Archive: Issue No. 123, November 2007

04.11.07 Kendell Geers at Yvon Lambert, Paris
04.11.07 Siopis and Stainer in London
04.11.07 Terry Kurgan's 'Hotel Yeoville' at Idensitat07, Barcelona
04.11.07 'I am not afraid: The Market Photo Workshop' in Austria
04.11.07 Titus Matiyane at the University of Technology, Netherlands
04.11.07 Hobbs/Neustetter and Machfeld collaborating at Medienkunstlabor im Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

07.10.07 Afrikan Tähti: Digging for Gold at Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma
07.10.07 3 Point Turn: Simon Gush and Dorothee Kreutzfelt in Belgium
07.10.07 Apartheid: The South African Mirror, Barcelona
07.10.07 Desirealities at Escape 1789
07.10.07 Un/Fair Trade: The Art of Justice in Austria
07.10.07 Modern Art and Cultural Development in a Changing Society in Bratislava, Slovakia
07.10.07 Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art
07.10.07 Mikhael Subotzky Award Show in Amsterdam

20.09.07 'Autumn Season' at Baltic
17.09.07 James Webb at the Lyon Biennale

03.06.07 52nd Biennale di Venezia, Italy
06.05.07 Nathaniel Stern in Ireland

THE AMERICAS

04.11.07 William Kentridge and Robin Rhode at the San Diego Museum of Art
04.11.07 Raymond Keeping in New York
04.11.07 Simon Gush in 'El Manifest de Santiago', Chile
04.11.07 William Kentridge and Nathaniel Stern at International Print Center, New York
04.11.07 Ed Young in Miami

07.10.07 Inscribing Meaning at the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles

30.09.07 New Photography at the MoMA

MIDDLE EAST

07.10.07 'Bare Life' opens in Jerusalem

'Kannibale', Kendell Geers' first solo exhibition at Yvon Lambert, Paris examines the notion of Cannibalism as out lined in the 1928, 'Manifesto Antropòfago' by Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade: 'Only Cannibalism unites us. Socially. Economically. Philosophically'. In this Manifesto, Cannibalism is a powerful metaphor for the cultural incorporation of the values of 'what's not mine', 'what's stranger to me'; as well as a radical vision for extremes of violence.

Geers uses Andrade's 'Manifesto Antropòfago' and takes cannibalism as a symbolic practice, a metaphor for violent acts that occur in societies, risen from excess of power, domination (especially colonialism and class structure), economic exploitation, emotional impulses and traumas. This cannibalism makes no attempt to strive towards a reduction of tensions. However, its instinct focuses on what is positive; the creative flows, life drives, eroticism and cultural exchange.

Opens: October 18
Closes: December 8

'Unbound', curated by Predrag Pajdic, takes the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Britain as its starting point for examining current day perceptions of freedom and slavery. The group exhibition features international artists working in a variety of media including conceptual work, photography, video, film, installations, live performances and interventions.

Exhibiting artists include: Justin Allen/Switch Theatre, Oreet Ashery, Yasmeen Al Awadi, Barney Ashton, Tim Blake, Nemanja Cvijanovic, Martin Effert, Wendy Faucheaux Dolan, Sagi Groner, Emily Jacir, Vesna Milicevic, Jean Gabriel Periot, Michael Petry, Nada Prlja, Santiago Sierra, Penny Siopis, Emily Stainer and Judith Witteman.

Opens: November 2
Closes: December 13

Terry Kurgan's latest initiative, 'Hotel Yeoville', has been selected for inclusion in 'Idensitat07: Home & Away'. 'Idensitat' is an international art project, exhibition and laboratory for public art projects experimenting with new and unusual forms of social engagement and public participation curated by Ramon Parramon.

The series of events, which will look at themes and issues surrounding 'Home & Away' in the international context, will take place in Spain beginning with a conference in November 2007 and culminating in an exhibition in 2008. Projects from a diverse range of countries have been included and Kurgan will be exhibiting and also presenting her project in a public debate forum at the Centre d'Art Santa Mònica in Barcelona.

Conference Date: Novmber 23
Exhibition dates: to be confirmed

Photographers Bonile Bam, Jodi Bieber, Lerato Maduna, Sabelo Mlangeni, Zanele Muholi and Nontsikelelo 'Lolo' Veleko will be exhibiting at Camera Austria in Graz at the end of this month. 'I'm not afraid: The Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg' showcases works by graduates and students of the school of photography founded by David Goldblatt in Johannesburg towards the end of the 80s.

This exhibition - accompanied by the 100th issue of Camera Austria International, in which it will be the main feature - presents a collection of viewpoints which directly confront such issues as violence, different sexual politics, and economic niche work.

Opens: November 30
Closes: March 2

Symposium: 10am - 6pm, December 1

The international event 'African Perspectives' is a joint initiative by the Faculty of Architecture of Delft University of Technology and ArchiAfrika. 'African Perspectives' is an opportunity for architects, urban planners and other professionals, academics, students and interested people from all over the world to network at workshops, debates, exhibitions and films.

The focal point of the event will be an exhibition and catalogue of a work by Titus Matiyane entitled Cities of the World. Matiyane lives and works in Atteridgeville, a township close to Pretoria. His panoramic drawings (1.5 metres high and from six to 46 metres long) give the impression that the artist has studied cities and landscapes from the air. However, his first panoramas date from the early 1990s and he did not fly for the first time until 1998.

Curators of this exhibition are Stephen Hobbs, Kristin Feireiss and Annemieke de Kler.

Opens: December 6
Closes: December 8

Hobbs/Neustetter and Austrian digital media artist duo Machfeld will be exhibiting the results of their collaborative activities, (which began in Johannesburg in March this year) at the Medienkunstlabor, Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria. The final outcome will be presented through public space interventions and an exhibition.

Opens: December 6
Closes: January 13

As part of the exhibition 'Common Ground', which opens on October 6 at Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma, Liza Grobler and Jeanne Hoffman will be presenting their interactive visual arts project based on the Finnish board game 'Tähti:' (translated: 'African Star').

The project links urban development in South Africa to art incentives in Finland and is a tongue-in-cheek attempt by the two to build a visual and interactive game that might provide a contemporary glimpse into our dark continent of minerals and savages...

The work consists of a public 'explorer' route through the town of Rauma. An aerial perspective of the route would reveal it to be in the shape of the African continent (as is the case in the original board game). The route begins and ends at a space within the Lönnström Art Museum.

Opens: Oct 6
Closes: Jan 6

The documentation of collaborative performance '3 Point Turn' by Simon Gush and Dorothee Kreutzfelt, and realised by Sam Matentji, is part of 'Open Archive #1: Trajectories in Audiovisual Art and Culture' opening at argos in Brussels on September 29.

Opens: Sept 29
Closes: Nov 10

'Apartheid: The South African Mirror', curated by Pep Subirós, exhibits a conceptual and visual approach to the old and new forms of prejudice and racial discrimination, based on a wide selection of original artworks and documentary material.

The exhibition documents the development of the ideologies and practices that establish different categories of human beings, shows in detail the social, political, economic, cultural and territorial system of apartheid in force in South Africa between 1948 and 1994 and argues that, over the last two decades, new forms of racism and racial segregation have developed on a large scale, both within our democratic societies as well as, and especially, in the relationship between rich and poor nations.

The exhibition includes works by Jane Alexander, David Goldblatt, William Kentridge, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Santu Mofokeng, Berni Searle, Penny Siopis, Paul Stopforth, Sue Williamson, Albert Adams, Peter Clarke, Ernest Cole, Dumile Feni, Billy Mandindi, Ephrain Ngatane, Gerard Sekoto and Durant Sihlali among others.

The final sections of the exhibition include works by artists from the most recent generations, such as Conrad Botes, Churchill Madikida, Johannes Phokela, Nandipha Mntambo, Tracey Rose, Lolo Veleko and Donovan Ward, which demonstrate the continuous vitality of the South African art scene and the renewed commitment by many artists to their historical context.

Alexander, Botes, Mntambo, Mthethwa and Peter McKenzie have produced new works for this exhibition.

Opens: Sept 26
Closes: Jan 13

'Desirealities' focuses on the construction or reconstruction of realities and experiences in the work of a select group of South African artists. The Exhibition consists of two parts:

Animated images/Art on the move - which examines video work; and
Inanimate images/Art that moves - which exhibits primarily photographic work

Featured artists include Roger Ballen, Lien Botha, Moshekwa Langa, Thando Mama, Zwelethu Mhtethwa, Sam Nhlengethwa, Tracey Rose, Penny Siopis, Andrew Tshabangu and Lolo Veleko.

Opens: Sept 24
Closes: Nov 4

'Un/Fair Trade: The Art of Justice' focuses on trade and commerce in a growing capitalist global economy, not in the sense of conventional criticism of globalisation, but rather in an attempt to draw attention to fair trade, and above all, fair exchange.

The exhibition not only presents works dealing with this theme, but - in co-operation with scientists from the fields of economics, sociology and cultural theory - an online component has also been developed. Visitors are encouraged to contribute thoughts, opinions, or even original artwork on the subject of 'Un/fair Trade' and these online musings will subsequently be exhibited in the museum.

South African artists Andrew Tshabangu and Ismail Farouk exhibit alongside 28 other artists from Austria, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Germany, Ghana, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, USA and Vietnam.

Opens: Sept 23
Closes: Nov 25

Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum,
Sackstrabe 16, Graz, Austria
Tel: (+43) 0316 / 829155
Fax: (+43) 0316 / 815401
Email: neuegalerie@museum-joanneum.at
www.neuegalerie.at/07/trade/cover_e.html

For the next two months, visitors to the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia, will be able to view almost 30 artists who have been selected in cooperation with the Iziko South African National Gallery and several leading art galleries in South Africa for 'South African Art: Modern Art and Cultural Development in a Changing Society.'

Artists exhibiting include Willie Bester, Conrad Botes, Tamlin Blake, Norman Catherine, Marlene Dumas, David Goldblatt, Robert Hodgins, Anton Kannemeyer, Esther Mahlangu, Mustafa Maluka, Zwelethu Mthwethwa, Berni Searle and Cecil Skotnes.

Opens: Sept
Closes Nov 18

Jane Alexander's installation Security/Säkerhet (2007) is on show at the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art in Sweden. The Biennial, which opened on August 25 now presents its fourth edition and presents works by 28 artists and artists' groups from many different parts of the world. The exhibition will spread to five different venues in Göteborg: Röda Sten, Röhsska museum, the Old Post Office, Göteborg's Konsthall and the gallery Kaustik.

Security/Säkerhet is on exhibit at Röda Sten until Nov 25.

Opens: 25 Aug
Closes: 25 Nov

In March 2007 an international jury named Mikhael Subotzky one of the winners of the annual KLM Paul Huf Award. Part of this prize for young international photographers is a solo exhibition at Foam, and Subotzky's Beaufort West series, seen most recently at the Goodman Gallery Cape, is the first of these two shows.

Opens: September 21
Closes: November 11

Kendell Geers' 'IRRESPEKTIV' will be part of the lineup for the Autumn Season at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Geers' monograph of the same name was launched recently. Other participating artists are Kader Attia, Linder, Ant Macari and Suky Best.

Opens: September 20

The next Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art - entitled 'The 00's - The history of a decade that has not yet been named' - will open on September 17. The project devised for this 9th edition by Stéphanie Moisdon and Hans Ulrich Obrist is a history book written by a number of people: 'the history of a decade yet to be named; of a present that is endlessly arriving'.

The project is structured like a grand game, with rules for selecting and casting the roles; a game in which some 50 'players' from around the world are invited to invite an essential artist of this decade. Art South Africa editor Sean O'Toole, as the 'player', has invited Cape Town artist James Webb to exhibit.

A 'history book' will be published on the occasion of the biennial as both the project's origin and its horizon with essays by philosophers, critics and historians, and the manifesto texts of each player, centred on a particular vision of the present and of what is happening on the contemporary creative scene.

Opens: September 17
Closes: December 31

With all of its usual fanfare, the venerable Venice Biennale throws open its doors on June 10. This year, for the first time, a sizeable group of artists will show in the heart of the Biennial under the banner of an African Pavilion, located in the Arsenale. The show, curated by Fernando Alvim and Simon Njami, has been drawn from the Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art, and is entitled 'Check List Luanda Pop'

Opens: June 10
Closes: November 21

Full story: see NEWS

www.labiennale.org

Nathaniel Stern exhibits with Cork-based Canadian Paul LaRocque at the Haydn Shaughnessy Gallery all throughout the Irish Summer.

Stern presents a series of revolving performative prints, using a custom-built scanner appendage in and around his subjects and objects, this time engaging with the stories, locals and surrounds of West Cork and Dublin. Also in the gallery, printmaker Paul LaRocque combines digital and traditional techniques, local iconography and political discourse to explore cultural relationships in an increasingly globalised world.

Opens: May 31
Closes: Winter in Ireland

The San Diego Museum of Art's new exhibition, 'Animated Painting', showcases contemporary artists who adapt traditional painting and drawing methods to the concepts and technologies of animation. Twenty moving-image works by 14 international contemporary artists are featured on the exhibition.

Highlights include William Kentridge's animated film Tide Table (2005); computer animated figures by Julian Opie displayed outside of the Museum; Jeremy Blake's digital video Sodium Fox (2005); and Sadie Benning's video projection of hand-made drawings, Play Pause (2006). Other participating artists are the Barnstormers, Sebastián Díaz Morales, Kota Ezawa, Ruth Gómez, Ann Lislegaard, Takeshi Murata, Serge Onnen, Wit Pimkanchanapong, Qiu Anxiong and Robin Rhode.

In conjunction with 'Animated Painting', SDMA is presenting a free four-part symposium titled 'Animation: From the Avant-Garde to Popular Culture'. The symposium takes place on Thursday, November 1, and Saturday, November 3, and includes panel discussions by leading art and animation scholars, presentations of artworks, and a screening of animation by Southern California artists.

The exhibition moves to Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT) in Tijuana, Mexico in 2008 and the Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, in 2009. Opens: October 13
Closes: January 13

Mexico
Opens: October 1 2008
Closes: December 31 2008

Iowa
Opens: February 6 2009
Closes: April 19 2009

During the last two weeks of October a selected group of artists gathered in Santiago, Chile to workshop the idea of 'El Manifest de Santiago'.

The project, curated by Philippe Van Cauteren, is the product of a collaboration between artists from the Academy of Münster, the University of Santiago and the HISK in Belgium (where selected South African artist Simon Gush is currently based).

The manifesto was devised through a series of workshops, performances and roundtable discussions and the final product was presented on October 31. Opens: October 31
Closes: November 25

The Kyle Kauffman Gallery presents 'Travellers: South African Photographs from Another Era', South African photographer Raymond Keeping's first solo exhibition in the United States. The images on exhibition are believed to be the earliest colour photographs that document the material culture of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples.

Recently found among old art supplies ready to be discarded, the original 1958 glass slides from which these works were printed remain in nearly pristine condition. In 2006, Keeping commenced the selection, restoration, editing, and production of this project. Sadly, he passed away in August of that year, before he could witness the mounting of the exhibition.

These photographs remain a testament to Keeping's remarkable ability to both instantaneously isolate and capture an image, and then extract it from its historical moment, thus initiating a dialogue between their past and our present.

Opens: October 25
Closes: November 26

International Print Center New York presents their Autumn 2007 season of 'New Prints' opening at the beginning of November. On exhibition are Willliam Kentridge and Nathaniel Stern alongside the likes of Jenny Holzer and Chuck Close.

Other artists on exhibition include: Eric Avery, Marieke Bolhuis, Maria de la Providencia Casanovas, Michele Oka Doner, Richard Dupont, Eduardo Fausti, Barnaby Furnas, Yuji Hiratsuka, Laurie Hogin, Tom Huck, Sarah Nicholls, Andrew Stein Raftery, Jaune Quick-to-see-Smith, Tom Spleth, Craig Taylor, Mary Temple and Nicola Tyson.

The exhibition travels to Columbia College in Chicago early next year.

Opens: November 1
Closes: December 19

Chicago
Opens: January 16
Closes: Feb 22

Opening in conjunction with the Wynwood Art District Walk and Art Basel Miami, Locust Projects concludes their 2007 season by bringing together three artists, from three continents, presenting three original exhibitions: L/B: Pocket Stadium; Mark Clintberg: Get Lost; and Ed Young: I Love New Work.

In their first exhibition in Miami, the Swiss-based duo known as L/B, Sabine Lang and Daniel Baumann, will debut their site-specific sculptural installation. L/B constructs environments incorporating functionality, architecture and art to make interiors and objects that interact with the participant, while subverting the utilitarian nature of space planning. Get Lost, curated by Canada-born Mark Clintberg, is a compilation of recent single channel video art by young Canadian artists anchored by the artists' collective exploration of wandering and romanticism.

I Love New Work will be the first site-specific Locust Projects mural project of South African born artist Ed Young. He utilizes forms of conceptualism, performance, and minimalism, underscored by his persona, to call attention to major themes of boredom, insolence and laziness. Young investigates the idea that the structure of the art world has superseded the art object itself. For this project, Young will create a new site-specific mural every four months for one year. The final mural will coincide with Art Basel Miami 2008.

Opens: November 10
Closes: December 31

'Inscribing Meaning', opening in October at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, brings together works of art from a range of periods, regions, genres, and peoples in order to consider the interplay between African art and the communicative power of graphic systems, language, and the written word. More than 100 artworks are on display, including ancient Egyptian funerary arts; masks, sculpture, textiles, and adornment from across the continent; illuminated liturgical texts, as well as the work of contemporary artists Rachid Koraïchi, Ghada Amer, Berni Searle, Ike Ude, Victor Ekpuk, Sue Williamson, Kim Berman, Yinka Shonibare, Wosene Kosrof, amongst others.

Opens: Oct 14
Closes: Feb 17

Berni Searle is one of a group of three photographers selected for 'New Photography 2007', an annual prestigious exhibition which showcases the work of a select group of artists from around the world.

This is the second year running the museum has chosen a South African - in 2006 one of the choices was Robin Rhode. Searle will be showing work from the About to Forget series, based on the memory of her own fractured family.

Opens: September 30
Closes: January 1

By means of artworks on display for the first time in Israel, 'Bare Life' seeks to explore how the borderlines delineating identity, freedom and security shift during periods of emergency and uncertainty, impairing the basic rights of the individual.

Curated by Raphie Etgar, the participating artists include William Kentridge, Kendell Geers, Berni Searle and Mikhael Subotzky. Sophie Calle (France), Bill Viola (US), Wilhelm Sasnal (Poland) and Paul McCarthy (US) are also in the lineup.

Opens: October 10