Artipedia - Arts News

Frankfurter Kunstverein

FRANKFURTER KUNSTVEREIN
Photo: Norbert Miguletz, 2008
Copyright Frankfurter Kunstverein

INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL
FOR THE POSITION OF DIRECTOR
OF 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 Frankfurter Kunstverein is a leading German institution in the analysis of contemporary art with an international reputation and is engaged in reaching a broad audience via its exhibitions, lectures and publications.

The Frankfurter Kunstverein’s current director, Chus Martínez, has taken a new position starting now. Therefore the board of the Frankfurter Kunstverein is looking for a new, visionary director who can lead the institution. We are looking for someone with a broad, documented experience in German and international contemporary art, and who is known in Europe and abroad as someone with a distinctive approach in the field. Experiences that could be relevant are, for example, work as an art historian, curator or critic. An international network in the visual arts is an important qualification as well.

We are looking for someone with a strong vision of the Frankfurter Kunstverein’s programmatic direction and setting for the future. As the director of a flexible and fast-paced workplace, you must be accustomed to management and have excellent social skills:

- You show initiative and have the analytical power and social intelligence to function effectively and comfortably in the complex professional institutional field in Frankfurt am Main.
- You are a strong communicator and have a natural tendency towards cooperation and collaboration.
- You deal easily and naturally with the political, cultural, economic and public relations of the institution as well as with its members, and have concrete strategies for successfully seeking fundraising and sponsoring partnerships, based on practical experience
- You are a persistent, convincing and effective negotiator.

In addition, excellent German, written and spoken, and a perfect knowledge of the English language are a must.

The position is at least a three-year appointment, which can commence as the parties see fit.

Please send your application before November 28th, 2008. The application should include a short description of your vision of the Frankfurter Kunstverein’s future conception and profile along with a CV, references and your desired salary. Please don’t send catalogues. Please send your application to:

The Board of the Frankfurter Kunstverein
c/o Gabriele Dagher
Frankfurter Kunstverein e.V.
Steinernes Haus am Römerberg / Markt 44
D-60311 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

On Stellar Rays

CLIFFORD OWENS
November 2 - December 14, 2008

Opening reception:
Sunday, November 2, 3 - 6 pm

On Stellar Rays
133 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
1.212.598.3012
candice@onstellarrays.com
http://www.onstellarrays.com

On November 2, On Stellar Rays will open an exhibition of photo-based work by Clifford Owens, marking the first solo exhibition for both the gallery and the artist.

Owens is well known for his Studio Visit series, in which he engages visiting artists or arts professionals in one-on-one acts relating to the visitor’s work. Studio Visits originated during a Skowhegan residency in Maine, where William Pope.L was one of the artists to visit Owens’ studio. Owens commonly uses the body as a conduit for conversation, exposing the underlying dynamics between two individuals through prescribed physical interactions. The studio visit with Pope.L began with Owens’ empty, white studio, buckets of mud, and pails of water. Owens and Pope.L proceeded to cover the walls with mud, each mud-slinging and smearing in turn. The performance was documented on a roll of black and white film, from which all 36 photographs will be on view, unedited and in sequence. As with all of Owens’ work, the installation goes beyond documentation and takes on a strong formal component. The first image captures the white studio, and as more mud covers the walls, and seque
ntially gradates to darker shades.

Owens plays with the history of conceptual text-based work in Text Piece, which presents a grid of 47 photographs of white text against black. Though the stark formalism might initially suggest more distanced work (Owens often-present body is conspicuously absent), closer inspection reveals 47 intimate and personal phrases. The viewer is confronted with “She likes to finger my feelings,” “Mother Baltimore,” and “I thought you were gay.” Here, the conversation is more literal, though it is unclear whether the words are directed at us, the artist, or whether the conversation is happening within the piece.

In Owens’ most recent body of color photographs, the artist explores the uniquely African-Ecuadorian community of the Esmeralda Province, Ecuador. There continues to be a thoughtful exploration of self in the work (Owens’ young son is half Ecuadorian). This is visible though the eyes of the young men Owens encountered in the Esmeraldas, who are looking intensely at Owens in each work. Prelingual, an intimate family portrait taken before his son’s birth, will also be on view.

Owens is perhaps best known for his provocative performances, in which the audience is frequently required to engage with Owens, and shifts of power and perspective are at play. Owens will offer two performances in conjunction with this exhibition. On November 2, there will be a performance in the downstairs gallery of On Stellar Rays. In addition, Owens is offering a custom-designed performance for an individual or institution. Owens will visit the commissioner in advance, script and produce a unique performance for the commissioner and guests, to be performed in his or her private space. The work will be documented and made available to the commissioner in a video and photographs. This work pushes Owens’ exploration of the interaction between artist and audience, and the positions of control and perspective in any engagement with art. Please contact the gallery for more information.

Clifford Owens art has appeared in numerous group exhibitions including Performa05, New York, NY; Freestyle and Quid Pro Quo at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Greater New York 2005 P.S.1, Queens, New York; Influence, Anxiety, Gratitude, List Visual Art Center, Cambridge, MA. Owens studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Mason Gross School of Visual Art Rutgers University, and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. He was an artist in residence at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 2005-06 and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2004. Grants and fellowships include Art Matters, Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Lambent Foundation, and the Rutgers University Ralph Bunche Graduate Fellowship. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1971, and he lives and works in Queens, New York.

Candice Madey
On Stellar Rays
133 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
1.212.598.3012
http://www.onstellarrays.com
candice@onstellarrays.com

For more information go to: http://www.onstellarrays.com

Decay (demolished) 1981 (Photo by Martha Cooper, courtesy of John Fekner )

For this election season, John Fekner has released a new three minute video online of his stencil work in the South Bronx featuring a new remix by Stephen Kwartler aka qu.one. Fekner wrote the song and does the vocals on the track that also includes rare and unreleased stenciled images never before seen.

Other artists and collaborators include Crash, Don Leicht, Martha Cooper, Lisa Kahane, Brian Albert, Fashion Moda and others. The song was originally recorded for Jenny Holzer’s Sign on a Truck project for the 1984 presidential elections.
The site also showcases other remastered and remixes of Fekner’s video work.

The Another 4 Years (Edit/Elect08) video may be viewed online at:
http://www.vimeo.com/1960286

Ellipse Foundation
Contemporary Art Collection

listen darling…
the world is yours

an exhibition by guest curator
Lisa Phillips, Director of the New Museum, New York

October 11, 2008 - August 30, 2009

Art Centre
Alameda das Fisgas, 79
2645-117 Alcoitão
Cascais, PORTUGAL
http://www.ellipsefoundation.com

Including works by:

Eija-Liisa AHTILA
Vasco ARAÚJO
John BALDESSARI
Stephan BALKENHOL
Matthew BARNEY
Ashley BICKERTON
Louise BOURGEOIS
Rineke DIJKSTRA
Carroll DUNHAM
Jimmie DURHAM
Gardar Eide EINARSSON
Robert GOBER
Nan GOLDIN
Felix GONZALEZ-TORRES
Douglas GORDON
Thomas HIRSCHHORN
José IRAOLA
Mike KELLEY
Barbara KRUGER
Zoe LEONARD
Sherrie LEVINE
Glenn LIGON
Sarah LUCAS
Ryan MCGUINLEY
Shirin NESHAT
João ONOFRE
Catherine OPIE
Tony OURSLER
Raymond PETTIBON
Jack PIERSON
Richard PRINCE
Thomas RUFF
Julião SARMENTO
Collier SCHORR
Thomas SCHÜTTE
Steven SHEARER
Cindy SHERMAN
Laurie SIMMONS
John STEZAKER
Hiroshi SUGIMOTO
Billy SULLIVAN
Kara WALKER
Sue WILLIAMS
Terry WINTERS
YONAMINE

The Ellipse FOUNDATION Contemporary Art Collection is pleased to announce its new exhibition, Listen Darling… The World is Yours, a selection of works from the Collection, including hitherto unseen works and new acquisitions, by guest curator Lisa Phillips, Director of the New Museum, New York.

Listen Darling… The World is Yours brings together the work of over forty artists who together demonstrate the sweeping changes in the psycho-sexual dynamics of culture over the past thirty years. The exhibition, which revolves around several major works by Louise Bourgeois, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, and Shirin Neshat, among others, looks at how women see women, women see men, men see women and men see men, often through direct confrontation with sexuality and sexual politics. Listen Darling… reveals the strong infiltration of the woman’s voice in the art and culture of our time, as well as gay artists whose sexual identity is a deliberate part of their artistic statement.

The holdings of the Ellipse Foundation are particularly rich in this area which represents one of the most significant developments in contemporary art and society in recent times, and one that will surely continue to define the future.

The Ellipse Foundation is located in Alcoitão, Cascais. Opening hours are Friday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm.

Art Centre
Alameda das Fisgas, 79
2645-117 Alcoitão
Cascais, PORTUGAL
t (+351) 21 469 18 06
f (+351) 21 460 23 85
info@ellipsefoundation.com
http://www.ellipsefoundation.com

STUK Artscentre

Playground
Live Art Festival
31 Oct - 07 Nov 08

STUK Artscentre
Naamsestraat 96,
3000 Leuven Belgium
info@stuk.be

http://www.playgroundfestival.be

For the second edition of Playground STUK once again focuses on artists exploring the boundaries between various art disciplines. This international live art festival presents performances, installations and live actions. Many of these performances are new productions, often produced in collaboration with other institutions. The program consists of two closely linked and overlapping parts: a series of performances and an exhibition.

The Playground exhibition brings together several installations and films that investigate the notion of play, movement, performance and theatricality. The exhibition features new works and existing installations by Catherine Sullivan, Joachim Koester, Suchan Kinoshita, Aurélien Froment, Falke Pisano, Michiel Alberts and Kelly Schacht. In the project Pick-Up works of art by Martin Arnold, Omer Fast, Bertrand Georges, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Joseph Grigely, Thomas Hirschhorn, Claude Lévêque, Dominique Petitgand and Beat Streuli are presented succesively in a darkened space. Pick-Up curator Guillaume Désanges also presents A History of Performance in 20 Minutes, a lecture in which he brings a concise history of the presentation of the human body in art, portrayed live by an actor.

Some artists participate in both parts of the festival. Falke Pisano brings as well an existing sculptural installation as a new reading/performance Figures of Speech, in which she tries to explain, investigate and make concrete the relationship between subjectivity and “speech”. Michiel Alberts focusses with his performance Rolling on the relationship between the body and empty space. Kelly Schacht devel is presenting both with their existing performance Bühnenstück and a new event Postcards from the Future that includes live interventions in public space. The visual music show nononoise live by PieterJan Ginckels closes the festival.

A number of productions explore and bridge the boundaries between dance, film, theatre, music and visual arts. The new performance by Ivana Müller Playing Ensemble Again and Again is a constantly moving forward and ever changing series of group formations. Orla Barry’s first theatre production The Scavenger’s Daughters is an ambiguous portrait of two sisters, zooming in on the role of non-communication, distance and gender stereotypes (a performance co-produced by STUK, Tate Modern London and De Appel Amsterdam). Nottthing is Importanttt by DD Dorvillier plays with movement and posing, the visible and our imagination, combining music, dance and film. Guy de Cointet (1934-1983) created performances presenting his coloured art objects as props. STUK stages three monologues from the seventies that each focus on one particular work of art as a point of departure for a dramatic and absurd story. Saison 1 Episode 2 by Grand Magasin starts from a film by Bettina Atala and refle
cts on the codes and impact of televison, cinema and fiction.

Coordinator Playground: Eva Wittocx

Performance programme 31 Okt - 7 Nov 2008

Ivana Müller / LISA ‘Playing Ensemble Again and Again’
31 Oct and 1 Nov, 8:30 pm

Orla Barry ‘The Scavenger’s Daughters’
31 Oct, 10 pm and 2 Nov, 7:30 pm

Michiel Alberts ‘Rolling’
31 Oct, 8 pm till 11 pm

DD Dorvillier / human future dance corps ‘Nottthing is Importanttt’
2 Nov, 8:30 pm and 3 Nov, 8 pm & 10 pm

Falke Pisano ‘Figures of Speech #2′
2 Nov 8:30 pm

Grand Magasin ‘Saison 1, Episode 2′
3 Nov and 4 Nov, 8:30 pm

Guy de Cointet ‘Going to the Market, Two Drawings & My Father’s Diary’
5, 6 and 7 Nov 8:30 pm

C&H
‘Postcards from the Future’ various locations and times
‘Bühnenstück’ 5, 6 and 7 Nov 9:30 pm

Guillaume Désanges ‘History of Performance in 20 min.’
6 Nov 7:30 pm

Kelly Schacht ‘And Then We Changed the Screenplay’
7 Nov, 7 pm till 10 pm

PieterJan Ginckels ‘Nononoise Live’
7 Nov, 10 pm

More information: http://www.playgroundfestival.be

Playground is financially supported by Cera and the Mondriaan Foundation.

Sammlung Verbund

Olafur Eliasson, Yellow fog, 1998/2008
Installation view: Verbund headquarters, Am Hof, Vienna
Copyright Olafur Eliasson / Sammlung Verbund, Vienna
Photo: Rupert Steiner, Vienna

Olafur Eliasson
YELLOW FOG

Intervention in public space
Along the Verbund
headquarters’ facade
Am Hof 6a, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Daily at dusk

Curated by Gabriele Schor,
Director of the Sammlung Verbund

http://www.sammlung.verbund.at

Olafur Eliasson. YELLOW FOG

Verbund presents the intervention Yellow fog by the renowned Danish artist Olafur Eliasson directly in the center of Vienna. Yellow fog is Olafur Eliassons fist work of art in public space in Vienna.

The impressive work Yellow fog was first shown in New York in 1998. It is now presented as a permanent work of art in public space. The location for the intervention is the Verbund building and the historic plaza Am Hof, which at dusk turns into a public stage for an orchestration of light and fog.

32 fluorescent tubes are embedded in the pavement along the 48 meter façade of the Verbund headquarters, emitting a specific yellow light, attuned by the artist himself. Daily at dusk fog rises up the façade in yellow light at regular intervals, shrouding the building in an ephemeral veil for one hour.

The fog serves as a fleeting projection screen for the light. It not only obscures the view of space, but also creates a more precise experience of distance and spatial relations. Olafur Eliasson uses fog as a “tool”, as an “instrument”, to allow us a new perception of urban space, of the building’s façade, of the pavement as well as the entire plaza ensemble. Thus the dialogue between urban space and the passers-by is redefined.

The atmospheric quality of a natural phenomenon is thwarted by its placement within an urban environment and the conscious display of its production. The visibility of the artwork’s construction is an important aspect of Olafur Eliasson’s work.

The perception of Yellow fog is affected by factors such as social components, movement, weather, environment and the recipients’ position in public space. When Yellow fog is shown at dusk – the transition period between day and night – it represents and comments on the subtle changes in the day’s rhythm.

The nine-storied Vertical Gallery in the Verbund headquarters features rotating exhibitions, current exhibition:

DOUBLE FACE
October 31, 2008 - November 29, 2008

Nan Goldin, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Birgit Jürgenssen, Annette Kelm, Suzy Lake, Urs Lüthi, Laura Ribero, Cindy Sherman, John Stezaker, Hannah Wilke, David Wojnarowicz, Francesca Woodman

Curated by Gabriele Schor, Director of the Sammlung Verbund

“Double face” is a term for double sided fabrics, both sides of which can be used. The exhibition by the same name traces the play of the subject’s transformation, the fanning out and fragmentation of identities.

Exhibition in cooperation with the European Month of Photography Vienna http://www.monatderfotografie.at

Guided tours through the exhibition DOUBLE FACE:
Wednesday 6pm, Friday 5pm, Saturday 4pm or on appointment
sammlung.verbund@artphalanx.at or +43/1/5249803-5
Am Hof 6a, 1010 Vienna, Austria

Open Art Project

Photo: Michał Szlaga

Two Men and a Wardrobe
Paweł Althamer, Jacek Adamas 2008

Permanent installation, Sopot/Poland

“Two Men and a Wardrobe” is the most recent project by Pawel Althamer, whose works, from the very beginning of his artistic career, oscillate with different amplitude between the poles of figurative sculpture and collective activities introducing other people into the creative process. By inviting random people from the street, inhabitants of a Warsaw block of flats, prisoners from a German penal institution or difficult youth the artist poses questions about the position and status of the author, which is a characteristic phenomenon in the art of the last decade. However, the means by which Althamer explores the notion of participation seems to be closely related to the social potential that his works carry. Instead of granting them complete freedom, the artist creates a specific framework, a proposition, in which those invited define their identity.

This practice is closely related to the figure of Grzegorz Kowalski, professor at the sculpture department of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts from which Althamer graduated. The original course ran by Kowalski meant to create non-verbal means of communication within the class, where the students react to the activities of others by changing or commenting upon the given situation, shaped Althamer’s attitude towards the creative process.

Jacek Adamas is a sculptor and, like Althamer, Kowalski’s former student. After the graduation, in the times of economic transformation of the early 1990s, the two artists parted and headed in seemingly different directions. In 1996, when Althamer opened his solo show in Warsaw’s Foksal Gallery, Adamas, who worked with minimal sculptures at the time, lived with his family in a small town near Olsztyn. However, the confrontation with the new reality soon forced Adamas to abandon contemplative objects and move towards political activism which he combined with radical artistic activities. As a result he protested against a number of regulations and local authorities’ initiatives which he found harmful.

Althamer’s decision to invite Adamas to participate in the project “Two Men and a Wardrobe” stems partially from the specific context in which the latter operates. A wooden wardrobe abandoned near the Sopot pier is a quotation from the famous 1958 school film study by Roman Polanski featuring two individuals from the margins of society. The sole reason for their alienation seems to be the fact that in their journey through the world they are forced (or want to) carry a grotesque burden. In this sense, the authors of the actual wardrobe can be read as a figure of the other, just like Polanski’s film.

However, the cooperation between Althamer and Adamas is not only a self-conscious commentary which revives the truth of the film, but is also a question about the role of sculpture as an object in space – a question which keeps returning in a number of works by Althamer. By treating objects of everyday use, such as bus seats or accessories from a playground as self-sufficient sculptures, Althamer is eager to exchange the material object for a real experience, as it was during last year’s edition of Skulptur Projekte Münster, where the audience was confronted with a trodden path which ran across a field. In this context, “Two Men and a Wardrobe” can be understood as an example of “social sculpture” – an object meant for a particular space, whose very definition implies a process of a slow, yet inevitable, change, also in its most literal, physical sense.

Realised by Open Art Project
In the collection of the State Art Gallery in Sopot.

Open Art Project is a non – profit organisation based in Warsaw, Poland. It is dedicated to producing public art projects, reaching new audiences and expanding awareness trough contemporary art. By bringing art works outside the traditional context of museums and galleries Open Art project provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.

The State Art Gallery in Sopot has been functioning continually since 1952. Adding the work of Althamer and Adamas to its collection initiates a new direction in the gallery’s activity. Two men and a wardrobe brings the audience closer to contemporary art reception within the domain of not only public space but also the newly-built premises of the State Art Gallery, located in close proximity to the Sopot Pier.

Schlechtriem Brothers

Benjamin Cottam
October 29th - December 20th, 2008

Opening reception
October 31st, 6 - 9 pm

Schlechtriem Brothers
Kleine Kurstrasse1
10117 Berlin
+49 30 23 257 885

http://www.schlechtriembrothers.com

Schlechtriem Brothers is pleased to present Benjamin Cottam in his first solo show in Germany, featuring new drawings and paintings.

In Cottam’s drawings, tiny portraits of notoriously irreverent celebrities, and self-portraits of the artist, hover amidst their pages, nearly escaping into the white. The ghostly images, done in silver and gold point, focus intently on the faces of the subjects. Some portraits, so encroached upon by the soft halo of grey erasure marks, reveal mere fragments of a face, giving them a specter-like presence.

In the new silverpoint drawing Untitled-Amy Winehouse 2008, the slight snarl, half focused eyes, and ratty hair of the songstress seem somehow ruttier than usual. The erasure marks become both a haloing mist and grime. Cottam’s drawing becomes a push and pull between the delicacy in which it is crafted, and the harshness of the subject he portrays.

Pete Doherty – Can’t Stand Me Now #? 2008, from the silverpoint series Pete Doherty, shows Doherty and band mate Carl Barat (of The Libertines) in mid lyric, sans microphone. With mouths nearly touching, the two floating faces seem angelic, sanguine – even romantic in their execution. Where Winehouse accentuates an edge, Can’t Stand Me Now #? is enveloped by a softness – a fluency in nuance that can be seen throughout Cottam’s work.

In his goldpoint series of self-portraits, Cottam portrays himself in varied states of expression. In Self-Portrait #5, the artist’s face and hair barely breaks from the marks around it, offering an expression that can be pinned as neither lust nor desperation. The self-portraits provide us with limited information, creating distance rather than intimacy between artist and viewer.

Cottam’s series of black untitled paintings seem, at first glance, an exercise in minimalism. The new 15 x 15 cm oil on copper paintings are a deep, reflective black, and deceiving if not given time to engage with. As the viewer allows his or her eyes to adjust, fully realized portraits glance outward, masked by layer upon layer of dark glazes.

In untitled-skyscape 2008, Cottam makes an unanticipated, but pleasing break from the course of his prior works. In his new, full color, oil on aluminum diptych, Cottam turns placid skies sinister. On the right, a pale blue sky is streaked once with the faint white of tear gas. On the left, the skyline of a town, the sky marked three times by gas. There is an absence of protesters or any evidence of a human form; the unseen and hidden are prevalent themes throughout Cottam’s work.

Benjamin Cottam has been featured at group shows including the 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, and at Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland. He has had numerous solo shows throughout Europe and America. His work is included in the collections of MoMA and Whitney Museum of American Art. He lives and works in New York City.

For more information go to: http://www.schlechtriembrothers.com

Bernar Venet, 88.5 Arc x 8, 2006, Steel, Courtesy of David Klein Gallery–ART20 Exhibitor

ART20 (Nov 7 - 10) at the Park Avenue Armory at 67th St, NYC

In its seventh year, ART20 is the premier show in New York’s fall art season. Fine art spanning from 1900 to contemporary, including examples of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Hard Edge and Social Realism, will comprise the diverse selection of works on display and for sale. Sixty exhibitors from the US and Europe, both long established dealers and young galleries, make up a select atmosphere where visitors can experience 20th century greats and fresh new works of sculpture, painting, photography, drawing, video and other media.

Modernism: A Century of Style and Design (Nov 14 - 17) at the Park Avenue Armory at 67th St, NYC

Modernism: A Century of Style and Design, the original and foremost fair devoted to the European and American design movements of the 20th century, has been a staple in New York’s fall season since 1986. Over sixty international dealers will bring museum quality prototypes, fine art and rare pieces of furniture, glass, silver, textiles and more. Displays will encompass decorative arts movements such as Wiener Werkstätte; Arts and Crafts; Scandinavian; Art Deco; Post Modern; the 50’s 60’s and 70’s; and contemporary design.

For more information, please visit www.sanfordsmith.com

Kalmar Konstmuseum

Friction and Conflict
Cultural exchange and influences
within North Eastern Europe

13th September - 23rd November 2008

Kalmar Konstmuseum
SE 392 33 Kalmar, Sewden

http://www.kalmarkonstmuseum.se

Participating artists: Tilo Baumgärtel, Norbert Bisky, Illya Chichkan, Chto Delat? (Tsaplya, Dmitry Vilensky, Gluklya and Nikolay Oleynikov), Factory of Found Clothes (Gluklya and Tsaplya), Oscar Guermouche, Margret Hoppe, Uwe Max Jensen, Zuzanna Janin, Sven Johne, Tomasz Kozak, Andrej Krementschouk, Oleg Kulik, Jonathan Meese, Igor Mouhkin, Marina Naprushkina, Deimantas Narkevicious, Dorota Nieznalska, Astrid Nippoldt, Kristina Norman, Anna Orlikowska, Magnus Petersson, Romantic Geographic Society, Erasmus Schröter, Jaan Toomik, Artur Zmijewski, Piotr Wysocki and Yevgeny Yufit.

Curator: Martin Schibli

The new Kalmar Museum of Art is built on ground, which has repeatedly, throughout history, served as a battlefield in the struggle for power and the right to interpretation of culture, between disparate nations. These battles have, at times, influenced the course of history. Many of the great European culture-spheres, for example, the German, Russian and Nordic spheres converge within the immediate surrounding of Kalmar. These boundaries have, during the course of time, shifted, altered, essentially influencing each other. World War II saw the eradication of entire cultures and communities. During the latter part of the twentieth century, Europe became divided; the culture-spheres of North Eastern Europe kept themselves at a comfortable distance. In Sweden, culture interests gravitated away from the German influence and ever increasingly towards the Anglo-Saxon and American cultures. Politically one looked towards “The Third World”. The fall of the Berlin Wall together with t
he mechanisms of globalization, have seen the North Eastern European geographical culture-sphere converge in new ways. This has not only created new prospects and potential, but has also breathed life into existing tensions.

Friction and Conflict is no history exhibition; the aim is rather to show the development of that which constitutes the contemporary within our global immediate surroundings. One can draw attention to a list of examples of conflict within our global vicinity, a list, which the Europe of the future needs to resolve and/or learn to live with. To mention a few: new minority groups, lacking obvious abode, have arisen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was brought to the foreground in 2007, when authorities in Estonia decided to relocate a memorial monument for fallen Soviet soldiers from World War II. Similar opposition has been witnessed in Latvia and Lithuania. Conflict arises, between differing ethnical groups, in the wake of the self-definition process of new nations. Swedish distrust of Russia has recently become public again, which can be seen in the negative reaction of Sweden towards the positioning of a pipeline, between Russia and Germany, in the Baltic Sea. Whilst
at the same time, it was eventually revealed, that the recent and much discussed government act passed, concerning the approval of the FRA (Swedish National Defence Radio Establishment) to monitor all Internet traffic, was really about the approval of the surveillance of Russia. The Catholic Church’s position in Poland is still strong, rendering it a political power, a conception, which is hardly completely compatible with secular Sweden. Germany continues to process its complex history, in establishing an own identity after the union of 1990. In Finland, great historical rhetoric still exits around the two Winter Wars. In Denmark, issues as to what constitutes the essentially Danish, has been a political question for many years. And “Europe’s Last Dictatorship”, White Russia has more recently experienced a bombing incident. The list of potential breeding-grounds for conflict, however long it may be, comprise issues that affect society today and which may in due time, affect the course of history, both positively and negatively. The escalating current dispute between Russia and other countries in Europe, due to the conflict between Georgia and Russia, is an example of the urgent need to get better understanding of the complexity in the European history.

Concurrent with the above mentioned examples of conflict, changing norms in mobility, through the advent of low-cost airline companies, are breaking new ground, altering currents: social interfaces appear between differing nations and culture-spheres. Nowadays one can fly direct from Småland to Berlin, Düsseldorf and Kaunas. During the last few years, Germany has become an important site for the Nordic practitioners of culture, especially Berlin, which has received great Nordic enclaves. Russian tourists are of ever increasing import for Sweden, whilst in Småland more and more houses are being bought by the Danes, North Germans and the Dutch.

The new Kalmar Art Museum Konstmuseum opened in May; the opening exhibitions with Swetlana Heger, Guy Ben-Ner, Daniel Segerberg and the exhibition RETRO, was seen by over 26 000 visitors.

http://www.kalmarkonstmuseum.se

For more information on “Friction and Conflict” or Kalmar Art Museum, please contact:

Martin Schibli
Curator

Martin.schibli@kalmarkonstmuseum.se
Phone: +46 (0) 480 42 6288, fax: + 46(0)480 426280

Kalmar Konstmuseum, SE 392 33 Kalmar, Sweden