What a Wonderful World

Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art started in 2001 and is the largest Biennial for Contemporary Art in Sweden. Since 2007, the Biennial is hosted by Röda Sten – Center for Contemporary Art and Culture with the main support by the City of Göteborg and Västra Götalandsregionen. The next Biennial will be held September 5 – November 15, 2009.

Under the theme What a Wonderful World, the curators Celia Prado and Johan Pousette will reflect upon the formation of politics in a visual, poetic and sensual way. Through an exhibition of high international standard, the Biennial of 2009 aspires to offer Göteborg and Sweden a possibility to participate in some of the most relevant parts of Contemporary Visual Art. The 2009 exhibition will, in addition to Röda Sten, take place at several institutions around Göteborg, where Göteborg Konsthall is one of them. The Biennial aims to explore the public space in innovative ways in order to meet a new audience in unexpected ways.

Göteborgs Internationella Konstbiennal 2009

Hanayo

"HANAYO - ON A GENETIC LEVEL: SMELL LIGHT LAUGH MEMORY TEAR
17 January - 21 February 2009"

Hanayo’s show: ON A GENETIC LEVEL: SMELL LIGHT LAUGHTER MEMORY TEAR, focuses on the connection between senses and memories. The show’s title relates to the direct and involuntary relationship between our body and mind. It feels like a synaethetic experience, where two senses overlap, just as in Kadinsky’s example of the „color“ of sounds. The senses create an invisible bridge and activate the unconscious. Furthermore, since most of Hanayo’s work is directly tied to personal memories, including what directly surrounds her, her artwork turns into an intimate touch and evokes the visitor to make personal connections of his or her own.

The room filling installation ON A GENETIC LEVEL: SMELL LIGHT LAUGHTER MEMORY TEAR plays with the idea of multi-layers, such as in memories, through a multitude of different media: a shower machine that produces the smell of a specific shampoo, photographs, a video and sound installation as well as a slide-projector composed with sculptural elements made out of furniture and personal objects as well as objects simply found in the streets. These different media fuse into a whole, whereas the distinctions between the different art pieces and media blur. Crossing the boundaries between different disciplines such as music, photography, dance and art comes naturally to Hanayo, resulting in an invisible distinction between her work and personal life.

Hanayo, a trained geisha, works as a dancer, a musician as well as a visual artist. In recent years, her work was shown in internationally highly regarded institutions such as the Mori Art Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, the Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris as well as in solo shows in the Kunstwerke, Berlin and the Koyangi Gallery, Tokyo among others. In 2008, Akaka published her photography catalogue “Magma”.

Text: Dennis Schroer

Galerie Birgit Ostermeier Berlin

bola de nieve

Obra, biografía y pensamiento de 957 artistas elegidos por artistas

bola de nieve

Pablo Helguera

Committed Explanations in Geography, a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Pablo Helguera, is an upcoming show at the School of Art at The Cooper Union that showcases his recent artworks highlighting cultural and linguistic gaps specific to the Americas (January 27-February 21, 2009).

Helguera's four-week, multi-disciplinary exhibition will feature video, sculpture, collage, printmaking and performance that will provide the viewer with an opportunity to reflect on the significant cultural change that has taken place in North and South America. Using minimalist forms to articulate cultural tradition, Helguera's artistic practice raises questions about the diversity of the American landscape, where native traditions and languages are obscured by more contemporary systems. The artist has presented his work locally at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at PERFORMA 05, New York's first performance art biennial, as well as internationally in museums located in Japan, Zurich and Brazil, to name a few.

Events at The Cooper Union: exhibitions, music, lectures

Arte Contemporaneo - ARCO 2009

SOLO PROJECTS
Curated by: Moacir dos Anjos, Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, Alistair Hicks, Susanne Neubauer, Virginia Pérez-Ratton, María Inés Rodríguez, David G. Torres

The boldness of groundbreaking emerging art and the experimentation of the most diverse contemporary creation are the key features of this new edition of SOLO PROJECTS, one of the most successful ARCOmadrid programmes. A team of eight renowned curators selected 35 art projects with a high conceptual level, combining traditional vernaculars with new contemporary supports.Conceived to provide spaces for dialogue and confrontation, this curatorial project has opted for the inclusion of a large number of young art practitioners, with proposals travelling diametrically different paths. In this regard, the pieces on display at this year’s ARCOmadrid range from engaged critique within contemporary practice or reflections on the urban space, to conceptual diversity or proposals arriving from peripheral axes.

Arte Contemporaneo - ARCO

che cos’è la cultura?

Una serie di domande su “che cos’è la cultura” viene insinuata in città attraverso un’articolata campagna di comunicazione con i modi e i supporti della pubblicità: affissione pubblica – con spazi forniti da IGP Decaux e da MBA Group, oltre agli appositi spazi comunali –, video-proiezioni sui megaschermi della città, box illuminati nelle stazioni del metrò e autobus decorati.

Inoltre, poster relativi alle 15 domande sono a disposizione presso l'info-point di Spazio Oberdan, mentre 150.000 cartoline Promocard (10.000 cartoline per ogni domanda) sono in distribuzione al pubblico in diversi luoghi cittadini.Le risposte possono essere consegnate allo Spazio Oberdan o inviate direttamente al sito www.alfredojaar.net/questions.questions.

"Questions, Questions". Un progetto pubblico di Alfredo Jaar

Speranze & Dubbi. Arte giovane tra Italia e Libano

La Fondazione Merz di Torino e l’Istituto Italiano di Cultura a Beirut presentano la mostra Speranze & Dubbi, progetto a cura di Costantino D’Orazio che coinvolge otto artisti Italiani e otto Libanesi. L’esposizione, che dal 20 al 23 dicembre 2008 è stata ospitata a Beirut, punta alla costruzione di un ponte ideale tra la scena artistica italiane e libanese, attraverso le opere di alcuni artisti contemporanei che propongono visioni del mondo accomunate dal medesimo atteggiamento interrogativo.

Malgrado le vicende storiche dei due paesi siano così diverse, tra Italia e Libano esiste un comune sentire in tutti gli ambiti della creatività. Gli artisti libanesi hanno sempre mostrato una naturale proiezione verso i linguaggi del Mediterraneo occidentale e, allo stesso tempo, gli artisti italiani condividono con i colleghi libanesi una simile attitudine nella descrizione della precarietà del mondo attuale.

Elisabetta Benassi, Ginou Choueiri, Elisabetta Di Maggio, Michael Fliri, Francesco Gennari, Pascal Hachem, Lina Hakim, Joanne Issa, Zena el Khalil, Marzia Migliora, Randa Mirza, Giuseppe Pietroniro, Luisa Rabbia, Marwan Rechmaoui, Rima Saab, Andrea Salvino.

fondazionemerz

Joburg Art Fair 2009

Joburg Art Fair is an annual art fair, presented by FNB and launched earlier this year by Artlogic, the company that brought William Kentridge’s The Magic Flute to local audiences.

From 12 to 16 March 2008, 22 major galleries took up 5 000 square metres of the Sandton Convention Centre boasting the largest collection of African and South African contemporary art the world had ever seen beneath one roof. It was the first Joburg Art Fair – not only a first for the city, but for the African continent – and it proved to be a resounding success. Johannesburg joined the ranks of cities like London, Miami, Shanghai, Toronto, Glasgow, Dubai, Chicago and Melbourne, all of which boast box-office-busting annual art fairs of their own.

The second Joburg Art Fair, scheduled for 3-5 April 2009, promises to be an even more eclectic and immersive experience, drawing a huge array of creative individuals from across the country and the continent.

Joburg Art Fair

Running On Empty

Running On Empty
the fossil fuel addiction
Curated By Bart King

ATHICA: Athens Institute for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce our 30th exhibition, Running on Empty, an examination of fossil fuel dependence that runs from Saturday, January 31 through Sunday, March 22, 2009.

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said emissions of greenhouse gases--released when fossil fuels are burned--must peak and begin to decline within ten years if the planet is to avoid the worst effects of global climate change. Delegates from 186 countries around the world are currently engaged in precarious negotiations to craft an international treaty by the end of 2009 to make this happen. President-elect Obama says he is committed to taking international leadership on the issue, whereas the current administration has done nothing. And the American public finally seems to be waking up to this global threat, as evidenced by the popularity of recent films such as An Inconvenient Truth and Wall-E.

ATHICA

Art listings & art announcements from southerncreativity - southerncreativity.com was an outgrowth of an idea by a few former UGA students/Athens area artists who were trying to keep their creative souls & energy engaged.

Queens International 4

Queens International 4
A Biennial Survey of Artists Living or Working in Queens

On view January 24 - April 26, 2009

José Ruiz and Erin Sickler, co-curators

Queens International 4 (QI4), the fourth installment of this biennial, is a survey of new and on-going projects by 42 emerging and established artists, artist collaborations and artist collectives from 18 countries that now live and/or work within Queens. QI4 reflects the multiple influences, thematic breadth and broad range of traditional and experimental approaches employed by the vibrant and growing artist communities in Queens. By developing their own artistic perspective from a position on the art world periphery rather than at its center of influence, the QI4 artists explore the contradictions of the mainstream art world and the real world.

:: Exhibitions and Artists - Queens International 4

E-Cyclorama

To describe E-Cyclorama as a painting by Sanford Wurmfeld on the inside of a huge cylinder is to miss the point.

This massive panorama of color, viewed by stepping inside the cylinder, makes it possible to experience the power, dynamics and beauty of color.

Neuberger Museum of Art

Ephemerality

"Ephemerality is an experimental gallery exhibition that explores ways in which art, communication, and technology can be used to create a greater sense of connection and meaning within reclaimed wild spaces, natural time, weather, and seasons."

The Schuylkill Center - Departments - Environmental Art - Exhibitions

SUSAN WHITE

Susan White lives in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia and currently teaches Non-Toxic Printmaking Methods at The University of the Arts and 2D Foundation Principles at Tyler School of Art. She received a BFA in Printmaking from Moore College of Art and Design and an MFA in Book arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts.

SUSAN WHITE