Artipedia - Arts News

Stroom Den Haag

Jill Magid, ‘Hummingbird’

Jill Magid, ‘Article 12′
April 20 - June 15, 2008

Stroom Den Haag
Hogewal 1-9
2514 HA The Hague
The Netherlands
Opening hours:
Wednesday-Sunday 12 - 5 pm
T +31-70 3658985
info@stroom.nl
http://www.stroom.nl

Recently the AIVD (Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst) took up residence in its newly renovated building in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands. The organization is using this opportunity to improve its image. The American artist Jill Magid was given access into this closed stronghold to research ‘the human face’ of the secret service. It has brought her into contact with its individual ‘employees’, each of whom plays an intrinsic part in the makeup of this face. The result, an exceptional series of works of an outstanding organization, is presented in the exhibition ‘Article 12’ at Stroom Den Haag. The show was realized in cooperation with Huib Haye van der Werf (advisor
Atelier Rijksbouwmeester).

“I was one of the specially trained groups of agents called “the hummingbirds”. The men and women of this group are so valuable that to protect their covers no central file is kept on them and their identities are seldom divulged to other agents. Most hummingbirds remain on assignment as long as they lead active cover lives, usually as high-ranking government officials, military or cultural officials based in foreign countries. Others serve as businessmen, scientists, editors, writers and artists. But I always used to wonder what would happen if a hummingbird vanished, leaving no proof…”
[Quote from ‘Cockpit’ by Jerzy Kosinski, 1975]

Over the last three years Magid has conducted numerous interviews with employees of the AIVD. These conversations took place in bars and non-descript public places. The purpose of these meetings was for Magid to collect personal data of the employees and to use this information to define the organization’s face. The results of these interviews are the newly produced works in the exhibition ‘Article 12’ – the article on the protection of personal data - at Stroom. Each work in the show reveals specific characteristics of the participating AIVD employees but never discloses their identities entirely.

Ultimately the process of her method defined the outcome: what was made and what was left unresolved. The product of this outcome is a variety of visual, textual, and conceptual works. Through the exhibition at Stroom, the AIVD is presented publicly, in a gallery context where the Organization becomes the observed rather than the observer. The link with the core-organization however, is ever present as the opening of the exhibition in Stroom coincided with that of the AIVD’s renovated building, as well as one of the works being present at both locations. Stroom can be seen as an auxiliary of the AIVD, and vice-versa.

Jill Magid (1973, USA, lives and works in New York and Amsterdam) seeks intimate relations with impersonal structures. She is intrigued by hidden information, being public as a condition for existence, and intimacy in relation to power, manipulation, and observation.

Special thanks to: Mondriaan Stichting and Atelier Rijksbouwmeester.

Mudam Luxembourg

Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (Mudam Luxembourg), illustration: Jean-Christophe Massinon, 2008.

The Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean,
Mudam Luxembourg, Seeks General Director (m/f)

http://www.mudam.lu

A successful candidate must hold a degree in Fine Arts or Cultural Management, as well as be a confirmed and recognised expert in the area of modern and contemporary art. Furthermore, he must have experience in a similar position, either in a major museum or have managed an arts centre or a modern and contemporary arts museum. He must be bilingual (French, English). Knowledge of Luxembourgish or German shall be considered an asset.

Job description
• Administrative management of the museum and implementation of the decisions of the Board
of directors
• Artistic direction of the Museum
• Personnel management
• Responsibility for programming and the budget

The beginning of the contract is foreseen for January 2009. The contract duration shall be 5 years, renewable. The salary shall be commensurate with the responsibility of the task and the required competences. Furthermore, it shall depend on previously acquired experience.

Cover letters, along with a detailed CV and a cultural project, shall be sent for the attention of the President of the Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean to the following address before the 16th June 2008:

For the attention of
Président de la Fondation
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
3, Park Dräi Eechelen / L-1499 Luxembourg

Tel. +352 45 37 85 428
president@mudam.lu
http://www.mudam.lu

Alta Tecnologia Andina

LA PALABRA DE LOS MUDOS
An action by Jota castro
May 15th, 2008, 11.30 hrs (GMT -5)

Playa Redondo. Miraflores City,
Lima, Peru

http://www.lapalabradelosmudos.org

Co-produced by Alta Tecnología Andina - ATA
Supported by the Prince Claus Fund, Deliveri and the Miraflores City Council

On May 15th, Jota Castro is carrying out an action envisaged to gather several thousand people on one of the beaches of the district of Miraflores, the modern commercial and leisure city-centre of Lima, for a setting that has all the characteristics of a political rally, with a stage, a speaker, and an on-stage screen projection of the speaker in close-up. The particularity of that it will be carried without utterance of a single (spoken) word. The performance will involve the use of Sign Language exclusively. The whole action or performance is a statement, a symbolic statement. This event will coincide with the V Summit of Heads of State and Government of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union, which is set to promote a stronger and more effective partnership and closer political dialogue between both sides of the Atlantic.

Jota Castro is a Peruvian artist, living in Brussels who worked in the diplomatic service for two decades. In the late 1990s he left his career as a diplomat at the United Nations and the European Union and decided to devote himself totally to the field of art. Through his different professional activities, Castro has gained in-depth knowledge of the world of international politics; moreover, he considers his university studies in Law and Political Science as his real training in art. Conjuring up the political scene of today in European countries, often through oblique manoeuvres; the critical social issues that are (or should be) the conundrums for political leaders, with his brand of humour that gets the acid best of apparently trivial situations; his acutely developed and directed, politically incorrect sarcasm; and a wide range of social and cultural references, with or without specific historical relevance. He has participated in the Venice, Tirana, Prague and Kwangju
biennales. He won the Gwandju biennale prize in 2004 in Korea.

Alta Tecnologia Andina – ATA [ http://www.ata.org.pe ] is a non-profit cultural organization, created with the objective of helping the development of a new critical and dynamic culture based on the use and growth of the relations between art, science and technology in Latin America. Based in Lima, Peru, it encourages and supports projects and activators in every field of human endeavour, committed to the use and exploration of technologies, media and culture as we seek to develop areas of communication and dissemination of knowledge to contribute to our societies’development through an understanding the use of technology in a critical way.

La palabra de los mudos
Info + Press contact: lapalabradelosmudos@ata.org.pe
Telephone: 00(511) 620.6090 ext. 613
00(511) 997571305
Web: http://www.lapalabradelosmudos.org

Softness

Softness
(Plastic Arts)

The work of the plastic artist Suca Mattos Mazzamati represents another side of nature, flowers, plants and landscapes. We can see in the details the harmony and lightness between colors and shapes. The exhibition could have no other name than “Softness”. The artist not only represents the softness, she “goes for” that softness.

The softness of the synthesis of discrete chromotic sense, collage of fabrics and going through the intensity of color. There are so much to see and feel. The colors are bright but not extravagant, they are also soft, calm and peaceful.

Opening: May 16, 7:00 PM
Until May 31, from 1:30 PM to 7:00 PM.

Colorida Art Gallery
Costa do Castelo 63, Lisboa - Portugal
Tel 351 211 512 142
www.colorida.pt

Public transportation: Metro Martim Moniz, Electrico 28, Electrico 12, Autocarro 37
Parking: Portas do Sol - Alfama

Reykjavik Art Museum

Reykjavik Experiment Marathon
15 May - 24 August 2008

Curated by Olafur Eliasson and
Hans Ulrich Obrist

Reykjavik Art Museum – Hafnarhús

http://www.artmuseum.is

Reykjavik Experiment Marathon will bring together over forty renowned artists, architects, film-makers, and scientists from the international community for a two-fold event at the Reykjavik Art Museum—Hafnarhús: a large-scale, three month-long exhibition and a laboratory conducting its work before the public eye during the opening days of the exhibition (Friday May 16th and Sunday May 18th).

The exhibition and related events are curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London, in collaboration with artist Ólafur Elíasson.

Participants in Reykjavik Experiment Marathon are Marina Abramovic, David Adjaye, Einar Thorsteinn Ásgeirsson, Fia Backström, John Baldessari, Thomas Bayrle, John Brockman, Peter Coles, Tony Conrad, Carlos Cruz-Diez Attila Csörgö, Brian Eno, Ólafur Elíasson, Erró, Jimmie Durham, Ivana Franke, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Gabríela Fridriksdóttir, Yona Friedman, Aurélien Froment, Abhishek Hazra, Hilmar B. Janusson, Hekla Dögg Jónsdóttir, Kristján Leósson, Karl Ægir Karlsson, Darri Lorenzen, Jonas Mekas, MM, Gustav Metzger, Matthew Ritchie, Pedro Reyes, Luc Steels, Tomas Saraceno, Carolee Schneemann, Thorsteinn I. Sigfússon, Katrín Siguoardóttir, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tris Vonna-Michell, Thor Vilhjálmsson, Emily Wardill, Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

Reykjavik Experiment Marathon is the centrepiece of the 2008 Reykjavik Arts Festival. It is a joint project of the Reykjavik Art Museum and the Serpentine Gallery and builds on the enormous success of the recent Serpentine Gallery marathons which have taken place in successive Serpentine Gallery Pavilions. Main sponsors of the exhibition are Reykjavik Energy and Icelandair.

A book accompanying the exhibition, with texts by Bruno Latour, Olafur Eliasson and others, will be available from Buchhandlung Walther König.

Also as part of The Reykjavík Arts Festival are two major exhibitions at Reykjavik Art Museum—Kjarvalsstadir opening on May 18th. The exhibition Dreams of the Sublime and Nowhere in Contemporary Icelandic Art presents new work by thirteen Icelandic artists, ranging from panoramic landscape photographs to multi-media installations. The exhibition is sponsored by Landsbanki.

The second exhibition at Kjarvalsstadir is a commissioned outdoor installation in the museum’s courtyard by artist/landscape architect Martha Schwartz. The extensive installation, entitled I Hate Nature, alludes to the debate over environmental protection versus exploitation. The main sponsor of this exhibition is Ingibjörg Kristjánsdóttir. The work is commissioned on the occasion of the Association of Icelandic Landscape Architects’ 30th anniversary.

Media Contact:
For further information, interviews and images, please refer to the following contacts:
Soffía Karlsdóttir
PR and Communications Director
Reykjavík Art Museum
T: +354 590 1200
F: +354 590 1201
E: soffia.karlsdottir@reykjavik.is