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The Vulnerable Body, an exhibition by Victoria Diehl
Victoria Diehl is a young photographer born in La Coruña, Spain, in 1978 and, despite her short career she has been awarded and has exhibited her works many times. Her ability to present photographic works full of romance and sensuality combining the contemporary and classic style is truly amazing and in her work life and death are intertwined all the time. This time anyone who wants to enjoy her work can attend the Cero Gallery, located in Madrid, which will host the exhibition “The Vulnerable Body” that will be displayed from December 1 until February 3, 2011. This exhibition is a beautiful and disturbing sample by the photographer where images are in process of metamorphosis where, for example, a stone will turn into human flesh and also, conversely, where a human body will end up petrified. In “The Vulnerable Body” Diehl shows again the importance of the intermediate spaces that so much attract her attention and which have always been part of her exhibitions and screenshots. This way, she will take the viewer into an imaginary and nonexistent universe where nothing can be considered impossible and unreal and where the only thing that matters is the perspective of the artist. More info at: http://www.galeriacero.com/site/ Cero Gallery: Calle Fuenterrabía 13, 28014, Retiro, Madrid MiLK Lovers of photography have an appointment in “The Vulnerable Body” to be presented at the Cero Gallery until February 3, 2011. If you want to know more about the works of Victoria Diehl you can rent apartments in Madrid and enjoy one of today’s most important young photographers in Spanish.? Translated by: salome...
The Art of Painting: Vermeer
They say more than a traveler has dreamed of following a route stopping only at places where you can see paintings of Johannes Vermeer van Delft. Although this would lead them to a reduced set of countries and cities, separated, therefore, by large streams and oceans, folds in space and time in such a journey would be abysmal. Others are content with going from town to town to see just those of his pictures where maps appear. Although in principle they would have to visit many fewer cities, this would probably be only the prelude to a much longer journey. An endless journey, endless as all Vermeer’s pictures seem to be. Vermeer is one of the artists most directly associated with the idea of the mystery of everyday life, with that Lorca-wounded-pulse thing that gets close to the other side, which Cortazar was so much fascinated about. What’s curious about Vermeer is the fact that this other side is expressed most often through the clarity of light with an almost photographic precision. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Vermeer is so much an essentially literary artist. If it’s true that literature’s destiny is silence, as Rimbaud’s case seems to illustrate, this is one of the greatest protagonists of Vermeer´s paintings, all things left unsaid, unread, without expressing, below or above the literalness of the scenes of that incomparable quality of still lives made of human figures that characterizes his work better than perhaps any other painter known. Not only in the letters, but also in Vermeer’s maps there is a metaphor of the world, that silent reality...
The Otolith Group: Perception and Memory
From February 4, 2011 on, the MACBA will exhibit the work of the Otolith Group, founded in London in 2000 by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, which reflects on the perception of memory and subjectivity that the passage of time keeps in the human record. The exhibition is conceived as a mixture of production that takes the viewer to understand a work methodology, where files and activities made with them, in different media supports, build a unit of significant events. Thus, the Cold War and the processes of global capitalism appear as fragments of a diary that are anchors in the subjectivity of individual memory and its critical potentiality of reconstruction and deconstruction of the narrative in progress. The use of the documentary is presented as a collage that tells the forms of post-colonial condition, making a reflex that goes beyond the pictures, making art in a political speech that confronts the memory as a tool for building ideas for a future world. For those who today argue about the aesthetics of memory and its urgent relation between past and present, as a barrier preventing the history from becomes the static figure of a closed time, finally sealed by the weight of the dominant culture, this exhibition reflects the radical claim to a society mired in this petrified present, where the formal, lightweight, empty of content aesthetic has eliminated the human condition to remember, to look back. This is where Anjalika Sagar, whose studies Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University and Fine Arts at the University of Middlesex and its status as...
Direct Art at the MUMOK in Vienna
Some of the most important avant-garde movements were born in the 50s. Without a doubt one of them is the Viennese Actionism that assumes the substantiality of body and objects to later decontextualize to move the viewer to a new aesthetic experience. Inspired by the American Fluxus and happenings the Viennese created their own art movement based on their own provocations and illusions to renew the field of art and break new barriers. The group emerged around Hermann Nitsch, Otto Muehl and Günther Brus, who separated again in the 70s to go their own ways. On November 12th the MUMOK in Vienna opened „Direct Art“ an exhibition that examines the interrelationships between Viennese Actionism and Pop Art, happenings and the Nouveau Realisme to reveal their own influence on each other. An exhibit that proves that the Viennese movement was on the same level with other international art movements of the time, when it comes to its radicalness and determinism. One of its most known representatives is Hermann Nitsch whose provocative happenings made him famous, such as the „Theater-Orgie-Mysterium.“ In those happenings Nitsch and his helpers executed bloodthirsty rituals with animal cadavers. With these performances Nitsch wanted to shock the viewer and evoke his disgust to reach a catharsis-like reaction. This way he wanted to make propaganda for a mystic and spiritual art form. More information: http://www.mumok.at/programm/ausstellungen/direct-art/ Heloise Battista If you would like to find out more about this interesting art movement we recommend renting apartments in Vienna The exhibition will be open until the 29th of May.? Contact Me Translated by: salome antigone Contact...
Peter Murphy, what’s new?!
One of the sexiest and beautiful male voices that I had the opportunity to hear in my life, and probably in the lives of many, the great Peter Murphy, former lead singer of Bauhaus, the legendary band of the afterpunk English movement, is about to release a new album, and according to what we hear on the radio and myspace, it is a real musical gem…. It´s about time Peter! The new album from the elegant Mr. Peter Murphy, is entitled Ninth. One can appreciate by the themes we have been able to hear so far a mature work, with much Eastern influence, which is not new to his music, as he has previously worked with Mercan Dede, the Turkish artist who created the album titled “Dust” 2002, clearly inspired by the instrumentation and the deep feeling of Turkish music -remember that Peter has lived for many years in Istanbul. While Dust is an excellent album, very intimate and with very good reviews, it was away from Peter’s rock we were used to hearing: It wasn’t until 2004, when he launched the album “Unshattered” when he newly connects with his rock-pop vein. However, this new album is the successor to “Unshattered” and he has had 6 years to create the 19 songs that will be part of the new LP. The album, which does not have official release date yet, will be accompanied by a tour entitled “The Dirty Dirt Tour” which is underway and will expand through several countries of the old continent and the world. Concerning his new work, Peter has said on their official website and...
Antony Gormley exhibits in the MACRO in Roma
British sculptor Antony Gormley is obsessed with the human body in relation to space. For more than 40 years of artistic career, Gormley has been exploring the connection body-space in his great scale facilities such as Another Place, Domain Field and Inside Australia. Most interestingly, Gormley bases on his own body and subjectivity, to invite the viewer to be part of that intimate perspective, and to give a collective projection. Gormley´s art has been exhibited in some of the most important institutions in the world such as the Tate and the British Museum in England, Kunsthalle zu Kiel in Germany and the National Museum of Modern History in China in Beijing. Now his riveting work arrives in Rome with his first exhibition at the MACRO entitled “Drawing Space”, which opened on October 26 and will remain open until February 6, 2011. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero and Anna Moszynska, the exhibition presents approximately 80 drawings, which were devised since 1981, representing an important aspect in the career of Gormley, as well as four recent sculptures. Fascinated by the penetration of the human being in imaginative, emotional and concrete space, in these drawings the artist focuses on the human body as a starting point, and from there he explores how we relate and orientate to space. But Gormley also feels a strong interest in these critical moments in which human beings start to get disoriented and lost, when they feel that space pervades. More info at: http://en.macro.roma.museum/mostre_ed_eventi/mostre/antony_gormley_drawing_space Heloise Battista If you don’t want to miss the work of this important artist, we recommend you to rent apartments in Rome Until February...
Ferran Adria and cuisine as art: new frontiers
Interactions between contemporary art and other disciplines are evident, they have become increasingly frequent. Boundaries are blurred and it is not possible to draw a line separating these two different disciplines anymore, including art as “fine arts” or “decorative arts”, between design and art, between art and cuisine. Cuisine? Is it possible to propose cuisine as art? The answer is yes, of course, if one considers a certain trend in contemporary art that has turned into a “relational aesthetics”, as defined by the French critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud. It is about highly artistic practices that strongly involve the audience (creating specific relationships with the work, which ceases to exist as such without the participation of an audience) and that have recently turned to the world of cuisine, that is to say: a social aggregation situation and union par excellence. The first one to open this trend was the Thai Rikrit Tiravanija, leading directly his wok to galleries and cooking for the visitors. Tiravanija´s work has not been brought into discussion regarding art, since from its beginning it was intended to be considered an artistic action, and it is known that the aim of the author is now one of the few opportunities we have to discern what is art and what is not (although in some cases it seems that also this distinction is no longer relevant). What is questioned regarding the work of Ferran Adrià is somewhat different. When, in 2007, he was invited to the international art fair Documenta 12 (Kassel) his participation sparked contrasting feelings and some anger among the ´orthodox´ artists that were left...
Exhibition by Jamie Shovlin at the MACRO in Rome
The artist Jamie Shovlin is obsessed with that delicate and fragile line between reality and fiction, memory and history. Born in 1978 in England, he held his first exhibition in 2004; since then he has risen to fame thanks to his intricate and conceptual works that caught the attention of one of the most famous and controversial collectors of our time, Charles Saatchi. One of his most famous works is probably “Naomi V. Jelish”, 2001, an extensive and detailed archive of drawings and newspaper clippings of a girl of 13, who allegedly disappeared under very mysterious circumstances. A striking work because of its dark tale at first glance that seemed to be based on real events and then ended unveiled as an elaborate fiction by the artist. And it is this tension between reality and myth that has always attracted the artist and which uses as a base for all his works. The human being’s capacity of facing this alleged reality with the most absurd or noble idealism and its need to build narrative tissues, completely fictitious in its background and which form the basis of any identity, whether it be social, cultural or political. And that´s how Shovlin does in his work, based on constructing and using different materials and media such as video, photography, text to highlight the fantasy, history and memory are made of the same material: human imagination. On October 26 the MACRO in Rome celebrated the opening of “Hiker Meat”an exhibition that presents the latest feat of Shovlin. In it, the artist strikes again with an interesting audio-visual collage which, again, takes us into...
Night of Museums in Berlin, January 29th, 2011
Many cities have picked up the idea of the Long Night of Museums. It is a cultural event where museums throughout one city are open until late at night with the idea of introducing a broader range of people to art and culture. The first Night of Museums took place in Berlin in 1997. It was extremely well received by the public. Since then the number of participating institutions grew significantly from 12 to 125 and many other cities throughout Europe and the world have adopted this concept. On January 29th 2011 the 28th Lange Nacht der Museen will take place in Berlin. The organizers had the idea to introduce the event under the theme “health”, “Körper trifft Seele” (Body meets Soul) to be exact. In addition to the exhibitions, many of the institutions will offer different guided tours under this theme but also musical and literary programs. From 18h until 2h in the morning you will be able to visit over 100 museums throughout the entire city. The opening of the Night of the Museums will take place in the heart of Berlin at the Kulturforum, close to Potsdamer Platz. A shuttle service will be available and here you will have the chance to get last minute information and tickets. The ticket sale has started on December 3, 2010 and the prices are 15€ (10€) which not only includes the museum entrance but also enables to use the shuttle service. This is pretty much all you need to know about this event. It’s a great opportunity visit some of the many museums and cultural institutions that Berlin has...
