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Sukran Moral. Amenus Interruptus: Controversy in the Casa Dell’ Arte
Adopting the perspective of a foreigner has always been a literary technique for revealing the absurdity of all those daily habits and customs that we carry out mindlessly, because we are so used to them. Journeys into the imaginary world help us to gain the perspective needed for acquiring a new view – one which is capable of opening new panoramas, and types of reality – whilst also serving as a form of criticism of the stupidity or unfairness of much of our fundamental and ingrained social behaviour. One mustn’t underestimate the value of stories such as Gulliver’s Travels or Brodie’s Report; those books which are considered anthropology just as much as they are science and art. Sometimes we might wonder, in these staid times, where there seems to be an alarming, puritan attachment to censorship, what a hypothetical alien would make of a society that regulates behaviour almost constantly, sending messages of incivility, aggression, brutality, despotism, subordination, sexism and war (often to the point of exaltation) – whilst indignantly prohibiting (not to mention the chauvinistic practises of the commercial world of the subordination and restriction of workers) for example, the most basic expression of sexuality. Following perhaps this same “logic;” in London it was ordered that the genitals of a nude by Lucas Cranach be covered up in an exhibition of the German renaissance painter – and on Facebook, the public campaign of a Scissor Sisters CD was banned, because its cover reproduced a beautiful photograph in black and white taken by Robert Mapplethorpe where you could see the bottom (covered by tights, of course) of ballerina Peter...
Mel Ramos: girls, candies, comics
The universe of American Mel Ramos is populated by sexy pin-up girls, heroines and heroes, that marked tendencies of the early 70s and which made their creator to one of the most important representatives of Pop Art in the world. The Albertina in Viena is presenting one of the most extensive retrospectives in Europa to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pop Art. The commissioners of the Albertina have paintings and drawings at hand to let us enter the fantastic colorful world of Mel Ramos characterized by his sour humor and satirical comments about the capitalistic doctrine and exaggerated consumerism that developed in the western culture in the 50s. With his commercial pin-ups he provided evidence for the cultural hypocrisy and the view of the woman as sex object that even 60 years later remain significant characteristics of the capitalistic society. Probable that is why Ramos’ work continues to be very relevant not only for its pictorial contributions but also thanks to his shrewdness and his lively coherence with our present society. Born in California in 1935, Mel Ramos turned into one of the most important representatives of Pop Art, and together with Roy Liechtenstein und Andy Warhol he is representative of American art par excellence. His first exhibition was celebrated in the late 60s at the Museum for Modern Art in San Francisco which was followed by uncountable other exhibitions. Until the 25th of April you can see the incredible images by Mel Ramos at the Albertina en Vienna. Don’t miss the chance to see this important Pop Art artist and his sexy heroes and heroines that prove the...
Jodorowsky in Barcelona: Dreams and fantasy
From 23rd February to 2nd March, the Caixa Forum will be holding a series of conferences themed around dreams, and the fascination that this biological activity has long held for the science world, led by writer, director, playwright and tarot expert, Alejandro Jodorowsky – a man well-known in the world of dream interpretation. We spend a large part of our lives dreaming – and not just during sleep, but also day-dreaming, which allows us to escape reality, and transport us to a fantasy world free of problems. Which is why the function of dreams and fantasy are crucial for healthy mental development, and a generally balanced body and mind. If we consider the fact that we live in a virtual society, where communication and social life have stopped being physical, with fantasies created about people we know via social networking sites – we realise that fantasy is something we encounter on a daily basis, particularly during our dreams, where the two often merge. This is why the study of dreams and their contents is an enormous point of interest in today´s society, just as it was for Swiss clinical psychiatrist and essayist Carl Gustav Jung, who collaborated with Sigmund Freud, dedicating himself to dream analysis. Jung discovered a key part of the subconscious mind which is shared by all human beings, which transcends all kinds of geographic or racial origin. It is characterized by archetypes, instinctive behavioural and perceptive patterns found in the dreams of all cultures, throughout the history of mankind. Jung studied the hallucinations of the mentally ill, finding that they all shared key characteristics throughout the world, which implied that the human...
Kutlug Ataman in Istanbul
The Istanbul Modern (the Museum of Modern Art in Istanbul) is holding an exhibition of the work of artist Kutlug Ataman, which opens on 3rd December. In the Turkish artist’s first retrospective, the Istanbul Modern will be showing a range of his work, which includes video-art and installation. Since participating in the 1997 Istanbul Biennale, Ataman has undoubtedly become one of Turkey’s best known contemporary artists. His work has been shown in prestigious art spaces all around the world. Ataman has given a voice to those marginalised by society, providing us with a careful, sensitive insight into their world which is never exploitative. What stands out the most in Ataman’s work is the way that it succeeds in blurring the lines between reality and fiction, defying any sort of categorisation. As the artist interviews people living on the margin of society, and its fixed identities, he illustrates how history and fact are adapted and moulded by personal narrative, and do not necessarily always reflect an objective reality. Such an artifice demonstrates how our identities are often based on fictitious parameters; and how we construct our self from the imagination. Exhibiting at the Istanbul Modern until 6th March 2011, and including works such as “Women Who Wear Wigs,” (1999), “Never My Soul” (2001), “Testitmony” (2002) and 2010’s “Beggars,” “The Enemy Inside Me” is a collection of Ataman’s most compelling works. For more information: http://www.istanbulmodern.org/en/f_index.html Heloise Battista Alquila apartments in Istanbul y conoce el interesantísimo trabajo de uno de los artistas turcos más conocidos de la actualidad. Translated...
The Leopold Museum exhibits Florentina Pakosta
The Leopold Museum in Vienna initiates us in the pictorial world of Florentine Pakosta, one of the most interesting contemporary artists of the moment. With about 150 works, the Leopold designed an extensive retrospective that presents the career of Pakosta. Far from the academic artistic parameters, Florentina Pakosta, from her beginnings in the 50´s, embarked on her own true creative exploration, culminating in her first drawings in pencil, and sometimes even lipstick, in which she portrayed anonymous characters from the great city of Vienna. Some of her most important series are photo-realistic portraits that exude a feminist perspective and an inherent social criticism, reminiscent of Pop Art´s satire, which so much inspired her work. One of the central themes of her work is male dominance expressed not only in politics but also in culture in the late 70´s and early 80´s. Other points of interests of this exceptional artist were the notion of loss of the individual before the suffocating mass society, and the overwhelming tyranny of the mass media and consumerism which carried dictatorship. Existential and paradigmatic issues for modern avant-garde of the twenty-first century. Born in Vienna in 1933, Pakosta was one of the first ones to react to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 with a series of abstract works, which today represents one of the most important contributions to geometric abstraction. More info: http://www.leopoldmuseum.org/exhibitions/ Heloise Battista Until April 18 you have the chance to know the work of one of the most emblematic Austrian artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We encourage you to rent apartments in Vienna and enjoy this picturesque...
En el Trayecto del Sol
The Museo Bellapart together with the embassy of the Dominican Republic organized an internacional exhibition in the exhibition space of the Fundación Medeiros y Almeida in Lisbon from 17th of February until the 20th of March, 2011. The exhibition En el Trayecto del Sol. Modernism and Avant-Garde of Dominican Painting reunites a selection of 30 works by Dominican and exiled Spanish artists, from the 1930s to the 1990s. The exhibit shows the richness of Dominican art and its aesthetic transformations as a result of the artistic discourse that dominated the 20th century which was also enriched by many political and ideological complexities that were present. En el Trayecto del Sol. Modernism and Avant-Garde of Dominican Painting embarks on the theme that adopted the formal and conceptual groundwork of its creators, who expressed their identity confronted with a racial and geographic condition by exaggerating the identity and basing it in the content of the Dominican image including political conflicts of the 50s and 60s to the abstract art in its expressionist and geometric version. Several of the artists included in this exhibition are: Darío Suro, Jaime Colson, Josep Gausachs, José Vela Zanetti, Manolo Pascual, Eugenio Fernández Granell who abandoned modern and avant-garde art in Europe in the Dominican art. Darío Suro (1917-1998) is considered the founder of modern Dominican painting. Between 1946 and 1948 he moved to Mexico where he studied with the masters of muralism Diego Rivera, Agustín Lazo and Jesús Guerrero Galván. During that time works emerged that expressed the social and racial worries of his country in the Mexican muralistic style. The expressive power of his work...
Go Messi!
Messi deserved to win because his game is always honest and clean, and he doesn’t just look out for himself, but the whole team. Because he is able to save a match with just a window of opportunity, and often manages to come up with a brand new move for taking possession of the ball – making it almost impossible for the opposing team to recover it. Also, he’s quick – at any moment, he might change his pace and defeat an arch rival with perfect ball control – another of his virtues: he moves the ball as though it were an extension of his legs: hiding it, switching sides – Messi is difficult to tackle. And if he does lose the ball, he always helps to get it back, much to the rival team’s worry. This is Messi’s second consecutive win of the FIFA Golden Ball, having gained a majority vote from the sporting world. Though fellow nominees Xavi and Iniesta were also favourites, everyone agrees that any one of the three players would have been worthy recipients of the trophy. Unlike last year, when Messi far outshone Cristiano Ronaoldo, this year things haven’t seemed as secure for the Argentinian footballer, especially based on his performance with his team, but he has nevertheless remained a standout player, winning a lot of support from Spanish fans after Spain took home the World Cup this year in South Africa. Despite the fact that the tabloid press has branded Messi’s win ‘a slap in the face of Spanish football’ the truth of the matter is that FC Barcelona has been the...
Wire in Madrid. Pink Flag is back!
Wire returns to Spain with two dates. On the 17th they will be in Madrid with their best stuff in the room Moby Dick Club, more than 30 years after its inception in London in 1976. Despite the controversy, their dissolution and return in the 80´s, and this new return, Wire experiences to board a pop that paralyzes and draws, just ask the modern posh boy, he knows about Wire. And the thing is that you would not believe how much is due to Colin Newman and company. Just ask Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, all that now “fresh” Nu-rock sound which I spoke about the other day. But go back to the flirt origins; do not stay with the trash radio sells you. Born from the second outbreak of punk, Made in London, I say, because everybody knows they were Ramones in NYC that started everything, but hey, the fact is that Wire were able to bring with their first three albums, “Pink Flag”, “Chairs Missing” and “154″, intensity and minimal repetition of the first punk to richer sounds, coated with layers of guitar, effects and synthesizers; a stylized paw of nihilistic violence, hidden in intimate rhythms by light moments, it makes me thing of the result of the shadow of conspicuous trio Bowie-Eno-Fripp and theri trilogy. How come you do not know them either? Have you no shame? Pfffff… Wire´s influence has extended over two decades: REM, My Bloody Valentine, Fischerspooner, Minor Threat, Guided by Voices, and how forgetting the trial with witch Elastica for the copy of “Three Girl Rumba” in its hit “Connection”. But beyond the...
Valentine’s Day in Rome
When Federico Moccia published his acclaimed novel I Want You (Ho voglia di) in 2006, the reigns of the tradition of legendary bridge Milvio were handed over. After holding the weight of a quaint 2000 year old history, there arrived a new Roman ritual that spread like wildfire to cities all around the world, proving that bad taste knows no barriers. On Valentines Day, lovers place a padlock engraved with their initials around a streetlamp on the bridge, and passionately throw the keys into the river. The poor Milvio bridge, where it all started, has not only had to endure this humiliation, but, (and it seems unbelievable that this could happen in Italy of all places) its aesthetic harmony was further insulted when the mayor of Rome ordered that new steel columns be placed on the bridge, so that Moccia’s fans could continue their rites hitch-free. It seems incredible to me that the digital, Facebook generation might not see reasoning behind only being allowed to carry out this padlock ritual online, virtually. In spite of all this, Rome remains an ideal city in which to spend Valentines Day. Love is true, so the theory goes, if we see the name in the mirror – but, according to the ancient tradition, it must remain a secret. Revealing the name was once forbidden with the penalty of death, when in 82 BC poet and tribune Valerio Sorano was crucified for the monstrous crime of uttering the name in public and bringing a series of catastrophes upon the city. Though known that this phenomenon occurred with true love – the secret name revealed...
