Rorschach, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye’s third solo show at Galerie Perrotin, opened in Paris on May 12, 2012. The show highlights the détournement and beautification of everyday objects and religious icons. Wim Delvoye’s work is provocative and at times unsettling. He has used live animals, sacred forms and banal objects within a controversial artistic process that aims at forcing the viewer to reconsider what is aesthetically pleasing and what is morally aceptable. In his solo exhbitiion at Galerie Perrotin, Delovoye appropriates the archecture of Gothic Cathedrals and the forms of religious sculptures, producing intricate manipulations of these well known forms. The show runs until June 16, 2012.

Wim Delvoye: Rorschach / Galerie Perrotin, Paris. Opening reception, May 12, 2012. Video by Daniel Barney.

PS: Click here for more Wim Delvoye-related videos.

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The Berlin Biennale was founded in order to promote contemporary art in Berlin. In 1998 the first Berlin Biennale took place. Since 2004, KW Institute for Contemporary Art has been the supporting organization of the Berlin Biennale.

The 7th Berlin Biennale, curated by the Polish artist Artur Żmijewski has its focus on social and political issues. Żmijewski is particularly interested in the power of art and its relation to politics.

The Berlin Biennale is organized by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). The 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art in Berlin / Germany runs until July 1, 2012.

7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, opening reception, April 26, 2012. Video by Astrid Gleichmann.

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TMprojects in Geneva, Switzerland shows a new body of work by the artist Président Vertut. The show is called Grey Matters, which is a project that started in 2010 on the occasion of the Geneva City Arts Council’s Grants exhibition at Contemporary Art Centre. With this project, Président Vertut’s character enters into politics: “Through a series of drawings, paintings, and a video installation, the artist conceives the visual identity of a party defined as the extreme center, the Middle Party, which color is a very specific medium gray named Global Average Grey. The Middle Party syncretizes all the contradictions of political action in its current mode of operation. It is not opposed to limit the flexibility of politicians, nor to the soft consensus, or the unlikely idea of a social liberalism that allows strictly individual happiness. It comes to terms with it and, worse, promotes it, even by the use coercive methods.”

The centerpiece of the exhibition is an installation titled Euroscope Méditerranée, a very angry sculpture project consistent of a coin-operated telescope (Euroscope), which was turned into a sniper rifle pointing on a video screen depicting the mediterranean sea, looking out for immigrants.

Président Vertut was born 1978 in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. He lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2008 he graduated from the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD). He received the City of Geneva Arts Council Grant in 2011 and 2007, and the Quartier des Bains Art Prize in 2011. Président Vertut’s exhibition at TMproject runs until June 23, 2012.

Président Vertut: Grey Matters / TMproject, Geneva. Opening reception (Nuit des Bains), May 3, 2012.

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In this video, VernissageTV attends the opening of Chicago-based artist A. Laurie Palmer at Threewalls in Chicago. The exhibition is called Still, yet, else, further, again and refers to synonyms found on the Internet for “more”. The centerpiece of the exhibition is an immersive sculptural installation in the main gallery, titled Hole. Hole is built up from stacked circular layers of cut and joined re-used lumber. Visitors can choose to be lifted up and into the hole, by a counter-weight hoist system. The exhibition runs until June 16, 2012.

Threewalls was founded in 2003 to provide greater support and visibility for the visual arts community in Chicago. The founders wanted to encourage a greater awareness of Chicago’s art scene by inviting emerging professional artists to Chicago.

A. Laurie Palmer: Still, yet, else, further, again / Solo exhibition at Threewalls, Chicago. Opening reception, May 4, 2012. Video by Francisco Cordero-Oceguera.

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Press release:

A. Laurie Palmer’s research-based art practice explores matter’s active nature on a range of scales and speeds. Her work taps into and collaborates with material forces and constructs situations and structures that invite consideration of our own capacities and agencies. She has most recently focused on how we use and share land and other natural resources, specifically through an extended investigation of industrial mineral extraction sites and the movements of substances between land and bodies. The title of the exhibition Still, yet, else, further, again, refers to synonyms found on the Internet for “more,” which as a set of terms with questionable similarity elicits what German Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch calls the “Not Yet.” In other words, “more” stands in for a state of “comprehended hope” for a transformed world, the seeds for which are embedded in the present but not yet developed.

Still, yet, else, further, again features two works, “Hole,” an immersive sculptural installation in the main gallery and “794 mph,” a single channel video projection. “Hole” is built up from stacked circular layers of cut and joined re-used lumber, each layer having a progressively wider circumference. Visitors can choose to be lifted up and into the hole, by a counter-weight hoist system. This system, designed by Chicago Fly House, employs a 400 pound limestone and calcite rock from the local Bolingbrook quarry as counterweight to elevate a person safely strapped into a chair high enough to see over the lip of the hole. The system requires one person to manually work the chainfall to hoist another person in the chair. Literally starting with the holes punctured in our environment by corporations like BP, the experience of “Hole” establishes an equation between ore and body referencing the circles of increasing complexity related to human/nature interactions, unregulated growth and over-consumption, as well as spatial and temporal expansion.

“794 mph,” makes a different demand on the viewers’ experience with time, space, and the waiting future: willingness to slow down. Referring to the speed that the earth turns at the latitude where the footage was shot in Santa Cruz, CA, in 2010 and 2012, the long shots of night becoming morning in the video unfold at the actual speed of earth turning. While seeming fast at 794 mph, the viewers’ experience is in fact very slow, with each shot requiring between 15 to 45 minutes, marking a non-spectacular temporality.

A. Laurie Palmer’s work takes various forms as sculpture, public projects, writing, and interdisciplinary collaborations. She has shown, lectured, and published nationally and internationally since 1988, both independently and with the artist collaborative Haha, and has received generous foundation and institutional support, including from the Louis Tiffany Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, the Richard M. Driehaus Foundation, the ArtCouncil (now Artadia) and the Radcliffe Institute. Around the year 2000, she began to focus her individual practice on local projects relating to land-use. The book 3 Acres on the Lake: DuSable Park Proposal Project, published by WhiteWalls Press in 2004, documents a public art project and exhibition related to these concerns. In 2008, WhiteWalls published With Love from Haha documenting twenty years of Haha’s site-based work, and also marking the end of that long-term collaboration. For the last five years she has been researching and writing a book on industrial mineral extraction sites in the U.S. and the movements of substances between land and bodies (Eating the Earth), which is now on review. She has returned to the studio to work on sculptural projects related to this ongoing research, and to other considerations of matter’s active nature and explorations of our collective capacities for change.

A. Laurie Palmer studied English literature and studio art at Williams College as an undergraduate, and completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1988 in printmaking and sculpture. She has taught full time at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at Carnegie Mellon University, and part-time at the University of Chicago, UIC, and Vermont College. For the last fifteen years she has taught sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also was an art writer for ten years.

Galerie Chez Valentin innaugurated the exhibition Above sea level kind of things by artist Niels Trannois on April 26, 2012 in Paris. Trannois engages with numerous mediums, shapes and textures developing a perception that floats within a dialogue of memory and mental sensation. The show runs until June 2, 2012.

Niels Trannois: Above Sea Level Kind of Things / Galerie Chez Valentin, Paris. Opening reception, April 26, 2012. Video by Daniel Barney.

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Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel, Switzerland, presents a large solo exhibition with works by Jeff Koons. In collaboration with the artist, the museum decided to show series of works that are central to Jeff Koons’ oeuvre: The New, Banality, and Celebration.

Jeff Koons’ early period-series The New consists of ready-made-like cleaning appliances, symbols of newness and purity. Banality comprises traditionally crafted sculptures in porcelain and wood. With Celebration, Keff Koons produced high-gloss steel sculptures and large-format paintings. Among the works on display are Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988); Ushering in Banality (1988); New Hoover Convertible (1980); Winter Bears (1988); and Balloon Dog (Red) (1994-2000). The giant Split Rocker is installed in the garden of the museum.

In this video we walk through the exhibition on the occasion of the media reception and Dr. Theodora Vischer (Senior Curator at Large, Fondation Beyeler) gives us a short introduction to the show. Hit the jump for the full-length version of the video, an introduction to the exhibition in German language, and the Jeff Koons lecture at Fondation Beyeler.

Jeff Koons at Fondation Beyeler is the first exhibition ever devoted by a Swiss museum to the American artist Jeff Koons. The show runs until September 2, 2012.

Jeff Koons at Fondation Beyeler. Press Preview and introduction by Dr. Theodora Vischer (Senior Curator at Large, Fondation Beyeler). Riehen / Basel, Switzerland, May 11, 2012.

PS: See also our report on Jeff Koons’ exhibition at Versailles with Jeff Koons talking about his work.

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Full-length video (12:55 Min.):

Introduction to the exhibition in German language (9:50 Min.):

Jeff Koons Lecture at Fondation Beyeler (1:33:09):

Venus Over Manhattan is a new exhibition space in New York City created by art collector and writer Adam Lindemann. The new gallery opened to the public on May 9, 2012 with a group show titled À rebours. The inaugural show presents several dozen works of art spanning the 19th century to the present. Referring to Joris-Karl Huysmans’ 1884 anti-novel “À rebours”, the exhibition explores the notion of “against the grain” through a selection of works by artists such as Odilon redon, Lucas Samaras, Jeff Koons, Salvador Dali, and Gavin Kenyon. The exhibition runs until June 30, 2012. This video provides you with a tour of the exhibition on May 9, 2012 (as you can see, it’s rather a black than a white space).

Adam Lindemann’s Venus Over Manhattan plans to expand the conventional gallery format through collaborations with artists, dealers, collectors, curators, and institutions. Upcoming shows include works of art and design that range from historic to contemporary.

À Rebours. Group exhibition at Venus Over Manhattan Gallery, New York City. Video by Shimon Azulay. May 9, 2012.

PS: Reviews of the exhibition at Hyperallergic and Guest of a Guest.

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Five new exhibitions recently opened at the New Museum in New York: Ellen Altfest: Head and Plant; Tacita Dean: Five Americans; Klara Lidén: Bodies of Society; Stanya Kahn; Phyllida Barlow: Siege; and Nathalie Djurberg: The Parade. VernissageTV attended the openings and covered two shows of Phyllida Barlow and Nathalie Djurberg. In this video, we have a closer look at Nathalie Djurberg’s show. The Parade: Nathalie Djurberg with Music by Hans Berg is an ambitious multimedia installation. The Swedish artist has created five animations and a menagerie of more than eighty freestanding bird sculptures.

The Parade: Nathalie Djurberg with Music by Hans Berg / New Museum, New York. Opening reception, May 6, 2012. Video by Shimon Azulay.

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Press release:

The New Museum is pleased to announce the third exhibition for its recently inaugurated ‘Studio 231’ series in the museum’s adjacent, ground-floor space at 231 Bowery. “The Parade: Nathalie Djurberg with Music by Hans Berg” will be on view from May 2–August 26, 2012. This is Djurberg’s most ambitious multimedia installation to date. Originally organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Djurberg will adapt this spectacular installation for the New Museum’s ‘Studio 231’ space. In the hands of Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg, animation becomes a medium for transgressive and nightmarish allegories of desire and malcontent. Since 2001, she has honed a distinctive style of filmmaking, using the pliability of clay to dramatize our most primal urges—jealousy, revenge, greed, submission, and gluttony. Set to music and sound effects by her collaborator, Hans Berg, Djurberg’s videos plumb the dark recesses of the mind, drawing sometimes disturbing connections between human psychology and animal behavior. Increasingly, the artists’ interdisciplinary collaborations have blurred the cinematic, the sculptural, and the performative in immersive environments that pair moving images and musical compositions with related set pieces.

For new work, The Parade (2011), she has created five captivating animations and an unnerving menagerie of more than eighty freestanding bird sculptures. Drawing on avian physiology, rituals of mating and territorial display, and the social phenomenon of flocking, she has assembled a fantastical procession of species all fashioned from modest materials such as clay, wire, and painted canvas. These hybrid, sometimes monstrous forms speak to the artist’s recurring interest in physical and psychological transformation, as well as pageantry, perversion, and abjection. In the accompanying claymation videos, humans and animals alike act out upsetting scenarios of torture, humiliation, and masquerade, further mining the interplay of brutality and guilt at the heart of Djurberg’s work. Berg’s eerie film scores — composed of elements both found and invented — suffuse the entire installation, merging to form a unified soundscape. With these films, both artists have begun to conceive narrative in spatial terms as aspects of character, setting, sound, and action migrate from one story to the next across the exhibition space.

The exhibition is curated by Eric Crosby and Dean Otto for the Walker Art Center and organized at the New Museum by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Curator.

About the Artists
Born in Lysekil, Sweden, in 1978, Nathalie Djurberg received her MFA from Malmö Art Academy in 2002, and since that time she has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions around the world. Most notably, in 2009 she presented her installation The Experiment in the exhibition “Making Worlds” at the 53rd Venice Biennale, for which she was awarded the prestigious Silver Lion for Promising Young Artist. In 2008, Djurberg participated in the New Museum’s “After Nature” exhibition curated by Massimiliano Gioni. She currently lives and works in Berlin with Hans Berg.
Hans Berg was born in Rättvik, Sweden, in 1978. He is a Berlin-based electronic music producer and self-taught musician. He began playing the drums in punk and rock bands at the age of fourteen. By fifteen, Berg started creating electronic music—which he has made ever since—when he purchased his first synthesizer and sampler. Berg and Djurberg met in Berlin in 2004. Since then, he has composed the music for all of her films and installations.

About ‘Studio 231’
Nathalie Djurberg is the third artist featured in the New Museum’s new ‘Studio 231’ series, which presents commissioned projects in the museum’s adjacent, ground-floor space at 231 Bowery. The Museum inaugurated the series in October 2011 with a new installation and performances by Spartacus Chetwynd, followed by an exhibition by Enrico David. This new initiative will give international, emerging artists the opportunity to realize ambitious new works conceived especially for the space. These projects at 231 Bowery also seek to foster a new relationship between the artists and the public by allowing artists to create work outside the confines of the main museum building and in closer proximity to the energy of the street and to the creative space of the artist’s studio.

Support
“The Parade” is made possible by the generosity of the Leadership Council of the New Museum. Additional support is provided by Martin Margulies and Heather and Tony Podesta.

Support for programming at ‘Studio 231’ is provided, in part, by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
Generous support for ‘Studio 231’ is provided by Ellyn and Saul Dennison, Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg, Susan and Leonard Feinstein, Hermine and David Heller, Lietta and Dakis Joannou, Toby Devan Lewis, and the Board of Trustees of the New Museum.

About the New Museum
The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. From its beginnings as a one-room office on Hudson Street to the inauguration of its first freestanding building on the Bowery designed by SANAA in 2007, the New Museum continues to be a place of ongoing experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.

With Anthony McCall: Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture, Berlin’s museum for contemporary art, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart presents the largest exhibition of McCall’s work to date. The museum presents a selection of Anthony McCall’s works from the past ten years. The historic central hall of the former railway station has been transformed into a cinema space, filled only with the the haze and the veils of light that are typical for McCalls unique light installations, the so-called solid light films.

New York-based artist Anthony McCall was born in 1946 in St Paul’s Cray, England. He was a key figure in the avant-garde London Film-makers Co-operative in the 1970s. He moved to New York in 1973 and developed his solid light film series, projections in darkened, haze-filled rooms, that create an illusion of three-dimensional shapes. At the end of the 1970s, Anthony McCall stopped making art, but over 20 years later, he continued his work on the solid light series., this time using new technology such as computer animation and digital projection. The exhibition, curated by Henriette Huldisch, has been made possible by the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie.

Anthony McCall: Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture / Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin . Opening reception, April 19, 2012. Video by Astrid Gleichmann.

Anthony McCall: Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture / Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin

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The exhibition Høpe ou comment armer ses jeux at the Centre de la Photographie Genève is an installation the brings together photography, scenography and sounds. The show emerged from the collaboration between stage director Maya Bösch (Compagnie Sturmfrei) and photographer Christian Lutz. The photographic installation after a stage production aims to question our society, our responsibility by showing the underground, and the world of the forgotten.

In November 2011, Maya Bösch, with her Compagnie Sturmfrei, realized Howl, the Allen Ginsberg poem at the Biennial Charleroi Danses (B). The photographer Christian Lutz accompanied the various stages of rehearsal and performance. During his trip to Las Vegas last December, Christian Lutz discovered parallels between the two juxtaposed realities: life and theater. This video provides you with a walk-through of the exhibition. A video interview with Maya Bösch is available after the jump.

Maya Bösch & Christian Lutz: Høpe / Centre de la Photographie Genève. Opening, May 3, 2012 (Nuit des Bains). Video by Daniel Barney.

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Interview with Maya Bösch (16:08 Min.):

Press release (in French language):

Installation issue d’un processus de création scénique

Vernissage le 3 mai dès 18h à l’occasion de la Nuit des Bains.

De janvier 2011 à juin 2012, Maya Bösch initie un processus de création autour de la « Beat Generation ». Elle collabore avec plusieurs artistes sur des formes différentes de représentations : atelier, lecture, performance, création. En novembre dernier, elle crée avec sa compagnie sturmfrei, Howl, le poème phare d’Allen Ginsberg à la Biennale Charleroi Danses (B). Le photographe Christian Lutz accompagne ces différentes étapes de répétition et de représentation. Lors de son voyage à Las Vegas en décembre dernier, Christian en sort des parallèles entre deux réalités et les juxtapose : la vie et le théâtre.

Comment armer ses yeux face à l’autocratie économique et politique ? Comment armer ses yeux face aux évènements quotidiens ? Comment armer ses yeux face au pouvoir ? Comment armer ses yeux face à soi-même ? Ne pas voir pour mieux voir ?

Cette installation met en scène deux espaces qui se distinguent autant dans la forme que dans le fond. La première pièce restitue la diversité du processus de création et documente en noir et blanc le souvenir de ce théâtre de la pauvreté. La deuxième pièce compose en couleur des nouvelles réalités, croise théâtre et vie et ouvre ainsi à des nouvelles perspectives et interrogations encore inconnues.

Une ode à ceux dans l’ombre, un carburant pour le demain.

L’artiste Karelle Ménine s’entretient régulièrement avec la metteure en scène Maya Bösch : une réflexion en permanent mouvement, contradictoire, et éclairante sur l’art en train de se faire sera présentée ici.

Concept : Maya Bösch / Photographie : Christian Lutz / Graphisme : Pablo Lavalley / Son : Karelle Ménine / Technique : Jean-Michel Broillet et Vanessa Bianchini

Production : cie sturmfrei / Coproduction : Centre de la Photographie Genève, GRÜ/Transthéâtre Genève / Partenaires de Création : GRÜ/Transthéâtre Genève, Le Manège de Mons (B), Biennale Charleroi Danses (B), Pro Helvetia, La Loterie Romande, Ville de Genève-Département de la culture et du sport, Canton de Genève-Département de l’instruction publique

Distribution et Remerciements :
Acteurs de la cie sturmfrei : Fred Jacquot-Guillarmod, Pascal Gravat, Pascal Merighi, Boubacar Samb, Nicolas Leresche, Roberto Garieri / Invitée spéciale : Noemi Lapzeson / Acteurs du Théâtre National de Bretagne (F) : Ambre Kahan, Duncan Evenou, Karine Piveteau, Marina Tek, Nathan Bernat, Romain Brosseau, Sarah Amrous / Guitaristes : Vincent Hänni, Jean-Marc Montera / Scénographe : Thibault Vancranenbroeck / Lumières : Colin Legras / Son : Rudy Decelière / Dramaturgie : Timo Kirez / Assistante mise en scène : Sophie Martin-Achard / Régie générale : David Kretonic / Special Guest : Sofie Kokaj

The current exhibition at the gallery Blancpain Art Contemporain in Geneva / Switzerland is a solo show with works by the New York-based artist Amy O’Neill. The exhibition is titled “V” for “Victory Gardens” and refers back to the World Wars I and II, when American and English citizens were urged to plant vegetable gardens to reduce the pressure on the public food supply. Another aim was to boost the morale on the home front. The artist takes this patriotic effort as inspiration for her sculptures, installations and drawings that are on display at the gallery.

Amy O’Neill was born in 1971 in Beaver, Pennsylvania / USA. Currently, she lives and works in New York. Her solo exhibitions include shows at Centre Cultural Suisse in Paris; MAMCO in Geneva; and The Box, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus Ohio. The exhibition at Blancpain Art Contemporain runs until June 30, 2012.

Amy O’Neill: “V”. Solo exhibition at Blancpain Art Contemporain, Genève. Opening reception, May 3, 2012 (Nuit des Bains).

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From the press release:

Amy O’Neill’s most recent sculpture and installation work, “V” for “Victory Gardens” (2010-11) refer back to the war effort in World Wars I and II , in which American and English citizens were urged to plant vegetable gardens to put food on their tables, and to instill, particularly among children, a work-ethic and the kind
of patriotism that was seen as essential to the times. (The younger boys of today are the soldiers of the
next war.) Among the vintage images related to these gardens that have been collected by the artist, many show smiling, wholesome young girls posing with the fruits of their labor, casting them not only as future homemakers but as mothers. Propaganda posters were printed with slogans like: “Sow the seeds of Victory — Every Garden a Munition Plant” and “Our Food Is Fighting.” The “seeds of victory” can also be thought to refer to procreation, and the original garden is, of course, the one from which we all supposedly emerged: God and country.

As the “American” flag configuration appears in the “Victory Gardens” works, it is composed of narrow bands of burlap bags filled with sand. They are thus also sandbags, having strong associations with battlefield protection and the trench warfare of World War I, as well as with retaining walls constructed in times of flooding, meant to shore up riverbanks and levees. But there is the possibility that in wrapping oneself in patriotism, there is also a burying of one’s head in the sand, metaphorically refusing to see things for what they are, to face the facts. These works have been produced in different sizes, mostly in scale to the kinds of flags that are displayed in front of American homes. With their flag configurations, and the way that the pieces sit low or prone to the ground, these works have to be seen as anti-monuments. Made in a time of war, and with the prospect of perpetual conflicts around the globe, Amy O’Neill’s symbolic gardens are more fallow than bountiful, watched over by a scarecrow that has nothing to protect, mute and standing guard in an empty field.

Amy O ’Neill’s newest works arrive at a juncture of both resignation and hope. With the passage of time, one is able to see how her thematic concerns, her subject matter, and her own personal history are all interwoven — a process for which she offers reciprocal images: the flag unraveled and the tilled earth of the garden. Amy O’Neill is a storyteller of sorts, and while her cast of characters and locations are for the most part amusing and light-hearted, her view has always been shaded in darker tones. In O’Neill’s world there is no sentimental longing for the past, rather, she reminds us that, while never truly reconciled, the presence of the past is always with us, and haunts us, a lens through which we are able to view the circumstances in which we find ourselves today. Amy O’Neill is an artist whose project is both in, and against, the American grain.

Bob Nikas, 2011.

(Excerpt from Memory and Displacement in the Work of Amy O’Neill.)

Berlin-based artist Sophie Erlund deals with the central theme of transition; social transition translated into physical objects through the use of architecture and space. For the booth of PSM Sabine Schmidt Gallery in the New Contemporaries section of Art Cologne 2012, Sophie Erlund conceived new works: a hanging kinetic sculpture with sound (Primordial Eternity), a wall piece (Hollow Air Mirror), a floor installation (Ancient Lakehouse), and a handmade curtain (Primordial Curtain). In this video, Sophie Erlund talks about her installation at Art Cologne 2012 and her work in general. The above video is an excerpt. Watch the video in full-length after the jump.

Sophie Erlund was born in Denmark in 1978 and currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She received her BA Fine Art degree
with honours from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London (UK) in 2003.

Sophie Erlund: Primordial Eternity / PSM Sabine Schmidt Gallery at Art Cologne 2012. Interview with Sophie Erlund, Cologne / Germany, April 20,2012.

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Watch the video in full-length (15:10 Min.):

Fénautrigues, an exhibition by French photographer Jean-Luc Moulène, opened at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris on April 26, 2012. Moulène has worked for 15 years on this project, documenting the idiosyncrasies of daily life of this small village (of the same name as the exhibition) where his family has lived for generations. Part documentary and part archive, the photographs shown are a selection of images that offer a glimpse into the vast corpus of material that Moulène has amassed over the years. His gaze depicts a familiarity with the context and the people. The exhibition is hung in order to construct a pathway that the visitor must follow, “a stroll between heaven and earth.” Also on display in the exhibition space, the book entitled Fenautrigues, trois chemins au ruisseau, vers le haut, en bas gathers together 500 images which further develop the local memory of the small village. The show runs until June 16, 2012.

Jean-Luc Moulène: Fénautrigues. Solo Exhibition at Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris. Opening reception, April 26, 2012. Video by Daniel Barney.

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After having established Frieze Art Fair in London very successfully, Frieze is expanding its fair business to the other side of the pond this year. Frieze Art Fair New York brings the usual suspects to New York’s Randall’s Island. 180 of the world’s leading contemporary galleries show their artists and their works. The question is: how was it? Look for yourself, take a tour of the fair with this video.

The first edition of Frieze New York is housed in a bespoke structure designed by New York-based SO – IL Architects. Most of the participating galleries come from America and Europe and are regular exhibitors at Frieze London. There are also specific sections for younger galleries, Frame and Focus, and – as in London – there’s the Frieze Sculpture Park.

If you want to know what others think about the fair, here are three voices: Holland Cotter (New York Times), Jason Farago (Guardian), Jerry Saltz (Vulture). For more reviews, photos, videos of Frieze Art Fair New York 2012 use our VTV contemporary art search below.

Frieze Art Fair New York. Randall’s Island, New York. May 4, 2012. Video by Shimon Azulay.

PS: One of the most discussed topics in advance of the show was the question of how the wealthy art lovers get to the fair’s location on Randall’s Island – and back again. Let us know how you got there!

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With the exhibition “do not walk outside this area”, the Slovakian artist Roman Ondák is realizing his project for the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin as Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year”. Air travelers who have ever sat on the window seat of an aircraft near the wing, know the warning, that is written on the deck: “do not walk outside this area.” If you then wondered how it is, walking on the wing of an airplane, now you have the occasion to do so. The centerpiece of Roman Ondák’s show at the Deutsche Guggenheim is a wing of a Boeing 737-500 airliner, transformed into a catwalk.

In addition to this walkable sculpture, the show presents works on paper and installation based on the subject of traveling in two exhibition rooms. Among the works is for example a series of seven postcards and sixteen fictitious newspaper articles made in 2010 for the exhibition Un’Espressione Geografica in the renowned Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, titled Balancing at the Toe of the Boot. The aforementioned wing connects two exhibition rooms like a bridge.

Roman Ondák: do not walk outside this area / Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin. Opening reception, April 25, 2012. Video by Astrid Gleichmann.

Watch also:

• Interview with Roman Ondák at Frieze Art Fair 2011 on the occasion of the artist’s selection as “Artist of the Year”.
• Roman Ondák at the Venice Art Biennale 2009.

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FAIR at (Art) Amalgamated Gallery in New York is an interactive installation of work by the New York-based artist Mikel Glass. The exhibition is a commentary on the art market and runs from April 21st to May 12th, 2012. The exhibition takes place in two distinct spaces in the gallery. One space is a broadcast studio – disguised as an artist’s studio. The other space features six large-screen monitors that simultaneously broadcast a constant feed of different, but related, videos. They submerse the viewer in a cacophony of sights and sounds from Frieze and other art fairs and featured segments exploring several specific artists and themes.

During Frieze Art Fair New York, the gallery will stream live bulletins from the fair on Friday May 4th and Saturday May 5th, 2012. Correspondents will report from the various art fairs in NYC during Frieze Art Fair week. Their observations, comments and impromptu interviews will be streamed and presented as “breaking news” bulletins, via the broadcast studio constructed within the gallery Friday May 4th and Saturday May 5th. An in-house correspondent will interview gallery visitors.

There’s a special viewing at the exhibition on Saturday, May 5, 1-3 pm.

Collaborating with Mikel Glass on this project are filmmaker Simon Azulay who created the video content in the exhibition; an array of correspondents including William Powhida, Lisa Levy, Gradon Parish, Eric Doeringer, Jeremy Basescu, and Cami Rubach; Sound engineer Rob Paustian; Larry Lustberg, and Daniel Baltzer.

More information and live and on-demand footage is available on the (Art) Amalgamated website and on www.fairnyc.com, a website created specifically for the exhibition.

The above video by Run Shayo provides you with some shots of the exhibition on the occasion of the opening reception of the show on April 20, 2012.

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Press release:

NEW YORK – (Art) Amalgamated, a new project space in Chelsea, will present FAIR, an interactive installation of work by Mikel Glass, April 21 – May 12, 2012. During Frieze New York, the gallery will stream live bulletins from the fair on Friday May 4th and Saturday May 5th, 2012.

The exhibition, which is a commentary on the creative process and how it is recieved by the art market, will take place in two distinct spaces in the gallery. One space will be a broadcast studio – disguised as an artist’s studio. Separated by a see through wall (glass and steel), the other half will feature six large-screen monitors that will simultaneously broadcast a constant feed of different, but related, “hyperactive” videos as they, along with an array of audio speakers, submerse the viewer in a cacophony of sights and sounds from the art fairs and featured segments exploring several specific artists and themes.

FAIR, Glass’s first show with (Art) Amalgamated, will include recent works as well as earlier paintings to show the development of the artist’s work that culminates in the immersive installation. Instead of assuming an oppositional, documentary-like stance against the art market, Glass has chosen to create an elaborate, semi-fictitious world, which draws upon a myriad of influences and relies on the comedic and absurd to get its message across to the viewer.

To accomplish this, an array of interesting and colorful correspondents, including William Powhida, Lisa Levy, Graydon Parish, Eric Doeringer, the legally blind playwright Jeremy Basescu and fourteen-year-old Cami Rubach will report from the various art fairs in NYC during Frieze Art Fair week. Their observations, comments and impromptu interviews will be streamed and presented as “breaking news” bulletins, via the broadcast studio constructed within the gallery Friday May 4th and Saturday May 5th.

On www.fairnyc.com, a website created specifically for the exhibition, there will be video vignettes of a few contemporary artists, as well as recorded and live streaming footage from the art fairs.

Filmmaker, Shimon Azulay created the video content in the exhibition with Glass. Additionally, Glass has enlisted a team of over 40 people to assist him to video, interview, build and design this installation. Sound engineer Rob Paustian has designed an audio program that grips and enthralls. Larry Lustberg of Stortz Lighting has lent his vision, expertise and equipment to help create a completely immersive environment. Artist Daniel Baltzer offered his engineering genius in collaborating in the fabrication of the installation.

ABOUT MIKEL GLASS
Mikel Glass (b. 1962) has had a 20-year career exhibiting in major galleries and museums. Trained as a realist painter, Glass received a B.A. from Pomona College, in Claremont, CA, and an M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art. Glass’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group shows around the country. In 2009, he had a solo exhibition at The Taylor Museum, Fine Art Center in Colorado Springs, CO.

ABOUT (ART) AMALGAMATED
Located in New York City, (Art) Amalgamated is a new project space that bypasses the conventional gallery system. Founder Gary Krimershmoys showcases both modern and contemporary art, with a particular emphasis in utilizing innovative methods for the curatorial framing of our shows. (Art) Amalgamated’s goal is to provide an exhibition platform that does not fit comfortably within the confines of traditional art venue, but rather a comprehensive entity encompassing full art advisory, collection management and art appraisal services.
For more information visit: http://artamalgamated.com/

The 2012 edition of Zona Maco, the international art fair in Mexico that took place in mid-April at Centro Banamex in Mexico City, presented the program of more than 90 galleries from around the world. In addition to the Main Section of the fair that hosts galleries with more than five years of experience, the fair also has section for younger galleries, a project section, and Zona Maco Design, a pavilion that shows national and international design galleries. This video provides you with a walk-through of the fair on May 21, 2012.

Zona Maco Mexico Arte Contemporaneo Art Fair 2012, Mexico City. Video by Diego García Sotomoro.

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Berlin may not have a “big” international art fair any more (Art Forum Berlin, R.I.P.), but the galleries in Berlin seem to be more enthusiastic about their Gallery Weekend anyway. With 51 galleries offically participating and many more satelliting, it’s impossible to check out all shows. The above video by our correspondent Astrid Gleichmann shows a small selection of the program. It shows Jenny Holzer and Anthony McCall at Sprüth Magers Gallery, Leo Gabin at Peres Projects, Andreas Golder at Michael Fuchs Galerie, and Martin Eder at Galerie Eigen + Art.

Gallery Weekend Berlin 2012. Berlin, Germany, April 28, 2012. Video by Astrid Gleichmann.

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Gilbert & George: London Pictures is the first gallery exhibition of the British artist duo Gilbert & George in New York since 2004. London Pictures is presented by the galleries Lehmann Maupin and Sonnabend at both Lehmann Maupin locations in Chelsea and Chrystie Street, and at Sonnabend Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibition is on view until June 23, 2012 and presents monumental pictures that take their names from newspaper posters, with titles such as “ARRESTED”, “ATTACKED STRAIGHT”, “BOMB”, “LOVER”, “MISSING”, “SUICIDE”. London has always been a great inspiration for Gilbert & George, and the 292 new London Pictures enable the city to speak for itself, in the language of 3712 newspaper posters.

Gilbert & George: London Pictures. Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 540 West 26th Street, New York City. Opening reception, April 26, 2012. Video by Shimon Azulay.

For an introduction to the work of Gilbert & George see also our two part video covering Gilbert & George’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in 2008. In the two part documentary, Coordinating Curator Judy Kim talks about the concept of the show at the Brooklyn Museum, the works on display, Gilbert & George’s beginnings, the technical aspects of their work, and their influence on a younger generation of artists:

• Gilbert & George at the Brooklyn Museum / part 1/2
• Gilbert & George at the Brooklyn Museum / part 2/2

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Gabriel Kuri is known for sculptures and collages that he creates from the remains of everyday purchases and objects such as tickets, cigarettes, body care products, slabs of marble, stones and other materials. Gabriel Kuri works with a variety of media, including installation, sculpture, collage, and photography. With his work, he explores questions about the current social order. This video provides you with a walk-through of his current exhibition at Kurimanzutto Gallery in Mexico City.

Gabriel Kuri studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (ENAP) in Mexico City and at Goldsmith College in London. With his works, he has participated in numerous international group shows, such as the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and the 5. Berlin Biennale (2008). Gabriel Kuri was born in Mexico in 1970. The artist lives and works in Mexico City and Brussels.

Gabriel Kuri. Solo Exhibition at Galería Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, April 19, 2012. Video by Diego García Sotomoro.

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