News

Skanderbeg Square, Tirana

Photo © Filip Dujardin

Esther Schipper congratulates Anri Sala and the architecture firm 51N4E, who have won the European Prize for Urban Public Space for their renovation of Skanderbeg Square in Sala's native Tirana, Albania. 

Like no other public space, Skanderbeg Square, Tirana’s nerve centre and symbolic site for the whole country, reflects Albania’s complex, convulsive history. Finalised in 2017, the rennovation has turned Skanderbeg Square into a public space of more than ten hectares exclusively for the pedestrian use. In the centre of the square there is a clear esplanade of almost 40,000 square metres. Rather than being flat, the esplanade is shaped like a four-sided Roman pyramid with a slope of 2.5% and a height of two metres at its tip. A fountain at the top lets water trickle down the sides, thus bringing out the colours of the mosaic paving which is made from stones from all over Albania.

Felix Utting is the inhabitant of the house with things behind. The public is invited to meet with him on March 14th at 18:00. He will prepare tea and introduce them to the house.

Kunsthalle for Music at Witte de With in Rotterdam was the subject of a recent feature by Nina Siegal in the New York Times. Led by Artistic Director Ari Benjamin Meyers, this exhibition includes a newly commissioned work by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, as well as a repetoire of existing pieces collected from Anri Sala and Tino Sehgal, among other artists and composers. The exhibition also includes three of Meyers’ works: Serious Immobilities, Duet, and Anthem.

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Find more about the exhibition here: www.kunsthalleformusic.org

Simon Fujiwara

Photo © Miro Kuzmanov, Kunsthaus Bregenz

Esther Schipper is pleased to announce the representation of Simon Fujiwara. Over the past decade, Fujiwara (born 1982 in London, lives and works in Berlin) has become known for his staging of large, complex exhibitions that explore the deeply rooted mechanisms of identity construction for both individuals and societies. Addressing the inherent contradictions of image and narrative making – from social media and self-presentation to marketing and history formation – Fujiwara revels in the complexity and paradox of our simultaneous quest for fantasy and authenticity. Crossing multiple media, from sculpture and installation to video and painting and mining worlds as diverse as advertising and archaeology, Fujiwara's works are a constant reportage on the real world sources from which they draw inspiration. However, rather than simply presenting commentary, the artist creates a unique universe of his own – one that is populated with challenging and often absurd new narratives that are as intellectually rigorous as they are emotionally stimulating. 

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artgenève presents, Myth, Music and Electricity, part of “contemporary art as concert”, a series of events focused on musical and ephemeral works by artists invited by Augustin Maurs.

This event will take place at Munich's Herkulessaal and plays with the adventurous and puzzling construction of myths. The concert hall will host a series of musical and perfomative works, including a bass guitar ensemble by Angela Bulloch and performances by Karin Sander.

Doors: 7pm

Admission: 8 EUR / 12 EUR

Tickets: julia.etter@palexpo.ch

Gabriel Kuri working in his studio.

This special event will explore the work of two artists with a cutting edge, experimental practice: Analia Saban and Gabriel Kuri. The evening will begin with viewing of two short documentaries featuring each artist, created as part of the Artist Dialogues series, followed by a conversation among the artists and Rachel Rivenc.

The movies and conversation will focus on the artists' material practice and how it relates to meaning, their approach to making and finding objects, their playful use or misuse of materials, as well as their thoughts on longevity, the future of their work, and the role of conservation.

Presented as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA

Flyer © Nathan Carter

Mixing fictional representation and real-life celebration, on October 27 a screening of The DRAMASTICS are Loud (2016) will be followed by the Dramastics Revue, a live concert by Nathan Carter and The DRAMASTICS at the legendary Grapevine Bar, as featured in his film and dioramas.

The presentation will include hand-made Dramastics t-shirts and performace capes produced in collaboration with the artist Dan Estabrook and Featherweight Studio.

Anri Sala, The Last Resort, 2017

42-channel sound installation including 38 altered snare drums, loudspeaker parts, snare stands, drumsticks, soundtrack and 4 speakers

Duration 58:28 min, dimensions ø 850 cm

Photo © Peter Greig

On October 14, Anri Sala will share his insights into the conceptual and creative development of The Last Resort in a conversation with Maud Page, Deputy Director and Director of Collections, Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Read more about the event here

Exhibition view

Our Interplanetary Bodies, 2017

Asia Culture Center, Gwangju

Photo © Andrea Rossetti

On Thursday, October 5 at 6pm, Tomás Saraceno will be joined in convesation by Yasmil Raymond, Associate Curator at the Museum of Modern Art.

This event is presented by Arts, Science + Culture Initiative and the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the Goethe Institut.

Find out more about this event here.

Tomás Saraceno Eclipse of the Aerocene Explorer, 2016

Photo: © Studio Tomás Saraceno

Join Tomás Saraceno for a lecture at The Lantern, Lenfest Center for the Arts in New York.

This Event is co-presented by Columbia University School of the Arts; the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science; and the School of International and Public Affairs as part of Saraceno’s Fall 2017 visit to at Columbia University.

Read more here: lenfest.arts.columbia.edu

We're pleased to announce Roman Ondak's participation in the eigth edition of Sequences.

While Sequences uses the term “real time” to refer to time-based media, Sequences VIII: Elastic Hours considers how the term might be applied to the experience of art making, exploring how artists manipulate time as a raw material. Stretching, echoing, and inverting hours, the works included in Sequences VIII often go beyond standardized metrics such as clocks to investigate alternative systems for measuring and experiencing time.

Find out more about the festival here: sequences.is

Film still: David Claerbout, Die Reine Notwendigkeit/The Pure Necessity, 2016

David Claerbout's work Die Reine Notwendigkeit/The Pure Necessity is included in this year's BFI London Film Festival.

"A hypnotic and lyrical reworking of The Jungle Book, that removes its anthropomorphism and its human characters to give the animals back their dignity. The artist redrew all the animated animals and deconstructed the narrative arc to render it eventless, thus giving the impression of watching the animals in their natural surroundings and unaware of any human presence. The effect is one of rekindling a fond memory of childhood, but with the shades of commercial and cultural exploitation removed."

Helen de Witt, bfi.org.uk

Ryan Gander, Earnest Hawker (performance detail), 2015. Artwork and image © Ryan Gander. Image courtesy the artist.

The Contemporary Austin presents new outdoor works by Ryan Gander. On occasion his permanent exhibition The Day to Day Accumulation of Hope, Failure and Ecstasy, the artist and Senior Curator Heather Pesanti will talk about Gander's work, his evasion of visual style, and his voracious practice ranging across styles and forms.

Read more here

Exhibition view: Between Spaces, ZKR, Berlin

Photo: Frank Sperling

Join Isa Melsheimer for an artist talk at ZKR–Center for Art and Public Space, Schloss Biesdorf in Berlin. Entitled "Fading Architectures, Melsheimer will talk about the present and future of urban cityscapes and architectures. Read more about the event here: zkr-berlin.de

Christoph Keller will receive the prestigious scholarship of German Academy Rome Villa Massimo. The artist has been awarded numerous grants and residencies and will begin his stipend in September 2017.

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Roman Ondak

Photo © Benoit Linero

Esther Schipper congratulates Roman Ondak, recipient of the 2018 Lovis Corinth Prize.

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Tino Sehgal

Photo: Robin Roger, 2017

V-A-C Foundation presents V-A-C Live: Tino Sehgal, an exhibition of seven works by Tino Sehgal. From 1 August to 14 September 2017, the New Tretyakov Gallery and Schusev State Museum of Architecture will host works by the internationally renowned artist, who de es art as material production and constructs immersive situations that reinvent the traditional museum environment. This will be the first large-scale appearance of Sehgal’s work in Russia and parallel to the exhibition, an educational programme exploring the exhibition themes will run at the New Tretyakov Gallery and the Solyanka State Gallery.

Cleveland, Ohio. Courtesy FRONT International.

We congratulate Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Tino Sehgal for their inclusion in the upcoming FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art.

FRONT's first edition, titled An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, will run from July 14, 2018 through September 30, 2018. Conceived by FRONT’s Artistic Directors Michelle Grabner and Jens Hoffmann, this multipart presentation of interconnected “cultural exercises” will investigate the significance and meaning of staging a large-scale international triennial in the contemporary context. Bringing together more than 55 local, national and international artists across mediums and disciplines, FRONT will partner with sites throughout the city of Cleveland and beyond to explore artistic collaborations, intellectual exchanges and curatorial dialogues connecting the city and the Great Lakes region to broader global, political and economic networks. FRONT’s ambitious program will weave critical approaches to museum exhibitions, public and educational programs, residencies, publications and research strategies in a complex presentation.

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Visit Ugo Rondinone's extensive new website at www.ugorondinone.com

Film still: David Claerbout, Die Reine Notwendigkeit/The Pure Necessity, 2016

Cinema Zuid in Antwerp will present an exclusive screening of David Claerbout's work Die Reine Notwendigkeit/The Pure Necessity, 2016.

Die reine Notwendigkeit/The Pure Necessity is a color animated cartoon by David Claerbout, based on the classic 1967 animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. The 60-minute-long film follows the tradition of the frame-by-frame animation, re-creating the historical characters with the most faithful precision. Claerbout's film focuses exclusively on the animals: Bagheera the panther, Baloo the bear, Kaa the snake, among others. Although the 1967 film depicted them as speaking animals, well-known for their witty dialogues, dances and jokes, they are here seen as “realistic” animals without any anthropomorphic characteristics. Claerbout represents them wandering in the jungle, drinking from a water spring, sleeping on tree branches, observing one another. Each of their movements is followed with precision and duration, giving the spectator the opportunity to observe every detail of the drawings. The title of Clearbout's work refers to the famous song, Bare Necessities, performed by Baloo in the 1967 film.

We congratulate Prabhavathi Meppayil for her participation in the 21st Biennale of Sydney!

Artistic Director of the 21st Biennale of Sydney Mami Kataoka has announced the title of the 2018 Biennale of Sydney is SUPERPOSITION: Art of Equilibrium and Engagement and shared the names of additional artists from Asia selected to present their works in the multi-venue event.

The 57th International Art Exhibition, VIVA ARTE VIVA, will take place at the Giardini and the Arsenale in Venice, from May 13 to November 26, 2017. Curated by Christine Macel, it will feature 120 artists from 51 countries, including Liu Ye, Philippe Parreno, and Anri Sala.

The exhibition will offer a route that unfolds over the course of nine chapters or families of artists, beginning with two introductory realms in the Central Pavilion, followed by another seven across the Arsenale through the Giardino delle Vergini. Each of the nine chapters or families of artists of the Exhibition will represent a Pavilion in itself, or rather a Trans-Pavilion as it is trans-national by nature but echoes the Biennale's historical organization into pavilions, the number of which has never ceased to grow since the end of the 1990s. From the "Pavilion of Artists and Books" to the "Pavilion of Time and Infinity", these nine episodes will tell a story that is often discursive and at times paradoxical, with detours that mirror the world's complexities, a multiplicity of approaches and a wide variety of practices.

Tomás Saraceno, Arachno Concert, with Arachne (Nephila senegalensis), Cosmic Dust (Porus Chondrite) and the Breathing Ensemble, 2016

Photo: © Studio Tomás Saraceno

Fondation Beyeler, Basel

Photo: © Mark Niedermann

Pierre Huyghe, artist's plan, Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017

Image: © Pierre Huyghe

General Idea, Portrait of AA Bronson, 1973, vintage silver gelatin print, 12,5 x 17,5 cm (unframed), 15,5 x 20,5 x 4 cm (framed)

Photo: © The Estate of General Idea

David Claerbout, Olympia (The Real Time Disintegration Into Ruins Of The Berlin Olympic Stadium Over The Course Of A Thousand Years), 2016

Single-channel video installation (color, silent, HD animation), duration 1000 years

Film still

Karin Sander, Exhibiton Space 1.7, 1:2, 2017

Graphic: © Ari Benjamin Meyers/Kunsthalle for Music

Kunsthalle for Music and its Artistic Director Ari Benjamin Meyers continue the unfolding of Kunsthalle for Music by addressing fundamental questions through a symposium of multiple modes: lectures, auditions, open workshops, and performances.

The two-day symposium at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam will feature international practitioners from the fields of contemporary art, music, and theory. As part of the symposium, Witte de With will host a casting of the Kunsthalle for Music's future ensemble, which will invite selected performers to collaborate with composers towards the creation of music and performance works.

The program was conceived by Ari Benjamin Meyers, Armen Avanessian, and Witte de With's Defne Ayas, Samuel Salemakers, and Rosa de Graaf.

Ugo Rondinone, let's start this day again

Image: © Ugo Rondinone

Starting May 6, 2017, CAC–Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati will present let's start this day again, a solo exhibition by Ugo Rondinone. This hypnotic installation will be carefully layered in groups that include a neon rainbow, colored gels on the windows, floating mandalas, blurred target paintings, painted windows, gradient color walls and a surreal cast of life-size, clown sculptures. Presented as a constellation, Rondinone marries elements he has used in the past to “bring all those groups together in a colorful symphony.”

Ryan Gander, Echo from Culturefield, 2016, 13 x 75 cm, wall plugs and dust

Photo: © Andrea Rossetti

Ryan Gander's solo exhibition These wings aren't for flying (April 29 – July 2, 2017) will present approximately 60 new works at the National Museum of Art, Osaka. At the same time, Gander will curate an exhibit made up of works from the museum collection. Using the human tendency to think in comparisons as a premise, Gander will present the works in numerous pairs. Though the pairings will be based on a physical resemblance, they will be derived from different genres and eras.

Gabriel Kuri, complete set of vestiges from Church of Saint Hubert, lotto tickets, scratch cards, 2017

Photo: © Alain Janssens

David Claerbout

Olympia (The Real Time Disintegration Into Ruins Of The Berlin Olympic Stadium Over The Course Of A Thousand Years), 2016
Two-channel video installation (color, stereo sound, HD animation)

Duration: 1000 years
Exhibition view: KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2016

Legislating Architecture Chicago Architecture Biennal, Chicago, 2017

Isa Melsheimer

Kallmorgen (Kaispeicher), 2015
Reinforced concrete

Photo © Andreas Weiss

Ugo Rondinone

clockwork for oracles II, 2008

Photo © Studio Ugo Rondinone

Tomás Saraceno

Aerocene Gemini, Free Flight, 2016

Photo © Tomás Saraceno

Liam Gillick

Construcción de Uno (A Prequel), 2006

Volkswagen (Golf Mk 1 or equivalent), texts, participants

Exhibition view: Tate, London, 2006

Ryan Gander

Portrait of a colour blind artist obscured by flowers, 2016 (film still)

Roman Ondak

Tugendhat 1, Villa Tugendhat, Brno

Photo © Roman Ondak

Exhibition view of Andrew Grassie's works at Blipblipblip Gallery, Leeds, 2017

Christopher Roth and Armen Avanessian

Hyperstition, 2015, HD film, Blueray player and non-removable disc

Duration: 113 minutes with an eight-minute break

Photo © Christopher Roth

Tomás Saraceno

Arachno Concert With Arachne (Nephila senegalensis), Cosmic Dust (Porus Chondrite) and the Breathing Ensemble, 2016

Nephila senegalensis silk, carbon frame, light beam, cosmic dust, stellar wind, sonic waves, video camera, loudspeakers, video projector
Photo © Andrea Rossetti