Artipedia - Arts News

Katerina Seda, Kazdej pes, jina ves – main diagram, 2007

Galerie im Taxispalais

KATERINA SEDA
24 November 2007 – 20 January 2008

Katerina Seda’s method operates on the principle of bringing herself into the game to initiate, together with others, an artistic process or an action that she then implements and records in different media.

In the extensive project “Je to jedno” (“It Doesn’t Matter,” 2005–2007) the artist turns her attention to her grandmother, Jana Seda, who after a very busy life became totally inert and lost interest in all activities, giving the same answer to every request or question: “It doesn’t matter.” Seda began to work with her, to mobilize her memories of her former activities at a large hardware store in Brno, and even managed to get her to remember 650 different articles sold there, along with their prices. Seda then urged her to draw these articles and name them, whereupon her grandmother drew a total of 176 objects in her own unique line, with a great sense of the emblematic characteristics of the things, many of them drawn on a single sheet in serial fashion, according to their different retail sizes. She enjoyed this work, and it drew her out of her lethargy. The exhibition shows a selection of fifty of these drawings and an accompanying, comprehensive interview
carried out by the artist with her grandmother.

Seda continues her work with her grandmother, with new tasks in the piece entitled “Vnucka” (“Granddaughter,” 2006–2007). She puts together three different series of questionnaires that she goes through with her grandmother over the course of a year, “1 x denne pred jidlem” (“1x daily before meals”). Once a day before eating, her grandmother writes down the answer to one of the questions. The exhibition shows a total of fifty of these completed questionaires. The drawings and questionaires are a final and enduring testimonial to Jana Šedá, who died in early 2007.

In the project “Kazdej pes, jina ves” (literally: “For every dog, a different village,” 2007) Seda took an entire neighborhood as the object of her action, the “Plattenbau” concrete slab housing estate Nova Lisen in her hometown, Brno-Lisen, where the buildings had just recently been newly painted in pastel colors. The Czech saying that gives the piece its title implies that the people in this housing estate live greatly isolated from one another.

Seda takes up the abstract moment of the buildings’ industrial uniformity to initiate a process of individualization using precisely this stereotype. She had a thousand shirts produced for the thousand households there. She designed a pattern for the shirts showing the colorful concrete slab buildings in a repeating pattern—in the style of textile diamonds. She paired up the families according to a formalist diagram that she created, based on the ground plan of the development, and then sent each household a shirt “from” their partner family. Through this, Šedá sets in motion the possibility of a meeting, in which she is, however, not personally involved. She directs, but then withdraws, leaving things to take their course.

The work is conceived as a spatial installation, comprising forty drawings and diagrams and a number of shirts. Also on display are reactions to the project and a video documentary. Parts of the project were shown in summer 2007 at the documenta 12 in Kassel.

Katerina Seda was born in Brno in 1977. She lives in Brno and Prague.

Galerie im Taxispalais
Maria-Theresien-Str. 45
6020 Innsbruck
Austria
T +43/512/508-3171
F +43/512/508-3175
taxis.galerie@tirol.gv.at
http://www.galerieimtaxispalais.at

Opening hours
Tue–Sun 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Thu 11 a.m.–8 p.m.

Closed on
24 December 2007
25 December 2007
31 December 2007
01 January 2008

Heidrun Holzfeind, C.U. (Mexico City, August 2006), slide installation, 2007

Galerie im Taxispalais

HEIDRUN HOLZFEIND
24 November 2007 – 20 January 2008

MEXICO 68
The exhibition gathers a series of works that Heidrun Holzfeind realized in Mexico City beginning in 2005. Here the artist combines her interest in modernist architecture with her approach to a significant historical event, the 1968 student movement in Mexico, which shaped an entire generation.

In the slide installation C.U. (Mexico City, August 2006), Holzfeind shows in double projection, 125 photos that she took of the Ciudad Universitaria, the Central University City Campus of the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, Latin America’s most important university). The campus was built under the management of architects Mario Pani, Enrique del Moral, and Carlos Lazo from 1950–52. UNESCO declared it an architectural world cultural heritage site in 2007 and cited it as “one of the most important icons in architecture and urban development in Latin America,” and “a monumental building, exemplary of twentieth-century modernism.” The structures combine modernist principles and materials, such as steel, glass, and exposed concrete with references to Mexico’s pre-Hispanic architecture and history, which are also expressed in huge murals and mosaics. The photographs show interior and exterior views of the various department buildings, architectural
details, empty hallways, and classrooms, inside courtyards, parks, and sports facilities. The selection of details, the closeness and the eye for special features, draw an intimate and slightly melancholic portrait of the university city.

Mexico 68, the second of Holzfeind’s exhibited works, comprises eight video interviews. Through intense research, the artist was able to carry out interviews with a total of nineteen protagonists from Mexico’s student movement in 1968. The Galerie im Taxispalais has commissioned German subtitles for the videos.

In 1968, the political demand for democratization escalated to a major protest movement that included most universities and schools, also garnering the support of parents, professors, teachers, intellectuals, and artists. Shortly before the start of the summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, the government crushed the movement at gunpoint.
There was a massacre on the Plaza de las tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of the city, whereby the military and police shot at participants holding a peaceful demonstration. Many were killed, thousands arrested. Numerous student leaders and intellectuals—including several of those whom Holzfeind interviewed—were imprisoned for nearly three years in the legendary Lecumberri prison.

Holzfeind photographed this prison, which was closed down in 1980 and today houses Mexico’s National Archives. She shows photographs of the former wing in which the political prisoners from the student movement were held. The facility, which was built along the “panopticon” model with a central watchtower, facilitated total surveillance of the prisoners, day and night.

Mexico 68 is supplemented with archive material documenting the demonstrations and gatherings of the student revolt.

The interview texts, along with the photo series C.U., will be published in 2008 in a two-volume artist book produced in Mexico.

Heidrun Holzfeind was born in Lienz in 1972. She lives and works in New York.

Artist’s Book (Engl. / Span.)
Heidrun Holzfeind, CU / 68
Volume 1 (CU): ca. 140 pages, ca. 120 color photos
Volume 2 (68): ca. 400 pages
Will be published in 2008 by A&R Press, Mexico

Galerie im Taxispalais
Maria-Theresien-Str. 45
6020 Innsbruck
Austria
T +43/512/508-3171
F +43/512/508-3175
taxis.galerie@tirol.gv.at
http://www.galerieimtaxispalais.at

Opening hours
Tue–Sun 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Thu 11 a.m.–8 p.m.

Closed on
24 December 2007
25 December 2007
31 December 2007
01 January 2008

30,000 Years of Art

Hi there!

There’s a new art book coming out this month - 30,000 Years of Art

A follow-up to Phaidon’s phenomenally successful The Art Book, 30,000 Years of Art comprises 1,000 great works of art from all periods and regions in the world, offering an original and fresh way of looking at the whole of art history from 28,000 BC to the present day.

Only in this book can you find the Venus de Milo next to a mural from the Mayan civilization, Velasquez’s ‘Las Meninas’ next to a jade wine cup made for the Shah of India and Picasso’s ‘Demoiselles d’Avignon’ side by side with door panels from a Nigerian palace. By juxtaposing works of art from different cultures throughout time, this is the first book to offer a balanced appraisal of world art history, revealing the huge diversity, as well as the similarity of man’s artistic achievements.

Visit the website: http://www.phaidon.com/Default.aspx/Web/30000-years-of-art-9780714847894

Courtesy of the artist. Beatriz Albuquerque, WFF 6, 2007.

The Institute for Community Understanding Between Art and The Everyday , 2129 N Rockwell St, Chicago, IL, 60647.

“Work For Free” , performance by Beatriz Albuquerque .
Enjoy and participate in a performance in which Work is offer for Free. There is no catch.

Nov. 1,2,3,4,8,9,10,11,15,16,17,18,23,24,25,28,29,30, 2007 between 11-7 p.m.

For more information on Beatriz Albuquerque visit: http://www.beatrizalbuquerque.web.pt
For more information on InCUBATE visit:
http://www.incubate-chicago.org

Image courtesy of Koki Tanaka


colourschool kicks off another year of projects with a new website and venue at the Intersections Digital Studios [IDS], Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design.

A school within a school, colourschool is dedicated to the speculative research and exploration of five colours: black, white, brown, yellow, and red.

colourschool’s Grand (Re)Opening Project, Colour Exchanges: Artist Interviews with Johan Lundh, will feature Japanese artist Koki Tanaka.

Saturday, November 10, 3 pm

In place of artist talks, colourschool presents an ongoing series of artist interviews conducted by Johan Lundh. Colour Exchanges follow a traditional interview format, but allow for and encourage participation by visitors in the midst of the conversation. Koki Tanaka, Centre A’s current artist in residence, will launch the first session. Tanaka has previously participated in projects, exhibitions, and screenings at the Palais de Tokyo, MOCA, MOMA, the Asia Society, and the Getty Center among other venues.

This event is free and open to the public. For further information, please contact info@colourschool.org.

The project runs from November 10, 2007 - August 2008.

http://colourschool.org

IDS building, ECIAD
1399 Johnston Street
Vancouver, BC

Americas Society

Marta Minujín, Simultaneidad en Simultaneidad, 1966. Center for Audiovisual Experimentation, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella. Courtesy of the artist. Right: Waltercio Caldas, courtesy of Christopher Grimes Gallery.

Americas Society
680 Park Avenue at 68th Street
New York, NY 10021
http://www.americas-society.org

Artist Talk:
Waltercio Caldas and Kaira Cabañas
Tuesday, November 13, 6:30 PM
Free Admission Reservation required

A conversation with Brazil’s leading artist, Waltercio Caldas and Kaira Cabañas, a Lecturer and Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Department of Art History and Archeology at Columbia University.
Reception to follow.

Waltercio Caldas is a Rio de Janeiro-based conceptual artist, whose works respond to Neo-Concretism and phenomenology. Caldas has produced an substantial array of sculptures, photographs, drawings and installations that have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, and the São Paulo Bienal among
other venues.

This program will be the opening event for PINTA- the first art fair focused on contemporary Latin American art that will take place in New York City at the Metropolitan Pavilion. PINTA will present a full schedule of special events, performances and screenings, alongside museum-quality programming. The Americas Society will collaborate in the organization of the art fair’s public program series, for a complete schedule please visit http://www.pinta-art.com

Panel Discussion: Alexander Alberro and Ana Longoni on “Destruction in Argentine Art from the 1960s and 1970s”
Wednesday, November 14, 6:00 p.m.
Free Admission Reservation required

Alexander Alberro and Ana Longoni will discuss the concept of destruction in 1960s and 1970s Argentine experimental Art.

Alberro’s paper entitled “Invention, Destruction, and the Legacy of Concrete Art in 1960s Argentina” will focus on the impact, the legacy that Concrete art had on the Argentinean art scene of the 1960s. Alexander Alberro received a Bachelor’s Degree in1986, a Master’s Degree in Art History in 1990 from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in 1996 from Northwestern University. He is co-editor of Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology (MIT Press, 2000).

Longoni’s presentation will discuss the crucial scenes of the Argentine avant-garde in the 1960s and 1970s. Ana Longoni received a B.A. in Literature, and a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. She collaborated in the publication Listen, Here, Now! Argentine Art of the 1960s: Writings of the Avant-Garde (MoMA, NY 2004).

Currently on view
Beginning with a Bang! From Confrontation to Intimacy
An Exhibition of Argentine Contemporary Artists 1960-2007
Guest Curator: Victoria Noorthoorn
September 28, 2007 to January 5, 2008

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday 12-6 PM

Beginning with a Bang! presents a selection of action-based projects by contemporary artists working in Buenos Aires, as well as a documentary section that provides evidence of the diverse historical foundations of these practices during the 1960s and 1970s.

Exhibition catalogue available through Harvard University Press.

Reservations are required.
Please email: culture@americas-society.org or call (212) 277 8359.

Visitors Info
All listed events are free, open to the public and take place at Americas Society, unless noted otherwise. For wheelchair access, kindly call in advance. We are located at 680 Park Avenue at 68th Street, in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.americas-society.org If you have questions or comments, please email us at culture@americas-society.org

About Us
Americas Society is the premier forum dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas. Our mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship. Americas Society unites opinion leaders to exchange ideas and develop solutions to the challenges facing the Americas today.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Cliff Evans, still from Empyrean, 2007

Cliff Evans: Empyrean
November 9, 2007 - January 13, 2008
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
280 The Fenway, Boston, MA USA
Open Tues - Sun, 11am - 4:45pm
(001) 617 278 5165

http://www.gardnermuseum.org

Cliff Evans: Empyrean is a new digital projection by leading video artist Cliff Evans and the first solo-museum exhibition of the artist’s work. Using images excerpted from the Internet to create an animated five-panel collage, Evans turns a critical eye on contemporary American culture and challenges the viewer to confront issues of power, politics, militarism life-style and control in our society. Infused with the artist’s wry sense of humor and keen eye for color and detail, Empyrean is as engaging as
it is disquieting.

Cliff Evan’s work has been shown at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Maryland Art Place, Baltimore; Creative Research Lab, Austin; and at Location One, NY. He has also screened at numerous film festivals, including CinemaTexas and the Brooklyn and Boston Underground Film Festivals, and his collaborations with composers have at Tanglewood, Harvard University and the Camberwells Composers’ Collective in London.

Conversations with Cliff Evans:

Saturday, November 10, 1:30pm
Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art, Gardner Museum.

Thursday, November 15, 7:00pm
Mary Ellen Strom, artist and teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Thursday, November 29, 6:30pm
Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media at Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Thursday, December 20, 7:00pm
George Fifield, Director, Boston Cyberarts Festival.

open-PLAYER, an innovative technology that ensures synchronization and playback of High Definition streams was used for playback of Empyrean.

The Artist-in-Residence Program is made possible, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Nimoy Foundation. The museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Media Sponsor: The Boston Phoenix.

MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona

Les Américans en Amérique
1951
Poster
120 x 77,5 cm
Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC) et Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine

BE-BOMB: the Transatlantic War
of images and all that Jazz. 1946-1956
Untill 7 January 2008

Curator: Serge Guilbaut
Coproduced by: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (MNCARS) in Madrid.
MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
Plaça dels Angels, 1
08001 Barcelona
Spain

http://www.macba.es

“Be-Bomb: the Transatlantic War of images and all that Jazz. 1946-1956″ analyses the aesthetic quarrels of the period between 1946 and 1956, the time when New York replaced Paris as the nerve centre of modern art. Curated by the French historian Serge Guilbaut, the exhibition sets out to compare and contrast the art produced in France and the USA in those years in order to understand how and why some works became, if only for a short time in each country, cultural icons that contained fabulous but limited symbolic powers and then turned into media signs that could be commercialised with
great success.

The show also studies the reasons why the popular icons of one culture were not recognised by the other at that particular moment. After the victory of American abstract expressionism, the American critics despised French artistic production because they regarded it as pointless and meaningless. Faced with the imposing presence of the victorious movement of abstract expressionism, the French art scene, in its fragmented wealth, seemed incapable of projecting a single voice or direction for the future, as Paris had done in the past.

To study the history of French and American art after the Second World War is a considerable challenge, not only because the period has not been properly studied (despite the attempts by some museums in recent years) but because the consensus among investigators has been deeply shaped by the success of American art. The French art of that period has been regarded as weak and irrelevant, but the interesting thing is that at that moment it displayed the essential features of Western art: the same debates about realism, geometrical abstraction and forms of abstract expressionism. The specific aspect of the French scene was the extreme politicisation of artistic expression in a culture still contained in a violent, revolutionary tradition, at a time of strong tensions arising from the divisions of the Cold War.

The exhibition, which follows a strict chronological order, includes works by famous painters such as Arshile Gorky, Hartung, Fernand Léger, Wassily Kandinsky, Willem de Kooning, Henri Matisse, Michaux, Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, de Staël, Soulages, van de Velde or Wols, but also by others who were important at the time but have been forgotten by the general public (Giuseppe Capogrossi, Vieira da Silva, Howard Daum, Gertrude Barrer, Alfred Manessier and Steve Wheeler, or the Afro-Americans Romare Bearden and Byron Brown). Their paintings, which in their day became major reference points amidst the ‘chaos’ of everyday life, are analysed in relation to their particular history and discussed in the framework of the problems of the moment.

The show aims to break the holiness of the white cube and the straitjacket of formalism to introduce different kinds of discourse into the discussion: films, newspapers, fashion, archives and radio programmes which are confronted with the works of art to develop a hypothesis about some of the reasons that explain why certain specific works were successful and others were not even shown, much less discussed.