Artipedia - Arts News

Gallery at REDCAT, Los Angeles

REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)

UNKNOWN FORCES: APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL
Opening reception: April 18, 6 – 9pm
Artist’s talk at 6:30pm
Exhibition dates: April 19 –
June 17, 2007

http://www.redcat.org

In UNKNOWN FORCES, commissioned by REDCAT, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has invited two of his regular actors – Sakda Kaewbuadee from Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century, FAITH, and numerous shorts; and Jenjira Pongpas, from Blissfully Yours, Iron Pussy, and Syndromes and a Century – to travel on a pickup truck along a highway. According to Weerasethakul, “The act is a tribute to our land and our countrymen after the political maelstrom of 2006.” This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., and the world premiere of the four-channel installation.

Says Weerasethakul, “UNKNOWN FORCES is also for the hard workers and hard drinkers of the northeast, my home region, who are the root of Thailand’s booming real estate. These construction workers are hauled around by contractors from one construction site to another, roaming cities and villages. Thailand’s landscape is shaped by these nomadic souls on pickup trucks. Like many actors I know, the workers have resided in a hierarchic system for so long that they are voiceless and are assigned to be part of an apolitical species…On many occasions I feel I am part of this pickup truck syndrome, fueled by a strange cocktail of politics, monarchy, and religion.”

Internationally recognized for his work in experimental and narrative cinema including Mysterious Objects at Noon (2000), Blissfully Yours (2002), Tropical Malady (2004) and Syndromes and a Century (2006), Weerasethakul’s films explore perception, impermanence, and the imaginary, cultivating fanciful potential within the mundane. Urban, rural, and galactic locations accentuate the aloneness of man in his environment and isolation from others. Abstract interchanges in Weerasethakul’s film and video installations interrogate conventions of the dramatic narrative while exploring desire, reality, and a kind of melancholy perhaps peculiar to our times. His exhibition at REDCAT includes June screenings of several feature and short films in the theater (see schedule below).

Unknown Forces: Apichatpong Weerasethakul is funded in part by the Asian Cultural Council; Camera Corner, Bangkok; North Star World, Bangkok; and Siamlite Film Service, Bangkok. Additional support provided by James Thompson Foundation, Bangkok; R23; and Smallroom, Bangkok.

Weerasethakul Screenings June 4, 6, 8, & 9, 8pm:
Mon, June 4: Mysterious Object at Noon, 2000 (35mm/screened on DVD, TRT: 83 mins)
Wed, June 6: Blissfully Yours, 2002 (35mm film, TRT: 125 mins)
Fri, June 8: Recent short works –
Anthem, 2006 (35mm, 5 mins)
FAITH, 2006 (video, 11 mins)
Ghost of Asia, 2005 (video, 8:30 mins)
Worldly Desires, 2005 (video, 40 mins)
Luminous People, 2007 (video, 15:22 mins)
Sat, June 9: Tropical Malady, 2004 (35mm film, TRT: 118 mins)

Gallery hours: noon–6 pm or curtain, closed Mondays
All screenings subject to change, please go to http://www.redcat.org or call +1.213.237.2800 to confirm screenings and to order tickets.

REDCAT
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012 USA

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

Museum Ludwig

Manfred Pernice, Haldensleben …
Projektraum DC:
21 April to 19 August 2007

Museum Ludwig
Bischofsgartenstr. 1
50667 Köln
Tel: 49-221-221-26165
Fax: 49-221-221-24114
info@museum-ludwig.de
http://www.museenkoeln.de/museum-ludwig/

Manfred Pernice’s sculptural works use as their starting point spaces (such as industrial plants, canals, high rises, metro stations or dykes) and vessels (such as cans or containers), whose forms are defined by their respective functions. Since the memory of these functions persists, when Pernice pieces these forms together into new constellations in the exhibition space using plywood and other materials, he produces not only complex structures but also correspondingly dense webs of associations, which also draw in the artist’s own photographs, drawings and documentation.

For the exhibition series in DC:-Saal, Pernice has devised a suite of new and older pieces, including "Haldensleben" 2005, and “Bibette headland” from 1999, which bring him full circle to his earlier works. As a result, the project space will also provide a fascinating insight into the developments in Pernice’s work.

Manfred Pernice has sometimes continued to develop his works over the years. One piece he will be exhibiting at Museum Ludwig, Haldensleben, was created in 2005, but now the cube will be augmented by the addition of flowerpots and a flight of steps on the outside. On show inside of this walk-in work will be a variety of documents and pictures recording the small town of Haldensleben, which is close to Magdeburg. The town is home to a workshop for ceramics, a material Pernice also likes to work with.

The piece “Bibette headland” from 1999 forges a link to Manfred Pernice’s earlier works. “Bibette headland” interlocks the space inside and the space outside in a variety of ways. A series of orifices grant a view of the room inside. The work may be entered, and also features a series of photos.

Manfred Pernice was born 1963 in Hildesheim. After first studying graphics and painting at Brunswick, he went on to study sculpture in Berlin at the Hochschule der Künste. He lives and works in Berlin. In 2002 he was exhibited at the documenta 11, and in 2003 he was represented at the Utopia Station at the Venice Biennale; this year he is a participant in the sculpture projects muenster.

Contact:
Annegret Buchholtz
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Bischofsgartenstraße 1, 50667 Köln
Telefon 0221 - 221 - 23491
Telefax 0221 - 221 - 24114
buchholtz@museum-ludwig.de

For more information go to: http://www.museenkoeln.de/museum-ludwig/

CCA WATTIS

THE CALIFORNIA FILES:
RE-VIEWING SIDE EFFECTS OF CULTURAL MEMORY

April 19–June 23, 2007

CCA WATTIS INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS
1111 Eighth Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Phone: 415.551.9210
http://www.wattis.org
Gallery hours: Tues. and Thurs., 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; Wed., Fri., and Sat., 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; closed Sun. and Mon.

Participants: Craig Baldwin, Sandow Birk, Andrea Bowers, Kaucyila Brooke, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Abigail Child, Sunah Choi, Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda, the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Cultural Center, Harun Farocki, Jill Godmilow, Jack Goldstein, Karl Holmqvist, William E. Jones, Helen Kim, Nina Könnemann, Jesse Lerner, Jenny Perlin, the Prelinger Library & Archives, Miljohn Ruperto, Susan Schwartzenberg, Allan Sekula, Danh Vo, Clemens v. Wedemeyer, and Christine Würmell

Curated by Ariane Beyn

The California Files: Re-Viewing Side Effects of Cultural Memory examines how the use and reuse of documents and artifacts can allow cultural attributions to shift, exposing less-obvious aspects of cultural memory. The exhibition brings together artists who utilize archival materials in their work or whose documentary practices echo an archival approach; it also features selections from a number of self-organized archival initiatives.

The California Files investigates the idea and reality of California as a place that lacks a fixed identity and is occupied with its own history and reinvention. The exhibition focuses on idiosyncratic details of Californian culture through a variety of documentation practices and methods.

A booklet designed by Karl Holmqvist, one of the participating artists, will accompany the presentation. To receive a free copy while supplies last, please email your name and mailing address to californiafiles@cca.edu.

Lead sponsorship for The California Files is provided by the Fleishhacker Foundation. Founding support for CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts programs has been provided by Phyllis C. Wattis and Judy and Bill Timken. Generous support provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and CCA Curators Forum.

Ariane Beyn is an art historian and independent curator based in Berlin. She has published numerous essays on contemporary art and film and has taught at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. She has curated several exhibitions, including Hearing Aid (about the sound work of Michael Snow) at Galerie Klosterfelde and Kunst-Werke, Berlin, in 2002, and the group exhibition Transatlantic Impulses at Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, in 2005. Beyn was an assistant curator for Utopia Station at the 2003 Venice Biennale. In 2007 she will curate exhibitions at Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany, and Atelier Frankfurt, Germany.

Established in 1998, the CCA Wattis Institute serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of local, national, and international contemporary art and culture. Through exhibitions, the Capp Street Project residency program, lectures, symposia, performances, and publications in the fields of art, architecture, and design, the Wattis Institute fosters interaction among the students and faculty of California College of the Arts; art, architecture, and design professionals; and the general public.

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