), Renée Levi (CH), Gerold Miller (D), Perry Roberts (UK/B), Michal Skoda (CZ), Clary Stolte (NL), Jan van der Ploeg (NL), Pieter Vermeersch (B), Emmanuelle Villard (F) and Jan Maarten Voskuil (NL). Although none of these artists focuses exclusively on the subject addressed in this exhibition – the notion and experience of the color/material WHITE with all its implications – its use plays an active and important role in their respective artistic practices. The exhibition will include paintings, objects an
d site-specific works as well as a new soundwork by Belgian composer Guy de Bièvre, which has been especially commissioned for this exhibition. A BIT O’ WHITE will be accompanied by a 32-pages full-color publication.

The color phenomenon WHITE has long served as a subject of symbolism in religion, metaphysical thinking and literature, as well as in scientific research and philosophical inquiry. But it was not until the beginning of the last century, with the work of Kasimir Malevich, that WHITE in its radical form of expression first entered the world of the visual arts. Since this early, strong, seminal and - in his case utopian – statement the use of the color/material WHITE has become an integral part of artistic practice either in its pure form or as part of a broader frame of reference (De Stijl, Arp, Rauschenberg, Manzoni, LeWitt, Ryman, Group Zero, etc.). On the negative side, however, the radical and exclusive use of the color WHITE has often been the subject of ridicule and a populist weapon against non-objective art. And there is a common perception that the subject WHITE is in a way still ‘cornered’ by the everyday notions of ‘beginning’, ‘birth’, ‘silence’, ‘nothingness’ or ‘d
eath’ (the death of painting … as if WHITE were only a property of painting), possibly the irony of radical reduction. Notions and connotations, which appear like evergreens in the discussion on WHITE, try on the one hand to get a grip on WHITE but on the other hand defy its message of awareness and the idea of raising consciousness. Post-modern art criticism and revisionism mirror the variously coded characteristics of the color WHITE.

A BIT O’ WHITE challenges the stereotypical properties attributed to WHITE and aims to broaden our capacity to perceive, experience and just enjoy its existence, free of preconceived notions and interpretations. A BIT O’ WHITE presents the color WHITE as an event, a happening, a celebration of the perception of the color, color/material and color phenomenon WHITE. We might be irritated: we cannot identify anything, we do not see anything – it’s white, all white. And yet it opens our eyes, tickles our senses, let’s us be – we see so much. WHITE, which hints at a whole range of possibilities without expressing them, yet puts us on the alert. WHITE, which triggers our emotions, our fears, yet is so familiar to us. WHITE we fear – WHITE we embrace. Can we let go of our preconceptions? Can we let WHITE just be white – as we see it, as we experience it? A BIT O’ WHITE sets out to open the door to a more comprehensive understanding of the subject WHITE as a color and as a material,
to enable the viewer freely to experience and understand its subtle qualities in the context of contemporary non-objective art and daily life, to present a range of possible propositions and challenges, and to validate dialogue on the production of reductive art and its communication with the public. (copyright team CCNOA)

For more information go to: http://www.ccnoa.org

Ars Baltica Triennial

Don’t Worry – Be Curious!
4th Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art

Stadtgalerie Kiel
March 31 – May 28, 2007
Opening: Friday, March 30, 7 p.m.

http://www.arsbalticatriennial.org

Artists: Petra Bauer (SE), Anna Baumgart (PL), Olga Chernysheva (RU), Colonel and Khaled D. Ramadan (DK), Bodil Furu (NO), Kaspars Goba (LV), Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen (FI), Kristina Inciuraite (LT), Sven Johne (DE), Talleiv Taro Manum (NO), Tanja Nellemann Poulsen (DK), Anu Pennanen (FI), J&K (DE/DK), Katrin Tees (EE), Alexander Vaindorf (SE), Arturas Valiauga (LT), Julita Wójcik (PL)

Curators: Dorothee Bienert (Berlin), Kati Kivinen (Helsinki), Enrico Lunghi (Luxembourg)

The 4th Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art Don’t Worry – Be Curious! will present photographs, videos, and installations by 20 artists from the countries bordering the Baltic Sea, works that address the problems and fears resulting from upheavals in present-day society.

Europe’s social, political, and economic reality is currently marked by restructuring processes that have led to a collapse in a continuity of location, a volatility in stable social relationships, and increasing individualization, on the one hand, and growing unemployment, passivity, and disenchantment with politics, on the other. These upheavals are predominantly experienced by West European countries as a crisis of the welfare state, while in East European countries they appear to be the result of socialism’s displacement by a capitalistic economic order. The sensed threat provokes similar reactions here as well as there; fear of social impoverishment, of a loss of identity, and of an uncertain future are the effects of globalization. In addition to this is the growing fear of the “foreigner” and the increasing desire to exclude the “other.”

The exhibition assumes that art can offer impulses and inspire reflection on participation and the power of agency. Invited are artists whose practice is based on the exploration of their social environment. The artists deal with diverse thematic fields such as migration politics, ideas of “normality” and “differentness,” the mechanisms of understanding and misunderstanding, social fears, young people’s various perspectives and concepts of life; the media’s influence on perception, thought, and knowledge; the relation between consumer culture and nature; or the sentimental value of the commonplace. What unites the works is a positive and often humorous prevailing mood that makes the observer want to engage in something new and scrutinize his or her own patterns of perception and thought.

Don’t Worry – Be Curious! will open in Stadtgalerie Kiel on March 30, 2007 at 7 p.m. The press conference will take place on March 29, 2007 at 11 a.m. The exhibition is under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein and is supported by the programme Culture 2000 of the European Union, the German Federal Cultural Foundation, and institutions from the participating countries: the Danish Arts Council, the Arts Council of Finland, the Center for Contemporary Art Norway, IASPIS – International Artists’ Studio Programme, Moderna Museet – International Programme, Stockholm and the Ministries of Culture in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Further exhibition venues: KUMU – Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn (EE); Pori Art Museum, Pori (FI)

Publication: An exhibition catalogue will be published by Revolver Books with an introduction by the curators, an interview with Zygmunt Bauman, and texts by Petra Bauer and Annika Ruth Persson, Anders Eiebakke, Boris Kagarlitsky, Simon Sheikh, Hito Steyerl, Audrone Zukauskaite, and others.

Stadtgalerie Kiel
Andreas-Gayk-Str. 31, 24103 Kiel
Phone: 0431 901 34-00/-11
stadtgalerie@kiel.de, http://www.kiel.de/kultur/stadtgalerie
Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fr 10-17, Thu 10-19, Sat, Sun 11-17

For more information go to: http://www.arsbalticatriennial.org

CENTRO CULTURAL MONTEHERMOSO KULTURUNEA

MONTEHERMOSO ART AND RESEARCH
Grants 2007

The Centro Cultural Montehermoso Kulturunea presents the seventh edition of the grants Support for Creation and Research in Contemporary Art and Thought. This initiative, promoted by Vitoria-Gasteiz Town Council, aims to facilitate the production of the selected projects, as well as their dissemination and exhibition. In order to make this possible, the grants offered are aimed at Artistic Creation, Curatorship and Research. Authors of any nationality, regardless of age, can present their projects individually or collectively.

ARTISTIC CREATION
Awarding of 8 grants for unpublished art projects which are in the production phase or which must be produced during the extension of the grant. Each project grant will not exceed €10,000, divided into the following items: €7,000, maximum amount for the production of the project, and €3,000 for fees of work production and copyright. The Grant includes an exhibition in the space of the Montehermoso Cultural Centre, within the 2008 programme.

CURATORSHIP
Awarding of 1 grant for a unpublished curatorial project including the participation of at least four contemporary creators. The proposal must be under production or must be produced during the extension of the grant. The selected project will be allocated €6,000 for fees of curatorial tasks and copyright.

The exhibition project award will not exceed €15,000. This amount must include the expenses caused by work production, insurances and transport, trips and stays of the selected artists and curators. Moreover, it must include the expenses caused by the exhibition mounting that cannot be included within infrastructures, technical equipment or human resources of the Montehermoso Cultural Centre.

RESEARCH
Awarding of 3 grants for research projects related to Contemporary Art and Thought. Within this section, at least one of the grants will be aimed at projects related to the development of a Historiography of Feminist Art in Spain. The award for the Research project development will not exceed €9,000. This amount includes the researcher’s fees, as well as the expenses caused by the project development. The Montehermoso Cultural Centre reserves the right to publish the results of the research.

For further information
(Download of full requirements)
http://www.montehermoso.net

CENTRO CULTURAL MONTEHERMOSO KULTURUNEA
Fray Zacarías Martínez, 2. 01001
Vitoria-Gasteiz.
SPAIN
accioncultural@montehermoso.net
comunicacion@montehermoso.net

tel. +(34) 945 161 830
fax. +(34) 945 161 831

For more information go to: http://www.montehermoso.net