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skulptur projekte muenster 07

skulptur projekte muenster 07

Panel discussion: Contemporary Sculpture and the Social Turn
with Kasper König, James Lingwood, Maria Pask, Carina Plath, Mark Wallinger, Chair: Achim Borchardt-Hume
Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 6.30 pm
Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium, Bankside, London

http://www.skulptur-projekte.de
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/

Book out now: skulptur projekte muenster 07 – Vorspann
ISBN 978-3-86560-209-1

Join Kasper König and Carina Plath, the curators of the skulptur projekte muenster 07 together with Brigitte Franzen, in a discussion with two of this years participating artistis, Maria Pask and Mark Wallinger, and James Lingwood, director of Artangel. The panel will be chaired by Achim Borchardt-Hume, curator at Tate Modern.

“Contemporary Sculpture and the Social Turn” will take place on Wednesday, 25 April 2007, from 6.30 to 8 pm. Organized by the skulptur projekte muenster 07 in association with Tate Modern, this panel is held in the Starr Auditorium at Tate Modern, Bankside, London.

Tickets will be available for purchase at the door. The panel discussion is supported by Goethe-Institut London.

Out Now: skulptur projekte muenster 07 – Vorspann
Every ten years since 1977, the exhibition Skulptur Projekte examines the relationship between art and public space under the conditions prevailing at a given time and in light of the contemporary concept of a democratic society. Skulptur Projekte is long-term study that always reflects the current zeitgeist. “Art in public space” has now become a genre definition encompassing such aspects as city furnishing and marketing, tourism and image enhancement. Therefore the task of curators should be to reposition the object of investigation and the specific relationship between art and its recipients and to firmly establish it in the experimental field of reality. Thus, for the curators of skulptur projekte muenster 07 the emphasis has shifted from site-specificity to situation- and artist-specificity and to the objective of creating free space. In this sense, skulptur projekte muenster 07 is not a sequel. This year’s exhibition will show how current the format still is today. The
goal is a truly contemporary presentation of artists’ approaches to public space and sculpture. How this occurs and how the participating artists come to terms with their respective objects of investigation are demonstrated in the book “skulptur projekte muenster 07 – Vorspann” with reference to 11 selected projects for skulptur projekte muenster 07.

For all those who cannot join the panel discussion at Tate Modern and had not had the chance to go to one of the previous discussions, “Vorspann” is the ideal reading to get prepared for the skulptur projekte muenster 07, opening to the public on 17 June 2007. “Vorspann” comprises interviews with 12 artists participating in skulptur projekte münster 07, namely Guy Ben-Ner, Martin Boyce, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Marko Lehanka, Eva Meyer/Eran Schaerf, Deimantas Narkevicius, Susan Philipsz, Andreas Siekmann, Silke Wagner, Clemens von Wedemeyer, and Annette Wehrmann. The extensive conversations with the artists about their work, their questions regarding art, public and urban space as well as their individual approaches to Muenster and to the exhibition are complemented by a discussion with Kasper König, Brigitte Franzen, and Carina Plath, the curators of skulptur projekte muenster 07.

skulptur projekte muenster 07 – Vorspann
Edited by Hildegund Amanshauser and Brigitte Franzen
196 pages with numerous b&w illustrations, texts in English and German
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, ISBN 978-3-86560-209-1
The book is available in all bookshops and during the exhibition at various sales points.

For further information please contact:
skulptur projekte muenster 07
c/o LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte
Claudia Miklis, Communication Office
Domplatz 10, 48143 Muenster, Germany
Phone +49-251-59 07 309, Fax +49-251-59 07 158
mail@skulptur-projekte.de, http://www.skulptur-projekte.de

Welcome to the Grand Tour 2007
52nd International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia, Art 38 Basel, documenta 12, skulptur projekte muenster 07 are pleased to invite you to the Grand Tour of the 21st century – through an initiative to support the art travellers.
http://www.grandtour2007.com

For more information go to: http://www.skulptur-projekte.de

AVAM

MADRID PROCESOS 07

Call for artists projects

AVAM (Associated Visual Artists of Madrid) invites proposals for a competition to select eight artistic projects for inclusion in MADRID PROCESOS 07. This competition is part of the activities of CRAC (Coordination of Resources for Contemporary Art), an initiative sponsored by AVAM in order to improve the working conditions for the production and creation of works in the plastic and visual arts.

The maximum amount designated for support is 9.000 €.

Artists of any nationality may participate, regardless of age. Participants must present an original and unpublished project (It may currently be in some phase of production) to be partially, or totally completed during the duration of the grant.

The deadline for applications is May 7, 2007.
For more information please visit http://www.avam.net

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

SculptureCenter, New York

SculptureCenter is pleased to present Christian Tomaszewski’s On Chapels, Caves and Erotic Misery and The Happiness of Objects opening on Sunday, April 29, 2007, 4-6pm.

Christian Tomaszewski
On Chapels, Caves and Erotic Misery
April 29 – July 29, 2007

Since 2004, Christian Tomaszewski has been plunging into the entrails of David Lynch’s cult classic Blue Velvet (1986). Tomaszewski has been meticulously reconstructing parts of the film in real space: exploring the ability of architectural fragments to convey dramatic narrative. Tomaszewski is fascinated by the challenge of superimposing one space and structure onto another: the first, artificially woven together through film editing; the second, a totalizing structure defined by the walls and activities of the exhibition space. Both sets of conventions dissolve in their collision, leading to a third reality, which is a thematic structure in itself.

On Chapels, Caves and Erotic Misery also alludes to Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau and the inexhaustible process of its re-creation. The installation keeps growing and changing with each exhibition and venue. Tomaszewski initiated this project with Luxe Gallery in New York City in 2004 and continued to develop it with Gallery Atlas Sztuki in Lodz, Poland in 2005. A full installation was recently shown at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz in Germany in 2006. The project was most recently on view at Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg in Germany (January 26-March 18, 2007). Tomaszewski evolves and reorganizes the project with each presentation so that each exhibition creates a new, total environment. Completely transforming the lower level of SculptureCenter, Tomaszewski will develop and present the culminating iteration of On Chapels, Caves and Erotic Misery this summer.

For more information, click here to download the full press release.

The Happiness of Objects
Felipe Arturo, Fia Backström, Andrea Blum, Tom Burr, Valentin Carron, Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), Philippe Decrauzat, Sylvie Fleury, Harald Hund & Paul Horn, Craig Kalpakjian, Allan Kaprow, Jutta Koether, Sol LeWitt, John Miller, Olivier Mosset, Nils Norman, Amy O’Neill, Mamiko Otsubo, Ward Shelley (with Pelle Brage, Eva Lacour, Douglas Paulson, Maria Petschnig, Alex Schweder), J. St. Bernard, Haim Steinbach, Lan Tuazon Documents: Wim Delvoye, Robert Indiana & Larry Aldrich, Mel Ramos, Annette Tison & Talus Taylor
Organized by SculptureCenter curator Sarina Basta
April 29 – July 29, 2007

The Happiness of Objects embraces W.J.T. Mitchell’s invitation to consider the possibility that objects have their own desires (What do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images, 2005). While Mitchell focuses on the relationship between the image or object and the viewer, The Happiness of Objects will attempt to capture what objects want from other objects, from the context of their display to potential response to their presence. This necessarily involves a mixture of formal and subjective concerns such as space, light, proximity, hybridization, and life expectancy. Vitrines will display documents that examine pose and objectification, dimensions of scale, and mimesis.

In attempt to crystallize some of the main points of Mitchell’s hypothesis, the exhibition proposes The Object’s Bill of Rights, a non-exhaustive and disputable list. It is also a prelude to considering the object as an autonomous subject within a larger society of objects. At a moment when human rights seem negotiable, The Object’s Bill of Rights is a satirical proposition albeit with a genuine interest in the formal properties and some of the set of relations that art objects engage with.

For more information, click here to download the full press release.

To download The Object’s Bill of Rights click here.

Upcoming Events at SculptureCenter

Mark Dion and Nils Norman Present: Travel the World and the Seven Seas
Tuesday, May 1, 7pm at LIC Bar, 45-58 Vernon Boulevard at 46th Avenue
Join us for a slide slam with Mark Dion and Nils Norman. These established artists and researchers will present their archives, curiosities, and recent endeavors in the warm convivial atmosphere of local favorite LIC Bar.

Print Out Launch
Saturday, May 5, 3pm
Initially created in spring 2003, Print Out is a magazine meant to be compiled by its readers. Composed of artists’ editions, artists’ texts, and sound pieces, the project has taken its current form in 2007 thanks to the support of SculptureCenter. This launch event celebrates the generosity of its contributors: Vito Acconci, Donatos Airtos, Cory Arcangel, Katia Bassanini, Olaf Breuning, The Converters with John Thrupp, Electrophilia, John Giorno, Gareth James, Marie-Eve Jetzer, Carl June, Maria Mirabel, Olivier Mosset, Paul-Aymar Mourgue d’Algue, The New Humans, Nils Norman, Shahrzad, Reena Spaulings, and Kelley Walker.

Yates McKee Presents: The Monstrous
Thursday, June 28, 7pm
Yates McKee is a New York based critic and art historian. He has contributed to publications including October, Flash Art, and the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. McKee will address the aesthetico-political problem of the monstrous in contemporary art. Followed by a screening of Brian De Palma’s Hi, Mom! (1970).

Speak Easy: Readings on the Rocks
Thursday, July 12, 7pm
Bring blankets and snacks for a relaxed summer evening with readings by Ross Cisneros, Sarah Lookofsky, Joanna Malinowska, Jackie McAllister, Adam McEwen, Haley Mellin, Maria Mirabal, Montevideo (Rita Ackerman and Emily Sundblad), Olivier Mosset, Michael Portnoy, Garrett Ricciardi, Michael Smith, Trevor Smith, Agathe Snow, Mindy Vale, and special guests.

For additional information please contact SculptureCenter: (1) 718.361.1750 or info@sculpture-center.org
Media contact: Katie Farrell, kfarrell@sculpture-center.org

About SculptureCenter
Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter is a not-for-profit arts institution dedicated to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture. SculptureCenter commissions new work and presents exhibits by emerging and established, national and international artists. In 2001, SculptureCenter purchased a former trolley repair shop in Long Island City, Queens. This facility, designed by artist/designer Maya Lin, includes 6,000 square feet of interior exhibition space, offices, and outdoor exhibition space.

SculptureCenter
44-19 Purves Street
Long Island City, NY
http://www.sculpture-center.org
(1) 718 361 1750

Directions
7 to 45th Road / Courthouse Square, E or V to 23rd / Ely, or G to Courthouse Square (note: the V train does not run on weekends). From all trains, walk north on Jackson Avenue one block past 44th Drive and turn right onto Purves Street.

SculptureCenter is five minutes from Midtown by subway.

Thanks
SculptureCenter’s programs are supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts; New York City Councilman Eric Gioia; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and The New York State Council on the Arts; as well as The A. Woodner Fund; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Bloomberg; Citibank; The Dedalus Foundation, Inc.; The Jerome Foundation; JPMorgan Chase; The Ken and Judith Joy Foundation; The Kraus Family Foundation; The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; The New York Community Trust; and The Starry Night Fund of the Tides Foundation.

On Chapels, Caves and Erotic Misery is made possible in part by Christopher E. Vroom and the Polish Cultural Institute. Christian Tomaszewski’s project is presented through SculptureCenter’s Artist-in-Residence program, funded by grants from The Kraus Family Foundation, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Happiness of Objects is made possible in part by Jeanne Donovan Fisher, Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council and with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.

For more information go to: http://www.sculpture-center.org

WHY BERLIN !

WHY BERLIN ! No. 9 – Exhibitions in Berlin May – August 2007 and more:

GALLERY-WEEKEND-BERLIN
27 - 30 April 2007 – Save the Date
29 Galleries, 29 Openings. Three Days, Three Nights. Feel Invited.
Fri: 6 – 10 pm;
Sat, Sun and Mon 11 am – 6 pm
http://www.gallery-weekend-berlin.de

20 April - 20 August 2007
Gerwald Rockenschaub
Fred Thieler Award for Painting 2007

20 July - 9 October 2007
Masterpieces of the Graphic Collection

Berlinische Galerie
Alte Jakobstrasse 124-128, Berlin-Kreuzberg
Wed - Mon 10 am - 6 pm, closed on Tue
http://www.berlinischegalerie.de

ddm warehouse

52nd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

Migration Addicts
Curated by Biljana Ciric, Karin Gavassa

Urban interventions, Venice
6th through 15th June 2007

Opening party (by invitation) on June 7th 2007, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., at Orange Restaurant and Champagne Lounge, Campo Santa Margherita, featuring Rizman Putra The Hyperbolic Alpha Male performance, and Giorgio Pulini aka RACH3 live dj set.

Participating artists and sites: Htein Lin, (Myanmar), Campo San Barnaba; Jin Shan, (China), Campo San Polo; Li Pinghu, (China), Campo San Salvatore; Huang Kui, (China), Campo San Maurizio; Miljohn Ruperto, (Philippines / USA), Campo Sant’Angelo; Josefina Posch, (Sweden / USA), Campo Santo Stefano; Mogas Station, (Vietnam), Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Piazza San Marco, 48,49,50; TODO, (Italy), the town - starting point at Chiostro Ex Chiesa Santi Cosma e Damiano, Giudecca, 620; Belén Cerezo, (Spain), Campo San Bortolomio; Yap Sau Bin, (Malaysia), Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Piazza San Marco, 48,49,50; Hasan Elahi, (Bangladesh / USA), Campo Santa Margherita, Dorsoduro, 3054; Rizman Putra, (Singapore), Orange Restaurant & Champagne Lounge, Santa Margherita, Dorsoduro, 3054.

Migration Addicts began as an ongoing project two years ago in Shanghai, investigating how migration re-determines issues related to human identity, gender and spiritual needs. The fast expansion of urban spaces, following the model of big cities, has led to new social conflicts within the social structure.

Recently the tension between Western and Chinese traditional values and lifestyles, as well as the late arriving of capitalism and the persisting communism, have not hindered the Chinese impulse towards assimilating the “international standards”, while fostering its own economic development.

The project is touching upon topics which concern not only Shanghai but many other expanding Asian and Western cities. The structure of the exhibition is based on a series of interventions that will take place throughout the public space in Venice, articulating new perspectives entrenched directly in the urban environment, and methodologically operating in time and in space.

The exhibition investigates the questions of temporal and spatial strategies which deal with this situation. On political and aesthetic levels, these projects interact with people from outside artistic circles opening to the encounter with the unknown viewer, expanding the idea of art and its experience, to continue an engagement with the public sphere.

Venice is currently undergoing profound changes with respect to the urban landscape and its own future depends on the new structure it undertakes. More and more Venetians are leaving the lagoon to settle in other towns. In the next 30-40 years, it is certain that Venice’s population will be dramatically reduced.

The artists participating in Migration Addicts face through their own culture and artistic practices the topic of migration, providing a direct relationship with the public space where the exhibition is hosted, reflecting on the peculiarities of the territory, investigating differences and possible points in common.

Presented and organized by ddm warehouse, Shanghai, China

Collaborator:
Vision

Sponsors:
New Margin Ventures
ShanghArt Gallery, Shanghai
Creative Capital Foundation
Oriental Vista Art Collections
CCAA
N.O. Gallery-CONTEMPORARY ART, Milano

Media partner
DROME magazine
www.ionly.com.cn
art in culture
Art China
Art World
universes-in-universe.de
art.mofile.com
art monthly

Special thanks:
Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Venezia.
Stefano Coletto and the Atelier of Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia.
Galleria d’Arte Santo Stefano, Venezia.

Please check http://www.ddmwarehouse.org for updates.

For more information please contact:

biljana.ciric@gmail.com
karin.gavassa@gmail.com

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

Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci

ANASTASIA KHOROSHILOVA,
ISLANDERS 2003-2006

Prato, 24 March – 20 May 2007
Opening 24 March, 5 pm

Exhibition curated by Stefano Pezzato

Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci
Viale della Repubblica 277 – Prato Italy
Open daily 10am-7pm, closed Tuesday
Entrance: free
For information: tel. +39 0574 5317
http://www.centropecci.it

The Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci is pleased to present Islanders 2003-2006, the first solo show in Italy of the Russian photographer Anastasia Khoroshilova.

A selection of 27 works, from four different series, will be displayed as a special project in the Theatre Room.

The young Russians photographed by Khoroshilova in their surroundings (rooms, corridors, gyms) or against neutral backgrounds (anonymous interiors, gardens) are automatically transposed to a general level of abstraction. The ‘meetings’ Khoroshilova set up, on her trips to Russia during and after her years studying at Duisburg/Essen University, have a documentary objectivity: the essential characteristics of samples of subjects in spontaneous poses that are never pre-established, facing the camera.

Khoroshilova’s portraits are immediately recognisable on account of the uniform: trainee dancers at the State Academy of Choreography (2003), young fighters at the gym Sambo 70 (2005) or young women in military uniform of 9.5% Plus (2005). They are members of institutions/symbols that echo a recent past of glorious achievement, success and power, now reduced to the role of Islanders, whose individual life begins where their collective identity ends; their identity is inexhorably fixed, as in photography, in the present. Not knowing anything about their personal lives, nor what their future holds, they appear to us to be clinging to the certainty of belonging, to the protection of the group and of history.

In the portraits of the last series Toys (2006) uniform is flanked by the presence of toys or games which reveal the simple child-like side of the subjects. The playful dimension on which the portraits draw, without the photographer suggesting as much, is the only possibility that the subjects possess to construct an identity, to be themselves.

In the private relationship with her subject, Khoroshilova records the person in front of her lens without passing judgment of any kind or resorting to lyricism or sentimentality. It is rather that her photographs tend to reveal the paradox that the subject of her portraits coincides with the ‘function’ or the place in which they are set, but behind this lies hidden great humanity suffused with emotions, needs, desires, fears, suffering and hope. There is no evidence of all this in the photography, only a latent evocation.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue (Italian/English) with essay by the curator, Stefano Pezzato. Published by Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci.

Anastasia Khoroshilova, born in 1978 in Moscow, actually lives in Cologne.
Member in “The Russian Union of Art Photographers” since 1997, she graduated at the Photographic Department - University Duisburg/Essen.
She had solo shows at Ernst Hilger Gallery, Vienna; Fucares Gallery, Madrid; Museum Sacharov-Center, Moscow; Bumpodo Gallery, Tokyo; Klementinum, Prague; Corkin Shopland Gallery, Toronto; The State Russian Museum (Marble Palace), St. Petersburg.

Exhibition tour
Kunsthalle Lingen, 22 July – 23 September 2007

For more information go to: http://www.centropecci.it

pan palazzo delle arti napoli

Heroes! Like Us…?
April 5th –June 26th 2007

Marina Abramovic, AES + F, Boisseau/Westermeyer, Anton Corbijn, Kathryn Cornelius, Marco Giovani, Charlotte Ginsborg, Ilya Kabakov, Peter Kees, Sigalit Landau, Yerbossyn Meldibekov, Trine Neesdrad, Emily Prince, Tom Sanford, Nedko Solakov, Pierrik Sorin, Adrian Tranquilli, Sislej Xhafa, Hu Yang

Talking about heroes nowadays may seem out of place, at the most it could appear romantic. But have we left the time of heroes behind us? Is it really all over?

Modern sociology labels our era "post-heroic" though. Ours is an age where there is a growing need to develop group strategies; the “us” is becoming more and more important.

The very same sociology teaches us that human beings need models to follow. And so now we find that film, TV stars, sportsmen have replaced erstwhile heroes.

But they are figures with no specific temporal or geographic context. The product of this frenzied fantasy features characters that reflect our dreams but are unable to heal our faith in real heroism.

pan palazzo delle arti napoli
via dei mille 60
80122 napoli
+39 081 795 86 43
http://www.palazzoartinapoli.net

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

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