Artipedia - Arts News

Andrew Carnie, Magic Forest, 2002

February 16 – April 19, 2008
Opening: Saturday, February 16, 7 – 10pm

BRAINWAVE: Common Senses responds to current advancements in neurological research by visualizing and investigating the brain’s capacity for sense perception, memory, emotion and logic. The artists in this exhibition redefine this research in a different way, abandoning literal representations of the brain and categorical analysis in favor of works that take, as starting points, elements from neuroscience and flipping these ideas on their heads.

Suzanne Anker, David Bowen, Steve Budington, Phil Buehler, Andrew Carnie, George Jenne, Daniel Marguiles and Chris Sharp, Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns, Jamie O’Shea, SERU, Devorah Sperber, Naho Taruishi, Dustin Wenzel

BRAINWAVE is a collaboration with five other Manhattan-based cultural organizations: Rubin Museum of Art; Science & the Arts at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; The Philoctetes Center at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute; and the School of Visual Arts; and is presented in association with the American Museum of Natural History. For more information on other BRAINWAVE programs, visit www.brainwavenyc.org.

Exit Art
475 Tenth Avenue
(at 36th Street)
www.exitart.org
A C E at 34th Street/Penn Station
212-966-7745

Index the Swedish
Contemporary Art Foundation

Matthew Buckingham
Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 5-8pm
February 7 - April 6, 2008

Tue - Fri 12-4pm
Sat - Sun 12-5pm

Index the Swedish
Contemporary Art Foundation
Kungsbro strand 19
SE-11226 Stockholm
T +46-8/5021 98 38
index@algonet.se

http://www.indexfoundation.se

What separates the firm document from what history randomly will preserve? What remains of a story when first hand accounts and visual representation is no longer imminent? The works of Matthew Buckingham (born 1963, Nevada, Iowa) reveals an interest in the construction of historical reality, and how genres like film and literature connect to notions of history and its underlying narratives. Here, such conceptions are put under scrutiny and given a visual representation, whilst narrative structures are made meaningful by elements of voice-over.

In the artist’s solo exhibition at Index, Buckingham juxtaposes Image of Absalon to Be Projected Until it Vanishes (2001) and False Future (2007), two works addressing ideas of historical presence versus the nonappearance. False Future, a 16 mm film installation tells the story of Louis Le Prince, the French inventor who, after his technological invention consisting of an eight-lens camera, mysteriously disappears after stepping onto a train in 1890. Was the surviving footage of the protagonist’s 1888 film photographic experiment – a split-second showing horses, carts and pedestrians crossing Leeds Bridge – an ambition to record moving images? With Buckingham’s returning to the historical site and his recreation of the motive, it becomes a ten-minute cinematic short story which seeks to unearth a forgotten or lost story hidden beneath its archival surface.

Buckingham’s slide piece Image of Absalon to Be Projected Until it Vanishes portrays the statue of Copenhagen’s mythical founder Absalon towards a wide open sky – shot from behind, almost disappearing and out of frame. The fact that the slide is slowly fading away due to the heat of the projected light contributes to the work’s transitional nature – an image and a legend returning to point zero where meaning has to be rediscovered.

Matthew Buckingham received his B.A. in film production and film studies from the University of Iowa in 1988, and in 1996 he completed an M.F.A. at Bard College. In 1997, he participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York.

The exhibition at Index will be accompanied by the following events:

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
6pm: Lecture Trond Lundemo: “Immersion and Absence in Early Cinema”, in English

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
8pm: Lecture Work Method (Guillaume Désanges and François Piron): ”Work and Method presents: Appropriate answers to various situations in the field of curatorial practice”, in English

Institute of
Contemporary Art (ICA)

Carlos Motta, The Good Life, video still
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 2005-2008

CARLOS MOTTA: THE GOOD LIFE
January 18 - March 30, 2008

INSTITUTE OF
CONTEMPORARY ART
University of Pennsylvania
118 S. 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

http://www.icaphila.org

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is pleased to present “Carlos Motta: The Good Life,” the first museum presentation of an ambitious work by Carlos Motta, on view January 18 - March 30, 2008. “The Good Life,” a long-term, in-progress, experimental documentary project, engages and critiques documentary practice itself. It is a relevant examination of the regional history, perception and effects of US interventionist policies in Latin America, at a time of global critical awareness of those politics.

Since 2005, Carlos Motta has recorded over 300 video interviews with civilians on the streets of twelve cities in Latin America. The questions he asked, on individual perceptions of US interventionism and foreign policy, democracy, leadership, and social inequality, resulted in an extremely wide spectrum of opinion, which varies according to local situations and forms of government in each country. The resulting footage is the basis of “The Good Life.” Informed by conceptual documentary traditions the project references the approach of cinema vérité classics such as Chris Marker’s Le Jolie Mai (1963) and Vilgot Sjöman’s I am curious (Yellow) (1967), which began to study the notion of public opinion as mediated construction.

In this iteration, created for the Project Space, Motta’s interviews with persons in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Managua, Mexico City, Santiago and Tegucigalpa, serve as both a conceptual and formal framework. Arranged in an open structure that evokes a classical space for the exercising of democracy, these conversations shed light on the effects of political intervention, and the public perception of political concepts, on the formation of national and individual subjectivities. The exhibition also comprises a series of accompanying photographs, shot during visits to each city, and a takeaway poster featuring texts commissioned from artists Ashley Hunt, Naeem Mohaiemen and Oliver Ressler; and political philosopher Maria Mercedes Gómez that answer the question, “What is democracy to you?”

Carlos Motta (b. Bogotá, Colombia, 1978, lives in New York) was a participant in the Whitney Independent Study Program, (2005-2006), and completed his MFA at Bard College in 2003. Working primarily in photography and video installation, he uses strategies from documentary and sociology to engage with specific political events in an attempt to observe their effects and suggest alternative ways to write and read these histories.

Motta’s upcoming and past solo exhibitions include Art in General, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Winkleman Gallery in New York, NY; rum46, Aarhus, Denmark; Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT; Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami, FL; and La Alianza Francesa, Bogotá, Colombia. He has been included in group exhibitions at venues such as CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Fries Museum, Groningen, Holland; Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy; Musée de Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; Artists Space, New York, NY; TEOR/éTica, San Jose, Costa Rica; Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, FL; El Museo, New York, NY; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico; SF CameraWork, San Francisco, CA; Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia and IASPIS, Stockholm, Sweden.

Motta is the editor of http://www.artwurl.org and faculty at the International Center of Photography and Parsons The New School of Design in New York.

This exhibition is organized by 2007-2008 Whitney Lauder Curatorial Fellow Stamatina Gregory and will be accompanied by a brochure publication.

Related Events:

Conversation: Carlos Motta and Ann Farnsworth-Alvear
February 27, 7PM

Join us for a conversation between historian Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, director of Penn’s Program in Latin American Studies, and artist Carlos Motta, as they discuss their respective explorations of Latin American history and politics through scholarship and art.

Workshop: What is Democracy to You?
March 7 - 9, 1PM

In conjunction with this exhibition, artist Carlos Motta and curator Stamatina Gregory will lead a three-day workshop with a group of interested participants. Together we will approach the question “What is democracy to you?” from a variety of perspectives in an attempt to create a set of meanings, responses, problems and solutions around this concept. If you would like to participate, can commit to all sessions, and have ideas to contribute, let us know why this question is important to you (one page or less) at sgregory@upenn.pobox.edu by February 20. The program is limited to 10 core participants, who will be selected to represent a diversity of opinions and interests. This event however is also open to the general public.

ICA is grateful for funding provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Dietrich Foundation, Inc., the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art, friends and members of ICA, and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of 12/21/07.)

The artist wishes to thank Kevin Bruk (Kevin Bruk Gallery), Alberto Chehebar, Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, and Solita Mishaan for their generous support for this exhibition.

ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE VISIT THE ICA WEBSITE, http://www.icaphila.org FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PROGRAMS IN CONJUNCTION WITH “CARLOS MOTTA: THE GOOD LIFE.”

PAWNSHOP

PAWNSHOP is EXTENDED by POPULAR DEMAND!

We are still OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

That’s right! PAWNSHOP’s run has been extended through February 29th, 2008 due to overwhelming public response. Extended to allow YOU to pawn your artwork and then shop for last minute Valentine’s day treats, and leap year birthday gifts. What better way to say Happy February 29th?

We put the ART in HEART!

Come down today!

And after February 29h, PAWNSHOP may be coming to a city near you!!!

Current inventory includes works by: Lucas Ajemian, Julieta Aranda, Artemio, Julie Ault, Fia Backström, Steven Baldi, Agnes Barley, Julien J. Bismuth, Bengala, Mike Bouchet, Ethan Breckenridge, Willie Brisco, Kadar Brock, AA Bronson, François Bucher, Paul Chan, Jan Christensen, Heman Chong, SUPERFLEX/COPYSHOP, Keren Cytter, Marcelline Delbecq, Wilson Diaz, Nico Dockx, Christoph Draeger, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Jakup Ferri, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Claire Fontaine, Rene Gabri, Nikolas Gambaroff, Mario Garcia Torres, Jaime Gecker, Benjamin Gervis, Andrea Geyer, Simryn Gill, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Diango Hernández, Gregory Hilton, Ralf Homann, Karl Holmqvist, Sejla Kameric, Matt Keegan, Christoph Keller, Brandon Kennedy, Kimsooja , Gabriel Kuri, Adriana Lara, Annika Larsson, Francine LeClercq, Gabriel Lester, Liz Linden, Esther Lu, Rodrigo Mallea Lira, Aleksandra Mir, Naeem Mohaiemen, Lucas Moran, Carlos Motta, neuroTransmitter (Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere), Olaf Nicolai
, Yoshua Okon, Serge Onnen, Joe Pflieger, Lisi Raskin, Fay Ray, Martha Rosler, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Anri Sala, Eduardo Sarabia, Aaron Simonton, Matt Sheridan Smith, Michael Smith, Nedko Solakov, Francesco Spampinato, Anna Stein, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Gabriela Vainsecher, Danna Vajda, Costa Vece, Anton Vidokle, Florian Wüst, Andrea Zittel, and more!

PAWNSHOP is a project by Julieta Aranda, Liz Linden and Anton Vidokle.

At the end of the project, all profits generated by PAWNSHOP will be donated to charity. For further information please write to pawnshop@e-flux.com or call 212 619 3356.

PAWNSHOP
53 Ludlow Street
New York, NY 10002
212 619 3356
pawnshop@e-flux.com

PAWNSHOP’s hours are Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6pm.

Parkett

New Parkett with Ai Weiwei, Cosima von Bonin, and Christian Jankowski and more
http://www.parkettart.com

Parkett’s explorations and investigations of leading international contemporary artists continue in vol. 81, featuring Ai Weiwei, Cosima von Bonin, and Christian Jankowski.

Additional texts feature Keith Edmier (by Christian Scheidemann), Tino Sehgal (by Reimut Reiche), and Jules Spinatsch (by Martin Jaeggi). Two leading editors,Tim Griffin and Jennifer Higgie, contribute a commentary for the Garderobe section;. Cumulus texts are by Nico Baumbach and Adam Szymczyk. The Spine is by Ulla von Brandenburg and the Insert by Heimo Zobernig.

Ai Weiwei, known for his multifaceted range of projects in art and architecture, including his contribution to the design of the Olympic stadium in Beijing, candidly discusses and shares his views in an interview with renowned architect Jacques Herzog. Charles Merewether mines Ai’s early, decade-long stay in New York, pondering the simple conceptual twists of some of his seminal works, including the antique Chinese urn with the omnipresent Coca-Cola logo painted on its side. A richly atmospheric piece by Philip Tinari traces Ai’s key role in China’s present artistic movement. For his Parkett edition Ai Weiwei made a handy, gilded brass fly swatter.

Behind Cosima von Bonin’s immense stuffed dog sculptures, oversized mushrooms, and colorful, fastidiously tailored fabric works, there is a dangerous tension, a volatility that, while hard to pin down, links her abstractly to a tradition of edgy, irreverent artists. According to Bennett Simpson, all her forms express control, domination, and subordination, but camaraderie as well–like that one might have for ones K-9 muse. Diedrich Diederichsen suggests that von Bonin’s diverse repertoire of materials and subjects all lead back to “some kind of grass-roots rural drama”–one both ancient and kitsch. A third text on the artist was written by German rock star Dirk von Lowtzow, and for her Parkett edition von Bonin has created a stainless steel rolling pin painted in a camouflage rainbow of teen-spirited colors.

Jörg Heiser reflects on Christian Jankowski’s THE HOLY ARTWORK (2001), describing the artist’s transformation into the “‘plaything’ of a Texan televangelist, by coming forward with his video camera during a live broadcast of a religious service, and falling to the ground at his feet.” This piece vividly illustrates what Harald Falckenberg recognizes as Jankowski’s chameleon-like blend of “actor, performer, magician, seducer, thief, and charlatan.” His ability to seduce and bluff on the spot continues to play out with precision and charm on the ever-shifting game board of international contemporary art. A third text on Jankowski is written by former Parkett editor Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, and his edition consists of fifty unique portraits taken by fifty different photographers of himself in different places and locations reading some of his favorite artists texts in Parkett.

For more details on the new Parkett, its artist editions, as well as for subscriptions and back issues, please go to http://www.parkettart.com

Vancouver Art Gallery

Elias Goldensky
[Portrait of three women], c. 1915
platinum print
George Eastman House Collection, Gift of 3m Company,
Ex-collection Louis Walton Sipley

Vancouver Art Gallery Exhibition to
Illuminate the Golden Age
of Photography

Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 2H7

http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845-1945 presents a fascinating look at the artistic movement that transformed photography from a tool of documentation to one of the most exciting means of visual expression of the twentieth century. Bringing together nearly 200 photographs from major museum collections around the world, the exhibition includes a large group of works from the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York, the world’s oldest and most extensive photography museum, as well as important loans from The Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On view at the Vancouver Art Gallery from February 2 to April 27, 2008, the exhibition is organized in collaboration with George Eastman House and is curated by Alison Nordström, curator of photographs, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

“TruthBeauty presents a rare opportunity to experience a defining moment in the development of photography and the formation of modern photographic practice,” said Vancouver Art Gallery director Kathleen Bartels. “The conceptual, aesthetic and technical innovations of the Pictorialist artists continue to be highly influential more than 100 years later. Vancouver is one of the world’s foremost centres for contemporary photographic art, making the presentation of these masterworks of early photography especially meaningful.”

Reflecting the wide reach of Pictorialism, one of the first international artistic movements, this major presentation marks the first time that masterworks by renowned artists from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and Australia have been brought together in a single exhibition. The presentation provides a historic overview of the full range of Pictorialism’s rich aesthetic photographic tradition and technical innovation.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Pictorialist artists sought to elevate photography to an art form equal to painting. Often compared to Impressionist painters, Pictorialist artists strove for an aesthetic that evoked a distinct mood or emotional response from the viewer. While painters achieved this through new ways of applying paint to canvas, Pictorialist artists experimented with a soft-focus approach, dramatic effects of light and richly coloured tones to create almost painterly works of art. Their compositions opened up a new world of visual expression in photography.

The main section of the exhibition features nearly 200 extraordinary Pictorialist photographs by the leading members of the movement, including Alvin Langdon Coburn, Robert Demachy, Frederick Evans, Elias Goldensky, Gertrude Käsebier, Heinrich Kühn, Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz. The exhibition will trace the evolution of Pictorialism from its origins in the United Kingdom to its spread to Western Europe, Canada, the United States and beyond. Also included is a group of rare photographs by figures such as Julia Margaret Cameron and Peter Henry Emerson, British artists who preceded the origins of Pictorialism in the mid-1880s, but whose work would later inspire the Pictorialists to pursue photography as a true art form. Closing the exhibition is a selection of important photography by artists associated with the later Modernist tradition, such as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston, whose early work was firmly rooted in Pictorialist practice.

The Pictorialists were passionate proponents of art photography and formed a complex network of camera clubs, competitions and photography salons in key centres around the world. Instrumental in spreading the philosophy and visual aesthetic of Pictorialism worldwide were the number of photographic journals published by the movement’s champions. The exhibition includes a selection of these publications.

Led by Alison Nordström, Eastman House curator of photographs, the team contributing to the exhibition and accompanying publication includes scholars from the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. The exhibition is coordinated by Thomas Padon, adjunct curator, Vancouver Art Gallery.

Fondazione Nicola Trussardi

Peter Fischli / David Weiss
Snowman, 1990
Photograph. Study for Kunstprojekte Heizkraftwerk Romerbrucke, Saarbrucken. Copyright: Peter Fischli / David Weiss. Courtesy the artists; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Monika Spruth Philomene Magers, Cologne/Munich/London; Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

ALTRI FIORI E ALTRE DOMANDE
BY PETER FISCHLI & DAVID WEISS
From January 30 until March 16, 2008
Opening: January 29, 2008 at 6:30 pm.

Fondazione Nicola Trussardi at:
Palazzo Litta, Corso Magenta 24,
Milan - Italy
Tel. +39 02 8068821
info@fondazionenicolatrussardi.com
http://www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com

The Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is proud to present Altri fiori e altre domande, the first major exhibition in Italy by Peter Fischli & David Weiss. Installed in the spectacular rooms of Palazzo Litta - a seventeenth century mansion that thanks to the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi opens its doors to contemporary art for the first time - the exhibition is a unique occasion to enter the surreal world of Fischli & Weiss.

Specifically conceived for the sumptuously decorated spaces of Palazzo Litta, among brocade tapestries, period furniture and baroque mirrors, the exhibition Altri fiori e altre domande - like the complete oeuvre of Fischli & Weiss – blurs the border between the normal and the exceptional.

For Altri fiori e altre domande the artists have completely reconfigured parts of their traveling retrospective – organized in collaboration with Tate Modern and Kunsthaus Zurich – adding new works and seminal, rarely seen pieces, which are presented in a site-specific installation conceived for the monumental spaces of Palazzo Litta. The exhibition insinuates itself throughout the Palazzo, leaving its decor and atmosphere untouched while staging a series of sudden revelations and intimate encounters with the artists’ work. Fischli & Weiss’ mysterious objects and miniature crises turn the building into a dollhouse of the absurd.

Fischli & Weiss have been working together since 1979, and have since imposed themselves as the prophets of an art of childish amazement, ferocious skepticism and primal stupor. In their photos, sculptures, films and installations, the Swiss duo casts an enchanted look upon the world, revealing its banal beauty and astonishing dullness. Consummate philosophers and court jesters, Fischli & Weiss combine severity with lightness, fusing the power of imagination with the rigor of a mad scientist.

Always searching for new occasions to connect contemporary art with new audiences and unusual spaces, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi presents an exhibition that is at the same time introspective and retrospective, a unique combination of historical and original works, in one of the most fascinating buildings of the city of Milan. The Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is a private non-for-profit institution that commissions and produces new works by contemporary artists for the historical and public sites of the city of Milan. Since 2003, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi has organized exhibitions with: Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Darren Almond, Maurizio Cattelan, John Bock, Urs Fischer, Anri Sala, Paola Pivi, Martin Creed, and Pawel Althamer.

More on http://www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com

The exhibition Altri fiori e altre domande is organized by Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in collaboration with Tate Modern, London and Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich. The exhibition is curated by Bice Curiger, Vicente Todolí, and Massimiliano Gioni.

Special thanks to the Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici della Lombardia.

Kulturhuset and Galleri Mårtenson & Persson

Kulturhuset Stockholm - photos
Galleri Mårtenson & Persson - drawings
February 1 – 24, 2008

Amy Simon
Manège – from the Central Park portfolio

http://www.kulturhuset.stockholm.se
http://www.gallerimartenson-persson.se

Amy Simon works with and in places that have special meaning for her during different stages in her life and has consequently returned to over and over again. It can be Central Park in New York, Wengen in Switzerland, Marrakech in Morocco, or Miami in Florida. What distinguishes the choice of location is that they touch on memory and feelings of belonging. She uses images to strengthen and re-experience. These images are keys to enhancing a cathartic experience, which anchor the memories and make them extremely personal. Editing takes place at the moment of shooting. Through the lens she sees the final result.

As far back as the Byzantine kingdom there existed simple carousels. The author Anatole France (1844-1924) explained why we ride carousels: the need for movement, of dizziness, a secret longing to be taken away, to be astounded. Originally the carousel was a type of riding contest. The French word manège, as in the exhibitions title, makes no discrepancy between the carousel and riding a horse.

In the exhibition at Kulturhuset, photographs from 2007, are horses with kicking hooves, wild, overwrought eyes and silent screams, along with snorting dragons. The strong clear colors have been repainted many times throughout the years but are still vivid. Amy Simon has used the carousel as a starting point in several works since 1990. The over-dimensioned horse sculptures, along with the rest of the carved figures are equally beautiful as horrifying.

The drawings exhibited at Galleri Mårtenson & Persson rely on this same theme, but now in segmented miniature. The essence of the larger works can be sensed, only here it has manifested into private delicate colored pencil encounters with metal, wood, and paint.

Amy Simon has exhibited at Malmö Konstmuseum and several galleries in Stockholm, at Centre Culturel Suédois in Paris as well as in New York. Her artworks encompass photography and drawing. In earlier exhibitions she has amongst other issues touched upon the question of places and their importance and our realistic understanding of them. She has also made a documentary film. Born and raised in New York City, Amy lives in Stockholm, Sweden since 1993.

Kulturhuset Stockholm
Sergels Torg
10327 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 8 508 314 00
E-mail: info@kulturhuset.stockholm.se
http://www.kulturhuset.stockholm.se

Galleri Mårtenson & Persson
Karlavägen 20
114 31 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 8 660 68 02
Email: info@gallerimartenson-persson.se
http://www.gallerimartenson-persson.se

New Museum

Boris Groys, The Religion as Medium
Video still

Night School: Public Seminar 1
Boris Groys: After the Red Square

New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
212.219.1222

http://www.newmuseum.org

Program Schedule:

Thursday, January 31: Boris Groys, “Religion After Communism,” starting at 7 p.m. in the New Museum theater; open to the public. Tickets required (see below).

Friday, February 1: Guest Lecturer Mikhail Iampolski, “Post-Communist Russian Film,” starting at 7 p.m. in the New Museum theater; open to the public. Tickets required (see below).

Saturday, February 2: Boris Groys, “Eastern European Post-Communist Art,” starting at 3 p.m. in the New Museum theater; open to the public. Tickets required (see below).

Sunday, February 3: Discussion; limited to Night School seminar leaders, staff, and core
program participants.

The contemporary, post-communist situation is mostly understood as a time after the full and final victory of the market over all the attempts to put this rule into question. Accordingly, art is equated to the art market and an individual artwork is seen primarily as a commodity. Under this regime the only way for art to become “serious” is to become “critical”, which means that it tries to reflect explicitly on its own character-as- commodity. It is telling that the art of the former Communist or Socialist countries is regarded from this perspective as non-serious because it is non-critical by definition; this art could not reflect on itself as a commodity because it was not a commodity. (It was not a commodity because there was no market, and certainly no art market under Socialism).

But the equation between art and art market, be it critical or not, not only brings about the erasure of a substantial part of the art heritage of the 20th Century; it also - and this is the more important point - ignores the non- market dimensions of contemporary art that functions not only as commodity but also as propaganda (for example: Islamist videos), as a means to organize a new type of communal space and a new type of community itself. The goal of the seminar is to investigate precisely these non-market aspects of contemporary art in its relationship to the long tradition of non-market uses of art, related initially to the Socialist-Communist tradition.

Suggested reading:

Boris Groys, The Total Art of Stalinism, Princeton, 1995
Boris Groys, Ilya Kabakov. A man who flew into the cosmic space. Afterall/MIT, 2006.
Boris Groys (ed.), Dream Factory Communism, Schirn, Frankfurt a.M., 2004.
Jacques Derrida, Marx’ Gespenster, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.M., 2003
Giorgio Agamben, Die kommende Gemeinschaft, Merve, 2003.

Born in East Berlin in 1947, Boris Groys studied Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Leningrad from 1965-71. Then, from 1971 to 1976 Groys worked as a research assistant at various institutes in Leningrad and from 1976-81 he was employed at the Institute for Structural and Applied Linguistics at the University of Moscow. In 1981 Groys emigrated from the former USSR to Germany. 1982-85 he received various grants in Germany and worked as a freelance author from 1986-87 in Cologne. Groys taught as Guest Professor in the States at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in 1988 and at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 1991. He obtained his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Muenster in 1992. Since 1994 Groys has been professor for Philosophy and Media Theory at the Academy for Design in Karlsruhe, Germany. And since January 1st 2001 Groys also serves as vice chancellor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, which has since recieved un
iversity status. Member of the Association International des Critiques d’Art [AICA].

Night School is an artist’s project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize and conduct the program.

All events are free with Museum admission but tickets are required. Tickets can be reserved online or at the Museum one week before the seminar’s start; a limited number of tickets will be available one hour before each event’s start. Tickets are limited, distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis, and must be collected prior to the event’s start time. Unclaimed tickets will be released promptly at the event’s start time. Please check individual events below for tickets and more information.

Night School is part of the Museum as Hub, which is made possible by the Third Millennium Foundation.

With additional generous support from the Metlife Foundation

Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Skadden, Arps Education Programs Fund and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the
New Museum.

Generous support also provided by the Charlotte and Bill Ford Artist Talks Fund.

CIRCA Puerto Rico

Carlos Betancourt, From the Rincón Flamboyant Series,
“FAMILY PORTRAIT (Mami, Papi, Alberto, and Me –Rincón, PR)”, 2005, Metallic Lambda Print (50×50cm)
Image Courtesy of Diana Lowenstein Fine Art,
Miami/Galeria Walter Otero, Puerto Rico

CIRCA Puerto Rico ‘08
The First International Art Fair in the Caribbean, Third Edition
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Dates:
April 11 - 14, 2008

Location:
Puerto Rico Convention Center
100 Convention Blvd.
San Juan, PR 00907

Web: http://www.circapr.com
Email: info@circapr.com

Press Contact: targetyourart@yahoo.es
VIP Program Contact: mariangela.capuzzo@circapr.com

CIRCA PR AS PARADIGM OF A FUNKY, INTIMATE, AND INTELLECTUAL ART FAIR

CIRCA Puerto Rico ’08, the first international art fair in the Caribbean and Central America, will be held from April 11 – April 14, 2008 at the new Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan, and will feature over 40 commercial galleries from Puerto Rico, Latin America, the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia.

CIRCA PR ’08 will once again bring the best of Contemporary art to a local and international audience of collectors. It is the only art fair of its kind in the Caribbean and Central America, where an important group of collectors has emerged in the past few years. In just three years, CIRCA PR has shown its potential to give new visibility to the Caribbean art world where an exciting mix of regional artists, gallerists, institutions, and collectors, together with a selection of international galleries, offered a very personal and dynamic art fair.

SIZE DOES MATTER
Far from the madding crowds and the gigantism of most of the art fairs, at CIRCA PR we are convinced that an art fair should be small, intimate, and intellectually challenging. CIRCA continues with its humane scale in a friendly and sunny setting allowing gallerists, collectors and other art professionals to interact on a more personal one-to-one basis. Respected economist E.F.Schumacher once said “Small is beautiful”, hinting clearly to the most appropriate scale for an activity. And for us, size does
really matter.

WHAT THE PRESS SAID ABOUT CIRCA ‘07:
• “the fair featured a great mix of dealers and independent thinkers that aren’t found at other art fairs” (Walter Robinson, artnet)
• “Puerto Rico has something unique to offer to the world, which is increasingly about money and seeing the same thing everywhere you go” ( Joel Weinstein, Flash Art)
• “CIRCA is shaping up to be an exciting initiative” (Amanda Coulson Tema Celeste)
• “Puerto Rico possesses one of the highest densities of collectors that I know of in the art world” (Fernando Galán Art.es)

PARTICIPATING GALLERIES
356 (San Juan), Air de Paris (Paris), Altamira (Gijon), Artspace Witzenhausen (Amsterdam), Blow de la Barra (London), Botello (San Juan), Breenspace (Sydney), brot.undspiele (Berlin), Spencer Brownstone (New York), Adora Calvo (Salamanca), Casas Riegner (Bogota), Marta Cervera (Madrid), Contemporary Fine Arts (Berlin), Carmen Correa Contemporaneo (San Juan), CR3MA (San Juan), Dean Projects (New York), Espacio Liquido (Gijon), Henrique Faria Fine Art (New York), Gavlak (West Palm Beach), Alfredo Ginocchio Arte Internacional (Mexico DF), Moti Hasson (New York), Hardcore Art Contemporany Space (Miami), Caprice Horn (Berlin), Jacob Karpio (San Jose, CR), Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts (Miami), Federico Luger (Milan), Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art (Toronto), Museum 52 (London), Pan American Art Projects (Miami), Raquel Ponce (Madrid), Walter Otero (San Juan), Point of View (New York), PM Gallery (Toronto), El Museo/Fernando Pradilla (Bogota), Primer Piso (San Juan), Lyle O. Reit
zel (Santo Domingo), Samson Projects (Boston), Schuebbe Project (Duesseldorf), Space Other (Boston), Spielhaus & Morrison (Berlin), Spinello Gallery (Miami), Storehouse Group(San Juan), Vane (UK), and Voges + Partner (Francfort).

THE CURATED ART FAIR
For the section In the Spot guest curators –among which Michel Blancsube from the Jumex Collection and Julieta Gonzalez from Espacio 1414- will put together a revolutionary concept-based exhibition from works exhibited at the fair; at the end of the day the curator will engage in a critical dialogue with the audience.

CHAMBRES DES COLLECTEURS and COLLECTOR’S PROGRAM
In response to the bourgeoning and dynamic artistic community, an important group of private collectors has emerged in Puerto Rico. In cooperation with these collectors and in hommage to Jan Hoet’s Chambres d’Amis (1986), the section “Chambres des Collecteurs” offers during CIRCA a unique possibility of visiting private collections. Our interesting and edgy collector’s program will offer visits to the following private collections: the Rosalia and Ugobono Collection with works by Melvin Martinez, Jonathan Meese, Guillermo Kuitca among others; Horacio Campolietto Collection with works by Erwin Olaf and Andres Serrano; in addition this year CIRCA will feature the opening of Luis Gutierrez Latin-American Photo Collection. Also on the VIP Programme is a visit to the exclusive “Country Club” Dorado Beach East in order to visit the Pepe Alvarez and Carlos Trapaga Collections. These are exciting collections you won’t miss that give a good idea of the collector’s vi
be on the island.

The VIP Program also hosts visits to artists’ studios, gallery walk, museum openings, and parties, in order to make Puerto Rico the ultimate experience for the visiting collector and art lover while enjoying the unique scene of Old San Juan and the incredible reggeaton parties. You can also enjoy the GOLF EXPERIENCE of a lifetime in one of the most celebrated courses in the Caribbean. A first for CIRCA, we invite you to tee off with us on April 15th, at 7:00am.For more information and bookings, call us at (787) 279-7675, or email us at info@circapr.com

SPECIAL HOTEL RATES
For reservations and special rates at the Normandie Hotel in San Juan, you may call (787) 729-2929 or 1-877-987-2929.
Remember to make your reservations under the group name: CIRCA ‘08.
Guests under the CIRCA group name will receive free transportation to and from the Normandie Hotel and the fair (by itinerary).

About Circa Puerto Rico ‘08
CIRCA Puerto Rico ’08 is organized by Portfolio FIAC, Inc., a corporation founded by Roberto J. Nieves and Anabelle Lampón to serve as a leading cultural management company in the Puerto Rican and Caribbean communities.

CIRCA Puerto Rico ‘08 is sponsored by Caribbean Merchandiser Services, Caras, MCS, the Normandie Hotel, and the Puerto Rico Convention Center.
It is supported by: Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, and Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico.

For more information please visit http://www.circapr.com or call (787) 279-7675.

Fair Contact: info@circapr.com
Media Contact: targetyourart@yahoo.es
Collector’s programme and VIP manager: mariangela.capuzzo@circapr.com