Artipedia - Arts News

Okay Mountain

Basim Magdy:
The Common Deceit of Reality
Curated by Regine Basha
at Okay Mountain, Austin
April 21st – May 26th, 2007
http://www.okaymountain.com

In conjunction with The Common Deceit of Reality, a series of drawings called A Cunning Plan have been disseminated in The Okay Mountain, Reader; ARTLIES issue no. 53 and the May/June issue of ART PAPERS. ART PAPERS launches this issue, which includes a specially designed 6-page spread of Magdy’s work, on April 21st at Okay Mountain, Austin.
See http://www.artpapers.org

"The rarest and most precious knowledge is not that which is imposed, but rather, that which is absorbed, inhaled almost, from the ephemeral substance of the world in which we are contained." The Charter of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Information.

"Well, I’m a romantic, so I always wanted them to exist. . . ."
Jane Goodall

"Lotta ins, lotta outs, lottta what-have-yous….."
The Dude. The Big Lebowski

In his new piece made specifically for Okay Moutain, ‘Mud Pools or how we got ourselves to look for Bigfoot Heaven’, Magdy explores an imagined evolution of -not the elusive Sasquatch himself- but the search for Bigfoot and scientists’ productive failure at the attempts at verifying his existence. As is characteristic of Magdy’s installation work, the joyful mania is embedded in the tiny details of found and made objects, reminiscent of the beloved care taken at the Museum for Jurassic Technology. A trailer camping out in the dim gallery provides speculative evidence of a botched scientific discovery that develops into to an epic tale of mythic proportions set in the not too distant future. As zealots, the cryptozoologists go to extreme lengths to authenticate their belief in the ’soft evidence’ (hair samples, footprint, eyewitness accounts) related to Bigfoot. Soon their investment in this desire trumps empirical reasoning and submerges them into a parallel reality of meta-m
eaning, auto-surveillance and paranoia. The whole mess feels vaguely familiar.

From this cryptozoological vantage point, Magdy looks to our current culture of myth production. Magdy’s drawings and installations playfully mirror our media culture’s regurgitation of simplistic primal fear, wholesale heroism and canned hope for the future. His primary target is the increasingly blurry co-production of war reporting and entertainment news recognized in his work as the most sinister producer of myth. In his illustrious drawings, becoming known for their 80s-inflected neon spray-paint, or clunky pixilations, devilish creatures, naif ape-men and half-breeds run amok or engage in simplistic activities. Other images reappear throughout the work, such as the fallen astronaut, a stand-in for melancholic alter-egos and failed dreams of progress and civility.

Considering the bleak scenario Magdy portrays, all is not dismal. The colorful levity, satirical bent and penchant for absurdity bring to mind the kind of antics only Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park could dream up - offering up smart and hilarious critique through the back door.

Also on view in the Okay Mountain backyard is: ‘In the Grave of Intergalactic Utopia’, the artist’s seminal outdoor installation with a fallen astronaut that recently appeared at Newman Popiashvilli. With these two installations, an inversion of the backyard and the gallery space will happen for the first time at Okay Mountain

Materials in the exhibition include:
Waferboard, hay bails, lumber, chicken wire, vinyl letters, Skamper trailer, binoculars, rifle, fake tranquilizer dart, a set of playing cards, wood chips, clock radio, broken satellite dish, full gorilla costume, Bigfoot footprint cast, tree logs, diagrams and drawings, Bigfoot teeth, Bigfoot jaw, Bigfoot hair samples in a glass jar, notebook, map, walkie talkies, pine cones, leftover food, ashtray, camouflage netting, two bird nests, a casserole of beans, paper plates, cotton, full astronaut outfit, live goldfish, small trees, stones, burnt wood, lentil sprouts, inverted 5-gallon water container, inverted water bottle, animal and astronaut figurines, fan, dog bowl, butterfly specimens, 3 eggs, bug zapper, taxidermy rooster, taxidermy white hen, spray-painted clay sculpture, blankets, pillows, fire extinguisher, photographs, sneakers, cigarette butts, simulated surveillance camera and more.

Basim Magdy lives and works in Cairo and is represented by Newman Popiashvili Gallery in New York and Townhouse Gallery in Cairo.

Special thanks to: ART PAPERS, Fluent~Collaborative, Don Mullins Jr., Eva Buttacavoli, Patrick Martin, Studio 512, Mike Chesser, Mel Zeigler, Livia Berner and Newman Popiashvilli Gallery.

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

Vzw Beeldend

Stefano Cagol, Harajuku Influences
Charta Ed., Milan/New York, April 2007
Texts by Stefan Bidner, Angelique Campens,
David Elliott, Andrea Lissoni, Roberto Pinto
128 Pages, 158 Images
English, Japanese, Italian
ISBN 88-8158-618-5

Book Launch at artbrussels:
Stefano Cagol and Angelique Campens in conversation
+ video screening
April 23, 2007, 4 pm
Brussels Expo, Conference Room, Hall 11
http://www.artbrussels.be/debates.htm

Angelique Campens talks with Stefano Cagol about his last publication for which she wrote the text "Manipulated Environment". Other contributions are by Stefan Bidner, David Elliott, Andrea Lissoni and Roberto Pinto.

The book records Stefano Cagol’s last year projects: his search based on contemporary influences, physical and mental, positive and negative influences. The artist has been developing his in-depth study on the muted barycenters of contemporary society in fact by offering a never univocal point of view. The same points of influence are nowadays infinite, we are continuously influenced, easily influenced, as a mass, not as single beings, by fashion, politics, religion, sex, oil, reality-TV-shows…

This Cagol’s research started with his trip through Europe into the mental and physical influences that were collected into the Bird Flu / Vogelgrippe installation/action in Auguststrasse in Berlin for the 4th. Berlin Biennale. His invitation to ZOO logical garden curated by Angelique Campens, a project/exhibition into the Harry Malter zoological park in Ghent (together with Johan Grimonprez, Superflex, David Shirgley, Anri Sala, and others) followed. Thereafter, in a locked sequence, his Power Station public art satellite project at Singapore Biennale 06, where Cagol was the only Italian presence. Then, his work in progress Harajuku Influences in Tokyo in September 2006, a collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute and the natural sequel of his previous permanence in Tokyo in 2004. Tokyo is in fact the metropolis par excellence suspended at the extreme among contradictions, past and future, East and West, and Harajuku is the name of a symbolic quarter in Tokyo.

All the afore-mentioned projects by Stefano Cagol will be presented with a video screening upon the occasion of his book launch.

Until April 25 in Tokyo: Stefano Cagol’s artworks are on view in the solo exhibition The flu ID at NADiff – New Art Diffusion, where the book was presented at the opening with a conversation between Yuka Uematsu, chief curator, MIMOCA – Marugame Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art in Kagawa, Japan and the artist. This exhibition is also part of the Primavera Italiana festival in Tokyo, as only contemporary art event.

The book launch is part of the artbrussels program http://www.artbrussels.be/debates.htm

The presentation is made in collaboration with Vzw Beeldend (Platform voor Actuele Kunst), a Flemish non-profit organization for contemporary art http://www.beeldend.be

The previous presentation of the book took place at NADiff – New Art Diffusion, Tokyo in occasion of Stefano Cagol’s solo exhibition http://www.nadiff.com

The web site of the artist http://www.stefanocagol.com
For further information, please, contact angeliquecampens@telenet.be

For more information go to: http://www.artbrussels.be/debates.htm

Lisbon Architecture Triennale

Lisbon Architecture Triennale
31st May to 31st July

For further information: http://www.trienaldelisboa.com

The Lisbon Architecture Triennale, happening between May 31st and July 31st, aims to become a ‘Festival’ of architecture, participated by the local community and able to attract an international audience. In this initiative by the Architects’ Guild – South Region Section, where some of the most relevant authors and thinkers of today’s world will interact, Portuguese Architecture will be pretext for an important global forum dedicated to the reflection, debate, prospecting and display of Architecture, from the building to the city and territory planning.

Architecture is one of the most vibrant fields of Culture in Portugal, with a wide international renown and considered as strategic sector for the affirmation of Portugal in the international context.

The 1st edition of the Triennale will have as theme “Urban Voids”, focusing on rarefaction or urban rupture phenomena, generated by processes of decay and physical and social degradation in city areas.

These are expectant spaces, more or less abandoned, more or less limited at the heart of the traditional city, or more or less undefined at the diffuse peripheries. They are spots of “non-city”, absent places, ignored or not used anymore, aliens or survivors to any territory-structuring systems.

In many cities of the world, these “Urban Voids” are under questioning and debate. New intervention concepts and strategies, models for functionality and management are being planned, as well as platforms for public/private interaction.

Considering this setting, the Lisbon Triennale intends to analyse, debate and contrive solutions, suggestions, means and instruments for intervention. All the actors will have a voice at the forum’s stages: architects, city planners, landscape architects, and other authors and thinkers, as well as administration entities, investors, promoters and building companies involved with the transformations projected for the Lisbon and Oporto metropolises.

The future of the main cities and urban territories of the planet greatly depends upon the destiny of these “Urban Voids”. And with these, it also comes the time to think and plan a 21stcentury Lisbon.

The Lisbon Triennale’s head office will be the Portugal Pavillion, designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira, a paradigmatic reference of portuguese and international contemporary architecture, where most of the major exhibitions will take place in its 3000m2 of exhibiting area. A set of other exhibitions will happen in other points of the city, crossing borders with the visual arts, music, cinema and other fields that have strong connections with architecture.

The International Architecture Conference The Heart of the City will be the main opening event of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, joining, from 31st May to 2nd Juin, over 30 international guests involved in the reflection of the contemporary city as practicing architects, urban planners, artists, architecture critics, philosophers and historians.

Paying homage to the CIAM 8 motto “The Heart of the City”, held in Hoddesdon in 1951, the theme of the conference aims to provoke a debate on the undergoing mutations in the definition of the contemporary city.

Zaha Hadid, Pritzker Award winner 2004, Peter Eisenman, professor at the University of Yale, Mark Wigley, director of the University of Columbia in New York, Kurt Foster, director of the Architecture Biennal of Venice in 2004, the Portuguese Eduardo Souto de Moura and João Luís Carrilho da Graça, the spanish Mansilla and Tuñón and North-American Diller & Scofidio + Renfo, are some of the participants.

The conference will also be counting on the attendances of Elisabeth Diller, of the Diller & Scofidio+Renfro, from New York, Bjarke Ingels, of the Big Architects from Copenhagen, Emílio Tuñón, of the Mansilla e Tuñón, from Madrid, Jan Kaplicky, of the British Future Systems and the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, amongst many others. Amongst the portuguese, the attendances of the architects Carrilho da Graça, João Pedro Serôdio, Pedro Gadanho and Manuel Graça Dias are confirmed.

Press contact:
Margarida Portugal
T +351 213 241 156
F +351 213 241 169/70
Tm +351 936207900
trienal.comunicacao@oasrs.org

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