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Reading Room

Reading Room issue 2, TRANSCENDENTAL POP
http://www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz

Reading Room, the Asia Pacific’s newest peer-reviewed journal of contemporary art and culture, launches its second issue “Transcendental Pop”.

This issue explores a paradox within contemporary art’s absorption of Pop, identifying a current shift in the infamous fascination with the everyday. While arguably, it is Warhol’s defence of surface, flatness and blankness that has been absorbed and referenced by subsequent generations of artists, these characteristic qualities have become embedded in art’s relationship to the real. “Transcendental Pop” examines how this narrow absorption of Pop’s surface has allowed a paradox to occur when artists reinvest surface with depth, the unknown and unquantifiable. Throughout the issue writers have variously explored this contradiction, something which has the potential to shift the art/life nexus as we know it. However, like their artistic subjects, these writers invariably create room for speculation, without leaving the ground as it were.

The contents include Rex Butler writing on “Andy Warhol and the “Religious” Dimension”, Natasha Conland on the form of football in Douglas Gordon and Phillipe Parreno’s Zidane and Harun Farocki’s Deep Play, David Craig on David Hatcher, Lars Bang Larsen’s extended discussion on the Occult “The Surface No Longer Holds”, Tan Lin on Eric Baudelaire’s Sugar Water, Aram Moshayedi on Kamrooz Aram’s “Painted Elsewhere”, Daniel Palmer on Darren Sylvester, and Morgan Thomas on Baroque inflection in 24 Hour Psycho.

The archive section includes a commissioned portfolio from artist Gavin Hipkins on Andy Warhol’s Index Book; and essays on the relationship of practice and criticism in the work of Giovanni Intra, and Ed Ruscha’s first solo exhibition outside America.

Reading Room is published annually by the E.H. McCormick Research Library at the Auckland Art Gallery, and is edited by Christina Barton, Natasha Conland and Wystan Curnow.

Issue 2 “Transcendental Pop”, 200 pp plus colour section.

Call for papers for Issue 3: 2009 coming soon. See our website for details and subscription information: http://www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/research/journal

Havlovi Duo from Prague, Czech Republic

From: czech@czechcenter.org
To: ;
Subject: Fw: Concert
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:06:12 -0500

Dobry den,

Please join us for a very special performance at the Czech Center:

The legends of Czech alternative music: Irena and Vojta Havlovi from Prague.

The fabulous duo of cellists will be making rare appearances in the United States

this spring, bringing their special baroque instruments viola da gambas. The music

that Havlovi compose has been described as “a duet between violoncello and piano

taking place in a cathedral of sound.” The two have collaborated and released

recordings for more than fifteen years, including work done for Czech television and

frequent travel and recording in India.

Sunday, May 4, 4-6 pm, with a break for cookies, tea and more

Czech Center Museum Houston, 4920 San Jacinto, Houston

RSVP: 713-528-2060 or Czech@czechcenter.org

MORE INFO:
http://www.havlovi.wz.cz
http://www.myspace.com/thehavels

http://www.czechcenter.org

TICKETS: donation accepted Nashledanou,

We look forward to seeing you. The Czech Center Museum

FRANKFURTER KUNSTVEREIN

PALLE NIELSEN
Modell for a Qualitative Society, Moderna Museet, 1968
Copyright: Palle Nielsen

THE GREAT GAME TO COME
May 14 - May 21, 2008
FRANKFURTER KUNSTVEREIN
Steinernes Haus am Römerberg,
Markt 44, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
phone: +49.69.219314-0
fax: +49.69.219314-11
post@fkv.de
http://www.fkv.de

THE GREAT GAME TO COME
May 14 - May 21, 2008
Opening: May 13, 2008, 7 pm
Finissage: May 21, 2008, 3 pm

Following two historical projects from the 1960s and 1970s - one by the artist Palle Nielsen (Denmark) and the other by a group of students from the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach around Thomas Bayrle, Wolfgang Schmidt, Linette Schönegge, Regina Henze and Karin Günther-Thoma - the Frankfurter Kunstverein will be transformed into a playground during one week in May. The idea, an initiative of Chus Martínez, Tobi Maier and Katja Schroeder, will be realized with the help of the artists Palle Nielsen, Thomas Bayrle and groups of students from Städelschule in Frankfurt and the art academy in Copenhagen, supported by their professors Nils Norman (Copenhagen) and Tobias Rehberger (Frankfurt).

In October 1968 the Danish artist Palle Nielsen installed a huge adventure playground at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, called The Model for a Qualitative Society. For three weeks the kids were the active subjects in the exhibition space, and their free play epitomized freedom and creativity. The second project that serves as a reference took place on the grounds of the Frankfurt fair in 1971 and was initiated by a group of students from the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach around Thomas Bayrle, Wolfgang Schmidt, Linette Schönegge, Regina Henze and Karin Günther-Thoma. Similar to Nielsen’s adventure playground the group turned the main exhibition venue of the fairground in Frankfurt into a “Kinderplanet”, a planet for children.

Both of these historical projects pose elemental questions: which kind of social space can art produce? How does a community of players, visitors and other citizens constitute itself? What space is available for community activities in contemporary society? With these questions in mind the Frankfurter Kunstverein will, during one week, turn into a huge playground and space for experimentation. We open our doors to all children, adolescents and adults and encourage them to participate actively in the process of developing and experimenting their environment. The ground for experimentation will be prepared by groups of students from the Städelschule in Frankfurt and the art academy in Copenhagen. They are supported by their professors Nils Norman (Copenhagen) and Tobias Rehberger (Frankfurt) as well as by the artists Palle Nielsen und Thomas Bayrle themselves.

In addition to helping develop the playground for ‘The Great Game to Come’ the team of Umwelt-Exploratorium (UX e.V.) is going to be present during the week and offer workshops for students at the Kunstverein. Together they will develop a huge floating solar powered balloon. UX e.V. is a charitable association based in Frankfurt which was founded by former students from the product design department of Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach. Their aim is to work with current tendencies in our environment and society and to illustrate their transformations through collaborative projects.

The project is a cooperation between the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Staatlichen Hochschule für Bildende Künste - Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Visual Arts in Copenhagen.

The ‘Great Game to Come’ is kindly supported by:

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, The School of Visual Arts, Copenhagen

Partner of the project:
Montana Furnitures A/S

PROJECT INITIATED BY: Chus Martínez (Director, Frankfurter Kunstverein), Tobi Maier and Katja Schroeder (Curators, Frankfurter Kunstverein)
OPENING HOURS: Tuesday, 13, opening, 7 pm; Wednesday, 14 - Tuesday, 20, from 11 am -7 pm; Wednesday, 21, 11 am - 3 pm (Finnissage starts at 3 pm)
ENTRANCE: free
INFORMATION: http://www.fkv.de
PRESS CONTACT: Julia Wittwer, Melanie Räuschel, phone: +49.69.219314–30/-40,
fax: +49.69.219314–11, e-mail: presse@fkv.de , http://www.fkv.de

Bonniers Konsthall

Christoffer Paues
Sketch for a Masterpiece (Daddy Butterfly), 2008

Tell a Friend
April 30 - June 8, 2008

Bonniers Konsthall
Torsgatan 19, SE-113 90 Stockholm
Phone: +46 8 736 42 48
info@bonnierskonsthall.se

http://www.bonnierskonsthall.se

Tell a Friend is this year’s main presentation of emerging Swedish contemporary art at Bonniers Konsthall. The group exhibition, which runs from April 30 to June 8, introduces 28 Swedish artists. The governing principle for the selection of artists participating in Tell a Friend has been linking and networking.

With Tell a Friend Bonniers Konsthall seizes upon our time’s most striking characteristic: the net’s opportunities for exchanging information, networking and sharing. The governing principle for the selection of artists participating in Tell a Friend has been linking and networking. Bonniers Konsthall invited people from its network to suggest artists from the emerging Swedish art scene. Artists, curators, designers, choreographers, writers – who in various ways have been involved in the activities at Bonniers Konsthall since the beginning in 2006 – submitted their choices.

The ambition for the exhibition has been to open up the principle of selection for a temporary, non-hierarchical network where the co-actors set the agenda. The method emphasises an activity in change and motion, where the linking and connecting elements open up contact areas between individuals, practices and traditions.

The participating artist in Tell a Friend give an inkling about current tendencies of the Swedish art scene today. The artists all work within different areas such as visual art, architecture, set design, music and design. They combine different artistic expressions in an impressive way – a natural part of the expanded artist’s role – and that the exhibition is presenting. A typical characteristic is a great interest in theatrical and performative expressions in the form of dialogue, decor, costumes and lighting effects. Simultaneously as much as large-scale gestures, the magnificent and enhanced are recognised, so are they also happy to crush an illusion. Another striking tendency is the interest for existential issues where art is a possibility of catching and embracing the impossible. Language and science are examined. Fantasy and the power of imagination are recognised.

Every Wednesday evening in May and at the beginning of June, the exhibition will expand and present a program of film, music and performance.

Participating artists:
Patrik Aarnivaara, Mats Adelman, Daniel Andersson, Maria Andersson, Malin Belfrage & Erik Törnkvist, Patrik Bengtsson, Bravehat, Åsa Cederqvist, Katarina Elvén, Love Enqvist, Fredric Gunve, Erik Jeor, Emma Kihl, Patrick Kretschek, Mathias Kristersson, Dorota Lukianska, Katarina Lundgren, Anna Lundh, Katarina Nitsch, Jeff Olsson, Christoffer Paues, Katrine Persson, Pia Sandström, Johan Strandahl, Ylva Westerlund, Stina Wirfelt, Anna Ådahl, Stina Östberg.
Curator: Camilla Larsson.

Bonniers Konsthall opened in autumn 2006 and is a venue for Swedish and international contemporary art. As part of Bonniers Konsthall’s commitment to Swedish contemporary art, Bonniers Konsthall holds a large group exhibition every year presenting artists from the young Swedish art scene. The format is open and changeable from one occasion to the next, in order to pave the way for new forms, thoughts and ways of working.

Kunsthalle Bern

2006, foam object coated black, 60 x 150 x 200 cm
Acrylic glass and foam object

Gerwald Rockenschaub: Swing
May 10th - July 27th 2008

Curated by Philippe Pirotte

Kunsthalle Bern
Helvetiaplatz 1, 3007 Bern

http://www.kunsthalle-bern.ch

Kunsthalle Bern is pleased to present Swing, a solo-show by Gerwald Rockenschaub (°1952, Vienna), renowned pioneer of the crossover of minimalism and pop, design and club culture.

Surveying Gerwald Rockenschaub’s artistic career from its beginnings until today, one can clearly discern a tendency, stemming from painting, to refer to images and spaces. Rockenschaub’s oeuvre covers works that have gradually moved away from the oil paintings he produced in the early Eighties. With their emblematic aesthetic language and their clear colourfulness, these paintings sharply contrasted the neo-expressionist paintings prevailing at the time, and they steadily progressed towards spatial installations and paintings that make use of adhesive foil. The early works all represent half-abstract, peculiarly humorous shapes and objects that are reminiscent of pictograms, though neither legible nor interpretable; an alphabet devoid of semantic meaning and with a strongly associative content. For the artist, painting is “a form of representation and a kind of game, a possibility to convey artistic meaning in a stereotypical, model-like form”, the effect of which is
significantly enhanced through the connection with the space that surrounds it. The connection between the artefact and its surroundings becomes ever more important and evolves into a complex reciprocal system.

Since the early Nineties, Rockenschaub has been exhibiting large-scale installations, which occupy entire rooms. The installations are designed on a computer and produced by machines. He uses a variety of industrial materials and fabrics to realise these projects, such as Plexiglas, particleboards, PVC-curtains, movable partition walls, monochromic carpets, inflatable objects shaped like couches, pillows and walls, shrink wrap, and prefabricated metal scaffolds, similar to those used in construction work. Rockenschaub’s procedure of “microsampling”, which involves picking out motifs and structures from trend magazines and commercials, alludes to the way the media shapes and informs our environment. In this sense, the art of Gerwald Rockenschaub accepts our present-day reality, where the virtual collides with the real and where a person could live exclusively in a mediatized environment. At a time, when a big part of our image production is aimed specifically at replacin
g reality, Rockenschaub engages in a transferral and negotiation of meaning, where this imagery turns physical again.

For his exhibition in Bern, Gerwald Rockenschaub designed three new, large room installations, which were developed using a meticulously calculated virtual Kunsthalle. These installations will enter into a suspenseful dialogue with five new animated movies as well as several existing works.

The Kunsthalle Bern is currently preparing a publication, with an essay by Philippe Pirotte focusing on Gerwald Rockenschaub’s most recent work. Walther König Verlag Köln will publish the book.

The exhibition benefits the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum, Bern; the City of Bern, and the donators of the Club 15