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Institute of Contemporary Arts

Memorial to the Iraq War

Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
23 May – 27 June 2007

Lida Abdul / Marc Bijl / Christoph Büchel / Tony Chakar / Yael Davids / Jeremy Deller / Sam Durant / Chris Evans / Matias Faldbakken /
Liam Gillick / Natascha Sadr Haghighian / Iman Issa / Sanja Ivekovic / Erik van Lieshout / Nate Lowman / Michaela Meise / Roman Ondák / Michael Patterson-Carver with Harrell Fletcher / Khalil Rabah / Collier Schorr / Vahid Sharifian / Sean Snyder / Jalal Toufic / Klaus Weber /
Keith Wilson

The ICA has invited an international group of artists to make proposals for a memorial to the Iraq War. These memorials address topics such as the invasion and occupation of the country, the conflict’s relation to the War on Terror, Iraq’s slide towards civil war, and the deaths of soldiers and civilians. The Lancet estimated that by July 2006 the number of Iraqi deaths – both combatant and civilian – that could be directly or indirectly attributed to the war was over 650,000. The war has also caused the deaths of over 3,300 soldiers from America, over 140 from Britain and over 120 from the other past and present Coalition countries.

Some of the artists in the exhibition have produced new works, including sculptures, videos and photographs, while others have produced proposals for as-yet-unrealised memorials, often pushing at the boundaries of the possible. The intention is not to find a definitive memorial to a war – a difficult task at any time, and especially in the context of an ongoing conflict. Instead the exhibition explores different views of the Iraq War, and different perspectives on what can or should be memorialised. The ICA’s location on the Mall, in the heart of Westminster and in the area of London most dense with monuments, makes this venue especially appropriate for an exhibition of this sort.

A programme of events will accompany the exhibition, including:
• a performance staged by Yael Davids (9 and 23 June)
• gallery talks (2 and 16 June)
• a walking tour of local monuments, devised by Tim Brennan (3 June)
• a conversation with the novelist and political commentator Ahdaf Soueif, followed by a lecture by architect Eyal Weizman (23 June)
• a film programme devised by the curator Mai Abu ElDahab (16, 17, 23 and 24 June)

See website for full details - http://www.ica.org.uk/

For Further information, Please contact:
Natasha Plowright,
Head of Press
ICA Press Office
Tel: 020 7766 1404
Email: natashap@ica.org.uk

Memorial to Iraq is kindly supported by The Henry Moore Foundation and the Mondriaan Foundation.
Media Partner The Independent.

For more information go to: http://www.ica.org.uk/

RM Palaniappan, Untitled, Water colour on paper, 30×22 ins, 2007

Palaniappan Rm (1957) is a leading and internationally acclaimed graphic artist from the southern part of India who lives and works in Chennai.

His contribution to graphics as a medium is widely explored throughout his art, with references to the realm of sciences, with particular emphasis on engineering subjects such as astrophysics and aeronautics. Fascinated by the concept of numbers, finite as well as infinite, static as well as mobile, Palaniappan focuses on the experience of the interaction of space, time and environment.

His latest work involves the viewer in a dialogue between the dominant graphic lines and their surrounding environment. Gallery Sumukha, based in Bangalore, India is bringing this most recent set of drawings by Rm. Palaniappan to London. The series, entitled “The Ultimate Reality” will be on view at the Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street (tel: 020 74091255), from the 21st – 26th May.

Palaniappam has been awarded several international prizes and residencies such as the Fulbright Grant of the US Educational Dept., Charles Wallace India Trust Grant; International Visitorship programme of USIS; Senior Fellowship, Govt. of India and the National Award, International Prints Biennales of Bhopal and Taiwan.

He has been shown internationally through galleries and museums, and his works are in prestigious collections including the National Gallery of Modern Art and Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi; the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum in London; Oxford University, Cincinnati Art Museum; Tamarind Institute, and Library of Congress, Washington – USA; Taipei Art Museum, Taiwan and Boras Museum, Sweden, among others.

Exhibition form May 21 to 26
Mon-Sat
11.00 - 18.00
PV May 22, 18.30-20.30 invite

The Air Gallery
32 Dover Street
London
W1S 4NE
+44(0)20 7409 1255
sumukhalondon@gmail.com
www.sumukha.com

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK)

Artur Zmijewski – Selected Works

Opening: Friday, May 18th, 2007, 7 pm
Duration: May 19th to June 24th, 2007
Opening hours: Tue - Fri 12 to 6 pm, Sat + Sun 2 - 6 pm

Curator: Kathrin Becker, Video-Forum

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK)
Chausseestr. 128/129
10115 Berlin
http://www.nbk.org

“The reason was, that there is absolutely no reason at all, that one should be interested in these (…) women, and there is definitely less of a reason to make a film about them.”
Artur Zmijewski

Artur Zmijewski (born 1966 in Warsaw) is counted as one of Poland’s most renowned contemporary artists. In 2005, the photo and video artist represented the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and is one of the artists that have been named to participate prior to this year’s Documenta 12 announcement. The Video-Forum of the NBK honors his work with a comprehensive solo exhibition in Berlin.

Artur Zmijewski references with his works to suppressed (displaced) individuals and societal trauma. He pokes his finger into the open wounds to incite political discussions. Upon the first glance, Zmijewski´s images appear merely documentary, however the analytical staging of the artist becomes clearly recognizable through the selection of images during the editing process. Zmijewski does not shy away from putting the generally accepted rules of “Political Correctness” into question, yet his camera lingers on those very places in the art production which often become an oversight because of a conscious intent of avoidance or of mere carelessness. So far Zmijewski’s work about mentally and physically handicapped people has called wide public attention.

For the Berlin exhibition “Selected Works” Zmijewski produced ten films with the theme work. The Berlin works “Ursula”, “Patricia”, and “Dieter”, developed in co-production between the artist and the Video-Forum and (like the Sicilian produced works with “Aldo”, “Giuseppe“, and “Salvatore” as well as "Yolanda" from Juarez, Mexico) will be exhibited for the first time in public. In addition to these debut works, the Polish produced videos “Danuta”, “Dorata”, and “Halina” will also be shown. Adjacent to the ten video pieces dealing with the theme Work, a “study room” with older work of Artur Zmijewski will also be exhibited.

For every film, the artist follows a person 24 hours long, whereupon he cuts 15 to 18 minutes out of the selected material. It was not only filmed in the work place but also in their private everyday life, the way to work, in the supermarket, sleeping. The scenes do not follow any linear proceedings, instead images from their professional life are interchanged back-to-back with takes of them shopping or in the kitchen.

With the “Selected Works” the artist is neither concerned about socio-political agitation nor about the mediacy of objective truths nor scientific findings. He attempts to give the recipient, the traditional elitist middle class art observer, another perspective of the workers, instead of what they would commonly believe that they have no desire or pursuit of an interesting job and are unable to conduct an interesting conversation. However, Zmijewski claims it to be “worthwhile to be interested in this grey cold material, that fills the societal cosmos and snidely is labeled as “mainstream”. They are the mainstream and therefore in a “class of their own”.

For the exhibition a catalog will be published from Revolver Publishers with essays by Artur Zmijewski, Richard Sennett and Kathrin Becker, as well as conversations between the artist and Sebastian Cichocki, Roma Piotrowska and Maks Bochenek.

The Project is kindly supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie under the recommendation of Regierender Bürgermeisters von Berlin - Senatskanzlei - Kulturelle Angelegenheiten.

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

REYKJAVIK ART MUSEUM – KJARVALSSTADIR

MAGMA
19 MAY – 26 AUGUST 2007

REYKJAVIK ART MUSEUM – KJARVALSSTADIR

The most comprehensive exhibition of Icelandic contemporary design to date, MAGMA includes furniture, clothing, lighting, jewelry, architecture, textile, technical innovations, and cuisine. The exhibition opens at Reykjavik Art Museum – Kjarvalsstadir on 19 May 2007, during the Reykjavik Arts Festival, and will remain on display through 26 August 2007.

The object of the exhibition is to illuminate the impact of design on our immediate environment and to bring design’s multiform expressions to attention. Design affects all of us in diverse ways and often the form and structure of objects harbor a long and interesting history which can’t be discerned from appearances. MAGMA reflects on these themes through the design preeminent in Iceland today. The title of the exhibition refers to the simmering creative energy that characterizes the current moment in Icelandic design, in both its theoretical and material aspects.

More than eighty of Iceland’s most progressive designers take part in MAGMA. Five designers have created innovative works especially for the exhibition, ranging from floor heaters to a dress made out of led. A finely crafted book on Icelandic contemporary design will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

The curator of MAGMA, Guorún Lilja Gunnlaugsdóttir, is in a unique position to lead us into the world of contemporary Icelandic design. She is an internationally acclaimed designer herself and the winner of the 2006 Icelandic Visual Arts Award.

MAGMA is sponsored by Straumur–Burdarás Investment Bank. The exhibition is a joint project of The Reykjavik Museum, The Reykjavik Arts Festival, and the Design Area of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

For further information, please contact:
Soffía Karlsdóttir, PR and Communications Manager of Reykjavík Art Museum: + 354 590-1200 / + 354 820-1202 / soffia.karlsdottir@reykjavik.is

For more information go to: http://reykjavik.is/desktopdefault.aspx