ART NEWS:Feb 03

“Tune” is a series of short sound residencies where artists are invited to present different strands of their work in the form of live performances of solo works and collaborations, screenings, and installations. It brings a special focus to artists working primarily in sound, and the opportunity for audiences to dive deeply into their worlds and practices. In 2022 the presentation of sound works continues in conversation with the exhibitions in the museum, with a focus on sound’s texture, form and modes of performance. The invited artists move across genres, eras, and influences. Their practices are intensely focused, whether on microtonal composition or on exploring and expanding the sonic possibilities of a single instrument. Works look at the finer details of how sound constructs and decomposes time, with structures that emerge and dissolve, and drift between clarity and opacity. The program looks at the nature of making and performing sound, whether through collages and narrative driven works, walls of sound, tight composition, and improvisation. Info: Haus der Kunst, Prinzregentenstrasse 1, Munich, Germany, Duration: 10/2-29/5/2022, Wed, Mon & Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu 10:00-22:00, Fri-Sat 10:00-20:00, https://hausderkunst.de

Nine artists present their idea of body the oldest subject in art. Until the early 20th century, it was wrapped in certain ideas and conventions of representation that followed the themes of art: religion, mythology, everyday life, landscape, and portraiture. Time and again, the body was the projection surface of emotions such as pain, lust, passion, vulnerability, or willpower, predominantly defined and staged by male artists. It was not until the Surrealists that the door was opened to a psychologically more complex world, in which the body could completely shed the garb of reality—neither always clearly assigned a gender nor explicitly staged for the male or female gaze. From that moment on, the body became a symbol: of dreams, of the unconscious, of fantasies, and the psyche of modern man. Often maltreated by fears, it increasingly functions as the scene of a spectacle of the tortured soul. Abstracted, deformed, or mechanized, it is present in all genres. Female artists, in particular, prefer to thematize the body in the new media of photography, video, and performance. Participating artists: Jean-Marie Appriou, Amy Feldman, Louisa Gagliardi, Kris Lemsalu, Conny Maier, Sofia Mitsola, and Tobias Pils. Info: Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zahnradstrasse 21, Zurich, Switzerland, Duration: 12/2-9/4/2022, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00-18:00, www.presenhuber.com

Two solo exhibitions of Mona Hatum, are presented concurrently in two Stockholm institutions:  “Revisit”  at Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art in Frihamnen and “So Much I Want To Say” at Accelerator at Stockholm University. Since the early 1990s, Mona Hatoum has been regarded as one of the most important artists of our time. In the exhibition “Revisit”, the theme of ‘re-visiting’ occurs both in the exhibition’s actual format, but also in the works themselves, and in Hatoum’s tendency to revisit the same themes and concepts, with a wide variety of processes and materials. For this exhibition, Hatoum has produced a new work entitled “Electrified (variable IV)’ (2022). The new work reconnects with the theme and materials of the work “Undercurrent”, which Hatoum created for her solo exhibition at Magasin III in 2004.  Some of the works included in the exhibition “So Much I Want To Say” at Accelerator were produced in the early part of Hatoum’s career, in the mid-1980s, and others were conceived in conjunction with the above mentioned exhibition at Magasin III. Thus the works presented in the Accelerator exhibition span these 20 years. During this time, Hatoum’s practice has changed, particularly in relation to the techniques she works with, but is still nevertheless characterised by a consistent, restrained expression and a frequent undertone of conflict or unrest. Info: Curator: Olga Krzeszowiec Malmsten, Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art, Frihamnen, Frihamnsgatan 28, Stockholm, Sweden, Duration: 19/2-15/10/2022, Days & Hours: Fri & Sat 11:00-17:00, www.magasin3.com & Curator: Richard Julin, and Therese Kellner, Accelerator, Stockholm University campus, Frescativägen 26A, Stockholm, Sweden, Duration: 19/2-19/6/2022, Days & Hours: Tue & Thu-Fri 12:00-18:00, Wed 12:00-29:00, Sat-Sun 12:00-17:00, https://acceleratorsu.art/

The group exhibition “Role Play” explores the notions of the search, projection and invention of possible alternative identities, hovering between authentic, idealized, and universal selves through a selection of photographic, video and performing works by 11 international image-based artists. Playing with gender tropes, stereotypes, sense of place, and future perspectives, the artists who make up “Role Play” interrogate individuality as we know it and as it might be. Role-playing, creating alter-egos, and proliferation of selves are possible strategies for understanding each individual’s essence and persona. Since its invention, one of the most suitable visual languages to investigate otherness is undoubtedly photography. Through different genres from narrative to conceptual research,  photography is the ideal medium for self-reflection, given its objective nature and thus its perceived authenticity. The evolution of photography, its transformation in filmic languages, the widespread diffusion of online social communities and virtual platforms, the future developments of the Metaverse and the subsequent emergence of digital avatars have intensified the urgency to explore self and others through role-playing, reinforcing our obsession with alternative selves. Info: Curator: Melissa Harris, Fondazione Prada, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milano, Italy, Duration: 19/2-27/6/2022, Days & Hours: Mon & Fri 14:00-20:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-20:00, www.fondazioneprada.org

Working with textiles and locally sourced plant matter, Katie West’s installations invite us to reconsider our relationship with the natural environment and each other. In her largest and most ambitious project to-date, “We Hold You Close” is a song for material intimacy that invites us to interact and engage in a sensory experience. Gathering and learning from materials and one another is fundamental to West’s practice. In developing the exhibition, West invited friends and family to a natural dyeing workshop at her home on Noongar Ballardong boodja in York. Over two days, the group walked along the bilya collecting plant material. They made dye bundles and immersed them into pots of water on an open fire, to bubble away and become infused with the colour and scent of country. The group shared time around the fire, ate lunch, and drank cups of tea, waiting for the dye pot to do its work. Two new video works complement the installation and enveloping the entire exhibition is a soundscape of ambient, Info: Curator: Eloise Sweetman, Perth Cultural Centre, 51 James St, Perth, Australia, Duration: 20/2-24/4/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, https://pica.org.au

Zeynep Kayan’s solo exhibition “one one two one two three” comprises videos and stills presented both individually and in series. The artist has over the years often referenced dance choreographies, for example the performance “Accumulation” by Trisha Brown, which the choreographer described as follows: “One simple gesture is presented. This gesture is repeated until it is thoroughly integrated into my kinesthetic system. This principle becomes apparent in the work “mirror I”, which acts as an introduction to the exhibition. The video shows a figure with a darkly shadowed face, seated on a chair – it is the artist herself. We see the figure from the front and, behind it to the side, the same projection again, as in a “mise en abyme”. We look at the figure in the projection at the front as it reacts to the acoustic impulses of the chair moving backwards behind it, before also sliding its chair backwards. The movement of the figure at the back is being imitated with a time delay by the figure at the front. It is a continuous moving back and reactive catching-up of the distance. Info: Zilberman Gallery, Goethestraße 82, Berlin, Germany, Duration: 22/2-23/4/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.zilbermangallery.com

The 17th edition of Art Madrid will take place from the 23rd to the 27th of February, 2022 in the Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles, an unmissable appointment with contemporary art that every year has a more significant international presence and attracts a greater number of visitors. This year Art Madrid 2022 will bring together 40 national and international galleries that will provide a fresh and current vision of the world art scene. The participating galleries offer the opportunity to see the great works that some of their artists have completed in this last year, a time that has served for research and reflection with creative results that will have a great impression on the contemporary art market, also,  Art Madrid 2022 will feature an extensive program including both an art tour curated by Natalia Alonso and a collector service run by Pía Rubio. Info: Art Madrid 2022, Galería de Cristal de CentroCentro Cibeles, 1 Montalbán St., near Plaza de Cibeles 1, Madrid, Spain, Duration: 23-27/2/2022, Hours: 11:00-21:00, Admission: 15€ General Ticket, 12€ Reduced Ticket (people over 65y, unemployed, students and groups (20 minimum)), Children up to 12y free, www.art-madrid.com