ART NEWS: Dec.01
The exhibition “How will it end?“ offers an unprecedented dialogue between its exceptional collections and pieces by Lebanese artists of all generations. Produced in recent years or following the tragic explosions of 4th August 2020, their works are tracing out possible paths to the future, between despair and gentleness, exiles and new anchorages. The exhibition explores the spectrum of the practices and reactions by artists faced both with these recent years of débâcle and with the event of the explosion and its consequences for the people and for the city, of which the ruined districts are so many testimonies. Confronted with massive shortages, dissolving public services, devaluation, border conflicts, the pervasive trauma of a people out of breath and consumed by anger or despair, artists, native or having lived in Lebanon, have created works, directly or indirectly related to the situation of recent years. Participating Artists: Etel Adnan, Abed Al Kadiri, Charbel Alkhoury & Monica Basbous, Mounira Al Solh, Vladimir Antaki, Ziad Antar, Caline Aoun, Danielle Arbid, Vartan Avakian, Ayman Baalbaki, Charbel-joseph H. Boutros, Gregory Buchakjian, Ali Cherri, Omar Fakhoury, Simone Fattal, Raymond Gemayel, Daniele Genadry, Chafa Ghaddar, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Gilbert Hage, Yazan Halwani, ICONEM, Jeanne et Moreau, Maria Kassab, Mireille Kassar, Bettina Khoury Badr, Pierre Koukjian, Samar Mogharbel, Marwan Moujaes, Dala Nasser, Ramy Saad, Stéphanie Saadé, Christine Safa, Christian Sleiman, Rayyane Tabet, Paola Yacoub, Maha Yammine, Raed Yassin, Cynthia Zaven, Lamia Ziadé. Info: Curators: Alicia Knock and Louma Salamé, Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 67, Brussels, Belgium, Duration: 2/12/2021-6/2/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.villaempain.com
In her performance “New Earth” the Cuban artist Heradel is debuting reimagined excerpts from her “Pilgrim’s Progress”-inspired musical work, she will also share pieces from her new album based on the pull and transition between physicality and divinity, loosely rooted in the Kabbalah Tree of Life. In this way, she is addressing the concept of pilgrimage in both its literal and abstract forms. The performance will be accompanied by readings of excerpts from John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and related poetry. Heradel started her musical studies at the age of eight, studying violin and concert flute. At the age of fifteen, she began developing a musical project called “Quidam” Pilgrim”, inspired by the allegories of John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress“ (1678). The project combined a world of synthesizers, a post-rock vibe, and harmonized vocals occasionally set against orchestral backgrounds, which were performed by the Esteban Salas Chamber Orchestra. The project also incorporated Afro-Cuban Batá drums, traditionally used in the ritual music of the Yoruba religion, heavily practiced in her native city. The project received a positive critical reception, where it was pointed out that it broke with many Cuban cultural stereotypes and it added a particular hue of universality in the Cuban music panorama. Info: Bridge Projects, 6820 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Date 3/12/2021, Hours: 19:00-20:30, www.bridgeprojects.com
In his exhibition “Songs for dying / Songs for living”, Korakrit Arunanondchai focuses more explicitly than before on existential experiences. By dealing with the loss of one’s own grandfather, thoughts arise about the cosmological origin of the world and the associated cycles of life and death, growth and decomposition. His inspiration often comes from the cultural contexts of his home country Thailand, as well as from places shaped by post-colonial trauma. He uses experimental concepts and works with different image and sound material from different sources. While discovering various myths and philosophical approaches, questions about consciousness, life and community are interwoven in his works. Moments of loss and transcendence relate to concrete (life) realities, which he interweaves in atmospheric spatial situations with stories of grief, transformation and spirituality. The narrative pull leads into imaginative rooms in which new perspectives on life and its potential forms become visible. Info: Curator: Bettina Steinbrügge, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Klosterwall 23, Hamburg, Germany, Duration: 4/12/2021-20/2/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-18:00, www.kunstverein.de
“To Moscow! To Moscow! To Moscow!” is a large-scale group exhibition featuring a selection of works by Ragnar Kjartansson displayed alongside pieces by different artists, including new specially realised project specific works. The exhibition explores the practice of artists who have previously been Kjartansson’s collaborators or inspirational dialogue companions. The exhibition installation is orchestrated to expand each work’s resonance through formal or content-based assonances and conversing juxtapositions. Dick Page’s 144 poetically titled monochromes, originally designed to give birth to commercially available eyeshadows, lipsticks and other makeup products, are set to respond to the 144 portraits of the artist Páll Haukur Björnsson — also featured in the show. Elizabeth Peyton’s delicate paintings intimately portraying friends and iconic personalities are involved in a musical conversation with Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir’s sculpture “What Do You Really Mean?: (2020) featuring small objects standing on a plinth made of paper sheets which have been meticulously gilded like a very precious old book. Info: Curators: Ragnar Kjartansson and Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir, GES-2, Bolotnaya Naberezhnaya, 15, Moscow, Russia, Duration: 4/12/2021-14/3/2022, Days & Hours: Daily 10:00-22:00, https://v-a-c.org
The artists duo Anoka Faruqee and David Driscoll present their solo exhibition “Datum” , the artists collaborate to create bewildering paintings devised of layers of carefully misaligned, concentric circles which generate optical effects. The resulting moiré , the fusion of two or more patterns which create another, much more complex pattern, echoes various natural systems, such as wave formations, stress patterns, and magnetic fields. But for the artists, the moiré phenomenon demonstrates that what we perceive as light, form and space is, at its most basic, bits of assembled data. Pixels. Atoms. Nano-particles. These paintings make the invisible tangible. Their collaboration, though it grew out of pragmatic solutions to process-based challenges, has become a conceptual practice that contests traditional notions of the artist as an individual with a singular identity and vision — and opens a conversation about the value of cooperation in the creative process. Info: Hosfelt Gallery, 260 Utah Street, San Francisco, CA, USA, Duration:4/12/2021-22/1/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-sat 10:00-17:30. Thu 11:00-19:00, https://hosfeltgallery.com
“Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin”, a newly commissioned and site-conditioned exhibition by Robert Irwin is presented at Kraftwerk Berlin. Irwin’s “Light and Space” series consists of fluorescent light tubes in abstract, rhythmic yet undecipherable patterns spread on white walls with a high finish. Apart from being the largest work of its kind in Europe, this new iteration “Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin”, for the first time combines white with blue-colored fluorescent light tubes – these are positioned on either side of a monumental 16×16 metre freestanding wall. With this work, Irwin combines his interest in Abstraction’s potential for a vision devoid of any precise object, alluding to his painterly experiments of the 1960s, with his more recent examinations of the conditions of colour perception. The exhibition is a testament to Irwin’s ability to transform a space: he intervenes in Kraftwerk’s notable brutalist architecture to create an experience that invites viewers to immerse themselves in his experiments with light and space, challenging our perceptions and how perception can extend beyond a work of art. Info: Kraftwerk Berlin, Köpenicker Straße 70, Berlin, Germany, Duration: 5/12/2021-30/1/2022, Days & Hours: Tue10:00-20:00, Wed & Fri 13:00-20:00, Thu 13:00-22:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-120:00, https://lightartspace.org
Rachel Jones in her solo exhibition presents her new series of paintings, “SMIIILLLLEEEE”, The artist investigates a sense of self as a visual, visceral experience, with the motifs of mouths and teeth suggesting vivid inner landscapes. Some of these new works are marked by a shift in her palette, with more muted tones and a reduction in patterning to produce quieter passages, while her flower motifs have become more prevalent. Exploring the role of language in engaging with images, the exhibition will also include site-specific text and sticker elements. Painted on a wall in the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery and surrounded by her paintings, the song title ‘SON SHINE’ becomes a prompt to think about the works and the words in a new light, as does the exhibition’s title. Vinyl stickers will be applied to the floor in dialogue with the paintings they reproduce, with the shifts in scale, materiality and viewing experience complicating the reading of these images. Info: Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, 37 Dover Street, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 8/12/2021-5/2/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://ropac.net
“Apeiron”, the title of Rudolf Polanszky’s exhibition, mirrors his “ad hoc synthesis approach” of building and dissolving purely abstract forms. With a selection of recent works, drawn from his “Reconstructions” series, Polanszky further implodes the Modernist palimpsest via his hybrid paintings and sculpture. Apeiron, according to the Greek philosopher Anaximander, is the source of everything, a boundless force which having emerged from nothing, is inevitably drawn to reconciliation in the guise of the infinite void of its origin. Experiencing Polanszky’s work brings an awareness of perceptual balancing, provoked by its relative elusive visualization or adherence towards any “adapted meaning”. By consciously bypasing Modernist influences, these methodologies affect his choice of scrap materials, picked from the flotsam and jetsam of Polanszky’s studio environment in Vienna. Artificial compounds including acrylic mirrors, silicone, industrial glue, epoxy, resins, copper foil and gossamer mesh, are also subjected to chance patina by exposure to the elements, encounters with animals or organic matter. Info: Almine Rech Gallery, 27 Huqiu Road, 2nd Floor, Shanghai, China, Duration: 10/12/2021-27/1/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.alminerech.com