Aktuelles
Premiere: Maya Schweizer – A Tall Tale
World premiere of “A Tall Tale” (HD, 16’, Germany / Ireland, 2017) at the 67. Berlinale Forum Expanded
Screenings:
10.2., 21:30 Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10
12.2., 12:30 Arsenal 1, Potsdamer Straße 2
A thin crack extending from the roof, down the front of the building and into the adjacent lake forms the mise en scene of the film, noted by the narrator when he arrives at the House of Usher. A cinematic ghost seems to lead the spectator onwards, passing through a landscape of ruins and films and ruins of films that evoke phantoms and fairies …
Forum Expanded / Berlinale 2017
9 – 19 February
The Forum Expanded curatorial team has now completed the 2017 selection. 44 artistic works from a total of 21 countries have been invited, including 28 films of various lengths, 15 installations and a performance. The opening of the group exhibition at the Akademie der Künste at the Hanseatenweg already takes place on February 8, one day before the start of the Berlinale. 13 video and sound installations are being shown there, once again supplemented by film screenings from February 10 onwards. SAVVY Contemporary present the exhibition „The Law of the Pursuer“ by Amos Gitai and the multichannel sound installation Lago by Joshua Bonnetta is being exhibited at the Marshall McLuhan Salon of the Embassy of Canada.
Sharon Lockhart’s Rudzienko celebrates its world premiere in the film programme. Lockhart examines a recurring theme of her artistic practice in this new work: the experience of childhood and adolescence. For a period of three years, she worked with the inhabitants of the Youth Centre for Sociotherapy in Rudzienko, Poland. Milena is one of the girls featured, who Lockhart met while shooting Podwórka (Forum Expanded 2010). The film emerged from the work with the teenagers and shows a mixture of conversations which deal with everyday teenager worries and philosophical questions in equal measure.
Works by other artists invited to the programme also forge links to films and installations previously shown at Forum Expanded and the Forum: Noam Enbar presents the installation Pana Ha’Geshem (The Rain is Gone) in which a theatre group performs a structured, improvised vocal composition. The installation is based on material created as part of Avi Mograbi’s film Between Fences, which was shown at the Forum in 2016. Enbar and Mograbi already took part at the 2012 edition of Forum Expanded with a live installation.
Izadora (listening to versions of herself) by Philip Scheffner, Merle Kröger and Izadora Nistor describes a moment that belongs to 14-year-old Izadora and her alone. Scheffner and Kröger already worked with Izadora and her family in their films Revision (Forum 2012) und And-Ek Ghes… (Forum 2016).
„The Stars Down to Earth“ is the title of this year’s Forum Expanded programme and is taken from the text of the same name by Theodor W. Adorno in which he grapples with the role of the irrational in mass culture. The works assembled around this theme confront an era that’s gone off the rails and engage with it by taking a keen look at the concrete and the present as well as the past.
In this way, the Bawabet Yafa (Jaffa Gate) multimedia installation conceived by Khaldun Bshara examines the history of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, which was completely redesigned in line with the wishes of the new colonial rulers after the British conquest of the city. One part of the installation is the video ON THAT DAY by Mohanad Yaqubi which was produced by the RIWAQ Centre for Architectural Conservation and takes a closer look at the gate via historical photos.
Mohanad Yaqubi’s Off Frame AKA Revolution until Victory also forms part of the film programme. For Off Frame, he rummaged through archives across the entire globe to try and find films by Palestine Film Unit (PFU), a filmmaking collective whose militant practice accompanied the Palestinian Revolution and brought it into international view. Only a small number of the numerous films created between 1968 and 1982 still exist today, which makes rediscovering and interrogating them in relation to their current relevance all the more vital.
Yaqubi also presents his research as part of this year’s “Think Film” conference series. “Think Film No. 5: Archival Constellations” takes place in compact fashion over one day at the silent green Kulturquartier in Wedding. Eight archive presentations, three archive visits and a performance are planned.
What role does the location of an archive play, whether as a shelter, repository, production facility or sometimes even as a danger zone? Archives are movable entities; they can make new connections which bring them to life. The film archive of the INCA (Instituto Nacional de Cinema e Audiovisual) in Guinea-Bissau thus also holds films from the former Soviet Union. Works from the Kiev School of Scientific Film ended up in a contemporary art context in similar fashion. The archive visits lead into Amos Gitai’s exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary as well as into the Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art e.V. film archive, where concert footage (including that of Einstürzende Neubauten, Malaria, Nick Cave) from 1980s West Berlin can be seen that stems from the !K7 archive. The day comes to a close with a special edition of the “Rising Stars, Falling Stars” series at which archivist and performer Ms. Vaginal Davis will be presenting a small 16mm excavation.
Films
Aapothkalin Trikalika (The Kali of Emergency) by Ashish Avikunthak (India / Germany, 79’)
Asbestos by Sasha Litvintseva, Graeme Arnfield (United Kingdom, 20’)
A Tall Tale by Maya Schweizer (Germany / Ireland, 16’)
The Brick House by Eliane Esther Bots (Netherlands, 16’)
Camera Threat by Bernd Lützeler (Germany, 30’)
Dark Adaption by Chris Gehman (Canada, 14’)
HASHTI Tehran by Daniel Kötter (Iran, 59’)
Heliopolis Heliopolis by Anja Dornieden, Juan David González Monroy (Germany, 26’)
Im Gehäus (In His Room) by Eva C. Heldmann (Germany, 27’)
Jokinen by Laura Horelli (Finland, 45’)
Not Every Day is Spring by Haig Aivazian (Lebanon, 46’)
Off Frame AKA Revolution until Victory by Mohanad Yaqubi (Palestine / France / Qatar, 63’)
One Plus One Makes a Pharaoh’s Chocolate Cake by Marouan Omara, Islam Kamal (Egypt / Switzerland, 37’)
Popeye Sees 3D by Ken Jacobs (USA, 21’)
Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder by Fern Silva (USA, 9’)
Rudzienko by Sharon Lockhart (Poland / USA, 53’)
Seif Tagreeby (Experimental Summer) by Mahmoud Lotfy (Egypt, 69’)
Serce Miłości – Director‘s Cut (A Heart of Love – Director‘s Cut) by Łukasz Ronduda (Poland, 88’)
Set by Peter Miller (Germany, 10’)
The Shortest Day by Karø Goldt (Austria, 3’)
Sokun Al Sulhufat (Turtles are Always Home) by Rawane Nassif (Qatar / Lebanon, 12’)
SPIN by Ginan Seidl (Germany, 80’)
Tashlikh (Cast Off) by Yael Bartana (Israel / Netherlands, 12’)
Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon by Tomonari Nishikawa (Japan, 10’)
Studies on the Ecology of Drama by Eija-Liisa Ahtila (Finland, 26’)
Ulrike‘s Brain by Bruce LaBruce (Germany / Canada, 55’)
Ulysses in the Subway by Paul Kaiser, Marc Downie, Ken & Flo Jacobs (USA, 59’)
The Welfare of Thomás Ó Hallissy by Duncan Campbell (United Kingdom, Ireland, 31’)
Performance
Confessions of an Actress by Susanne Sachsse (Germany)
Group Exhibition at the Akademie der Künste am Hanseatenweg
Bawabet Yafa (Jaffa Gate) by RIWAQ (Conzept: Khaldun Bshara) (Palestine)’
Constructed Futures: Haret Hreik by Sandra Schäfer (Germany)
Hawamesh Aan Al-Hegra (Footnotes on Migration) by Take to the Sea (Egypt)
Isla Santa Maria 3D by Oliver Husain (Canada)
Izadora (listening to versions of herself) by Merle Kröger, Izadora Nistor, Philip Scheffner (Germany)
Pana Ha’Geshem (The Rain is Gone) by Noam Enbar (Israel / France)
Purple, Bodies in Translation – Part II of A Yellow Memory from the Yellow Age by Joe Namy (Lebanon)
Twelve by Jeamin Cha (Republic of Korea)
UHF42 E01+E02 by Mike Crane (USA / Palestine)
Untitled Fragments by James Benning (USA)
When Things Occur by Oraib Toukan (Palestine / United Kingdom)
Wutharr, Saltwater Dreams by Karrabing Film Collective (Australia)
And:
Towards Memory von Katrin Winkler (Germany)
Marshall McLuhan Salon of the Embassy of Canada
Lago by Joshua Bonnetta (Canada / USA)
SAVVY Contemporary
The Law of the Pursuer” by Amos Gitai (Israel)
Think Film No. 5: Archival Constellations
Material to Investigate the Present, the Future Past – An Encounter with the Archive by the Harun Farocki Institut
Lab Space – Film Lab as Physical Space and Its Influence on Creative Process by Lisabona Rahman (Indonesia)
Reclaiming History, Unveiling Memory Part II by Didi Cheeka (Nigeria)
Archive visits to:
SAVVY Contemporary: The Law of the Pursuer by Amos Gitai; Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art: Living Archive – 10.000 Films & Subkultur Berlin80, a !K7 video archive.
The Solid Image by Filipa César (Germany / Portugal) and Sana Na N’Hada (Guinea Bissau)
For an Imperfect Archive by Reem Shilleh and Mohanad Yaqubi (Palestine)
Performing Moments of an Archive by Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk (Egypt / Germany)
Kinotron: The Kyiv School of Scientific Film by Oleksiy Radynski (Ukraine)
Reclaiming History, Unveiling Memory Part II by Didi Cheeka (Nigeria)
Saltwater Dreams: Archives of the Present by Karrabing Film Collective (Australia)
Vaginal Davis Presents: Rising Stars, Falling Stars
Exhibition: Arne Schmitt / Nico Joana Weber. Alleinanspruch (Sole Claim)
04 February – 30 April 2017
Opening: Fri 3 February, 7 pm
Temporary Gallery, Centre for contemporary art, Mauritiuswall 35, 50676 Cologne, Germany
Curated by Regina Barunke
Under the title „Alleinanspruch (Sole Claim)“ the Cologne based artists Arne Schmitt and Nico Joana Weber present an exciting interplay between photography and film, focussing the notion of the so-called ‘autonomous being’ and the notion of the artist individual. The exhibition features solely new works by the artists.
The architect’s gaze at the world: a storage of resources, a terrain to conquer, a plinth for his creation. In Ayn Rand’s novel “The Fountainhead”, the protagonist Howard Roark is not only an ideal model of the modern architect, whose buildings are not obliged to any tradition or community; at the same time he is a radical individualist, acting autonomously and creating autopoietically. This exaggerated manifestation of a fully emancipated subject – a phantasm of unfettered capitalism, as Rand constantly preached it – has its price: everyone is on his own. This paradox of being unbound is at the core of the exhibition “Alleinanspruch (Sole Claim)” conceived by Arne Schmitt and Nico Joana Weber. In his photographic series and the film “Mit weniger mehr schaffen (Make more with less)”, from 2016, Schmitt, addresses the practical side of modernism. Based on architect Ernst Neufert’s “Bauentwurfslehre (Architects’ Data)” and his buildings in Darmstadt Ledigenheim (Bachelors’ Hostel, 1952-55), he analyses the consequences of rationalisation and standardisation for the individual. Nico Joana Weber’s extensive installation featuring the new 3-channel video-projection “Land of Enchantment” is devoted to an area whose harsh climatic and geographic conditions defy human habitation. In New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin there are five locations encapsulating the history of mankind in a confined space with heavy contrasts in a kind of time lapse. The experience of landscape takes place here in sensed solitude. One is thrown back upon oneself, grasping the limits of what can be shaped permanently.
Arne Schmitt is a guest professor for Photography at HfbK – University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. Last year he received the renowned Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship and the 2013 Advancement Award of Documentary Photography of Wüstenrot Stiftung. Schmitt is concerned with social contexts of architecture in photography, video and text. For this exhibition he deals with the Bauhaus architect Ernst Neufert and his „Bachelors’ Hostel“ built in 1952-55 in the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, Germany.
Nico Joana Weber received the Villa Romana Fellowship in 2016. In her new 3-channel video installation “Land of Enchantment” she examines the elemental and civilized structures of five different places in New Mexico, disclosing human history like in a time lapse.
Opening hours: Thu-Fri 2-6 pm, Sat-Sun 1-5 pm (special opening hours during Art Cologne, 26-29 April, 10 am-6 pm)
Free Admission
04.02. – 30.04.2017
Opening: Fr, 03.02., 19 Uhr / 7 pm
Temporary Gallery. Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst e.V. Mauritiuswall 35 50676 Köln, Germany
Exhibition: Elfriede Mejchar
EEB7 – Fabricated Histories. Fact and Fiction in Recent History
IEEB (International Experimental Engraving Biennial) in Bucharest is focused on various aspects of printmaking seen as a contemporary art medium with a broad technical and visual offer, going beyond its traditional approach. IEEB encourages experiment, challenging conventional perceptions, re-defining and re-contextualizing engraving techniques as powerful tools of representation in contemporary art. IEEB functions as a counter-space for discussing the role of printmaking in contemporary art, not as a separate chapter but as a statement of inclusion. The art of print in our view is seen as a combination between technique and concept as well as an intersectional and transversal medium of expression, combining traditional techniques with performance, video art, sculpture and object.
IEEB7 will focus on our recent history with local as well as global reference constructing a counter-space for understanding/questioning/revealing/identifying/imagining the way history has been or it is being written. Approaching the relationship between fiction and historiography Linda Hutcheon observes the issue of source authority, the unstable notions of construction, reception, distribution: fiction and historiography are simultaneously used and abused, installed and turned upside down, affirmed and denied.
Written and oral history, historical files, archives can be created or interpreted and manipulated. From schoolbooks, television broadcast and tabloids, from academic publications to satires and wikileaks, from secret services files to archives, and last but not least from art criticism to history and theory of art, this project aims to question mechanisms of writing and fabricating histories and their impact on personal and collective memory.
IEEB7 will create a platform for contemporary art production through the use of print techniques and concepts with the purpose of reflecting on the factual/truth (writing/telling) and fictional dimensions of our recent histories.
Period: 25.10.2016 – 25.02.2017
The list of participating artists:
Ana Adamović (SRB)
Ana Golici (USA/RO)
Ana Hoffner (AT)
Cătălin Burcea (RO)
Christine Niehoff (DE)
Corina Ilea (CAN/RO)
Dylan McMannus (US)
Elana Katz (DE)
Judith Saupper (AT)
Mihai Zgondoiu (RO)
Olivia Mihălțianu (RO)
Sandra Sterle (HR)
Silvia Trăistaru (RO)
Sorin Oncu (RO/SRB)
Zsolt Asztalos (HUN)
IEEB7 Sponsors: ERSTE – Asset Management, Sâmburești
Partners: Goethe Institute, Austrian Cultural Forum, Balassi Institute – Hungarian Institute from Bucharest, Victoria Art Centre, National Museum of Natural History Grigore Antipa, Alert Studio, The Institute of Art History G. Opescu of the Romanian Academy, WASP-Working Art Space and Production, For Culture, Cărturești, Aiurart Contemporary Art Space in Bucharest, Atelier 030202
Exhibition: Amie Siegel – Strata
South London Gallery, Friday, 20th January to Sunday, 26th March 2017
For New York-based artist Amie Siegel’s first solo show in London, the South London Gallery presents recent works which explore the mechanisms through which objects become imbued with meaning. Known for her layered, meticulously constructed works that consider the undercurrents of value systems, cultural ownership and image-making, Siegel works across film, video, photography, performance and installation.
Quarry, 2015, projected at cinematic scale in the SLG’s main gallery, traces the excavation of marble from the deepest underground quarry in the world to its almost inevitable use in the modern luxury apartments of Manhattan skyscrapers. Beautiful, formally rigorous, and pointedly underscored by dramatic orchestral sound, this moving image work draws us into a mesmerising exposé of the multi-layered relationships between art, labour and value.
Fetish, 2016, presented in the first floor galleries, delves further into the stratified relationships between culture, value, and material by focusing on Sigmund Freud’s personal collection of archaeological statues and artefacts. Filmed at the Freud Museum in north London, it portrays the annual nocturnal cleaning of the psychoanalyst’s collection, suggesting an analogy between the careful, almost ritualistic removal of layers of dust from the objects and the intimate excavations and disclosures of analysis, both of which are normally hidden from view.
Proposing a conceptual link between Fetish and Quarry, Siegel presents a new work in the second upstairs gallery – a fragment of pink marble from the lobby of New York’s Trump Tower. Offered for sale on eBay immediately following the 2016 US election, the marble fragment was purchased by the artist. The fragment’s transformations, from having had a clear use within a building into an apparently functionless piece of rock, and then into a historic relic, are both continued and emphasised through its incorporation into Siegel’s work. Parallel narratives are therefore set in motion, both with the material concerns of Quarry, and the potentially infinite circular conversations around the themes of objecthood and desire explored within Fetish.
Biography
Amie Siegel (b. 1974, Chicago, USA) works variously between film, video, photography, performance and installation. Known for her layered, meticulously constructed works that trace and perform the undercurrents of systems of value, cultural ownership and image-making, the artist’s recent solo exhibitions include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the MAK, Vienna.Siegel has participated in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Hayward Gallery, London; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; CCA Wattis, San Francisco; MoMA PS1; MAXXI Museum, Rome; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Her work is in public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Her films have screened at the Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and New York Film Festivals, The Museum of Modern Art, New York and The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. She has been a fellow of the DAAD Berliner-Künstlerprogramm and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulton Fellow at The Film Study Center at Harvard University, a recipient of the ICA Boston’s Foster Prize, Sundance Institute and Creative Capital Awards.
More information: http://www.southlondongallery.org
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Forming in the pupil of an eye
December 12, 2016–March 29, 2017
Yesterday, India’s largest contemporary art exhibition, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), opened to a crowd of thousands, marking the start of three months of contemporary art, culture and design in the city of Kochi. Titled Forming in the pupil of an eye, the third edition of the Biennale will run for 108 days until March 29, 2017, with works by 97 artists displayed in heritage properties, public spaces, and galleries across Fort Kochi and Ernakulam.
Curator Sudarshan Shetty said, “Reflecting back into the world as much as it takes in, the eye is a mirror for the world. Forming in the pupil of an eye is not an image of one reality but a reflection of multiple realities and of multiple possibilities in time. Forming in the pupil of an eye brings that multiplicity of experience together within the space of Kochi-Muziris Biennale. It was therefore important for this, my first curation of the biennale, that we address multiple artistic art forms.”
In keeping with its curatorial vision, this edition of the Biennale attempts to question and blur the boundaries that categorise the various disciplines of artistic expression. With a healthy mix of both international and local artists, KMB 2016 will feature works by visual artists, architects, poets, musicians and performance professionals from diverse cultural and artistic traditions. Illustrating this inclusion of figures from fields not normally associated with contemporary art, is the work by Slovenian poet, novelist and essayist Aleš Šteger, whose pyramid-like structure is installed at Aspinwall House. Similarly, architect Tony Joseph has created The Biennale Pavilion, an artwork in itself, which is hosting the Artists’ cinema, seminar and performance programme. Alicja Kwade’s installation at Mattancherry warehouse involves the manipulation of the structural properties of everyday objects.
Performance pieces feature strongly in the biennale programme, including the work of Anamika Haksar, New York-based Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto with a performance-based installation and Zuleikha Chaudhari whose video and performance work is on show at Aspinwall House. Literary works are also a feature of the biennale, such as the experimental literature of author and poet Sharmistha Mohanty. Multi-disciplinary artists have been selected; such as artist, composer and performer Hanna Tuulikki, whose immersive ethereal spaces weave connections between oral tradition, ecology, language and archaeology, evidenced by her piece Sourcemouth: Liquidbody, commissioned for the Biennale.
The Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), in collaboration with the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) and the Foundation for Indian Art and Education (FIAE), has also developed the Students’ Biennale, an exhibitory platform which runs parallel to the KMB. Led by 15 young curators, this project reaches out to state-funded art colleges across the country, to encourage young artists to reflect on their practice and exhibit on an international stage. Through multiple institution visits, workshops, interventions and engagements, the curators bring together young artists from all around India to showcase their talents at exhibition venues in Kochi.
At the opening, KBF co-founders Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu said, “Building on our year-round programme of activity, we are excited to welcome the artists and visitors to attend the opening of the third edition of the Kochi Biennale. This is the result of hard work from a great team and the curatorial vision of Sudarshan Shetty. We are delighted to give artists the opportunity to create works in our city and we are proud to be able to present internationally recognized cultural activities to the community in Kochi and in wider India. This is the People’s Biennale.”
Symposium: “A New Fascism?”
December 17, 2016, 10:30 am–7 pm
Fridericianum
Friedrichsplatz 18
34117 Kassel
Germany
In conjunction with the exhibition Two A.M. by Loretta Fahrenholz, the Fridericianum is hosting a symposium devoted to an exposition of new forms of fascism. In her novel entitled Nach Mitternacht (After Midnight, 1937), Irmgard Keun describes everyday life in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s under the dominant influences of fear, government control, and despotism. In her current exhibition at the Fridericianum, artist Loretta Fahrenholz calls attention to similar contemporary phenomena. Based loosely on Keun’s exile novel, her Two A.M. is a socio-fiction film in which she presents frightening analogies to present-day surveillance, capitalism and re-emerging fascism.
One of the essential characteristics of representatives of the new Right, from the Hungarian Prime Minister to Marine Le Pen, is that they all regard themselves as democrats. And when we listen to them, they seem to become more democratic every day. Without blushing, the AfD compares itself to the Third Reich resistance group known as the “Weiße Rose.” And the French Front National proudly points out that it was the only party in France whose members voted in a democratic referendum on the European constitution. All of the established parties in France had refused to take part in such a referendum for fear that the European constitution would ultimately be rejected.
Thus the obscurity of European institutions can surely be cited as one of the reasons for the emergence of new right-wing movements in all European countries. And the increasing popularity of the new right-wing and nationalist parties can also be attributed at least in part to the movements of migrants and refugees, which are certain to continue unabated in the foreseeable future. We must agree with Zeev Sternhell, who insists that the fascist mentality that emerged in the early 20th century never really disappeared. Fascist currents have always existed in more or less visible form, and they are now reappearing in a new guise. Fascism has reinvented itself, as Alain Badiou pointed out ten years ago. It has assumed new forms which must be analyzed. And the old theories regarding fascism are no longer adequate for that purpose.
10:30am–1pm
Susanne Pfeffer
Introduction
Franco “Bifo” Berardi
“A Short History of the Humiliation: National Workerism and the Showdown of Two Centuries of Colonialism”
Wilhelm Heitmeyer
“Group-Focused Enmity, Social Disintegration and Right-Wing Populism in a Process of Escalation”
2–4pm
Chantal Mouffe
“The Populist Moment”
G. M. Tamás
“Fascism Without Fascism”
4:30–7pm
Didier Eribon
“What’s Next? Reflections on the Categories of Political Theory”
Panel discussion
Moderated by Gernot Kamecke
All lectures will be in English.
Admission is free—please rsvp to symposium@fridericianum.org.
The exhibition Loretta Fahrenholz. Two A.M. is on view at Fridericianum until January 1, 2017
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2017
This year’s shortlist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2017 celebrates established photographic narratives alongside experimental and conceptual approaches to documentary, landscape and portraiture. All of this year’s nominated artists investigate questions of truth and fiction, doubt and certainty, what constitutes the real and ideal and the relationship between the observer and the observed.
Works by the four shortlisted photographers will be exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery from 3 March until 11 June 2017 and subsequently presented at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt from 29 June until 17 September 2017.
The winner will be announced at a special award ceremony during the exhibition run at The Photographers’ Gallery in London.
Jury:
Susan Bright, Curator; Pieter Hugo, Artist; Karolina Lewandowska, Curator of Photography at Centre Pompidou Paris; Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and Clare Grafik, Head of Exhibitions, The Photographers’ Gallery as the non-voting chair
The Shortlist:
Sophie Calle
Sophie Calle (b.1953, France) has been nominated for her publication My All (Actes Sud, 2016) which finds the artist experimenting with yet another medium – the postcard set. Taking stock of her entire œuvre, this set of postcards functions as a beautiful portfolio of Calle’s work, as well as a new investigation of it, in an appropriately nomadic format. Over the past thirty years, Sophie Calle has invited strangers to sleep in her bed, followed a man through the streets of Paris to Venice, hired a detective to spy on herself before providing a report of her day, and asked blind people to tell her about the final image they remember. In doing so, she has orchestrated small moments of life, establishing a game, then setting its rules for herself and for others.
Dana Lixenberg
Dana Lixenberg (b. 1964, The Netherlands) has been nominated for her publication Imperial Courts (Roma, 2015 / reviewed in Camera Austria International 133). In 1992, Dana Lixenberg travelled to South Central Los Angeles for a magazine story on the riots that erupted following the verdict in the Rodney King trial. What she encountered inspired her to revisit the area, and led her to the community of the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts. Returning countless times over the following twenty-two years, Lixenberg gradually created a collaborative portrait of the changing face of this community. Over the years, some in the community were killed, while others disappeared or went to jail, and others, once children in early photographs, grew up and had children of their own. In this way, Imperial Courts constitutes a complex and evocative record of the passage of time in an underserved community.
Awoiska van der Molen
Awoiska van der Molen (b. 1972, The Netherlands) has been nominated for her exhibition Blanco at Foam Fotografie Museum, Amsterdam (22 Jan – 3 Apr 2016). Van der Molen creates black and white, abstracted images that revitalise the genre of landscape photography. Spending long periods of time in solitude and silence in foreign landscapes, from Japan to Norway to Crete, she explores the identity of the place, allowing it to impress upon her its specific emotional and physical qualities and her personal experience within it. With this intuitive approach van der Molen aims to find a pure form of representing her surroundings, by focusing on the essential elements in and around her. Her work questions how natural and manmade environments are commonly represented and interacted with.
Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs
Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs (both b. 1979, Switzerland) have been nominated for their exhibition EURASIA at Fotomuseum Winterthur (24 Oct 15 – 14 Mar 16). EURASIA playfully draws on the iconography of the road trip constructing experiences drawn from memory and imagination. Onorato and Krebs’ journey begins in Switzerland, continues through the Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and ends in Mongolia. Throughout their travels the duo encounters landscapes and people in a state of ongoing transition from ancient traditions and post-Communist structures to modernity and the formation of an independent identity. Using a mix of analogue media and techniques including 16mm films, large-format plate cameras and installation-based interventions, Onorato and Krebs compose a narrative that is as much fiction as documentation.
Gabi Ngcobo Appointed as Curator of the 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, which has been funded since its fourth edition by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) as an “outstanding cultural event,” is delighted to announce Gabi Ngcobo as the curator of the upcoming 10th Berlin Biennale.
Since the early 2000s Gabi Ngcobo has been engaged in collaborative artistic, curatorial, and educational projects in South Africa and on an international scope. She is a founding member of the Johannesburg based collaborative platforms NGO – Nothing Gets Organised and Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR, 2010–14). NGO focusses on processes of self-organization that take place outside of predetermined structures, definitions, contexts, or forms. The CHR responded to the demands of the moment through an exploration of how historical legacies impact and resonate within contemporary art.
Recently Ngcobo co-curated the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, currently taking place at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in São Paulo, BR, and A Labour of Love, 2015, at Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main, DE. She has worked at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, SA, and at the Cape Africa Platform where she co-curated the Cape07 Biennale, 2007, Cape Town, SA. In the past she has collaborated with various institutions including Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ES; Durban Art Gallery, SA; Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA; Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC), Johannesburg, SA; LUMA/Westbau, Pool, Zurich, CH; New Museum, Museum as Hub, New York, US; and Raw Material Company, Dakar, SN, amongst others. She has been teaching at the Wits School of Arts, University of Witswatersrand, SA since 2011. Her writings have been published in various catalogues, books, and journals. She currently lives and works in Johannesburg, ZA, and São Paulo, BR, and will move to Berlin for the preparations of the 10th Berlin Biennale.
Gabi Ngcobo already shares connections with the Berlin Biennale: In 2008 she participated in the second edition of the Young Curators Workshop Eyes Wide Open on occasion of the 5th Berlin Biennale, and in 2014 the Center for Historical Reenactments presented its project Digging Our Own Graves 101 as part of the 8th Berlin Biennale.
With the selection of Gabi Ngcobo, the Berlin Biennale continues its mission of serving as an experimental platform for exploring and expanding the format of the exhibition and a curatorial agenda as well as for examining current global discourses and developments in relation to Berlin as a local point of reference.
Past Berlin Biennale curators:
1st Berlin Biennale (1998): Klaus Biesenbach with Nancy Spector and Hans Ulrich Obrist
2nd Berlin Biennale (2001): Saskia Bos
3rd Berlin Biennale (2004): Ute Meta Bauer
4th Berlin Biennale (2006): Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick
5th Berlin Biennale (2008): Adam Szymczyk and Elena Filipovic
6th Berlin Biennale (2010): Kathrin Rhomberg
7th Berlin Biennale (2012): Artur Zmijewski together with associate curators Voina and Joanna Warsza
8th Berlin Biennale (2014): Juan A. Gaitán
9th Berlin Biennale (2016): DIS (Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, David Toro)
The selection committee for the curatorship of the 10th Berlin Biennale consisted of Krist Gruijthuijsen, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE; Vasif Kortun, SALT, Istanbul/Ankara, TR; Victoria Noorthoorn, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, AR; Willem de Rooij, Frankfurt/Berlin, DE; Polly Staple, Chisenhale Gallery, London, GB; and Philip Tinari, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, CN.
In order to respond appropriately to its continuous growth and professionalization, the Berlin Biennale has been restructured in parallel with its 20-year anniversary. Up until this point Gabriele Horn was both the director of the Berlin Biennale and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. As of July this year the two institutions are now operating as separate business units under the umbrella of the KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e. V. This enables Gabriele Horn—now director solely of the Berlin Biennale—and her team to further strengthen the institution and make it sustainable and ready for the future while focusing on preparations for the upcoming edition and its accompanying events.
The 10th Berlin Biennale will take place in summer 2018.
Winners of the 2016 Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards
2016—Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation are pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 edition of the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. The Awards this year have been organized in collaboration with C/O Berlin, a Berlin-based charitable institution committed to photography and visual media. Libyan Sugar by Michael Christopher Brown (Twin Palms) is the winner of $10,000 in the First PhotoBook category. The selection for Photography Catalogue of the Year is Wojciech Zamecznik: Photo-graphics by Karolina Puchała-Rojek and Karolina Ziębinńska-Lewandowska (Fundacja Archeologia Fotografii). ZZYZX by Gregory Halpern (MACK) is the winner of PhotoBook of the Year. A Jurors’ Special Mention is also given to Taking Stock of Power: An Other View of the Berlin Wall by Annett Gröschner and Arwed Messmer (Hatje Cantz).
A final jury at Paris Photo selected this year’s winners: Paul Graham (Photographer), Jens Hoffmann (Director of Special Exhibitions and Public Programs, Jewish Museum, New York), Agnès Sire (Director, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson), Katja Stuke (Artist and Designer, BöhmKobayashi, Düsseldorf), and Thomas Zander (Gallerist).
Thomas Zander said of the First PhotoBook winner, Libyan Sugar, “An impressive book—you feel as though you are in the war with the photographer.” Katja Stuke adds, “Libyan Sugar offers a strong combination of the personal and the documentary.”
“Great photography is the ultimate arbiter,” said Paul Graham; “the outstanding work in Gregory Halpern’s ZZYZX carries the day.”
Wojciech Zamecznik: Photo-graphics, this year’s Photography Catalogue of the Year was “A true discovery,” says Agnès Sire.
This year’s shortlist selection was made by Christoph Wiesner (Artistic Director, Paris Photo), Lesley A. Martin (Creative Director of the Aperture Foundation book program and The PhotoBook Review), David Campany, Ann-Christin Bertrand (Curator, C/O Berlin), and Dr. Rebecca Senf (Chief Curator and Norton Family Curator of Photography at the Center of Creative Photography, Tucson). The shortlist was first announced at the Opening Days of the European Month of Photography on October 1, 2016. The thirty- five selected photobooks are profiled in The PhotoBook Review, issue 011.
Initiated in November 2012 by Aperture Foundation and Paris Photo, the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards celebrate the photobook’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography, with three major categories: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalogue of the Year. Since the announcement of the 2015 winners last November, the shortlisted titles have been exhibited in four venues internationally. In total, the 2015 Shortlist was seen in seven countries, including Huis Marseille in Amsterdam, Riga Photomonth in Latvia, the International Festival of Photography in Łódź, Poland, the Landskrona Foto Festival in Sweden, and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto.
Following Paris Photo, the 2016 exhibition of the shortlisted books will travel to Ivorypress, Madrid (November 29, 2016–January 19, 2017), Aperture Gallery, New York (December 10, 2016–February 4, 2017), Düsseldorf Photo Weekend, Germany (February 3–5, 2017), Palm Springs Photo Festival, California (May 7–12, 2017), Lumière Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow (May 2017), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Locle, Switzerland (June 17–October 15, 2017), and College of Art and Design, Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (August 25–October 21, 2017), among other venues.
About the 2016 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards
PhotoBook of the Year: This prize is awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s) and publisher responsible for the photobook judged to be the best of the year. Ten books from this category were selected for the shortlist, presented to the jury for the final selection, and exhibited during Paris Photo.
First PhotoBook: A $10,000 prize is awarded to the photographer(s)/artist(s) whose first finished, publicly available photobook is judged to be the best of the year. Twenty books from this category were selected for the shortlist, presented to the jury for the final selection, and exhibited during Paris Photo.
Photography Catalogue of the Year: Awarded to the publication, publisher, and/or organizing institution responsible for the exhibition catalogue or museum publication judged to be the best of the year. Five books from this category were selected for the shortlist, presented to the jury for the final selection, and exhibited during Paris Photo.
Friends With Books 2016
Saturday & Sunday, 10 & 11 December 2016, 11–19h
Reception: Friday, 9 December 2016, 18-20h
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin (Rieckhallen) Free Entry
FRIENDS WITH BOOKS: ART BOOK FAIR BERLIN 2016
takes place on the weekend of 9–11 December, 2016, at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum
für Gegenwart – Berlin as Europe’s premier event for contemporary artists’ books and
periodicals by artists and art publishers. Featuring 160+ international participants and a
series of public programmes: discussions, readings, presentations, performances, and art
works that explore the perimeters of today’s art publishing. Admission is free.
The public programmes series ARE YOU FRIENDS WITH BOOKS…? features lectures,
performances, conversations, and panel discussions presented in partnership with Witte de
With Center for Contemporary Art: Defne Ayas; GAGARIN – The Artists in Their Own
Words: Wilfried Huet and Olaf Nicolai; Broken Dimanche Press: John Holten and
Jonathan Monk; Sternberg Press: Lou Cantor and Ariane Müller (Starship); DHL –
Drucken Heften Laden: Uwe Sonnenberg and Christian Berkes (botopress), Jörg
Franzbecker and Heimo Lattner (Berliner Hefte), Achim Lengerer (Scriptings), Yves
Mettler (Zeitschrift), Janine Sack (A Book Edition), and Simon Worthington (Mute);
Gerhard Theewen of Salon Magazine; Camera Austria: Stefanie Seufert and Reinhard
Braun; Edition Patrick Frey: Daniela Comani and Doron Sadja; brumaria: Darío
Corbeira, Jorge Miñano, Miguel Ángel Rego and Hugo López-Castrillo, and others.
The temporary exhibition, it is this flash itself that seduces, presents artworks arising from
texts and books by Bettina Allamoda, Marc Bijl, Beni Bishchof, Brian Kennon, and
Jasper Sebastian Stürup, with a performance by Discoteca Flaming Star. Additionally on
view are solo installations by recent artists-in-residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien,
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson and Lewis & Taggart/The Museum of Longing and Failure.
The annual FRIENDS WITH BOOKS POSTER EDITIONS by Berlin artists features a new
poster edition by Monica Bonvicini; 25 of each edition are signed and numbered and benefit
Friends with Books at a special offer of 50 €. Erik Steinbrecher has created a new edition
to benefit Friends with Books, SCREW, 2016, bronze, 26 cm, edition 5, at 800 €.
FRIENDS WITH BOOKS is organised by Vanessa Adler, argobooks, and Savannah
Gorton, Curator. Friends with Books is a registered non-profit organisation founded in 2014
offering greater visibility to contemporary artists’ books and art publications, including an
annual art book fair, public programming, and partnerships with art organisations and
institutions, facilitating the engagement of diverse audiences with the book works of artists
and publishers worldwide.
160+ PARTICIPANTS :
&: christophe daviet-thery, Paris I *[asterisk], Århus I 2nd Cannons Publications, Los
Angeles I adocs publishing, Hamburg I Afterall, London I Ahorn Books, Berlin I Bettina
Allamoda, Berlin I Anagram Books, London I Arch+, Berlin I Archive Books, Berlin I
argobooks, Berlin I atelier iii, Paris/Tokyo I ATLAS Projectos, Lisbon I Back Bone Books,
Berlin I Clara Bahlsen, Berlin I Belser, Stuttgart I Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art,
Berlin I berlinartbooks, Berlin I Beni Bischof/Laser Magazin, St. Gallen I Black Palm,
Berlin I Boabooks, Geneva I Boekie Woekie, books by artists, Amsterdam I BOM DIA
BOA TARDE BOA NOITE, Berlin I Book Works, London I Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin I
Broken Dimanche Press, Berlin I brumaria, Madrid I bruno, Venice I Bücher & Hefte
Verlag, Leipzig I Camera Austria International, Graz I ChertLüdde, Berlin I Corraini
Edizioni, Mantova I Anita Di Bianco, Berlin/New York I Discoteca Flaming Star, Berlin I
Brad Downey, Berlin I Drittel Books, Berlin I edition fink, Zürich I Edition Patrick Frey,
Zürich I Edizioni Periferia, Lucerne I Edition Taube, Stuttgart I Farbvision, Berlin I
Flanders Arts Institute, Brussels I Fluens Forlag, Copenhagen I Fucking Good Art,
Rotterdam I FUKT, Berlin I GAGARIN, Antwerp I Good Times & Nocturnal News,
Stockholm I Goss Press, New York I THE GREEN BOX, Berlin I Hand Art Publisher, Berlin
I handpicked Tokyo/Berlin, Tokyo/Berlin I Hatje Cantz, Berlin I Homeparkpress, Hamburg
I Humboldt Books, Milan I hurricane publishing, Copenhagen I ImageMovement, Berlin I
JB. Institute, Berlin I Jonas Verlag / VDG Weimar, Weimar I Journal of Aesthetics &
Protest, Leipzig/London/Los Angeles I Miriam Jung, Berlin I Jungle Books, St. Gallen I
Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld/Berlin I Geirmundur Klein, Antwerp I Helga Maria Klosterfelde
Edition, Berlin I Kultur & Gespenster, Hamburg I Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin I KW
Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin I La Plaque Tournante, Berlin I LAGE EGAL, Berlin
I Ines Lechleitner, Berlin I antoine lefebvre editions, Paris I Achim Lengerer, Berlin I
Lodret Vandret, Copenhagen I Lou Cantor, Berlin I Louise Guerra, Paris I Lubok Verlag,
Leipzig I Lugemik, Tallinn I MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE, London I Sara MacKillop, London I
malenki.net, Bielefeld I Martin Schmitz Verlag, Berlin I Materialverlag HFBK, Hamburg I
MD72/Elgarafi, Berlin I MER. Paper Kunsthalle, Ghent I Merve, Berlin I Yves Mettler,
Berlin I Dan Mitchell/Hard Mag, London I MMKoehn Verlag, Berlin/Leipzig I Jonathan
Monk, Berlin/Rome I mono.kultur, Berlin I Motto Books, Berlin I MOREpublishers,
Brussels I Ariane Müller, Berlin I Multinational Enterprises, Oslo I The Museum of
Longing and Failure, Bergen I The Name Books, Basel I Neptún Magazine, Reykjavík I
NERO, Rome I Occasional Papers, London I Olaf Nicolai, Berlin/Leipzig I Occulto, Berlin I
OEI magazine / OEI editör, Stockholm I Onomatopee, Eindhoven I Palefroi, Berlin I
Kirsten Palz, Berlin I PANTOFLE BOOKS, Tilburg I The Paper Channel, Tel Aviv I Paper
Monument, New York I Paraguay, Paris I Peres Projects, Berlin I Pluto Press, London I
PogoBooks, Berlin I Pork Salad Press, Copenhagen I possible books, Berlin I pro qm,
Berlin I PUNCH, Bucharest I rakete.co, Berlin I Raum der Publikation/Muthesius
Kunsthochschule, Kiel I RAUM Italic, Berlin I Red76, Minneapolis I Red Sphinx, Berlin I
Revolver Publishing, Berlin I Ricochet.cc, Berlin/Buenos Aires I Roma Publications,
Amsterdam I Salon Verlag & Edition, Cologne I Karin Sander, Berlin I SAN ROCCO
Magazine, Milan I Anne Schwalbe, Berlin I Seemann Henschel & Co., Leipzig I Stefanie
Seufert, Berlin I Alexandre Singh, New York I Space Poetry, Copenhagen I Sprüth
Magers, Berlin I Starship, Berlin I Erik Steinbrecher, Berlin I Sternberg Press, Berlin I
Studio Jung, Berlin I Swiridoff Verlag, Künzelsau I TEXTE ZUR KUNST, Berlin I Textem
Verlag, Hamburg I Theater der Zeit, Berlin I Gerhard Theewen, Cologne I Ugly Duckling
Presse, New York I Valiz, Amsterdam I Verlag Anton Pustet, Salzburg I Verlag für
moderne Kunst, Vienna I Verlag Silke Schreiber, Munich I Verlag der Buchhandlung
Walther König, Cologne I VEXER, St. Gallen I vonhundert, Berlin I Sergej Vutuc,
Heilbronn I Westphalie Verlag, Vienna I White Fungus, Taichung City I Wienand Verlag,
Cologne I Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam I Wordpharmacy,
Pietrasanta I Yard Press, Rome I Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E., Ljubljana I ztscrpt, Vienna
Exhibition: Never Leave Me. Photographic Images in Germany Today
With works by: Nina Beier, Louisa Clement, Buck Ellison, Lindsay Lawson, Alwin Lay, Roman Schramm, Mark Soo and Tobias Zielony, curated by Renee Preisler Barasch
November 15–December 12, 2016
Opening: November 15, 6–8pm
On Stellar Rays Project Space, 1 Rivington Street, New York, New York 10002
www.neverleaveme.org / www.onstellarrays.com
We are pleased to announce a group exhibition featuring the works of eight artists who are united by two things: they work with the photographic medium or deal with its legacy, and they are either based in Germany or spent formative years there. The works in the show range from “straight,” documentary-style photography to sculptural and multimedia approaches, video and installation. Many of the artists will be showing their work in the U.S. for the very first time.
The exhibition explores how Germany’s rich photographic past still influences artists today. The show also demonstrates how coming of age after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and in an unprecedented era of image saturation has simultaneously strengthened and challenged the artist’s position to photography.
The title of the show, Never Leave Me: Photographic Images in Germany Today, suggests the complicated dynamic between humans and photographs. Some images can haunt us forever. On the other hand, Never Leave Me is a bittersweet declaration of our dependence on photographs, and a surprisingly deep and addictive desire to look at them.
With a catalog featuring a text by Dominikus Müller, interviews with the artists, and designed by John McCusker.
photo graz 016. Biennale der steirischen Fotokunst.
2016 feiert die Kulturvermittlung Steiermark das 10 Jahre-Jubiläum von photo graz. Mit dieser Fotobiennale verfolgt der Verein das Ziel, die lokale und regionale Fotoszene zu dokumentieren, zu präsentieren und zu vernetzen. Bezeichnend für photo graz ist die Vielfalt der Bildsprache, der inhaltlichen Ansätze und ihrer technischen Ausfertigung. Arrivierte und international tätige Fotokünstler/innen finden sich generationsübergreifend neben Fotostudenten/innen und auch Amateuren/innen.
Graz und die Steiermark hatten sich ab den 1950er Jahren – mehr als damals die Bundeshauptstadt – zu einem Ort der Produktion und Vermittlung progressiver Fotografie entwickelt. Die Protagonisten dieser Zeit trugen maßgeblich dazu bei, die Fotografie als Kunstform in Österreich zu etablieren. Zusätzlich schufen sie wichtige Institutionen um jüngere Generationen in den Grazer Fotoschulen mit Fotokunst zu konfrontieren. Mit dieser Tradition wurde die Stadt zu einem reichen Nährboden für zeitgenössische Kunst und Fotografie.
photo graz wurde 2005 erstmals durchgeführt und wird seit 2006 als Biennale ausgerichtet. Mit jeder Ausgabe wurden rund 200 Fotokünstler/innen und Fotokollektive, geboren oder tätig in der Steiermark, an immer neuen Orten in Graz präsentiert. Mit der Reihe „photo graz selection“ wurden ausgewählte Beiträge in Galerien, Museen und auf Kunstfestivals im benachbarten Ausland auch einem internationalen Publikum vorgestellt.
Dieses Jahr wurden 217 Fotoarbeiten aus dem Zeitraum 2014-2016 eingereicht, die im begleitenden Handbuch und im Internet präsentiert werden. Eine Jury aus vier internationalen Kunstexperten/innen hat daraus 38 Positionen für die Ausstellung im Minoritenkonvent ausgewählt.
Erwin SCHWAB Mario SCHWEIGHOFER Bernd SIEBER Oliver SPILLER Christina TSILIDIS IngridVIEN Klaus Dieter ZIMMER zweintopf Jörg AUZINGER beba fink Tom BIELA Karl CEBUL Peter DITTRICH Claudia GANSBERGER Nicole GREINER Martin HANUS Leon HÖLLHUMER Nicole HOPFER Sylvia HURYNOWICZ Heidrun KOCHER-KOCHER Tereza KRIZMANICH Christian LAPP Moritz LECHNER Alois LOIDL Ulrike MAYRHUBER Bernd OBERDORFER Wolfram ORTHACKER Franz PACHER Klaus PICHLER Manfred PICHLER Robert PICHLER Erwin POLANC Heinz PÖSCHKO Verena ROTKY + Stephan WEIXLER Robert W. SACKL-KAHR SAGOSTIN Franz SATTLER Bianca SCHARLER Nina SCHUIKI
Veranstalter: Kulturvermittlung Steiermark
Kuratorische Leitung: Gerhard Gross
Ausstellungstechnik: Team der Kulturvermittlung Steiermark
Jury:
Carl Aigner Museum Niederösterreich, St. Pölten
Michaela Bosáková Central European House of Photography, Bratislava
Gregor Schuster Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, Darmstadt
Eleni Tsitsirikou Helsinki International Artist Programme, Helsinki
Gefördert durch: Kulturamt der Stadt Graz, Bürgermeisteramt der Stadt Graz, Land Steiermark- Kultur, Europa, Außenbeziehungen
Screening: Oliver Ressler, Emergency Turned Upside-Down
mumok, Vienna, Wednesday, November 30, 2016, 19:00
Two new works by Oliver Ressler refer to the migration and flight that war and conflict in Syria (and other states) have set in motion. Emergency Turned Upside-Down addresses the cynical and inhuman discourse that sees the presence of refugees in Europe as a state of “emergency,” although this term really should be reserved for war, terror, or economic strangulation—the very reasons that lead people to leave their homes. There Are No Syrian Refugees in Turkey is Oliver Ressler’s most recent film, made on the occasion of his solo exhibition at SALT Galata in Istanbul. In it, he allows Syrian refugees living as “guests” in Europe’s largest metropolis to analyze the political reactions of the EU and Turkey.
Program
Oliver Ressler
Emergency Turned Upside-Down, 2016, 16 min
There Are No Syrian Refugees In Turkey, 2016, 30 min
After the screening: talk with Oliver Ressler and Charles Esche
Oliver Ressler lives in Vienna. In 2016 he was the first winner of the Swiss art prize Prix Thun für Kunst und Ethik. Exhibitions (selection): Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo – CAAC, Seville (2015); LENTOS Kunstmuseum, Linz (2014); Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (2010); Berkeley Art Museum (2006).
Charles Esche is a curator and author; director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and together with Mark Lewis founder and editor of Afterall Journal and Afterall Books, Central St. Martins, London.
€ 6,– / reduced € 4.50
Book Launch: Manuel Gorkiewicz and Stefanie Seufert
Book Launch, Performances, Screenings, Food, Special Cocktail by Maren Lübbke-Tidow
Thursday 24th November, 7 p.m.
Wiensowski & Harbord, Lützowstraße 32, 10785 Berlin
Manuel Gorkiewicz, Therapy Make-up works Voluptuous U-turns on the street of Style, Beauty, and Greed, Verlag für moderne Kunst, Wien 2016, Text: Kerstin Cmelka, Christian Egger, Interview: Martin Guttmann with Manuel Gorkiewicz
Stefanie Seufert, Wood Survives in the Form of Postholes, Edition Camera Austria, Graz 2016
Text: Reinhard Braun, Maren Lübbke-Tidow and Stefan Panhans
In the framework of an exhibition with:
Kerstin Cmelka, Christian Egger, Glegg & Guttmann, Manuel Gorkiewicz, Stefan Panhans, Stefanie Seufert
Exhibition: Peter Dressler. Wiener Gold
Kunst Haus Wien, 16. 11. 2016 – 5. 3. 2017
Curators: Rainer Iglar in collaboration with Christine Frisinghelli and Michael Mauracher
With the first retrospective in Vienna, KUNST HAUS WIEN is paying tribute to the work of Peter Dressler, an oeuvre in which the city of Vienna itself plays a central role. As a photographer and film-maker, academy teacher, collector and critical participant in the art scene, Dressler (1942 – 2013) influenced Austrian photography since the 1970s like few other figures. His artistic interest in the photography medium always went hand in hand with a fascination with the history of the medium.
Dressler found the material for his early documentary series and visual narratives in Vienna, where, as he observed, “substance, quality, quite simply the magic of everyday life still exists in large measure”. Later, his “seventies’ realism”, as he called it, was replaced by tableaux and image series and a poetic, filmic approach. The particular charm of Zwischenspiel, a major artist’s book he publishes in 1989, lies in the manifold references and allusions that connect the individual pictures.
Toward the end of the 1980s, his photographic idiom changes again: The artist emerges as the actor and main character in his work, appearing in melancholic, even grotesque narratives that have him preparing „Rather Rare Recipies“ or playing solo tennis in the empty Semper Depot building. With vibrant wit, he inserts himself into found and invented scenarios to bring them to life, teasing out art-historical as well as social implications and highlighting the peculiarities of human behavior. His work is often sublimely funny, but his humor is always energized by a sober awareness of the tragicomic sides of human existence and the subtle possibilities of the photographic medium.