I wanna be your dog

Sent in by Dario.

documenta 12 ::: fridericianum level 01

© Photo Julia Zimmermann | documenta GmbH

As mentioned yesterday I'll start my covering of this year's documenta with introducing my favourite artists/presentations. Kate has her very own interpretation of documenta 12 which she is really crazy about. Concering her documenta has to be seen as a whole consisting of many tiny elements, which means that the artists themselves aren't THAT important for the exhibition's meaning. She has some very interessting arguments which she plans to put together in a huge article which has to be published (I'll tell you as soon it has happend). Well actually she seems to truely understand Roger Burgel's Leitmotifs which I refused to, but well I somehow did understand them, but am still not convinced that the exhibition is a good one, although the "motifs" were the right ones...

Well here you'll find the floorplan of the Fridericianum, where you'll be able to locate the following artists:

John McCracken | Swift

© Courtesy John Mc Cracken, David Zwirner, New York, Hauser & Wirth Collection, Switzerland Photo: Ines Agostinelli

The work by the 1934 born McCracken is located at the Fridericianum's entrance hall. Unfortunately I came in via a backdoor (well sometimes I like it to sneek in unnoticed or simply without lining up) so I missed the experience of waiting and then entering this shiny, reflecting hall. I took my photo when I left and posted it yesterday. The photo here - taken from the press CD - also shows the monolith in the middle of the hall. 1966 McCracken wrote about his works:

“My tendency is to reduce everything to single things: Things which refer to nothing outside themselves, but which at the same time refer, or relate, to everything. I find that I can’t examine my sculptures from a dualistic point of view which sees everything in terms of opposites (life – death, right – wrong, natural – unnatural), because this produces what seem to be paradoxes.”

Well sounds very minimalistic, huh?

Harun Farocki | Deep Play

© Courtesy the artist / Greene Naftali Gallery, New York Photos: Julia Zimmermann / documenta GmbH

Guess this was the room a lot of male visitors liked the most. At least SOMETHING to refer to. I don't know why I was so fascinated about this room, well it probably reminded me of last summer's worldcup here in Germany, or I simply liked the idea of searching for a higher "spirit" behind common things, like football for example.

"One-and-a-half billion people saw exactly the same images of the World Cup final in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium last year. Harun Farocki interprets this phenomenon – the monopolisation of live pictures – as the television industry’s staging of the world. On twelve monitors in the rotunda of the Museum Fridericianum, his video installation Deep Play presents original material from the television broadcasting companies alongside digitally processed images that simulate the mathematical analysis of the game. There is no commentary, only the unfiltered voices of sports commentators, police and TV stage-direction which expose the process of perfection to which the telecast is subjected." (pressrelease)

Peter Friedl | Tiger oder Löwe

© Peter Friedl; photo Hans Nevidal / documenta GmbH

I loved the tiger and the snake (which isn't real). They both reminded me of my playing dog. Well art? Yes, there's something in here! The video is an comical homage to a Delacroix painting (Tiger and Snake, 1862), hanging in the Hamburger Kunsthalle.

Credit: corcoran.org

"When invited to a group exhibition, Friedl once brought a real tiger and a stuffed snake into the Olympiasaal, the room in which the historical point of reference hangs. Like Friedl, Delacroix was also interested in contemporary theatre, Shakespearean dramas for example. In Delacroix’s painting, the tiger threatens the snake in the wilderness. Friedl’s video is an ironic challenge to the pathos in Delacroix’s painting, and serves to put 'the institutional expectations on another level'."(pressrelease)

I guess this video is one of the few pieces Roger Buergel installed for enjoyment!? Alright, I enjoyed it!

Trisha Brown | Drawings

© Trisha Brown; photo Egbert Trogemann / documenta GmbH © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2007

Not the most spectaculas work of the New York based artist/dancer/choreographer (I'll come to that one later), but well I very poetic little arrangement of very nice and inspiring drawings.

"Drawings have accompanied Brown for a long time. They remain a private expression. At the beginning, they were a documentation of what she did in her choreographies. Then the hand and floor drawings took on a life of their own. Today she also sees ideas in the drawings that flow into the dance process. Quick drawings move, and movement is drawing in the air." (pressrelease)

documenta12 ::: back from kassel

Fridericianum © Photo Julia Zimmermann | documenta GmbH

Hey guys (and girls), I'm back from documenta12, Kassel. Totally exhausted and kind of frustrated. It definitely is a hard to understand kind of exhibition which needs a lot of background information. I hardly knew any of the artists and am still wondering wether I'm simply uninformed or Roger Buergel is a strange person who lives in a strange art world, I hope for the latter to be true.


Inside the Fridericianum

We arrived in Kassel on friday noon. After checking into our dorm (which was located near Kassel's main station which is actually called Kulturbahnhof which litteraly means "culture station" where cultural activities like concerts and exhibitions take place) we left for the Fridericianum, one of the exhibition places of the documenta. The documenta's website offers the possibility to download audioguides for your ipod. So if you're interessted in listening to the Fridericianum's introduction please download the mp3 file here.

Iole de Freitas, 2007 © Photo Julia Zimmermann | documenta GmbH

Inside Fridericianum © Photo Frank Schinski | documenta GmbH

The Fridericianum showed only a few artists I really liked/enjoyed. It actually was really hard to discover anything because of the more or less art interesseted mass of people everywhere, plus the really strange exhibition setting: Painted walls (good bye white cube), curtained windows which spend gloomy daylight, light spots. All in all a very tiring kind of installation. The press photos aren't to be taken for granted, hah well understandable isn' it?

Andrei Monastyrski Fountain, 2005 © Photo Egbert Trogemann | documenta GmbH © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2007

Zheng Guogu Waterfall, 2006 © Photo: Hans Nevidal | documenta GmbH

My overall impression of this years documenta isn't a positive one. But I still feel kind of unqualified to really criticise the whole concept, so I'll limit my writings to the artists I really liked and understood in the whole context (which aren't a lot!). But what I still don't get: Isn't the documenta supposed to be an exhibition on the most current art of the world? On the art that really drives us NOW? Is the documenta an trendsetter or a trendscout? Or both? What do you think?

Luis Jacob Album III, 2004 © Photo Roman März | documenta GmbH

Sheila Gowda And…, 2007 © Photo Roman März | documenta GmbH

mmk frankfurt

I've been to frankfurt yesterday, to do a little shopping (H&M and books) and visit the mmk (Museum for Modern Art) to see the current exhibitions: Das Kapital - Blue Chips&Masterpieces, installations by Maurizio Cattelan and a performance by Tino Sehgal ("This is so contemporary" - you've probably seen this one at the Venice Biennale two years ago).



"The Rolf Ricke Collection is the most extensive and valuable acquisition made by Museum für Moderne Kunst since the purchase of the Karl Ströher Collection in 1981."




"It includes works by such trail-blazing artists as Donald Judd, Richard Artschwager, Barry Le Va, Keith Sonnier, Richard Serra, Jo Baer, Dan Flavin, Gary Kuehn, Lee Lozano, Fabian Marcaccio, Cady Noland, Steven Parrino and David Reed. The exhibition entitled Das Kapital – Blue Chips & Masterpieces embraces the entire building, showcasing outstanding works from the MMK Collection – from Andy Warhol and Robert Gober to Luc Tuymans – in a new dialog with oeuvres from the Rolf Ricke Collection." Source: Pressrelease

Kunstakademie Stuttgart Sommerausstellung 2007

I'm back home and brought some nice pictures for you. I've been to the Rundgang of the Kunstakademie in Stuttgart a couple of hours ago, which opend yesterday and will be open until Monday. Please download the floorplan (pdf) here



In my opinion student's exhibition are always kind of problematic. Although many of the students might have had good ideas, they often aren't capable of transforming them into actual communicating products, pictures, installations, photographs, whatever. Well you might say now, that they are there to learn, but in most of the cases I'm not sure if they'll ever learn it. So, what I'm trying to say is that Rundgang exhibitions can be very exhausting since you'll always have to deal with loads of crapp before finding a diamond.



Besides art (sculpture and painting) you can also study architecture, industrial design and graphic design at the Stuttgart academy. My friend Carolin Jörg - I exhibited her work at my flur gallery recently - also studied there.



I'm really sorry for the bad quality pictures. I urgently need a new camera but somehow can't afford one right now ;-( Pictures will be better in future, I promise!

hedi slimane in berlin

If you couldn't make it to the opening of the exhibition Hedi Slimane curated for Arndt&Partner gallery, please click the image below to view the video the kunstkontakter made for us left behind.
Well Hedi was there - as Hedi-like as possible - and seemed to cause some kind of excitement. Good for the gallerists, but not so good for the art I guess...

la biennale ::: part 03

Deutsche Bank is amongst the sponsors of the German Pavillon. It is really nice of them to put a video made by Paul Frenz-St. Leger(?) on their website. Please click the image below to see Isa Genzken's work at the Venice Biennale.

art unlimited

get insane with hedi slimane

artists as curators, curators as artists - that's no news to us. now we face the new (well not really THAT new in this case!) designers als curators thing. I can't wait to see what happens when curators start to design (am I going to be the first one? Do there already excist designing curators?). Anyway...

If you are in Berlin for the weekend you should definitely try to go to Hedi's 032c party. I'm not going to be there, well I've got "better" things to do, like learning for my oral exams next week, p. e. It starts saturday night June 30th and it's INVITATION ONLY, but wait I wouldn't be your favourite blogger (?) if I wouldn't tell you how to get your hands on one of the invitations (valid for two!). Please send an email to office[at]032c.com and hope to be randomly selected (10 invitations will be drawn and mailed out!)

Well if you aren't one of the chosen ones you could simply visit Hedi at Arndt&Partner Gallery where he'll attend (hope so!) the opening of the group exhibition SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH curated by him. Featuring artists like Slater Bradley, Dan Colen, Gardar E Einarsson, Johannes Kahrs, Terence Koh, Douglas Kolk, Nate Lowman, Ryan McGinley, Paul P., Matt Saunders,
Steven Shearer, Hedi Slimane, Dash Snow. Opening: Saturday, 30 June, 6 to 10pm. Until 31 August 2007, Arndt + Partner, Zimmerstr.90-01, Berlin Mitte.

Well well well. And there's even more HEDI for the weekend!
F SYSTEM - A presentation of a furniture system by Hedi Slimane. Opening: Friday, 29 June, 7pm. Until 18 August 2007, Clemens Tissi, Potsdamer Str.70, 10785 Berlin

Have fun in Berlin!!!

hedislimane.com
hedislimanediary

Credit: hedislimameofficial

volta

I was very lucky to meet my friend Max at art basel. his father runs a gallery in düsseldorf which was also represented at art basel and since max is always helping his father out on the artfairs it was not that impossible to meet him there (please don't ask me why I didn't just call him. That's exactly what he asked me the moment we met...). Max invited Kate and me to come to the Volta art fair with him, since he had planned to meet some gallery friends from london there to have dinner with them afterwards.

I really enjoyed the Volta show. It was the last day and we were kind of late (everybody was already starting to pack their things). We sat outside drank good beer and had a nice talk. There we also met the guys from [im]perfect articles. I'll write more about their t-shirt project later...

"VOLTAshow01 —founded by Kavi Gupta (Kavi Gupta, Chicago), Friedrich Loock (Wohnmaschine, Berlin), Ulrich Voges (Voges + Partner, Frankfurt) and Amanda Coulson—premiered in 2005, parallel to Art Basel and attracted over 10,000 visitors. Conceived as a small but precious gem, the booths were all the same size, diminishing the sense of competition, while interchange and intersection were encouraged between exhibitors in order to create a relaxed atmosphere that was more boutique than shopping mall.

In 2006 VOLTAshow02 presented an expanded format in a new, bigger location in the Basel harbor. While allowing for almost double the number of exhibiting international galleries, a project section dedicated to emerging artist solo presentations, specialized publications and a riverside café, the fair still maintained its charming, intimate atmosphere —a lustrous pearl in the rough shell of the industrial setting. On opening day The Art Newspaper declared "VOLTA gets Even Better!"

VOLTAshow03 plans to consolidate its success in the industrial Ultra Brag location and introduces a new model so as to maintain the focus on content. Continuing the original idea of presenting a boutique event that is more exhibition than trade fair, VOLTAshow03 has formed a Curatorial Board to advise in the selection process. [...] (website)

After Volta Kate, Max and I and David, Charlie, Poppy and another artist whos name I somehow don't remeber from david risley gallery drove back to the city to have dinner at an albanian restaurant which was quite good. And after that Kate and I rode our bikes to the infamous art club at the kunsthalle, where we met amer from vienna who was very nive talking to...

hang's art

Today Kate and I (well I seem to do a lot of things with kate lately ♥) went to the Kunst- akademie in Karlsruhe to meet Hang (the one who sew my dress to impress! She used to study fashion design) at her atelier.

Hang has an exhibition in about three weeks and slowly gets really excited about it. So we helped her to get some inspiration on how to arrange her stuff. She lended two major display tables from the landesmuseum to exhibit her art on. She draws lines on tranparent paper and tryes to form scultures out of them. Basicly she's trying to draw threedimensional. It's really amazing and my pictures don't do her work justice!

If you're around you should definitely visit the Kunstakademie's Rundgang 12th - 15th of July (or be there for the opening on wednesday 11th, 7 pm, so will I, since I'll be leaving to Berlin Fashion Week the day after) to see what Kate and I advised Hang to do. WE ARE GENIUS' ♥

art basel 04 ::: art unlimited

I pretty much enjoyed Art Unlimited although we were kind of late and just had an hour left to look at everything (which was kind of sad, since there'd been a lot of nice video installations which we couldn't see). Art Unlimited is the place fot the art and not so much for the selling, so it felt kind of relaxing (although we didn't intend to buy anything anyway) ;-)

The «Art Unlimited» exhibition features some 70 artists from 28 countries presenting exciting art projects as can be seen at no other art fair in the world. The line-up of exhibiting artists at this prestigious exhibition of contemporary art reads like a Who’s Who of the cutting-edge international art scene. Many of the pieces on show have been created especially for «Art Unlimited». [...] (pressrelease).

art basel 03 ::: katharina

I was really happy to meet a lot of people I knew. Katharina is currently working at meyer-riegger gallery in Karlsruhe (I've posted about them a couple of months ago here) and used to study with me at the hfg (well I'm currently graduating...).

Katharina has a really great style and I was always pleased to see what she'd pulled together. High fashion inspired styles - some H&M combined with lesser known designs always resulted in something great. Well art basel is not just about art it's also about style and expressing oneselves. Sometimes I really love the art world.

art basel 02 ::: deitch projects

The first floor was much better than the ground floor. I really enjoyed Jeffrey Deitch's gallery. It's pure rock'n'roll! At art basel he showed works by assume vivid astro focus, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Os Gemeos, Keith Haring, Chris Johanson, Brad Kahlhamer, Barry McGee, Steve Powers, Clare Rojas, Raqib Shaw, Swoon, Nari Ward and Kehinde Wiley.

His booth was huge and had two floors. It was really great - a mixture of fun, depth, party, whatever.
Did you know that he's also representing Fischerspooner??? Well I knew that they did this performance at art basel miami beach in 2002, but...!? How actually does an art gallery represent musicians, well thats what they basically are! That's so great! Jeffrey Deitch must be crazy!

Check out the "galleries" website. I still don't know if I like it or not - it's just so...

Kehinde Wiley | booth view | Barry McGee, Installation view, Meatmarket, 2004

art basel 01

Carmine Caputo di Roccanova is searching a wife. Well Kate is already engaged, but probably YOU aren't yet? He looked kind of wealthy, and italianate chique wearing a polo shirt, blue jeans and slippers. Couldn't find anything about him on the internet or can you read italian?

berlin ♥

I'm sorry for posting so many videos lately. I simply haven't got the time to write a lot about them. Nylon did a Berlin special for their current issue. So please check the places out where I hang around while beeing in Berlin.

Flowmarket

theflowmarket.com
and ITN

la biennale ::: part 02

Giardini. You'll finde the map here. Let's start with Spain. The presented artists are Rubén Ramos Balsa, José Luis Guerín, Manuel Vilarino and Los Torreznos.
I have to admit that I've never heard of any of them - is it a shame? I'll tell you as soon as I've seen their works in real in september.
The curator ist Alberto Ruiz de Samaniego whom I also don't know ;-(

The following video installation is by Los Torreznos. Found it on Youtube yesterday and I wonder for how long it is going to stay there, so be quick to get a general idea...



Credit: mae.es