ART NEWS:Feb.04

Under the title “Mechanisms of Power”, the Frankfurter Kunstverein presents two monographic exhibitions of Guatemalan Performance artist Regina José Galindo and Italian Sculptor Arcangelo Sassolino. Coming from different backgrounds with distinct individual approaches, both artists explore the limits of art and question its role in society. They refuse their practices to be confined to a merely symbolic realm and confront the subject matter of their works with the social and material realities they are situated in. Galindo’s uncompromising performances centre around the effects of physical violence and power relations on the individual and the collective body. Sassolino’s sculptures are brought to their material limits by mechanical, hydraulic forces, suspending the works in a state of potentiality and threatening destruction. Info: Frankfurter Kunstverein, Steinernes Haus am Römerberg, Markt 44, Frankfurt, duration 19/2-174/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri 11:00-19:00, Thu 11:00-21:00, Sat-sun 10:00-19:00, www.fkv.de

Rana Hamadeh’s “The Sleepwalkers” is a major new commission and the first solo exhibition of the artist in Australia. The filmed play re-dramatises the story of Raya and Sakina, the infamous Egyptian sister serial killers, who in 1921 became the first women to be executed by a legal court in the modern history of Egypt. They were found guilty of the murders of 17 women, most of whom were sex workers. “The Sleepwalkers” is the latest chapter in Hamadeh’s long-term project “Alien Encounters”. Info: Curators: Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh, Institute of Modern Art, 420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Duration: 20/2-30/3/16, Days & Hours: tue-Wed & Fri-Sat 12:00-18:00, Thu 12:00-20:00, www.ima.org.au

In her artwork, Israeli-born Ella Littwitz addresses territorialization and the construction of historical and psychological frontiers, and the often unstable rules that create these divisions. The artist presents the installation “Tomograma”, inspired, in part, by 19 years of footballs caught in Jerusalem’s mine-filled no man’s land. Info: Salzburger Kunstverein Künstlerhaus, Hellbrunner Straße 3, Salzburg, Duration: 20/2-24/4/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-19:00, www.salzburger-kunstverein.at

The city of Los Angeles is both background and subject in the respective oeuvres of Israel and Ellis. For Israel, the American dream, as embodied by the Los Angeles mythos, remains affecting and potent. At Israel’s provocation, Bret Easton Ellis wrote short texts. Then, Israel converted the selected texts into various fonts, resourced directly from the local landscape, and combined them with commercial stock images. The hyperfilmic results were adapted to the scale and medium of paintings. Info: Gagosian Gallery, 456 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, Duration: 25/3-23/3/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.gagosian.com

The British artist Grayson Perry likes to present himself as a thorn in the side of the mainstream art world. Aesthetic questions of beauty and craftsmanship are played out keenly in relation to social issues concerning religion, identity, class and consumerism. In doing so, he uses a huge variety of techniques and materials, including tapestries, ceramics, cast iron sculptures, films, dresses and even a complete house. Info: Bonnefantenmuseum, Avenue Ceramique 250, Maastricht, Duration: 26/2-5/6/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-19:00, www.bonnefanten.nl

The exhibition “Constantin Luser. Music Tames the Beast” is a comprehensive solo show of the Austrian drawer and artist. At the centre of the exhibition lies the idea of transforming drawing into the physically discernible world of space, consisting of haptics, sound and movement. Starting from five playable instrument-sculptures, the exhibition opens up the networked, associative, and narrative picture- and thought-world of Constantin Luser, which is able to give structures to life using the means of drawing and music. Info: Kunsthaus Graz Universalmuseum Joanneum, Lendkai 1, Graz, Duration: 26/2-6/5/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.museum-joanneum.at

“HACKING HABITAT. ART OF CONTROL” presents a highly topical and urgent theme, how we are controlled by high-tech systems and how to restore the relationship between humans and machines. Surveillance cameras observe us, inimitable Google algorithms manipulate our behaviour, our smart phones cast a collective hypnotic spell on us. We risk losing control over our lives to powerful economic and technological institutions. Worldwide, people are waking up to the fact that they need to regain a grip on their lives. Together they give rise to powerful forces of resistance and reclaim their living environment. Info: Former prison at Utrecht Wolvenplein, Wolvenplein 27, Utrecht, Duration: 26/2-6/6/16, Days & Hours: Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.hackinghabitat.com

The exhibition “KÜLTÜRKIRIM” is the result of an ongoing research and work that began with drawings and sketches in 2002. Kemal Ankaç has been questioning the relations between identity politics and the mechanisms of systematic collective memory (re)constructing processes by navigating through the apparatus of war, cultural objects and a set of values and definitions that have been imposed by different governing power nodes. In this respect, with the extensive accumulation of works, Kemal Ankaç focuses on the notion of “cultural massacre” in Cyprus with the brutal governance of nationalism and fascism that was nurtured by imperialism. Info: Curator: Basak Senova, Art Rooms, Kyrenia, Cyprus, Duration: 26/2-30/3/16, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon 12:00-22:00, www.artroomsatthehouse.com

Doris Salcedo’s impetus for the creation of “Plegaria Muda” came from a trip she made to Los Angeles in 2004, researching reports that more than 10,000 young people had been killed on the streets of L.A. in the past two decades. She spent time in the city’s southeast neighborhoods, researching the toll of gang violence on families and pondering the effects of such violence on those whose impoverished living conditions were already precarious, creating situations which Salcedo has described as “social death” or “death in life.” But while her time in Los Angeles was an impetus to Salcedo’s creation of “Plegaria Muda”, the work itself was also her response to the murder of some 2,500 young people in Colombia between 2003 and 2009 by the Colombian army. Info: Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora Street, Dallas, Duration: 27/2-17/4/16, Days & Hours: Tue-sun 11:00-17:00, www.nashersculpturecenter.org

The exhibition “Examination of the Origins”, is the first solo show in Italy by the German artist Isa Melsheimer. Melsheimer has made a site-specific installation for the occasion. The installation’s sculptural elements were conceived based on the features of Quartz’s space, juxtaposed with the architectural shapes of some of Turin’s buildings. Melsheimer explains, “The idea behind the title is my interest in some of Turin’s housing, such as in the Falchera district, and the buildings of Enzo Venturelli, Carlo Mollino, Luigi Nervi, Gabetti and Isola”. Info: Quartz Studio, Via Giulia di Barolo,18/D, Turin, Duration: 28/2-28/4/16, www.quartzstudio.net