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inSite and Creative Time

The Situational Drive

Free Weekend Conference
May 12 and 13, 2007
May 12, 10am – 7pm
May 13, 10:45am – 6:15pm
Cooper Union, The Great Hall
7th Street, btw 3rd and 4th Ave, NYC

Organized by Joshua Decter

A partnership between
inSite/ San Diego-Tijuana and Creative Time, New York
in collaboration with
The Cooper Union School of Art

In the network society everyone puts together their own city. Naturally this touches on the essence of the concept of public domain…Public domain experiences occur at the boundary between friction and freedom.

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA)

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, (MOCCA), honors Michael Snow with the first MOCCA Award in Contemporary Art.

At a spectacular gala evening on April 26 the BMO Financial Group presented internationally renowned Toronto-based artist Michael Snow with the first MOCCA Award in Contemporary Art. The MOCCA Award, a prize of $10,000.00 (CAD), was created to honor a Canadian active in the field of contemporary art for innovation, contribution over time, or for a specific project, whose achievements have national or international significance. Active on the international stage since the 1950s, and always highly regarded for his groundbreaking works in painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, music, sound and a diverse range of other media, Michael Snow is one of the very first contemporary artists in Canada to be recognized for his achievements worldwide. Launched at the cusp of the millennium in 1999, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art inherits a rich cultural legacy to which Mr. Snow has made substantial, pioneering contributions. His impact upon Canadian and international cultu
re cannot be underestimated.

To commemorate the occasion, each guest received a limited edition plate, titled Condimental Shifts, specially designed by Snow for the event and handcrafted by nationally renowned ceramicist Thomas Aitken. The evening featured a selection of Snow’s works installed in a unique, ambient setting created by leading Toronto designer Johnson Chou with food by international superstar chef Susur Lee. Each guest also received a publication on the featured works with text by Montreal scholar Martha Langford.

Legendary art dealer and Honorary Chair of the event Av Isaacs presided over the proceedings held directly in the museum’s mainspace gallery. A welcoming and vivacious audience of Snow’s friends, colleagues, patrons, leading collectors, museum directors and curators, and a host of various art celebrities toasted his many outstanding accomplishments, both past and present. As at least partial testimony to Michael Snow’s continued influential relevance, his current works were included in the most recent editions of the Sao Paulo Biennial and the Whitney Biennial. He has been a strong supporter of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art since its inception and museum Director David Liss acknowledged Michael’s inspiration in his welcoming remarks: “It is my hope that, in some way, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art will carry forward into the 21st Century the exuberant spirit of curiosity and astute, visionary discovery that ignited, and has for decades sustained Michael Sno
w’s remarkable practice.”

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is grateful to Michael Snow, the fabulous array of guests who attended the event, the entire MOCCA staff and especially the hardworking, charismatic event Co-chairs Sue Kidd and Julia Ouellette. The evening was a truly unique and incredibly enjoyable experience!!

BMO Financial Group presents the first MOCCA Award in Contemporary Art was generously supported by Event Patrons SUSUR, Deloitte, Torys LLP, Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc., Johnson Chou Inc.
Event Donors Aeroplan, Ritchies Inc. Auctioneers
Event Friends The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, Fela Grunwald, Sue Kidd and Susie Kololian, Mark J. Mooney & Associates Ltd., Pilsner Urquell, Vineland Estates Winery.

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, (MOCCA), was founded from the former Art Gallery of North York in 1999 with a mandate to exhibit, research, collect and promote innovative art by Canadian artists whose works engage and reflect the relevant stories of our times. MOCCA currently exists as an arms length agency of The City of Toronto’s Culture Division. Situated within the heart of Toronto’s West Queen West arts district, MOCCA’s exhibition reflects a dynamic and balanced approach to presenting the wide range of ideas and media being explored by both established artists at advanced stages of practice and emerging artists who have demonstrated strong promise and exceptional commitment. In addition, work by non-Canadian artists is included in group exhibitions, creating a global context for the Canadian cultural voice.

For more information go to:

A-WAL

Q2 A-WAL Public Art Project:
Vers des lendemains qui chantent.
Curated by Tirdad Zolghadr

The A-WAL Public Art Project

The A-WAL Public Art Project is an experimental initiative that situates art in the vernacular through the commissioning of curators and artists for special projects in technovernacular and non-traditional environments. This project is at once central and extracurricular to A-WAL email, the email where cyber expression is commandeered through use of art and personal images as backgrounds. A-WAL has been featured as extension of exhibition at Satellite Project Shanghai Biennial, Observatori Contemporary (Valencia, Spain), Spring/Wooster graffiti project (New York), and will be present at the Venice Biennale in various unorthodox locales including a cave. A-WAL challenges traditional and technical modes of communications channels, redefines the relationship of public/private, and attacks the bourgeoisie notion and privileged role associated with collecting.

A-WAL Public Art Project | Edition: Quarter 2, 2007 | Vers des lendemains qui chantent. | Curated by Tirdad Zolghadr
Artists featured in this edition: Cassius Al Madhloum, Fia Backström, Cabaret Voltaire (featuring a dotmaster piece), the Parking Gallery - a project by Amirali Ghassemi, and Richard Rhys.

The Q2 project is on the A-WAL website:
http://www.A-WAL.com/publicartproject207.asp

For more information go to: http://www.A-WAL.com/publicartproject207.asp

Bulgarian Pavilion

Bulgarian Pavilion at the 52nd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

UNESCO BRESCE Palazzo Zorzi
Castello 4930 Venice

10 June – 21 November
8 June 2007, 6 pm – Vernissage
7 – 9 June 2007 - Professional Preview

http://www.bulgarianpavilion-venice.org

A Place You Have Never Been Before

Artists: Pravdoliub Ivanov, Ivan Moudov, Stefan Nikolaev

Curator: Vessela Nozharova
Commissioner: Boris Danailov

We head towards places we have never been before full of expectations. More than an exhibition at a physical space A Place You Have Never Been Before is a metaphor about the new and unknown. How do we perceive the changes in the world we live in? How do we discover and understand new places?

Pravdoliub Ivanov, Ivan Moudov and Stefan Nikolaev have been selected to represent Bulgaria at the 52nd International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Vessela Nozharova, the exhibition showcases three of the younger generation of Bulgarian artists who were commissioned to create works in response both to the Palazzo Zorzi courtyard and the wider Venetian context.

Ivan Moudov’s Wine for Openings goes beyond Palazzo Zorzi. The Bulgarian red wine, specially produced and bottled by the artist, will be served during the vernissage at various pavilions, creating a symbolic community of the dispersed national exhibition venues. Moudov’s sculptural work Fragments installed at Palazzo Zorzi marks the finale of a five year long project. Since 2002 the artist has been collecting fragments of artists’ works from various museums and galleries around the world. Moudov (b.1975) lives and works in Sofia. Most recently he has exhibited at the 1st Moscow Biennial, 2005 and 4th/5th Cetinje Biennial in 2002/2004.

Stefan Nikolaev’s commission will occupy the centre of the palazzo’s courtyard. A disposable, ordinary object assumes monumental proportions – a four meter high Dupont lighter is cast in bronze, placed on a black plinth with its ‘eternal flame’ signifying the memory of something long gone by. Smoking with all its attributes of individualism, emancipation and revolt has been a recurrent theme in Nikolaev’s recent work. The title, inscribed in neon What Goes Up Must Go Down will shine through the ivy creeping through the pallazzo’s façade. Stefan Nikolaev (b.1970) lives and works in Sofia and Paris. He has exhibited at 4th Cetinje Biennial, 2002 and Gwangju Biennale 2002, amongst others.

Pravdoliub Ivanov’s Memory is a Muscle establishes a dialogue with Palazzo Zorzi’s elegant architecture of classical columns and arches. His three meter long dumbbell made out of silicon is more than a provocative gesture. Ivanov’s sculpture is equipped with a pair of wide open eyes instead of weights – a comment on the ways of seeing and perceiving the unknown through our senses, thoughts and memory. Pravdoliub Ivanov (b.1964) lives and works in Sofia. He has exhibited at 4th Berlin Biennial, 2006, 14th Sydney Biennial, 2004 and 4th Istanbul Biennial, 1995.

Catalogue
A Place You Have Never Been Before will be accompanied by a full colour exhibition catalogue featuring newly commissioned essays and interviews by Iara Boubnova, Boris Danailov, Georgi Gospodinov, Dessislava Dimova, Boris Kostadinov, Svetlana Kuyumdjieva, Mihnea Mircan and Vessela Nozharova.

Organizers
Ministry of Culture, Republic of Bulgaria and National Art Gallery, Sofia with the support of the UNESCO Office in Venice - Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (BRESCE)

Major exhibition sponsor is the Collection Hugo Voeten, Belgium

Additional support
Schenker, Bulgaria; AlItalia; MAGstudio webground; Sts Cyril and Methodius International Foundation

Launching of the magazine 02 at the Bulgarian Pavilion 8 June, 8 pm
DJ Vagabond (Breaktrue.org), Audrey Mascina and Jérôme Sans (Liquid Architecture)

For further details please contact:
Julia Mercurio +359 (0)877 496 420 bulgarianpavilion.mercurio@gmail.com
Vessela Nozharova vessela.nozharova@yahoo.com

For more information go to: http://www.bulgarianpavilion-venice.org

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURE

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURE
1920, rue Baile
Montreal, Québec, Canada
H3H 2S6

Employment Opportunity

JOB TITLE: Bookstore Manager

MANDATE

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is seeking an experienced and dynamic bookseller to manage the CCA Bookstore, which specialises in titles on architecture and related fields, and serves as an important point of access to the CCA for the public. The Manager reports to the Director of Communications. In addition to daily management, including all acquisitions, the position comprises the following foremost responsibilities:

-Strengthen the CCA Bookstore’s unique character and enhance its reputation at the local, national, and international levels;
-Devise innovative proposals for the promotion of the Bookstore among its institutional and individual clientele at the local, national, and international levels;
-Demonstrate a strong understanding of the international book distribution market in order to make strategic selections of titles in specialized fields;
-Ensure the promotion and distribution of CCA publications at the local, national, and international levels;
-Review and revise working methods, management and control procedures;
-Participate in the analysis, selection and implementation of software to manage the Bookstore;
-Manage the budget.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

-Bachelor of arts, preferably in architecture or art history
-Five (5) years of experience in a bookstore, two (2) of which in a managerial position
-Bilingual (French and English)
-Knowledge of architecture and related fields
-Knowledge of software used in bookstores
-Leadership and sense of responsibility
-Good communication skills
-Flexible schedule, availability to work on weekends

Interested candidates are asked to submit a curriculum vitae and covering letter describing their skills and experience in managing a bookstore or a collection within a bookstore to Human Resources, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920 rue Baile, Montréal, Québec, H3H 2S6. Email: rh@cca.qc.ca, fax: 514 939 7012.

The CCA is an equal opportunity employer.

For more information go to: http://www.cca.qc.ca/

Le Collège / Frac Champagne-Ardenne

Mircea Cantor > Ciel variable
Exhibition from May 4th until
July 15th 2007
Opening Thursday May 3rd at 6pm

Le Collège / Frac Champagne-Ardenne
1 place Museux 51100 Reims
Ouvert du mardi au dimanche de 14h00 à 18h00
http://www.frac-champagneardenne.org
tél. : + 33 (0)3 26 05 78 32
contact@frac-champagneardenne.org

In order to envisage the possibility of the end of the world, Mircea Cantor has named his exhibition at the Frac Champagne-Ardenne Ciel variable (Changing Skies). The future’s unpredictability suggests at once the Apocalypse and potential renewal. This is reflected in his sculpture/scale model, Monument for the End of the World, in which the wind chimes overhanging the model of a big city can be set off by a possible disaster.

From video and photography to prints and installations, Mircea Cantor’s work unfolds in a diversity of media without repeating itself. Each artwork assumes the aspect of a manifesto; each picture is justified. By proposing a personal response to a reality saturated with sometimes oppressive signs, Mircea Cantor upsets and reverses conventions, like his painted canvas of a nest made of apparently dead twigs, which bud once again. This cycle of disappearance and renewal is constantly brought into play in Cantor’s work, reminding us of our frantic racing against time in contemporary society.

Neither a traditional retrospective, nor a show of only new artworks, this exhibition is a way for the artist to offer a new reading of his art. The works occupy all of the Frac’s galleries, revealing the materialization of Mircea Cantor’s non-linear conception of cosmogony; a universe encompassing all futures, all pasts, all potentialities. Untitled, 2006, for example, shows part of a torn headline of Le Monde, to which the artist added two ‘s’ in red marker. It is a sensitive allegory of the fragility of our convictions when confronted with the infinite plurality of worlds, deepening in turn our uncertainty and anxiety. Very often, as an attentive observer of society and cultures, Mircea Cantor places himself at the crossroads between worlds, allowing for the coming together of differing mentalities. He is preoccupied with the alchemy of ideologies in the infinite movement of thought. For instance, he has filmed in 16mm the incandescence, then dissolution, of the shadow of
a formless flag of indeterminate origin. The very fact of its being unidentifiable renders it emblematic, on a universal scale, of the end of a regime and the renewal of society.

Mircea Cantor gained international attention at the 2003 Venice Biennale, at the 2006 Berlin Biennale, the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2006, and at the Yvon Lambert Gallery (Paris and New York). Winner of the 2004 Ricard Prize, he is an outstanding figure among Eastern Europe’s emerging artists. Cantor grew up in Romania during the Communist era, and views the current governments, as well as illusions of Western neo-conservatism, with lucidity and distance. Cantor is also heavily involved in the Romanian artistic scene, and is a co-editor of Version magazine.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the first monograph of Mircea Cantor will be published by Le Collège / Frac Champagne-Ardenne, in partnership with the Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris / New York. Due out in the Fall.

For more information go to: http://www.frac-champagneardenne.org

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

The first antechamber
Gabriel Lester, Charlotte Moth and Alexandre Singh, with Maria Fusco

Project Arts Centre, Dublin
http://www.project.ie

As an antechamber, the exhibition operates in the space between the dual pillars of story-telling: narrative and image. The signifiers in a work of art here lose their predictability – there are smoke-screens, chance relationships and red-herrings. What can an assemblage of image and story-lines mean within works which have both highly scripted and tenuous inter-relations?

The first antechamber proposes that a destabilisation of narrative form might relinquish the viewer from the responsibility of linear comprehension.

Gabriel Lester’s film All Wrong is built entirely from downloaded images and videos, based on a story written with Aaron Schuster. Whether the images illustrate the text or are tagged to the text, or whether the text drives the image or vice versa, becomes increasingly less important as the function and constructs of film and narrative unravel. Charlotte Moth’s Installation for Dolores is a revolving slide collection of photographs combined with a voice-over. Commenting on the images, the voice is at times knowledgeable, silent, or fleetingly engaged. The narrative itself becomes curiously detached from the collected images, leaving the viewer questioning what that relationship might be. Alexandre Singh’s sprawling installation A Thousand and One Knights of the Roundtable of Knottingham, unpacks the architecture of art – inviting the viewer to combine a narrated text with the materials featured in the story. Props (insulation foam, plaster board and construction adhesive) pro
vide the structure on which a colour-field video is projected, each colour a notional illustration of a specific idea in the wildly fantastical and internally-referential story. Maria Fusco, who hosted a round-table discussion at Project Arts Centre, has also curated a series of kissing-couples: books of fiction and theory, entwined and available to be read in the Project foyer.

A Symposium A Banquet
Sunday May 13, 2007, 5.30pm

Bruce Mau’s ‘Incomplete Manifesto’ describes the ‘in-between’ times as those where the best ideas, or real growth, stem from. This is an attempt to revert to the original meaning of the word ‘symposium’, as a social occasion for the exchange of ideas and shared food and drink by curating an evening of formal and informal knowledge exchanges.

Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces - what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place."

Lectures are being prepared for the evening by an irrational selection of people who will cumulatively provide lessons from a vast array of knowledge disciplines. Ranging from science to fashion and philosophy to sport, the lectures will also undulate in length depending on the speaker and their topic – anywhere between 5 minutes and 40 minutes. Have you ever desired to know how to tear a phonebook in half? What really interests you about the weather? What is the legacy of Chris Burden’s seminal performance action?

Visual Arts at Project Arts Centre are curated by Tessa Giblin.
A Symposium A Banquet is co-produced with Fiona Hallinan.

Please contact Aisling McGrane aisling@project.ie for further information on all exhibitions.

Limited bookings for A Symposium A Banquet at Project Arts Centre, Dublin: +353 (0)1 881 9613/4
http://www.project.ie

For more information go to: http://www.project.ie/cgi-bin/eventdetail.pl?id=548

ZKM | Center for Art and Media

between two deaths & between two deaths: the festival

exhibition: May 12, 2007 through August 19, 2007
festival: May 11 – 12, 2007

ZKM | Center for Art and Media
Lorenzstrasse 19
76135 Karlsruhe, Germany

phone: +49(0)721-8100-1200
info@zkm.de
http://www.zkm.de/betweentwodeaths

between two deaths

This ZKM exhibition, curated by Ellen Blumenstein and Felix Ensslin, will show a critical artistic reflection on the political, social, and cultural trend toward melancholic retrospection. The effects can be felt everywhere: in the expressions of conservative nostalgia, as well as in the social moods of stagnation, depression and anxiety. Boundless pessismism on the one side, state-ordered or self-help optimism on the other seem to be the general call.

In this situation contemporary art is thus read often as an enigmatic answer to a life that is always already traumatic or -with relief- there is talk of the “return of the romantic” understood as sentimentality and avoidance of politics. The positions gathered in “between two deaths” counter this interpretation by showing the current “melancholic” state of subjectivity as a figure that can be fragmented, crossed and passed through.

“between two deaths” shows positions that do not get stuck in the situation of the “exhausted self” (Ehrenberg) or with the “new maladies of the soul” (Kristeva). Each work interrogates the starting point of anxiety and stagnation, thus not denying the diagnosis. But beyond this, the artists reach with and through their work the zone “between two deaths” from where to critique the present and ask the question: What comes after? If people today find themselves in this zone, then the art assembled here shows that in this “land of zombies” there lies an “emancipatory potential” (Zizek).

Participating artists:
Rita Ackermann, Ulf Aminde, Sue de Beer, Walead Beshty, Martin Dam-mann, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Brock Enright, Barnaby Furnas, Luis Gispert & Jeffrey Reed, Nan Goldin, Dan Graham, Nicolás Guagnini, Elín Hansdóttir, Jutta Koether, Terence Koh, Erik van Lieshout, Ján Mancuska, Marlene McCarty, John Miller, Chloe Piene, Adam Putnam, Stephen G. Rhodes, Kirstine Roepstorff, Aïda Ruilova, Florian Slotawa, Javier Téllez, Mark Titchner, Ryan Trecartin, Jennifer West, Charlie White

Catalogue:
A comprehensive catalogue will be published by Hatje-Cantz to accompany the exhibition. It contains contributions by Sonia Arribas & Howard Rouse, Ellen Blumenstein, Alain Ehrenberg, Felix Ensslin, Dan Graham & Robin Hurst, Mika Hannula, Eva Illouz, Doreet LeVitte Harten, John Miller, Laurence Rickels, André Rottmann, Peter Weibel, Slavoj Zizek et al.

Ellen Blumenstein & Felix Ensslin (ed.): “between two deaths”, Hatje-Cantz, 2007, English, 330 p.
ISBN 978-3-7757-2003-8

Opening hours for the exhibition:
Wed-Fri 10am – 6pm
Sat, Sun 11am – 6pm
Mon, Tue closed

between two deaths: the festival

Opening festival for the exhibition project “between two deaths” with performances, film- and videoscreenings, lectures and concerts with Von Spar, Pluramon feat. Julee Cruise, Burning Star Core, Hecker & Haswell, Thomas Brinkmann, Carbonid Solo and DJ Strobocop (among others)

“between two deaths: the festival” takes a new path for art mediation. The dense program of performances, concerts, film- and videoscreenings, presentations, and discussions creates a space of diverse aesthetic experiences, which reveals the artistic positions in the exhibition as the hub of multi-layered contexts.

music In collaboration with the curators of the exhibition musician and composer Marcus Schmickler has put together a musical program. Next to his band Pluramon - with singer Julee Cruise, well known from various David Lynch productions - the line-up will feature DJ Strobocop, Von Spar, Carbonid Solo, Burning Star Core, Hecker & Haswell, and Thomas Brinkmann.

performance From the night of May 11 to May 12, the exhibition “between two deaths” will also be the site of performances specially developed for the festival by participating artists Terence Koh and Brock Enright. Also planned are music performances by the artists Jutta Koether and Rita Ackermann.

film- and videoprogram On Friday, the ZKM_cube will be the location for a videoscreening of works by bankleer, Nathalie Djurberg and Ryan Trecartin. Walead Besthy has conceived an extensive filmscreening titled “After the Ends: Another Coldwar Slumber Party”, which will be presented on Saturday.

lectures On Saturday, talks by participating artists will investigate the exhibition project and related themes, followed by a conversation with the curators Ellen Blumenstein and Felix Ensslin.

Press contact
Irina Koutoudis
phone: +49(0)721-8100-1220
fax: +49(0)721-8100-1139
e-mail: presse@zkm.de

For more information go to: http://www.zkm.de/betweentwodeaths

ART ATHINA

ART ATHINA RESTARTS AND ANNOUNCES NEW PROGRAMME
May 31 to June 3, 2007

Art Athina, Athens’ contemporary art fair, launches its 13th edition from 31st May to 3rd June 2007 (Preview 30th May). Under the auspices and with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Hellenic Art Galleries Association, Art Athina 2007, will take place at the Helexpo Palace, Exhibition and Conference centre. All five floors of the exhibition centre, totalling 8800 square meters, will be given over to Art Athina. The Fair will be under new management with ReStart General Director Michalis Argyrou and Artistic Director Christos Savvidis.

Athens’ contemporary art scene is undergoing a renaissance through the launch of major new arts venues such as the New Benaki Museum, a showcase for Greek Art, and of cutting edge artistic events such as the Thessaloniki Biennial (June 2007) and the Athens Biennial (September 2007). Along with these initiatives, and with the increased support by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Art Athina will be able to both endorse and give a boost to the local market for contemporary art.

Since taking over Art Athina a year ago, General Director Michalis Argyrou, and Artistic Director Christos Savvidis have redeveloped the fair’s format to create an event that will stretch the limits of the contemporary art fair. The fair is organised in three sections: the Basic Plan which will host international contemporary galleries; the Open Plan, an exhibition curated by Cecilia Canziani (Rome) and Sotirios Bahtsezis (Athens) where individual works contributed by cutting edge galleries will be shown; and the Parallel Plan, which provides a platform for a full program of curated exhibitions, performances, exhibitions, talks and encounters which hope to attract collectors and art market specialists, as well as academics, critics and curators from around the world.

Art Athina 2007 aims to set new standards in quality by selecting high profile innovative international contemporary galleries renowned for cutting edge projects. It will establish a platform for exchange by introducing a selection of curated exhibitions, performances and talks. In addition it will mobilize the city’s art spaces and other unique locations so as to extend the platform for art.

Highlights of Art Athina include:
•An invited country: Russia is this year’ s ‘guest’ country and a number of contemporary galleries from Russia will take part. The prestigious Stella Art Foundation (Moscow) will also present a number of projects and publications.

•An offsite exhibition at the Benaki museum: “on Greekdom” showing contemporary Russian artists active after the fall of the Berlin wall, curated by Viktor Misiano.

•A far-reaching VIP program and Collectors Club.

•Open Plan: in this section of the fair’ s program, curators Sotirios Bahtsetzis (Athens) and Cecilia Canziani (Rome), will offer an unprecedented varied selection of artworks providing new opportunities for buyers in comparison to those we normally encounter in art fairs.

•New Arrivals: offers four young contemporary galleries, scheduled to launch in 2007, an opportunity to exhibit alongside more established contemporary galleries.

•Critically in Between: an exhibition on the relationship between ‘art practice’ and the art market, curated by Viktor Misiano.

•Visual Kidnapping: a set of installations, interventions and performances investigating the process of “obtaining a work of art” and the relationship between “possessor” and “possession”, curated by Nadja Argyropoulou.

•I SYGHRONI ELLINIKI SKINI (The Contemporary Greek Scene): a series of performances investigating the Greek arts scene, curated by Nadja Argyropoulou.

•Art Scene - Art Seen: interactive installation by Artemis Potamianou.

•A series of video projections: “Me and the Others” curated by Marina Athanassiadou and Margarita Kataga, and “Entr’acte” curated by George Drivas.

•A site-specific project by the Guerilla Girls, curated by Artemis Potamianou.

•A series of lectures, guided tours, educational programs and seminars.

General Director: Michalis Argyrou
Artistic Director: Christos Savvidis

Under the auspices and with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.
Organising Insitiution: Hellenic Art Galleries Association

Organisation: W-Art
Co-organisation: HELEXPO
Contact: T. +30 210 756 7723; F. +30 210 752 6995; 217 Ymittou str, Mets, 116 32, Athens, Greece.
Email: info@art-athina.com
website: http://www.art-athina.com

Venue: HELEXPO PALACE, Attica Exhibition and Conference Centre, 39 Kifissias Avenue, 151 23 - MAROUSSI, ATHENS, GREECE

Press office, Athens: Alexia Korleti at Art Athina on +30 6944 888 777 or +30 210 7567737 email korleti@art-athina.com

Press Office, London: Arianne Levene at Brunswick Arts on +44 (0) 207 936 1281 email alevene@brunswickgroup.com . Brunswick Arts LLP, 16 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3ED

For more information go to: http://www.art-athina.com

S.M.A.K.

Kendell Geers
‘Irrespektiv’
April 21… August 26, 2007

S.M.A.K.
Museum for Contemporary Art – Ghent, Belgium
Citadelpark
9000 Ghent
Belgium
http://www.smak.be

The ‘IRRESPEKTIV’ exhibition by the South African artist Kendell Geers (b. May 1968) is the first fully-fledged attempt to present an ordered retrospective of a number of themes that run through his work. Much of his work is about exploring – and crossing – boundaries in the broadest sense of the word. These boundaries may be geographical, linguistic, institutional, political, social, sexual, and/or psychological. It is important that the spectator realises this when he looks at Geers’ work and that perhaps he or she will even try to arrive at some sort of self-criticism during the observation to establish where these boundaries lie within him- or herself.

At first sight, in his early work Kendell Geers seems to be the ‘prototype’ of the socially engaged artist of the nineties.

Geers changed his date of birth to May ‘68 – a month that has a heavy emotional charge politically and socially, and he mainly based his work on the South African political situation of the time. Topics like segregation, (un)safety, the suppression of minority groups, racism and universal violence – in short, almost anything that curtails the fundamental freedom of mankind – are not only embedded in his work as such, they also make up its socio-political background.

In ‘IRRESPEKTIV’ a number of these works are brought together in a sort of cabinet space. His almost activist past was collected in showcases where themes like security, safety and delineation form the thread.
This social engagement – that was explicitly politically inspired in his early work – seems to have a more universal character in Geers’ more recent work.

By using minimalist imagery and a well-considered choice of rough (building)materials, which are highly suitable for depicting urban terror or economic violence, Kendell Geers has built up a complex and impressive oeuvre over the past 15 years. A good example of this approach is the monumental work ‘Mondo Kane’, a large minimalist cube pierced with dangerous looking slivers of glass. This work combines formal efficiency (green glass against pure white stone) and political impact (the hint of broken glass on militaristic fencing) with reflections on modern art history (the minimalist cube as an archetype of the movement of the same name, and of the current museological ‘white cube’ or empty and white room).

September 2007: Baltic (Gateshead)
March 2008: Musée d’art Contemporain (Lyon)
End of 2008 – Beginning of 2009 : Mart (Trento)
http://www.kendell-geers.net

From March 17 till June 3 you can visit the solo exhibition ‘Auto-Da-Fé’ of Kendell Geers in B.P.S.22 in Charleroi.

Kendell Geers in S.M.A.K., supported by Allen & Overy:
Allen & Overy LLP is an international legal practice serving companies, banks and public entities from offices in 24 major cities worldwide. ‘Justice for all’ is our approach to pro bono work and sponsoring activities. Allen & Overy LLP is proud to support this thought-provoking Kendell Geers exhibition.

Also on view at S.M.A.K.

Film
Jesper Just
21 April… 24 June 2007

Extra
M for M
With work by Michaël Dörner, Philip Huyghe, Adam Leech, Isa Melsheimer, Aam Solleveld, Herman Van Ingelgem.
21 April… 24 June 2007

Art Now
Clemens Krauss
April 21… May 6, 2007

For more information go to: http://www.smak.be