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SPECULATIONS ON ANONYMOUS MATERIALS

tw — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:37:37 +0000

The inaugural show of Fridericianum’s new director Susanne Pfeffer, Speculations on Anonymous Materials, is definitely worth a trip to “documenta-town” Kassel – great works, carefully installed. Personal highlight: the video Rosebud (2013) by James Richards, a fascinating composition of filmed images, found footage, and own takes.
“Art’s task changes in a world suffused with generated images. It is imperative to reflect on what are often highly psychologically charged worlds of images, the ways they are reproduced, and represented. Over the last two decades, the relationships between image and text, language and body, body and space, subject and object have changed rapidly. Art’s brief is no longer to generate unique, original images, but to seek reflection in a de-subjectivized approach to the existing stocks of objects, images and spaces. […] The Speculations on Anonymous Materials exhibition for the first time worldwide brings together approaches in international art that reinterpret the Anonymous Materials created by rapid and incisive technological change.”
(Read more on the exhibition on the Fridericianum website)

With: Michele Abeles, Ed Atkins, Trisha Baga & Jessie Stead, Alisa Baremboym, Kerstin Brätsch & Debo Eilers, Antoine Catala, Simon Denny, Aleksandra Domanović, GCC, Yngve Holen, Sachin Kaeley, Daniel Keller, Josh Kline, Oliver Laric, Tobias Madison, Katja Novitskova, Ken Okiishi, Jon Rafman, James Richards, Pamela Rosenkranz, Avery Singer, Timur Si-Qin, Ryan Trecartin

Save the date for documenta 14: 10.6. – 17.9.2017.

Speculations on Anonymous Materials
Curated by Susanne Pfeffer
29.9.2013–26.1.2014
Fridericianum
Friedrichsplatz 18, 34117 Kassel

Photo: Exhibition opening, 28.9.2013, photo: Tina Wessel

REPAIR. 5 ACTS

tw — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:00:57 +0000

REPAIR. 5 ACTS at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin is French-Algerian artist Kader Attiaʼs first institutional solo exhibition in Germany. Attia develops a site-specific installation in five acts, which continues his ongoing artistic research into cultural exchange processes between occidental and extra-occidental cultures. REPAIR. 5 ACTS draws from historical African cult objects as well as from the history of European art, combining and fusing different historical and political places, times, mediums and materials.
Read more about the exhibition here.

Kader Attiaʼs (born in 1970 in Dugny) work – most recently presented at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel – is influenced by his life experiences between different cultures and places, and their contrasting structures. Attiaʼs photographs, videos and large-scale installations explore the rich potential between sensual experiences of form and rational construction of reality.

Kader Attia: REPAIR. 5 ACTS
Opening: Saturday, 25.05.2013, 5 – 10 pm
Dates: 26. 05. – 25. 08. 2013
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststrasse 69, 10117 Berlin

Photo: Kader Attia, FRAGMENTAL #2, 2013, drawing on printed image, © Kader Attia, 2013

WAEL SHAWKY

tw — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 08:43:10 +0000

The Egyptian artist Wael Shawky is a storyteller: historiographical and literary sources form the starting point for his concentrated film narratives, in which he interweaves myths, facts, and fiction. The actors, backdrops, and costumes, music, and text each become self-contained narrative voices and through their interplay, fracture ossified views of history. His poetic staging of historical events allows the concealed backgrounds of current thinking and actions to emerge and enables us to think anew about the past and the present.

Wael Shawky (born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1971) is the winner of the Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award 2011. For his first, extensive, institutional solo exhibition, he has created a new, large-scale work.

Shawky has had solo exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary (2011) and Cittadellarte—Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (2010). He has participated in the Istanbul Biennial (2011), the Santa Fe Biennial (2008), and the Biennale di Venezia (2003). Until September 16, 2012, his epic marionette-animation film Cabaret Crusades (2010-ongoing) can be seen at this year’s quite impressive dOCUMENTA (13) at the Neue Galerie in Kassel – don’t miss it!

Wael Shawky
El Araba El Madfuna
Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award 2011

Opening: Saturday, August 25, 2012, 5–10 pm
Dates: August 26 – October 21, 2012
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststrasse 69
10117 Berlin

Wael Shawky ‘Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show File’, 2010 video still, courtesy the artist

dOCUMENTA (13): SEEN & LIKED

mc — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 11:24:09 +0000

The dOCUMENTA (13) officially kicks off today. Even though you should book your trip to Kassel and have a look at the exhibition by yourself, here are some impressions and recommendations, which I spotted during the last three days.

Roman Ondák at Neue Galerie

Theaster Gates at the Hugenot House

Nalini Malani at documenta-Halle

Geoffrey Farmer at Neue Galerie

Pierre Huyghe at Karlsaue

…and many more to see and explore!