Archive: Issue No. 99, November 2005

4.11.05 Gregg Smith in Spain, Germany and France
4.11.05 Ed Young and Mikhael Subotzky in Turin

7.10.05 Hentjie van der Merwe in Antwerp

3.06.05 51st Venice Biennale

THE AMERICAS

4.11.05 PERFORMA05
4.11.05 Robin Rhode in 'New Photography '05' at MoMA
4.11.05 Ed Young and Frances Goodman in Threat Zone

7.10.05 Ralph Borland at MOMA

5.08.05 Kendell Geers at inSite_05 on the Mexican Border

AFRICA

4.11.05 Guy Tillim and Mikhael Subotzky in Mali
 

Capetonian Gregg Smith, who is now resident in France features with his film Should We Never Meet Again at a number of venues throughout Europe. The film was made in Paris and Tourcoing in the first half of 2005 will be shown at the 'LOOP Video Festival', Galeria des Angels, Barcelona; 'Model Missed Opportunities', curated by Sabine Winkler at the Brandenburgische Kunstverein in Germany; and 'L'art de produire l'art', curated by Christophe Kihm at 'Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporain'.

LOOP Video Festival
Opens: November 8
Closes: December 15

'T Turin Triennial Threemuseums' is a new exhibition curated by Francesco Bonami and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev that plans to present the most innovative developments in the visual arts. The triennial is organised by the Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and the GAM Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino

Each edition of 'T' plans to be organised in two parts: the first is an invitational section of 75 young artists from around the world, this year including Ed Young and Mikhael Subotzky. The second section of the event pays homage, with solo exhibitions, to two mid-career established artists, this year including Takashi Murakami.

Young will be exhibiting Damn Those Bitches Represent, Bruce Gordon and the performance Do Nothing.

Opens: November 11
Closes: March 19

South African-born, Belgian resident Hentjie van der Merwe exhibits 'Trophies', a solo show of new photographs, at the Tim van Laere Gallery in Antwerp.

Opens: October 15
Closes: November 26

Under the direction of the first women to be appointed to the position, Maria de Corral, and Rosa Martinez, the most venerable of the world's biennales, the 51st Venice Biennale, opens in the Giardini di Castello and its surroundings on June 12. Continually lambasted by critics from all sides for not presenting a cohesive vision of the new, the event holds its position as the grand old lady of the art calendar. For a full rundown on the event and the South African participation, go to Andrew Lamprecht's preview on News.

Opens: June 12
Closes: November 6

Ex South African RoseLee Goldberg is the Founding Director and Curator of Performa05, the first biennial of new visual art performance in New York City. More than 20 venues throughout New York will host a multidisciplinary programme of live performances, film screenings, lectures and exhibitions.

Presented by the Museum for African Art, Searle's triple-screen projection About to Forget, which will be projected across the breadth of the Angel Orensanz altar. Home and Away, a two-screen projection, will also be installed in the converted synagogue. The lyrical and enigmatic imagery and ambient soundtracks of the two films complement the sacred context of this installation. Home and Away juxtaposes projections of the receding shorelines of Spain and Morocco respectively, opposing views of the calm Moroccan sea with an ominous inky blackness engulfing Searle's body as it floats off the Spanish coast.

Searle's point of departure for About to Forget is a collection of photographs of three generations of her family, examining a fractured past: a family divided by religious differences and racial classifications. Searle's title references the process of forgetting, which entwines both the presence and absence of memory, and, in between, a series of gradually fading after-images of people and events that linger in the mind.

Opens: November 3
Closes: November 21

Robin Rhode exhibits alongside Carlos Garaicoa, Bertien van Manen and Phillip Pisciotta in 'New Photography '05' an annual series of exhibitions devoted to significant recent work in photography. Since 1985, over 50 artists from 13 countries have been featured in this forum. After a six-year hiatus, the New Photography series resumes, presenting work by four artists from Cuba, Holland, the United States and South Africa, respectively. They all work in a variety of techniques and across a range of themes.

Opens: October 21
Closes: January 16

'Threat Zones' at the Triangle Project Space in Texas explores society's obsession with threats to personal and public safety. Frances Goodman exhibits The Voice of Reason which explores the increase of fear of germs and increasing neuroses in contemporary society and was shown in Cape Town a few years back. Ed Young shows Killing Teddy, a video of the usually doe-eyed artist mercilessly murdering a series of fuzzy teddy bears with a shotgun, car etc.

Opens: November 18
Closes: December 17

Ralph Borland's artwork 'Suited for Subversion' will be exhibited this month in a group show at the New York Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is entitled SAFE: Design takes on Risk, and will be the first major design exhibition at MoMA since its reopening in November 2004.

SAFE: Design Takes On Risk features a carefully selected array of more than 300 contemporary design objects and prototypes from all over the world designed for a variety of reasons: to protect body and mind from dangerous or stressful circumstances; respond to emergency situations; ensure clarity of information; and provide a sense of comfort and security. The objects displayed in the exhibition address the spectrum of human fears and worries, from the most exceptional to the most mundane, from the dread of earthquakes and terrorist attacks to fear of darkness and loneliness. The exhibition is organized by Paola Antonelli, Curator, and Patricia Juncosa Vecchierini, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.

'Suited for Subversion' is a project to create a suit that protects the wearer at large-scale street protests. The suit also monitors the wearer's pulse and projects an amplified heartbeat out of a speaker in the chest of the suit. Ralph Borland presented this work while in development as part of his submission to the Public Eye conference 'Beyond the Gallery' in Cape Town in 2002.

Opens: October 16
Closes: January 2, 2006

Kendell Geers, the man South African artists love to hate, is taking part in the museum-based component of 'inSite_05' on the Mexico/San Diego border. The exhibition, 'Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art', is organised by the San Diego Museum of Art and the Centro Cultural Tijuana and infiltrates a number of galleries spanning the two areas. For more than 10 years, inSite has focused on stimulating artistic practices that explore what we understand by the terms 'public', 'urban', and 'border' and 'Farsites' is the culmination of two years of lectures, public projects and artists' residencies.

Opens: August 27
Closes: November 13

Guy Tillim will exhibit his well travelled Jo'burg series at the '6th African Photography Encounters' in Bamako, Mali. Tillim has recently won a number of prizes. Rising young Michaelis graduate Mikhael Subotzky is also on the show along with Namibian/South African artist Helga Kohl.

Opens: November 10
Closes: December 10