Paul Russo - Black Abstracts

Archive for September, 2008

Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna presents Toyo Ito

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Artipedia - Arts News
Austrian Frederick and Lillian
Kiesler Private Foundation

Toyo Ito, Sendai Mediathèque, 1997-2000, section Drawing.

6th AUSTRIAN FREDERICK
KIESLER PRIZE FOR
ARCHITECTURE AND THE
ARTS 2008 to TOYO ITO
Thursday, 16 October 2008

Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation
Mariahilfer Straße
1b / Top 1, A-1060 Vienna
T: +43-(0)1-5130775
press@kiesler.org

http://www.kiesler.org

AWARD CEREMONY: Thursday, 16 October 2008, 11 a.m.
City Hall Vienna
This year’s Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts goes to the Japanese Architect Toyo Ito. Vienna’s City Councillor for Culture and Science, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, presents the award on 16 October 2008, at 11 a.m, at the Senate Chamber of the City Hall Vienna.

The Kiesler Prize is presented for extraordinary achievements in architecture and the arts that relate to Frederick Kiesler’s experimental, innovative attitudes and his theory of ‘correlated arts’. The international jury acknowledges Toyo Ito as an architect, “who has been focusing on fundamental questions of architecture with regard to their social-cultural modes of action for more than thirty years, without heed for prevalent fashions. … In the 1980s, Toyo Ito’s architecture […] celebrated nomadic life and the mediatisation of our world, as manifested as determining factors in the new metropolises of this world, with a conceptual lightness in terms of constructions, material and colouring. Since the 1990s, Toyo Ito has been calling for the creation of a new relationship between architecture and the natural environment beyond the concepts of modernism.”

EXHIBITION: TOYO ITO _ FLUID SPACE
Opening: Thursday, 16 October 2008, 5 p.m.
Kiesler Foundation Vienna, Mariahilferstraße 1b, 1060 Vienna
On the occasion of those events the Kiesler Foundation will show a selection of important works of TOYO ITO which make his conceptual approach on his far-reaching innovative design and architectural outlines visible.

KIESLER-LECTURE BY TOYO ITO: GENERATIVE ORDER
Lecture: Thursday, 16 October 2008, 7 p.m.
Vienna University of Technology, Audi Max, Getreidemarkt 9, 1060 Vienna
TOYO ITO gives the first Kiesler-Lecture at the Audi Max of the Vienna University of Technology, organised by the Institute for Concept and Design, Faculty of Architecture TU-Vienna in cooperation with the Kiesler Foundation Vienna.

In addition to the exhibition, WITTMANN MÖBELWERKSTÄTTEN in cooperation with the Italian furniture manufacturer HORM present designs by TOYO ITO at the Wittmann furniture showroom, Friedrichstraße 10, A-1010 Vienna.

Supported by:
Wien Kultur
UNIQA
Wittmann
Horm

Paul Russo - Black Abstracts

baltimore vs the world

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

baltimoreVERSUSworld.jpg

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BALTIMORE VS. THE WORLD
DEADLINE EXTENDED: OCTOBER 24 (POSTMARK)

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Current Gallery invites video artists and enthusiasts to submit videos of all genres (experimental, animation, music video, documentary, short, home video, outtakes, unfinished films, scientific studies, etc). Works selected from this call will be featured in baltimore vs. the world DVD publication due out 2009.

baltimore vs. the world will incorporate two separate DVD compilations. One DVD will feature selected works from around the world and the other DVD will focus on selected works from Baltimore, Maryland. Accompanying the DVDs will be a booklet with interviews and support materials.

for more information go to http://www.currentspace.com

Download Application:

  • PDF
  • Forma presents Ryoji Ikeda in Paris, Autumn 2008

    Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

    Artipedia - Arts News
    Forma

    Ryoji Ikeda – data.tron
    Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga (courtesy of Yamaguchi Center of Arts and Media)

    Ryoji Ikeda in Paris, Autumn 2008

    http://www.forma.org.uk

    spectra [paris] at Nuit Blanche, 4 –5 October 2008, 7 pm – 7 am
    Place du 18 juin 1940, 75014 Paris
    http://www.paris.fr/portail/nb2008/Portal.lut?page_id=8707

    V≠L at Le Laboratoire, 11 October 2008 – 12 January 2009
    Presented by Le Laboratoire in partnership with Festival d’Automne
    4, rue du Bouloi, 75001 Paris
    http://www.lelaboratoire.org
    http://www.festival-automne.com

    datamatics [ver.2.0] at Centre Pompidou, 21 – 22 November 2008, 8.30 pm
    Co-presented by Les Spectacles Vivants-Centre Pompidou and Festival d’Automne
    Place Georges Pompidou, 75004 Paris
    http://www.centrepompidou.fr
    http://www.festival-automne.com

    data.tron at Grand Palais, 18 – 31 December 2008
    Presented by Le Fresnoy-Studio National des arts contemporains
    Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
    http://www.grandpalais.fr

    Forma announces a series of new and existing works by Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda presented in Paris this Autumn.

    Commissioned by the City of Paris, Ikeda’s major new work spectra [paris] for Nuit Blanche, the City’s annual ‘white night’ all-night contemporary arts festival, sees blinding white light beamed from scores of highly powered architectural lamps on the same plaza as Tour Montparnasse. Visitors’ movements create a unique symphony of ultra pure sine soundwaves as they pass through the grid of white light. Nuit Blanche 2008 is directed by Herve Chandès and Ronald Chammah and presents over fifty projects in and around the stations and monuments of central Paris.

    spectra [paris] precedes V≠L, Ikeda’s first major solo exhibition in France, with three new works commissioned by Le Laboratoire in partnership with Festival d’Automne. Le Laboratoire is a new space dedicated to artist / scientist collaboration founded by Harvard Professor of ArtScience Innovation, David Edwards. These new works have evolved from Ikeda’s close association with the Harvard mathematician and number theorist Benedict Gross.

    At the Centre Pompidou in November, Ikeda performs datamatics [ver 2.0]. A full-length audiovisual concert using pure data as a source for sound and visuals, datamatics [ver 2.0] was originally co-commissioned by AV Festival 06, ZeroOne San Jose & ISEA 2006, co–produced by les Spectacles Vivants, Centre Pompidou and YCAM, and supported by Recombinant Media Labs.

    “datamatics showed Ikeda at the height of his powers, building on his own unique and unmistakable artistic language.” – The Wire, 2006

    In December at the Grand Palais, he presents data.tron, an audiovisual installation in which every single pixel of video image is strictly calculated by mathematical principle and projected on a vast scale. data.tron was co-produced by Le Fresnoy and Forma. The installation forms a centrepiece of Dans la nuit, des Images, a group exhibition organised for the French presidency of the European Union and in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Le Fresnoy-Studio National des arts contemporains.

    Ryoji Ikeda is an internationally acclaimed composer and artist who creates highly technologised installations that play with human perception. His concerts, installations and recordings integrate sound, acoustics and sublime imagery derived from pure mathematics and real-world data. Accompanied by video and graphics projected at cinematic scale in his concerts, Ikeda’s compositions achieve synaesthetic effects as sound and image become almost indistinguishable, provoking an intensely physical experience.

    Ryoji Ikeda is represented by Forma.
    Forma is supported by the English Arts Council.

    Black Icebergs by Leslie Shows

    Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

    hassla_ls001.jpg
    Black Icebergs by Leslie Shows

    Hassla is proud to announce a new publication with artist, Leslie Shows.

    6.5 x 10 in., saddle-stitched, 24 pages, soft cover, color offset
    Edition of 500
    ISBN 978-0-9800935-5-1
    Publication date: September 2008
    18 USD

    Available at http://www.hasslabooks.com

    Artissima 15: November 7-9, 2008

    Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

    Artipedia - Arts News

    Artissima 15

    November 7-9, 2008

    11 a.m. - 8 p.m.


    Vernissage November 6, 2008

    Lingotto Fiere, Torino


    www.artissima.it

    Artissima 15 is pleased to announce the names of the galleries that will be taking part in the Main Section and in the New Entries section of the forthcoming event. There will be 128 galleries from 19 different countries. As well as the most welcome return to Turin of many highly prestigious Italian and international names, there is also an outstanding list of talented young galleries who will be coming for the first time, making Artissima a unique window on the contemporary art world. Besides, Present Future, the special section of the Fair, will feature 17 emerging artists, selected by a team of curators, a showcase where to discover the latest trends on the international art scene.

    MAIN SECTION
    1/9 unosunove, Roma - AMT / Alberto Matteo Torri, Milano - Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam - Arario, New York, Beijing, Seoul - Art: Concept, Paris - Artericambi, Verona - Alfonso Artiaco, Napoli - Laura Bartlett, London - Catherine Bastide, Brussels - Bortolami, New York - Brändström Stockholm, Stockholm - Kevin Bruk, Miami - Canada, New York - carlier I gebauer, Berlin - Antonio Colombo, Milano - Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Le Moulin - Raffaella Cortese, Milano - Cosmic (Bugada & Cargnel), Paris - Guido Costa Projects, Torino - Chantal Crousel, Paris - Ellen de Bruijne, Amsterdam - Monica De Cardenas, Milano - Massimo De Carlo, Milano - Alessandro De March, Milano - Elizabeth Dee, New York - Umberto Di Marino, Napoli - e/static, Torino - Frank Elbaz, Paris - Feinkost, Berlin - Figge von Rosen, Köln - Emi Fontana, Milano, Pasadena - Fonti, Napoli - Enrico Fornello, Prato - Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo - Fruit and Flower Deli, New York - gdm, Paris - Vera Gliem, Köln - Mo
    ti Hasson, New York – Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart - Herald St, London - Hotel, London - In Arco, Torino - Alison Jacques, London - Michael Janssen, Berlin - Kamm, Berlin - francesca kaufmann, Milano - Klerkx, Milano - Christine König, Wien - Le Case d’Arte, Milano - Federico Luger, Milano - Lumen Travo, Amsterdam - Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Roma - Giò Marconi, Milano - Primo Marella, Milano, Beijing - Maze, Torino - Sara Meltzer, New York - Kamel Mennour, Paris - Francesca Minini, Milano - Massimo Minini, Brescia - Mitterrand & Sanz, Zürich - Monitor, Roma - Motive, Amsterdam - Murray Guy, New York - Museum 52, London- Newman Popiashvili, New York - Franco Noero, Torino - Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona - Noire, Torino - Lorcan O’Neill Roma, Roma - francesco pantaleone, Palermo - Alberto Peola, Torino - Peres Projects, Berlin, Los Angeles - Giorgio Persano, Torino - Perugi, Padova - Photo&Contemporary, Torino - Photology, Milano, Bologna - Pianissimo, Milano - Pinksummer, Genova - Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Hamburg - prometeogallery, Milano, Lucca - Regina, Moscow - Anthony Reynolds, London - Sonia Rosso, Torino - Perry Rubenstein, New York - Lia Rumma, Napoli, Milano - Nikolaus Ruzicska, Salzburg - S.A.L.E.S., Roma - schleicher + lange, Paris - Anna Schwartz, Melbourne - Mimmo Scognamiglio, Napoli, Milano - Suzy Shammah, Milano - ShangART, Shanghai, Beijing - Shugoarts, Tokyo - Side 2, Tokyo - FRANCOSOFFIANTINO, Torino - Sprovieri, London - Studio Dabbeni, Lugano - Studio Guenzani, Milano - Jiri Svestka, Prague - Ileana Tounta, Athens - TUCCI RUSSO, Torre Pellice - V.M.21, Roma - Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois, Paris - van Gelder, Amsterdam - Vistamare, Pescara - Max Wigram, London - Wilkinson, London - Xippas, Paris, Athens - ZERO, Milano

    NEW ENTRIES
    BALICEHERTLING, Paris - Chert, Berlin - Lucile Corty, Paris - Croy Nielsen, Berlin - Dicksmith, London - freymond-guth & co, Zürich - James Fuentes LLC, New York - Alexander Gray, New York - Grimm, Amsterdam - Hollybush Gardens, London - Jarach, Venezia - Klemm’s, Berlin - Office Baroque, Antwerp - Project Gentili, Prato - ProjecteSD, Barcelona - Rodeo, Istanbul - Sutton Lane, London - TRIPLE V, Dijon - Jocelyn Wolff, Paris

    PRESENT FUTURE
    SARA BARKER, Mary Mary, Glasgow - SOPHIE BUENO-BOUTELLIER, Cardenas Bellanger, Paris - SEBASTIAN DIAZ MORALES, carlier I gebauer, Berlin - Wouter FeyaertS, Transit, Mechelen - ROLF GRAF, Ruzicska///Weiss, Düsseldorf - STEF HEIDHUES, Grunert, Hamburg - NATHAN HYLDEN, Art: Concept, Paris - JUSTIN MATHERLY, Dispatch, New York - PHILIP METTEN, Annette De Keyser, Antwerp - CARTER MULL, Rivington Arms, New York - LISA OPPENHEIM, Harris Lieberman, New York - STEPHEN G. RHODES, Overduin and Kite, Los Angeles - ALBERTO TADIELLO, T293, Napoli - MATEO TANNATT, Marc Foxx, Los Angeles - KRISTOF VAN GESTEL, Tatjana Pieters/OneTwenty, Gent - TORBJÖRN VEJVI, Raucci/Santamaria, Napoli - FREEK WAMBACQ, Elisa Platteau, Brussels

    SELECTION COMMITTEES
    Board of Directors
Olivier Antoine, Art : Concept gallery, Paris
Elizabeth Dee, Elizabeth Dee gallery, New York
Francesca Kaufmann, francesca kaufmann gallery, Milano 
Massimo Minini, Massimo Minini gallery, Brescia 
Franco Noero, Franco Noero gallery, Torino
Paolo Zani, Zero gallery, Milano

    Advisory Board
    Giuseppe Dalle Nogare, Bolzano
    Marc and Josée Gensollen, Marseille
    Maurizio Morra Greco, Napoli
    Filiep and Mimi Libeert, Kortrijk
    Gregory Papadimitriou, Athens
    Renato Preti, Milano

    Switch Supposing

    Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

    FRONT.jpg
    SS

    A drawing experience by
    Marta Angelozzi, Elena Cecchinato and Maia Sambonet

    Area 10 Project Space
    Entrance behind Library
    Peckham Square
    London SE15 5JT
    www.area10.info

    Sunday 12th October to Saturday 18th October
    open everyday from 13pm to 19pm

    Switch Supposing outlines an itinerary within the experience of the elsewhere happening here and now through the practice of Drawing.

    In a maze of lines and mindscapes, the spectator participates to the chasing game of black and white. As light and darkness reverse one into the other, the viewer is free to swing between mindfulness and abandonment.

    This series of pieces explore the possibility of generating new vocabularies for the intangible and mutual relation to the elsewhere.

    Marta Angelozzi’s drawings are abstract landscapes that reflect a state of being experienced in the moment they are drawn. As a way to explore the unknown, they could represent a journey to and from an unexplored land. They are ‘codes’ open to interpretation, long scrolls, strictly black and white, under the watchful eye of a video camera.

    Elena Cecchinato’s tile-carpets explore the immanent reordering that exists between inner experience and outer occurrence. ‘Contained’ is a floor tiles installation composed of prayer rugs embedded into the pavement. Their cosmographical designs are made up of finely psycho-poetical invocations meandering and converging in a sketch-like fashion of prayer for the everyday little traumas.

    Maia Sambonet’s installations range from miniatures to environments, which catch drawing in motion. Set free, a story evades the sheet’s perimeter to navigate in space. Light cluster is an ensemble of light boxes that progressively reveal a drawing-microcosm. Incorporated in the drawing texture, calligraphy undescores a transition from illegibility to clarity, from dark to light.

    Switch Su[[osing is part of The Big Draw, campaign for drawing. www.thebigdraw.com

    Mark Lewis at LE GRAND CAFE, Contemporary Art Centre

    Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

    Artipedia - Arts News
    LE GRAND CAFÉ,
    Centre d’art contemporain

    The Fight, 2008, 5′31′’, Courtesy galerie serge le borgne, Paris.

    MARK LEWIS
    4 October - 30 November 2008

    Curator: Sophie Legrandjacques

    LE GRAND CAFÉ, Centre d’art
    contemporain, Saint-Nazaire (F)
    Place des Quatre z’horloges
    44 600 Saint-Nazaire – France
    grand_cafe@mairie-saintnazaire.fr
    http://www.grandcafe-saintnazaire.fr

    Press trip Friday 3 October
    Opening reception from 7pm

    EXHIBITION EVENTS
    Sunday16 November at 3.30pm.

    Philippe-Alain Michaud, art historian and theorist, will present Mark Lewis’ work. He is Curator of Film at the Musée National d’art moderne Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris. He has a special interest in the intersection of art history with cinema.

    Carlos Cruz-Diez and Public Programs at Americas Society

    Monday, September 29th, 2008

    Artipedia - Arts News
    Americas Society

    PUBLIC PROGRAMS ACCOMPANYING THE
    CARLOS CRUZ-DIEZ:
    (IN)FORMED BY COLOR EXHIBITION

    Americas Society
    680 Park Avenue at 68th Street
    New York, NY 10065
    T: 212.249.8950

    www.americas-society.org

    New Mythologies: Color as a Participatory Tool
    Panel Discussion at Americas Society
    680 Park Avenue at 68th St, NY
    Thursday October 2, 6:30 p.m.

    The members of this panel will discuss how artists in the 1960s such as Cruz-Diez, Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel, and Abraham Palatnik explored basic visual elements such as color and light to redefine the parameters of art itself by directly engaging the viewer through social situations.
    Speakers:

    • Tanya Barson (Curator, Tate Modern)
    • Estrellita Brodsky (Guest Curator)
    • Ariel Jiménez (Curator, Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros)
    • Arnauld Pierre (Art Historian)
    • Edward Sullivan, Moderator (Dean of Humanities, New York University)

    Perceptual Transformations
    Panel discussion at The King Juan Carlos of Spain Center-NYU
    53 Washington Square South, NY
    Tuesday October 14, 6:30 p.m.

    This multidisciplinary panel will focus on theories of perception, phenomenology, and the development of spectator participation in artworks such as Carlos Cruz-Diez’ Cromosaturación and Pedro Reyes’ Leverage.
    Speakers:

    • Nuit Banai (Art Historian)
    • Marisa Carrasco (Chair of Psychology, New York University)
    • Pedro Reyes (Visual Arts)
    • Edward Sullivan, Moderator (Dean of Humanities, New York University)

    These events are part of the exhibition Carlos Cruz-Diez: (In)Formed by Color, on view at the Americas Society until December 13th 2008. The exhibition, curated by Estrellita B. Brodsky and Isabela Villanueva, presents Cruz-Diez one of Latin America’s Kinetic art masters in his first solo show at a major United States cultural institution. Focusing on the relationship between color and perception, the exhibition seeks to correct the limited understanding and visibility of Cruz-Diez’s work in the United States.

    Carlos Cruz-Diez: (In)Formed by Color features Cromosaturación, a site-specific environment designed by the artist for the Americas Society’s gallery. Initially conceived of in 1965, this groundbreaking artwork consists of three separate light-infused color chambers of red, green and blue. The real content of the work is the visitor’s experience of walking through the shifting chromatic space and interacting over time to his or her own physical movement. In addition to the Cromosaturación, the exhibition will include 20 of Cruz-Diez’ early Fisicromías, a series of changeable chromatic structures that he initiated in 1959. These offer insight into the thinking process behind the artist’s exploration of the liberating, participatory experience of color projected into space. Cruz-Diez demands the viewer’s involvement through color as an autonomous, constantly shifting spatial event. Barely known in the United States, Cruz-Diez is considered a pioneer in the use of color as a
    participatory tool as well as a visionary who pushed the boundaries of art towards everyday life.

    A fully illustrated publication will accompany the exhibition, including contributions by Alexander Alberro, Nuit Banai, Mariela Brazon, Estrellita Brodsky, Gabriela Rangel, and Isabela Villanueva. The catalogue will be available in November 2008.

    Americas Society gratefully acknowledges the following donors for their generous support of Carlos Cruz Diez: (In)formed by Color and accompanying public programs: Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Luis Alfonso and Maria Graciela Oberto; Mercantil; Stelac Foundation; New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; Luis Benshimol; Clarissa Alcock Bronfman; Chevron; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros; Fundación Eugenio Mendoza; Leonor Giménez Pocaterra de Mendoza; Sotheby’s; Alberto Vollmer Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts; PINTA Art, LLC; and Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian.

    Additional in-kind support has been provided by: Art Nexus; Arte al Día International; Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud; Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela - Ministerio del Poder Popular para La Cultura - Fundación Museos Nacionales; Pablo Pulido Mendoza; Mexican Cultural Institute of New York; Sicardi Gallery; and Terrazas de los Andes.

    The listed events are free and open to the public.
    Americas Society is located at 680 Park Avenue at 68th Street, in New York City.
    Reservations are mandatory, so please RSVP to: (212) 277-8359 or culture@americas-society.org

    For more information, visit http://www.americas-society.org If you have questions or comments, please email us at culture@americas-society.org

    Jack presents Andre Principe

    Monday, September 29th, 2008

    forArtip_003.jpg

    Andre Principe, The Smell of Tiger precedes Tiger

    September 30 – October 25, 2008

    Andre Principe

    Just after the exhibition held in July at Fernando Santos, both Lisboa and Porto galleries, we are pleased to present at the /gallery slideshow’series program, an extensive integral premiere of his upcoming book The Smell of Tiger precedes Tiger :

    /gallery.
    contemporary material culture and art > now
    http://jackpresents.com/gallery/index.html

    Plus we would like to point your attention to the new menu entry _upcoming. Look for the menu white square button right side the gray ones, or just click the following link :

    contemporary material culture and art > upcoming
    http://jackpresents.com/gallery/upcoming/index.html

    André Príncipe
    Smell of Tiger precedes Tiger

    Razan asked Ganto,
    “What if things appear and disappear without ceasing?”
    Ganto scolded him saying,
    “Who appears and disappears?”

    Shoyoroku (Book of Serenity, C. Ts’ung-jung lu), 12th century

    1st draft
    Lisbon, May 2008

    André Principe (Porto, 1976) has studied Psychology (Universidade do Porto University, Portugal), Photography (Faxx, Akademie, Netherlands) and Cinema (Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, Lisboa, 1998-2001) and also did the Curso de Realização Avançada da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian / London Film School advanced artistic training, 2005.
    He has been doing work both in Photography and Cinema. Has done exhibitions at the Encontros de Imagem de Braga, CPF, Galeria Fernando Santos e Silo e o seu trabalho tem sido publicado em revistas como a Dayfour, Exit, etc. Was nominated twice for the Deutsche Borse Photography. Has published his first book Tunnels, at Booth-Clibborn edtions. He is the founding member of the Pierre von Kleist Editions, devoted exclusively to photo books publication.

    Why are conceptual artists painting again?

    Monday, September 29th, 2008

    Artipedia - Arts News
    the building

    Why are conceptual artists painting again?
    Because they think it’s a good idea.

    A series of talks and conversations
    organized by Jan Verwoert

    Opening talk: Friday, October 3rd, 730 PM
    Free admission

    the building
    Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14a
    Berlin, 10249 DE
    T: 030 28 04 79 73

    The building is pleased to present a monthly series of talks and conversations organized by the Berlin-based art critic Jan Verwoert. Please join us for the opening talk this Friday at 7:30 PM. Admission is free.

    What is the future of medium-specific practices after Conceptualism?
    What is the future of Conceptual Art after the 1990s?

    How have the basic conditions of art practice changed and what words and models could we use to open up the potentials at the heart of these developments in art after Conceptualism?

    The dominant models no longer satisfy. It makes no sense to melodramatically invoke the “end of painting” (or any other medium-specific practice for that part) when the continous emergence of fascinating work obviously proves apocalyptic endgame scenarios wrong. Yet, to pretend it were possible to go back to business as usual seems equally impossible because the radical expansion of artistic possibilities through the landslide changes of the 1960s leave medium-specific practices in the odd position of being one among many modes of artistic articulation, with no preset justification. How can we describe then what medium-specific practices like painting or sculpture can do today?

    Likewise, it seems, that we can still not quite convincingly describe to ourselves what Conceptual Art can be: An art of pure ideas? As if “pure” idea art were ever possible let alone desirable! An art of smart strategic moves and puns? We have advertising agencies for that. The social and political dimension of Conceptualism has been discussed, but often only in apodictic terms, not acknowledging the humour, the wit, the existential, emotional or erotic aspects, as well as the iconophile, not just iconoclast motives, that have always also been at play in the dialectics and politics of life-long conceptual practices.

    The talk will start off a series of monthly talks and conversations about the conditions of contemporary practice. The idea is to invent a new language together in discussions that could describe the potentials of contemporary practice; a language that would acknowledge a shared sense of crisis and doubt, yet fight the senseless paranoia over legitimation that too much bad-faith criticism today exploits in the wake of second-generation institutional critique. In other words: how could, in response to the concerns of contemporary art practice, a critical vocabulary be developed that would break the spell of the oedipal infatuation with the laws of (institutional) legitimacy - and instead help to transform criticism into a truly gay science based on a shared sense of appreciation and irreverence?

    Jan Verwoert is an art critic based in Berlin. He is a contributing editor to Frieze magazine and also writes regularly about contemporary art for such art magazines as Afterall, Metropolis M. Teaches at the MA Fine Arts department at the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam.

    The building is an e-flux project in cooperation with Fruit & Flower Deli. The building is open Thursday through Saturday, 12 – 6 pm. Come visit!

    For further information please contact Magdalena Magiera: Magdalena@e-flux.com

    e-flux
    Platz der Vereinten Nationen 14a
    10249 Berlin DE
    T: 030 28 04 79 73