In this conversation with the Chief Curator of Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum in Munich, Dr. Corinna Rösner, Alessandro Mendini talks about his work for Alessi, the personal bonds with the Alessi family, and the phases the Alessi design went through over the decades.

Alessandro Mendini is one of the great figures of design. Not only with its products but above all through its influential ideas, actions and meta projects Alessi wrote European design history and provided inspiration for reflections on the future of design. Since the 1970s Alessandro Mendini has played a central role for the development of Italian design as designer, architect and theoretician. His unusual, radical ideas made him a mentor and stimulus for the creative avant-garde. Mendini founded groups such as Global Tools and Alchimia, managed the most influential Italian design magazines and with his theories on banal and re-design was instrumental in securing the success of Postmodernism.

For Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum in Munich, Alessandro Mendini curated a retrospective of the last 30 years of Italian design. The exhibition titled Oggetti e Progetti focuses on the Alessi company, which evolved from a small metal-working firm into a creative factory in the field of design with global operations.

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• Oggetti e Progetti – Alessi. Storia e futuro di una fabbrica del design italiano / Thirty Years of Italian Design

One of the really great figures of design – Alessandro Mendini – is curating and designing a retrospective of the last 30 years of Italian design specially for Die Neue Sammlung. Alessandro Mendini focuses his exhibition on a key player in the design world: the Alessi company, which has very successfully morphed from a small metal-working firm into a creative factory in the field of design with global operations. Not only with its products but above all through its influential ideas, actions and meta projects Alessi wrote European design history and provided inspiration for reflections on the future of design. The exhibition is titled “Oggetti e Progetti – Alessi” and runs until September 19, 2010.

This video provides a walk through of the exhibition on the occasion of the opening reception. Coming soon: Alessandro Mendini in conversation with Dr. Corinna Rösner, Chief Curator Die Neue Sammlung.

Oggetti e Progetti – Alessi: Storia e futuro di una fabbrica del design italiano. An exhibition by Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich – in cooperation with Museo Alessi.

Alessi retrospective at Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum in Munich / Germany. Opening reception, May 21, 2010.

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• Designer Alessandro Mendini in Conversation with Dr. Corinna Rösner at the International Design Museum Munich

The exhibition “Metamorphoses” at the gallery Françoise Heitsch in Munich displays objects and drawings created during the last three years by Susanne Pittroff; her artworks play with the architectural design repertoire in order to disclose urban sites and their social relations. She uses simple forms, which are altered by the means of folding. Susanne Pittroff was born in Munich in1959. She lives and works in Munich. The exhibition runs until June 5, 2010.

“Albeit the design does not represent architectural projects, it still originates from urban environments. Thus, the artist shows wall objects titled ‘metamorphoses,’ which derive from an octagon’s floor plan. This form is repeatedly changed in a minimalist way. The installation ‘public shelter,’ too, refers to social spheres – private space or public space? Three mats are leaning against the wall, whereas the different order and colour of the cover produce, according to the mats’ positioning, various patterns. If the spectator engages with the concepts behind her objects and installations, s/he finds him/herself in a dilemma of ambiguities, which are supposed to relinquish fixed patterns of perception. As seen, for example, in the oversized necklace ‘bound to be wild’ from 2007. These are combined differences and opposing realities respectively, which have to be resolved and conceived as a harmonious interplay. Susanne Pittroff consciously creates these links and provides thought-provoking impulses in order to decode them. These ambiguous connections reflect social structures. It is a sphere in which the language of forms replaces conventional language – art becomes a form of language.” (press text)

Susanne Pittroff: Metamorphoses / Françoise Heitsch Gallery, Munich. Munich, May 20, 2010.

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The Danner-Rotunda at Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich presents contemporary works from over hundred international goldsmiths. The exhibition is to a large extend drawn from the international collection of the Danner Foundation (Danner-Stiftung). The collection reflects the broad creative spectrum of modern jewelry arts, starting with the avant-garde artists of the 60′s and their immediate successors up to the experiment-focussed jewelry visions of the present day. They stem from European countries including Italy, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Spain, as well as from the USA, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Other exhibits come from the collection of Die Neue Sammlung and private loans.

In rotation of several of several years, guest curators are invited to present a different view on the Danner Collection. The inaugural exhibition has been curated by Professor Hermann Jünger, who was Director of Studies for Gold Work at Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts from 1971 to 1990, and Professor Otto Künzli, who took over his task starting 1991.

The current exhibition has been curated by Karl Fritsch, a renowned protagonist of the international jewelry scene. The Danner Collection is the core of the new exhibition. By expanding it with pieces from the loan of the gallery Spektrum, the donation of Peter Skubic, and donations and loans by individual jewelry artists, Karl Fritsch provides the visitor with a fresh and exceptional insight into the international jewelry art scene.

Danner Rotunda. New. Curated by Karl Fritsch. Curator Karl Fritsch in Conversation with Dr. Corinna Rösner (Chief Curator Die Neue Sammlung). Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich, March 5, 2010.

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• Giampaolo Babetto: L'Italianita dei Gioielli / Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich

For his solo show “L’Italianita dei Gioielli” at Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich italian jewelry artist Giampaolo Babetto created an exhibition tailor-made to the circular, light-filled gallery space on the second floor of the rotunda in the Pinakothek der Moderne. In this video we have a look at the exhibition and Dr. Corinna Rösner, Chief Curator of Die Neue Sammlung provides us with an introduction to Giampaolo Babetto’s work.

Giampaolo Babetto (born 1947 in Padua) has had a marked influence on the avant-garde goldsmiths’ scene since the late 1960s. He is one of the protagonists of the so-called Padua School and has significantly moulded the image of art jewellery in Italy. Babetto’s works are decidedly contemporary, distinct and radical with regard to their formal reduction – and deeply rooted in Italian culture. Babetto’s work reflects contemporary art movements such as concrete art, minimal art, kinetic or op art in a unique, purist and plastic manner. Made up of different abstract elements, broken down into modular units, or rendered moveable through the use of ingenious links, Babetto’s works have a tectonic character – like mini architectural pieces or mini sculptures.

The artist prefers working in gold due to its stable malleability and its warm sheen which he combines with unconventional materials such as plastic or glass, dusting the surface with a velvet-like pigment in luminous reds or blues or using enamel and age-old niello-based techniques.

“Babetto’s works mirror a refined aesthetic concept based on dialogue, interrelationships and a blurring of boundaries between art genres.” (Florian Hufnagl, Director of Die Neue Sammlung).

A publication with texts by Dorothea Baumer and Ellen Maurer together with photographs by Ulrike Myrzik and Manfred Jarisch accompagnies the exhibition. An exhibition of Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich In co-operation with Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Munich.

Giampaolo Babetto: L’Italianita dei Gioielli / Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich. March 5, 2010.

Giampaolo Babetto in conversation with Dr. Corinna Rösner (11:31 Min., in German language) after the jump.

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Jewelry Artist Giampaolo Babetto in Conversation with Dr. Corinna Rösner, Die Neue Sammlung:

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• The Danner Rotunda – Jewelry Arts in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich curated by Karl Fritsch

Lenbachhaus Kunstbau presents an exhibition with works by Monica Bonvicini and Tom Burr. Monica Bonvicini (*1965 in Venice, lives in Berlin) and Tom Burr (*1963 in New Haven, Connecticut, lives in New York) share an interest in the functional purposes of social spaces and their psychological, social and gender-specific conventions. This mutual interest manifests itself in very different types of photographs, drawings, sculptures and installations. But common to both oeuvres is the question of the dynamics of power reflected in architecture, behaviour and action. Enthusiasm for the almost libidinous quality of surfaces and materials is a further bond between Monica Bonvicini and Tom Burr’s artistic output. The juxtaposition of their works brings out both the similarities and the contrasts between their aesthetic strategies.
Introduction by the curator of the exhibition and co-director of Lenbachhaus Kunstbau, Matthias Mühling. Video by Gürsoy Dogtas.
The exhibition is presented in cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Switzerland

Monica Bonvicini / Tom Burr, Lenbachhaus Kunstbau, Munich / Germany. Opening reception, May 29, 2009.

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With the opening of the Museum Brandhorst in Munich’s “Kunstareal”, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen gain an institution with an impressive collection of works of modern and contemporary art. The Museum Brandhorst is the new home of the Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection.

Two focal points of emphasis give the Brandhorst Collection its character. With more than sixty paintings, drawings, and sculptures by the American artist Cy Twombly (born 1928), it offers the greatest overview of Twombly’s development outside the USA. The whole upper floor is dedicated to Cy Twombly and shows, among other works the Lepanto and Roses cycles. The second focal point is Andy Warhol, who is represented with over 100 pieces, among them two huge Last Supper and Oxidation paintings. The collection features other positions with artists such as Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, Eric Fischl, Mario Merz, Franz West, Katharina Fritsch, Christopher Wool, Robert Gober, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and others. A recent acquisition has been the multimedia work Western Union: Small Boats by Isaac Julien.

The new museum is located in Munich’s art district with the Alte Pinakothek, the Neue Pinakothek, the Pinakothek der Moderne, the Glyptotek, and the Antiquities Collection. It has been designed by the Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton and is clad in 36’000 glazed ceramic rods in 23 different colors. The Museum Brandhorst features innovative lighting technology and an ecologically conceived climate-control system.

In this video features atmospheric shots from the inauguration ceremony of the Museum Brandhorst and excerpts from an interview with the Director of the Brandhorst Collection, Prof. Dr. Armin Zweite, and the Deputy Director General of the Bayerische Gemäldesammlungen, Prof. Dr. Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, who talk about Museum Brandhorst’s architecture, the origins of the Brandhorst Collection, and the partnership between the Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. View the full-length version of the interview after the jump.

Museum Brandhorst, Opening Ceremony. Munich / Germany, May 19, 2009. Interview: Gürsoy Dogtas. Video: Karolina Zupan-Rupp, Heinrich Schmidt.

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The Pinakothek der Moderne is staging Zoe Leonard’s first retrospective in Germany. The exhibition has been initiated by the Fotomuseum Wintherthur, Switzerland, and comprises some 90 works. The focus is being placed on Zoe Leonard’s photographic work of the past twenty years, their subtle, visual look at the relationship between the sexes, the ambivalence between culture and nature, history and the present day, as well as the relation between space and time. The 600 square meters exhibition space has been re-designed by the artist herself especially for the Pinakothek der Moderne. The exhibition runs until July 5, 2009.

Leonard was born in 1961 in Liberty, New York. Among other venues, her works were shown at the documenta in 1992 and 2007. For more than twenty years her photographs have reflected her wanderings – lost in thought – and her cognitive way of looking at things. Leonard’s unconventional views of water or with mirrors, her images of female anatomical wax figures, of fashion shows, of trees and fencing, her hunting trophies from various cities and countries are not intended as pictorial inventions but show the precision and attentive manner in which she finds, captures and memorises her subjects. Seemingly everyday things photographed in black and white or in color will be shown in a new context. The artist wants to render her lost history visible again, to give it a voice of its own while, at the same time, wresting it from its transient state.

In this video the director of the collection for photography and new media at the Pinakothek der Modern in Munich, Dr. Inka Gaeve Ingelmann, talks about the concept of the exhibition and Zoe Leonard’s work.

Zoe Leonard. Photographs. Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich / Germany. Video by Gürsoy Dogtas.

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In a comprehensive exhibition The Goetz Collection is showing more than 40 works by American artist Mike Kelley. The spectrum ranges from early paintings from 1976 to large installations from his Kandors series of 2007, and shows the wide variety of the artist’s media through selected individual projects. Several large installations, in some cases with elaborate video projections, are complemented by a series of drawings, an audio installation, sculptures and numerous videos.

Works by Mike Kelley were first shown at Sammlung Goetz in 2000 jointly with works by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Following further purchases in recent years, Ingvild Goetz has built up one of the largest private collections of Mike Kelley’s works worldwide. This now makes it possible to put on a wide-ranging exhibition of individual works by one of the most important artists of the present day, following a curatorial concept that he himself developed.

The exhibition runs until April 25, 2009. Video by Gürsoy Dogtas.

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Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Weerasethakul’s narratives are based on myths and memories. Several of his films received international prizes such as the jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for his feature film Tropical Malady.

Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany presents Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s current project Primitive. Primitive, which the Haus der Kunst co-produced, combines the mediums film and installation: viewers explore the work in their own way and according to their own timing. In this video by Gürsoy Dogtas, Apichatpong Weerasethakul talks about his new project.

For Primitive, the artist travelled to the northeast of Thailand – an area where inhabitants’ lives are dominated by animist beliefs and where the belief of souls migrating between people, plants, animals and ghosts still exists. Primitive is a multi-part project dealing with reincarnation and transformation. One of the villages near the border to Laos is the focus: with its suppressed and forgotten history Nabua reappears symbolically. Much like earlier films by the artist, Primitive shifts between documentation and fiction, and is characterised by quiet settings and great simplicity: the camera moves slowly across a landscape flooded by the phenomenon of a ghostly light, it approaches hills where lights dance, the terrain is gently adjusted and a tree bursts into flames by itself.

Primitive was commissioned by Haus der Kunst, Munich; Fact, Liverpool; Animate Projects, London; and produced by Illuminations Films, London, and Kick The Machine Films, Bangkok.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thai: อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล), was born July 16, 1970 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The exhibition Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Primitive at Haus der Kunst runs until May 24, 2009. Video by Gürsoy Dogtas. Haus der Kunst, April 4, 2009.

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In 2008, Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery celebrated its 40th anniversary. An exhibition with works by Jeff Wall is rounding off a series of exhibitions the gallery has conceived to mark this occasion. The very first joint project between the Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery and Jeff Wall was a contribution to the exhibition “Westkunst”, which took place in Cologne in 1981 and was curated by Kaspar König and Lazlo Glozer. The current exhibition presents early works from the 1980s, including “A woman and her doctor” (1980/81), “Doorpusher” (1984), “The Smoker” (1986), “The Thinker“, (1986) and “The old prison” (1987).
Impressions of the opening reception and interview with Jeff Wall. Video by Gürsoy Dogtas. Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich / Germany, November 25, 2008.
PS: More Jeff Wall-related videos: Click here!

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The current exhibition at Galerie Christiane Mayer in Munich, Germany presents new works by the Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig. Heimo Zobernig was born in 1958 in Mauthen, Austria, he lives and works in Vienna. In this video he talks about his new works.
Video by Gürsoy Dogtas.
Galerie Christine Mayer, Munich. November 6, 2008.

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Liam Gillick’s exhibition “Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario* Work 1988 – 2008 Mirrored Image: A ‘Volvo’ bar” at Kunstverein München is the third act of the large mid-career retrospective, that the four institutions Witte de With, Kunsthalle Zürich, Kunstverein München and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago conceived.
Instead of simply exhibiting previous works Kunstverein München is transformed into an active place of production. Working with a group of young Munich actors within a structure designed by the artist, Liam Gillick produces and directs a play titled “Mirrored Image: A ‘Volvo’ bar”. A series of performances will take place during and within the exhibition.
In this video by Gürsoy Dogtas, Liam Gillick talks about his retrospective and the exhibition at Kunstverein München.
Liam Gillick: Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario* Work 1988 – 2008 Mirrored Image: A ‘Volvo’ bar at Kunstverein München runs until November 16, 2008.
Opening, September 26, 2008.
PS: Liam Gillick will be the artist presented at the German Pavilion during the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.

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• Liam Gillick: Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario / Kunsthalle Zürich

The American artist Dan Graham (born 1942 in Urbana, Illinois) is known for his architectural sculptures in the form of complex glas pavilions based on simple geometrical forms and made of metal and two-way mirror glas. The works of the Danish artist Jeppe Hein (born 1974 in Copenhagen) question the spatial and institutional structures of art. At Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle in Munich, Germany, Dan Graham and Jeppe Hein present their different approaches in a joint exhibition entitled “From Seriousness to Silliness”. In this video, Dan Graham and Jeppe Hein talk about their work and the distinctions in their approaches. Dan Graham | Jeppe Hein: From Seriousness to Silliness / Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich. Opening, July 8, 2008. By VTV correspondent Gürsoy Dogtas.

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Currently, Kunstverein München and Haus der Kunst in Munich present the artist collaborative Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. While the Kunstverein presents Allora & Calzadilla’s the three installations “Wake up”, “Clamor” and “Sediments Sentiments (Figures of Speech), Haus der Kunst shows the artists’ new work “Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano”. At the center of this cycle of works, which were created over the last two years, is the critical examination of how power, militarism, and war are encoded through sound. Jennifer Allora (born 1974 Philadelphia) and Guillermo Calzadilla (born 1971 Havanna, Cuba) live and work in Puerto Rico. Over the last years, Allora & Calzadilla have been exhibiting internationally and are currently DAAD scholarship holders in Berlin. This video contains statements by Julienne Lorz (curator at Haus der Kunst), Jennifer Allora, Guillermo Calzadilla, and Stefan Kalmar (director Kunsverein Munich). By VTV correspondent Gürsoy Dogtas. Munich, June 13, 2008.

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Currently, the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich presents “Your mobile expectations: BMW H2R project” by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (born 1967). Olafur Eliasson was commissioned by the car company BMW to design the 16th BMW Art Car. What sets Eliasson’s “car” apart from previous Art Cars is that it is not recognizable as a car anymore. Olafur Eliasson has removed the outer covering of the BMW H2R racing car and replaced it with a complex skin of metal spanning the body of the car. This shape is covered with ice.
In this video, Thomas Girst, Spokesperson Cultural Communications of BMW Group tells us about the history of the BMW Art Cars and the collaboration with Olafur Eliasson and the curators of the show, Dr. Corinna Rösner (Chief Curator of Die Neue Sammlung – State Museum of Applied Arts and Design) and Dr. Bernhard Schwenk (Chief Curator Contemporary Art, Pinakothek der Moderne) talk about Olafur Eliasson’s project, the collaboration between their houses and the relationship between art and design.
Olafur Eliasson – Your mobile expectations: BMW H2R project, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Preview, May 27, 2008. The exhibition runs until 20th July 2008.
PS: A comprehensive survey of Olafur Eliasson’s work is currently on view at MoMA and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York (Olafur Eliasson: Take your time, runs until 30th June, 2008).
PPS: Recommended books: Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson, Studio Olafur Eliasson: An Encyclopedia (Extra Large Series), Your mobile expectations: BMW H2R project

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Some technical information: To create and conserve the car’s ice coating, the vehicle is stored in a refrigeration chamber. Over a period of several days Eliasson had the car’s exposed frame sprayed with some 2000 litres of water to gradually produce the layers of ice. What has emerged from this process is an artwork approximately 1.5 m high, 5.25 m long and 2.5 m wide. Illuminated from within, it radiates an icy atmosphere.

This is the second time (since /Robert Towne/, 2005) that Sarah Morris decided to shift her lens from the wide panoramic view of a city to an intimate portrait of an individual citizen of that city. Georg Sieber was the head psychologist of the Olympic Police and the Munich Police in 1972.
Sieber was hired by the International Olympic Committee and Munich Police to project possible scenarios that would jeopardize the safety of the Olympic Games and prepare the security training that they would require. Contrary to the common perception that the Germans were not prepared, Sieber exposes a very different analysis of what occurred that day. Curated by Matthias Muehling. Sarah Morris: 1972, Lenbachhaus, Munich. By VTV correspondent Gürsoy Dogtas.
PS: Interesting article (in German) at Telepolis.

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Scott King started his career as a graphic designer working as art- and creative-director for the style magazines ID and Sleazenation in the 1990s. He also designed numerous record covers for the Pet Shop Boys and Morrissey. Besides his commercial activities, Scott King initiated independent projects that used the media, formats and aesthetic vocabularies of mass communication. With “Marxist Disco (cancelled)” at Kunstverein Munich presents Scott King’s first institutional solo show. In this video, Scott King and the director of Kunstverein München, Stefan Kalmár, talk about the exhibition and Scott King’s work. Opening, February 22, 2008. By VTV correspondent Gürsoy Dogtas.

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