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ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe

Where is Art Contemporary?
The Global Challenge of Art Museums II
October 19th and 20th, 2007

Conference at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, supported by the
Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

Conference language: English
Limited number of spaces available:
registration at: gam@zkm.de

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Lorenzstrasse 19
76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
phone: +49(0)721–8100–1200

http://www.zkm.de

With the conference Where is Art Contemporary? The Global Challenge of Art Museums II the ZKM is bringing representatives together from museums all over the globe. They have been invited by the ZKM to state the situation as they see it concerning the museum as an art institution today, relating experiences that are often entirely different than those we encounter in this country. Presently many theories exist regarding what a museum of art is, is not, or should be. But normally we are not aware of what the practice of art museums looks like that must operate with an entirely different concept of art, one that is not exclusively western.

Above all, such questions arise with respect to contemporary art, something that would normally only concern us in matters of marketing. By contrast, this conference intends to debate the concept of art following its globalization, which has produced entirely new developments outside western civilization. Not only art museums have been affected by this, but also what were formerly the ethnological museums, which are now being converted into museums of the cultures of the world. Representatives of both museum genres will be meeting together at the conference for the first time. The conference thus aims to help open up a certain ghetto that has resulted from the western experience of art. Themes and questions will be presented that have often received no attention until now. Finally, with this conference, the ZKM will be introducing a new project, in which the museum question is asked in a new and timely manner. The speakers will be giving their talks in three sections, each de
dicated to one of the large regions of today’s world. The first section will address conditions in Africa in a broader sense and expand our view to the Middle East. The second section will be devoted to the newly arising geography of art and the many museum foundations in Asia and the Pacific region. In the third section once again prominent representatives will introduce the conditions that are yet again different in Latin America. As an institution comprising museums, research laboratories, and its own production facilities, the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe understands itself as a relay station within a network of such partner institutions where contemporary art plays a major role. The ZKM serves a fundamental purpose for technology and art that today, especially in light of its 10-year anniversary, demands a global perspective.

The catchword of all recent scientific and political debate, the term globalization defines itself through technical progress, especially in the areas of communication and transportation technologies, as well as through the new development of supra-national power structures and the radical social changes resulting from this. While global cities are forming into a new economic world order, capital, people, ideas, pictures, and goods move around the world with ever-increasing speed, setting up a network of communication, production, and consumption that spans all continents.

As this takes place, globalization has also reached the terrain of the international art scene, revealing its involvement with economical and cultural political interests. While the art markets, collectors, and art fairs still reap all the attention for themselves, the same does not apply to public museums and cultural centers. But precisely these latter institutions will be the ones to largely and lastingly decide how the globalized practice of art will change in the individual regions of the world. This applies to post-ethnic production as well as to parting from a concept of art which is still colonial, i.e., western. In a decentralized world what is contemporary is perceived in very different ways. Both institutions that have been collecting western contemporary art to date, and also others, whose field of concentration has, until now, been restricted to ethnic arts and crafts, must henceforth rely on a new type of dialogue, which our conference intends to instigate.

The conference places emphasis upon those institutions that are immediately affected by the no longer existing boundaries, but also the contradictions found in the practice of art. The concern will be for what needs to be defined anew in contemporary art after it has been removed from its western frame of reference. It has to do with the institutionalization of an art that has emerged in the biennales established worldwide. Is their institutionalization at all compatible with conventional museum practice, which is so bound to a local audience? The future of the museum will be discussed, dealing with the question of its sense and purpose. This conference aims to create a venue for this debate where the future may begin.

Participants and Speakers, among others:
Claude Ardouin, British Museum / London
Hans Belting, Karlsruhe
Andrea Buddensieg, ZKM / Karlsruhe
Jorge Glusberg, CAYC / Buenos Aires
Guido Gryseels, Royal Central African Museum / Brussels
Miguel A. Hernández, CENDEAC / Murcia
Oscar Ho Hing-kay, The Chinese University of Hong Kong / Hong Kong
Ángel Kalenberg, Montevideo
Ramón Lerma, Ateneo de Manila University / Manila
Ebrahim Melamed, Teheran
Justo Pastor Mellado, Santiago de Chile
Alexandra Munroe, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum / New York
Fumio Nanjo, Mori Art Museum / Tokyo
Wonil Rhee, Digital Media City Seoul / Seoul
Colin Richards, University of the Witwatersrand / Johannesburg
Rafael Sámano, MUAC / Mexico City
Mirjam Shatanawi, KIT Tropeninstitut / Amsterdam
Eugene Tan, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore / Singapore
Peter Weibel, ZKM / Karlsruhe
William Wells, Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art / Cairo

Press Contact:
Mrs 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

Landesmuseum Joanneum

Delicacy of Painting
Masterpieces of Johann Georg Platzer

Opening: Tuesday, September 18, 7pm
Duration: September 19, 2007 - January 13, 2008

Alte Galerie at the
Landesmuseum Joanneum
Schloss Eggenberg
Eggenberger Allee 90, 8020 Graz

T +43-316/8017-9770
altegalerie@museum-joanneum.at

http://www.museum-joanneum.at

Johann Georg Platzer is one of the most important Central European rococo society painters. He is the epitome of delicacy in his delightful, exquisite and astonishingly small format paintings that are of the highest technical ability and chromatic virtuosity.

In this presentation of 40 paintings the Alte Galerie at the Landesmuseum Joanneum is once again performing a pioneer task: despite the fact that they fetch the highest prices on the art market, the paintings of Johann Georg Platzer (1704 -1761) are relatively unknown to research in the history of art. This may have to do with his epoch: this was the period of the rococo with its light-footed and sensually motivated feel for life that is frequently written off as frivolous and superficial. This new lust for life replaced the monumental unfolding of power and greatness in the gestures of the Baroque; and its painting is often confronted with the charge of being kitsch. The paintings are peopled with social table rounds, pleasant garden scenes and relaxed concert parties; the serious call to a strict moral sense that formerly accompanied revels of this kind, are pushed into the background –pleasure, absence of constraints and luxury also make their appearance in the focus of t
he pictorial statement that is presented in the most sumptuous execution. The painting becomes a luxury object.

It is in this period that the work of Johann Georg Platzer is also embedded. Born in South Tyrol his work achieves the highest technical standard in painting, he is a virtuoso in colour, possesses an enormous talent for composition and pleasure in detail. Following the fashion in art and the demands of his wealthy, largely upper class clientele, Platzer dedicated himself primarily to the field of society painting — he painted scenes of light hearted assemblies, suggested an earthly paradise in his informal garden parties richly filled out with the props and accessories of mythological feasts of the gods. He ironised moral warnings and pathetic figures, frequently presented the themes of the artist and art and his motifs also extended to the world of faith. His small format paintings are largely on copper, underlining their exclusive quality and giving an exquisite glow to Platzer’s frequently provocative colouration.

The paintings presented include work on loan from the Alte Pinakothek Munich, the German National Museum Nuremberg, the Schloss Fuschl Collection and the Dresden state collection; nine works are from the gallery’s own collection.

For more information go to: http://www.museum-joanneum.at

Public Art Fund

Public Art Fund presents…

Dara Friedman
Musical

A Series of Singing Performances in Midtown Manhattan

September 17 - October 5, 2007

http://www.publicartfund.org

For three weeks, beginning today, midtown Manhattan will be the stage for Musical, a series of spontaneous actions orchestrated by artist and filmmaker Dara Friedman. From dawn to dusk, and occasionally even in the middle of the night, office workers, mothers, schoolchildren, taxi drivers, doormen, tourists, divas, and grandparents will break into song, creating unexpected musical events and serendipitous urban moments for all who encounter them. Throughout the course of the project, nearly one hundred individual actions will take place throughout the day and night, weekdays only, in the blocks between Grand Central Station and Central Park South, and between Broadway and Park Avenue.

Dara Friedman, who lives and works in Miami, is best known for her film and video installations, in which she uses the techniques of structuralist filmmaking to depict the lushness, ecstasy, and energy of everyday life. She often distills, syncopates, reverses, loops, or otherwise alters familiar sounds and sights, drawing attention to the distinct sensory acts of hearing and seeing. Whether her work portrays a series of narrative fragments or a single evocative scene repeated over and over, Friedman heightens the emotional impact by cutting directly to the film’s climax in order to, as she puts it, "get to the part you really care about."

In Musical–her first live, performance-based work–Friedman continues her exploration of universal human experience, focusing on the emotional power of sound and, in particular, its capacity to instantly transform one’s mood or sense of reality. The project plays upon the vitality of city life, especially on the crowded streets of midtown Manhattan, where unexpected and memorable encounters can be a daily occurrence. Friedman, who notes that she wants to "turn the volume up on the song that’s going on in your head as you’re walking down the street," is interested in blurring the traditional separation between art and life, and between artist and audience. She envisions the project like a series of pebbles thrown into a glassy lake–each performance will cause a ripple effect that lasts for a while, and then the city will return to business as usual.

Over the course of several weeks, the nearly one hundred performances that constitute Musical will tap into and add to the spirit of the streetscape, entering into the city’s collective consciousness. The locations and times of the performances will be unannounced, and each one will appear to be unplanned; most passersby will not know that what they are seeing is part of something larger.

Born in 1968 in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, Dara Friedman now lives and works in Miami. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York (2007, 2002); The Kitchen, New York (2005); The Wrong Gallery, New York (2004); Kunstmuseum, Thun, Switzerland (2002); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2002); Miami Art Museum (2001); and SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (2001). Friedman attended University of Miami, School of Motion Pictures (MFA); The Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London; Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; and Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.

Location and Information
Musical will take place from September 17 to October 5 throughout midtown Manhattan, in locations between Grand Central Station and Central Park South, and Broadway and Park Avenue. Performances are unannounced and will take place throughout the day and night.

For further information please check http://www.publicartfund.org

Public Art Fund is New York’s leading presenter of artists’ projects, new commissions, installations and exhibitions in public spaces. For 30 years, the Public Art Fund has been committed to working with emerging and established artists to produce innovative exhibitions of contemporary art throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.

Recent and current critically acclaimed exhibitions and presentations by Public Art Fund include Damián Ortega’s Obelisco Transportable at Doris C. Freedman Plaza (on view through October 28, 2007); Alexander Calder in New York at City Hall Park (on view through October 14, 2007); The World Is Round, a group exhibition at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn (on view through September 9, 2007); Beth Campbell’s Potential Store Fronts at 125 Maiden Lane (2007); Martin Creed’s Variety Show at Abrons Art Center (2007); Sarah Morris’s Robert Towne at Lever House (2006-7); and Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror at Rockefeller Center (2006).

Public Art Fund is a nonprofit arts organization supported by generous contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with public funds from National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Press Contacts:

Stacy Bolton Communications
(212) 721-5350
emaily@stacybolton.com

Abby Clark
Public Art Fund
(212) 980-4575
press@publicartfund.org

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