Overview of the 53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennial: 'Making Worlds // Fare Mondi'
Sun, Jun 14 2009
Daniel Birnbaum's 'Making Worlds' felt less melancholic though still very much in keeping with his recently-curated '50 Moons of Saturn', the 2nd Turin Triennial (see post 10 November 2008). Both exhibitions shared several artists (Ulla von Brandenburg, Koo Jeong-A, Pietro Roccasalva, Spencer Finch, Ceal Floyer, Lara Favaretto, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Haegue Yang, Paul Chan, Tomás Saraceno, Wade Guyton, Keren Cytter and Rosa Barba), while Venice included several students (including Att Poomtangon) or professors (Simon Starling, Wolfgang Tillmans) from the Birnbaum-directed Staedelschule in Frankfurt, and the support of curator Jochen Volz in the artistic organisation (additional advice was provided by a team of 'correspondents': Savita Apte, Tom Eccles, Hu Fang and Maria Finders). In contrast with the 2007 biennial by Robert Storr it felt less painterly and more sculptural and with a notable lack of 'black boxes' with film and video work.
There seemed to be however, a certain self-reflexivity with regard to the biennale context: several works referred to the winter life of the Giardini venues (Steve McQueen's film in the British Pavilion; Haegue Yang's video in the Korean Pavilion) and the challenge artists face when asked to present work for this type of event. This was most evident in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's video in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (formerly named 'Padiglione Italia'), a touching exorcism of artistic exhaustion. During the last twenty years she has been asked to participate in the Biennale not less than five times, and she speaks about the pressure of expectation in creating something new every time.
Elsewhere in Venice the Biennial threatened to be overshadowed by the opening of François Pinault’s über-collection hosted in the recently renovated Punta della Dogana (the former customs house). The spectacular triangular building has undergone a speedy renovation by Japanese architect Tadao Ando (see video here) and the inaugural exhibition's sombre atmosphere is much in contrast to the über-kitch displays at Palazzo Grassi.
Without trying to be at all comprehensive (with almost one million square feet of exhibition space, more than ninety artists, seventy-seven national contributions, forty-four collateral events that seem increasingly impossible) here are some highlights in no particular order of the Giardini (see first slideshow with 107 images) and Arsenale (slideshow above with 52 images):
Roman Ondák’s 'Loop' contribution in the Czech/Slovak pavilion: a walk-through pavilion with a path running from the entrance to the back door that has been landscaped with exactly the same greenery that exists in the Giardini – it was executed with such precision that some visitors asked the artist if his work was the pavilion building itself as they could not find the 'art' anywhere.
Haegue Yang's 'Condensation' (Korea Pavilion) atmospheric assemblage of Venetian blinds, lamps or bulbs, scent atomizers, infrared motion detectors and crochet.
'The Collectors' in the Nordic and Danish pavilions, taken over by artists invited by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset which included exquisit works by Pepe Espaliú's ('Carrying Project') and Simon Fujiwara.
Lara Favaretto's 'Momentary Monument (Swamp)' at the Giardini delle Vergini as well as the three minute man-horse-motorbike film by David Bestué & Marc Vives, which together with their 'Acciones en casa' presented in the Arsenale, gave one of the only humorous notes in the exhibition.
Finally the biennial at last has a decent cafeteria! Tobias Rehberger was given the Golden Lion for the Best Artist for his neo-pop environment. It could well have been recognised along with another new facility previously in dire need of a revamp: the bookstore, which was designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and hosted a comprehensive collection of monographs and catalogues.
Off-Giardini (Eventi Collaterali) highlights
(slideshow above with 33 images):
Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Paiva's 'Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air' (Portugal) which included five 16mm films, a mixture of humour and magical realism (a sunset with three suns, a man lifting a bucket filled with water by grasping the water...). Truly great.
Teresa Margolles (Mexico) showing 'What else can we talk about?'. An traumatised and almost empty Palazzo Rota Ivancich highlighted the many Mexicans who have recently died in a violent manner. Margolles and her collaborators gathered blankets with blood and mud where victims fell. That mud and that same blood is slowly moistened in the ground floor and later used to mop the main floor. A decadent palazzo in almost complete silence combines personal dramas and national sorrow. As the artist put it 'we live in a country that cries' (La Jornada, 10 June). This, perhaps alongside Taiwan ('Foreign Affairs'), was by far the most self-critical national representation.
At Isola di Certosa: 'Animated Scene' by Irish artist John Gerrard: an amazing three-screen real time computer-generated projection of the American West: a reconstruction of a 1935 Texas dust storm, a year in the life of an automated pig production facility in the Great Sothern Plains and a man blacking out the facade of a white silo in Kansas – see images here.
Disappointments:
The Golden Lion for Best National Participation going to Bruce Nauman's 'Topological Gardens'. Yes, indeed a great artist but partly agreeing with Harry Bellet and Philippe Dagen from Le Monde: 'a retrospective without any new work is far away from the very principle of the Biennale: to reveal the present'. It also presented very familiar work from the 1960s until today from museums and private collections. His presentation did however come more to life in IUAV Tolentini and Ca'Foscari yet the need to cram three venues seems questionable.
Steve McQueen's ticketed entry to the British pavilion, showing a double-screen film portraying the off-season of the Giardini during the winter months: insects silently making their way through the vegetation, rain drops, Venetian bells ringing in the mist, greyhounds scavenging a trash-scattered Giardini, gay cruising in the small hours of the night. One cannot argue against the evident beauty of the piece, yet its impact quickly wore off.
Miquel Barceló representing Spain: not only because the choice of the project didn't follow any semblance of a democratic or juried selection (as did the Catalan Pavilion) but also the frankly flatfooted delivery: a hagiographic mini-retrospective complete with reading area.
Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale curated by Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli: an embarrassingly poor exhibition, doing no justice to the tremendous artistic talent in the host country.
The sudden cancellation of Emily Jacir's project 'Stazione' for the Palestinian Pavilion (to display the names of each vaporetto station along the Grand Canal in Arabic alongside the Italian). It would have been a telling reference to the cross-cultural exchange between Venice and the Arab world and a great addition to the very little public-space work produced for this Biennale.
'In-Finitum' at the Palazzo Fortuny included some great works (include those by Anselmo, and a room with Lucio Fontana) although the exhibition felt much less compelling than 2007's 'Artempo: Where time becomes art'. This year it seems to include more 1950s-1970s work, more monochromes (Gutai group, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Ryman, James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Hiroshi Sugimoto...) and did not exactly run with the concept of 'the infinite'. The strength of this curatorial exercise lies in widening the timeframe while building a link between Fortuny's legacy and 'anonymous' work (e.g. Egyptian ancient sculpture) with contemporary works (on this occasion John Gerrard, Michael Borremans, Berlinde Bruyckere et. al.), which failed to spark this time.
–
53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin Duniyan // Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer Mundos…
Artistic director: Daniel Birnbaum
Giardini della Biennale / Arsenale
Without trying to be at all comprehensive (with almost one million square feet of exhibition space, more than ninety artists, seventy-seven national contributions, forty-four collateral events that seem increasingly impossible) here are some highlights in no particular order of the Giardini (see first slideshow with 107 images) and Arsenale (slideshow above with 52 images):
Roman Ondák’s 'Loop' contribution in the Czech/Slovak pavilion: a walk-through pavilion with a path running from the entrance to the back door that has been landscaped with exactly the same greenery that exists in the Giardini – it was executed with such precision that some visitors asked the artist if his work was the pavilion building itself as they could not find the 'art' anywhere.
Haegue Yang's 'Condensation' (Korea Pavilion) atmospheric assemblage of Venetian blinds, lamps or bulbs, scent atomizers, infrared motion detectors and crochet.
'The Collectors' in the Nordic and Danish pavilions, taken over by artists invited by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset which included exquisit works by Pepe Espaliú's ('Carrying Project') and Simon Fujiwara.
Lara Favaretto's 'Momentary Monument (Swamp)' at the Giardini delle Vergini as well as the three minute man-horse-motorbike film by David Bestué & Marc Vives, which together with their 'Acciones en casa' presented in the Arsenale, gave one of the only humorous notes in the exhibition.
Finally the biennial at last has a decent cafeteria! Tobias Rehberger was given the Golden Lion for the Best Artist for his neo-pop environment. It could well have been recognised along with another new facility previously in dire need of a revamp: the bookstore, which was designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija and hosted a comprehensive collection of monographs and catalogues.
Off-Giardini (Eventi Collaterali) highlights
(slideshow above with 33 images):
Joao Maria Gusmao & Pedro Paiva's 'Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air' (Portugal) which included five 16mm films, a mixture of humour and magical realism (a sunset with three suns, a man lifting a bucket filled with water by grasping the water...). Truly great.
Teresa Margolles (Mexico) showing 'What else can we talk about?'. An traumatised and almost empty Palazzo Rota Ivancich highlighted the many Mexicans who have recently died in a violent manner. Margolles and her collaborators gathered blankets with blood and mud where victims fell. That mud and that same blood is slowly moistened in the ground floor and later used to mop the main floor. A decadent palazzo in almost complete silence combines personal dramas and national sorrow. As the artist put it 'we live in a country that cries' (La Jornada, 10 June). This, perhaps alongside Taiwan ('Foreign Affairs'), was by far the most self-critical national representation.
At Isola di Certosa: 'Animated Scene' by Irish artist John Gerrard: an amazing three-screen real time computer-generated projection of the American West: a reconstruction of a 1935 Texas dust storm, a year in the life of an automated pig production facility in the Great Sothern Plains and a man blacking out the facade of a white silo in Kansas – see images here.
Disappointments:
The Golden Lion for Best National Participation going to Bruce Nauman's 'Topological Gardens'. Yes, indeed a great artist but partly agreeing with Harry Bellet and Philippe Dagen from Le Monde: 'a retrospective without any new work is far away from the very principle of the Biennale: to reveal the present'. It also presented very familiar work from the 1960s until today from museums and private collections. His presentation did however come more to life in IUAV Tolentini and Ca'Foscari yet the need to cram three venues seems questionable.
Steve McQueen's ticketed entry to the British pavilion, showing a double-screen film portraying the off-season of the Giardini during the winter months: insects silently making their way through the vegetation, rain drops, Venetian bells ringing in the mist, greyhounds scavenging a trash-scattered Giardini, gay cruising in the small hours of the night. One cannot argue against the evident beauty of the piece, yet its impact quickly wore off.
Miquel Barceló representing Spain: not only because the choice of the project didn't follow any semblance of a democratic or juried selection (as did the Catalan Pavilion) but also the frankly flatfooted delivery: a hagiographic mini-retrospective complete with reading area.
Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale curated by Luca Beatrice and Beatrice Buscaroli: an embarrassingly poor exhibition, doing no justice to the tremendous artistic talent in the host country.
The sudden cancellation of Emily Jacir's project 'Stazione' for the Palestinian Pavilion (to display the names of each vaporetto station along the Grand Canal in Arabic alongside the Italian). It would have been a telling reference to the cross-cultural exchange between Venice and the Arab world and a great addition to the very little public-space work produced for this Biennale.
'In-Finitum' at the Palazzo Fortuny included some great works (include those by Anselmo, and a room with Lucio Fontana) although the exhibition felt much less compelling than 2007's 'Artempo: Where time becomes art'. This year it seems to include more 1950s-1970s work, more monochromes (Gutai group, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Ryman, James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Hiroshi Sugimoto...) and did not exactly run with the concept of 'the infinite'. The strength of this curatorial exercise lies in widening the timeframe while building a link between Fortuny's legacy and 'anonymous' work (e.g. Egyptian ancient sculpture) with contemporary works (on this occasion John Gerrard, Michael Borremans, Berlinde Bruyckere et. al.), which failed to spark this time.
–
53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin Duniyan // Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer Mundos…
Artistic director: Daniel Birnbaum
Giardini della Biennale / Arsenale
Open 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Giardini closed on Mondays / Arsenale closed on Tuesdays
http://www.labiennale.org
Gustav Metzger's RAF / Reduce Art Flights campaign initiative changes URL to www.reduceartflights.lttds.org
Wed, Jan 28 2009
The website established for RAF / Reduce Art Flights in conjunction with the Latitudes-curated group exhibition 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities' can now be found at a sub-domain of our site www.reduceartflights.lttds.org. The previous URL (reduceartflights.com) is no longer in operation.
The content is the same however, the main feature being a 12-minute interview with Gustav Metzger, initiator of the campaign, conducted by Emma Ridgway (now curator at RSA Arts & Ecology) as well the catalogue entry text by Max Andrews of Latitudes.
Page of the exhibition catalogue. Purchase the book via Motto.
Turin Triennale (T2) & Artissima 15
Mon, Nov 10 2008
Coinciding with this year Artissima 15 Art Fair, the second Turin Triennial (6 November 2008–1 February 2009) titled '50 Lune di Saturno' (50 Moons of Saturn) opened last week presenting the works of 50 artists, spread throughout 3 venues: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and the Palazzina della Società della Promotrice delle Belle Arti (no website).
Daniel Birnbaum's correct Triennale also presents two 'solo shows' by Paul Chan (three rooms at the Sandretto) and Olafur Eliasson (at Rivoli). Here 'solo shows' means presenting more works by each or simply giving them more room (having said that Eliasson's work is a one-room installation) not necessarily making clear divisions between these 'solo shows' and the rest of the artists in the Triennale.
T2 participating artists:
Meris Angioletti, Rosa Barba, Jennifer Bornstein, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Ulla von Brandenburg, Matthew Brannon, Gerard Byrne, Bonnie Camplin / Paulina Olowska, Valerio Carrubba, Antonio Cataldo & Mariagiovanna Nuzzi, Paul Chan, Kerstin Cmelka, Keren Cytter, Simon Dybbroe Möller, Olafur Eliasson, Lara Favaretto, Spencer Finch, Ceal Floyer, Anna Galtarossa, Andrea Geyer, Loris Gréaud, Wade Guyton, Haegue Yang, Annika von Hausswolff, Ragnar Kjartansson, Joachim Koester, Koo Jeong-A, Sandra Kranich, Robert Kusmirowski, Rivane Neuenschwander, Diego Perrone, Alessandro Piangiamore, Giuseppe Pietroniro, Giulia Piscitelli, Peyman Rahimi, Pietro Roccasalva, Tomás Saraceno, Wilhelm Sasnal, Benjamin Saurer, Alberto Tadiello, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gert and Uwe Tobias, Luca Trevisani, Tatiana Trouvé, Ian Tweedy, Donald Urquhart, Guido van der Werve, Jordan Wolfson and Akram Zaatari.
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Piazza Mafalda di Savoia, Rivoli
Open: from Tuesday to Thursday from 10 am to 5 pm, from Friday to Sunday from 10 am to 9 pm
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Via Modane 16, Torino
Open: from Tuesday to Sunday 12 to 8 pm; Thursday from 12 to 11 pm;
Palazzina della Società della Promotrice delle Belle Arti
Via Diego Balsamo Crivelli 11, Torino
Open: from Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 7 pm
Artissima 15 programme was packed with numerous events Wednesday to Sunday, including:
PRESENT FUTURE (17 projects by artists emerging on the national and international scene selected by Cecilia Alemani, art critic and independent curator, New York; Michael Ned Holte, independent curator and art critic, Los Angeles; Thibaut Verhoeven, curator SMAK, Gent; Aurélie Voltz, independent curator, Berlin); CONSTELLATIONS (11 installations, sculptures, and large-format works) selected by Stéphanie Moisdon, co-curator, 2007 Lyon Biennale and Manifesta 4, and Susanne Pfeffer, curator, Kunst-Werke, Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin); The VIDEO LOUNGE (curated by ourselves, included films and videos by 40+ artists and over 6 hours of screening of materials submitted by the participating galleries – More info); the ITALIAN WAVE (a contest launched to present the work of Italian artists under-35 Italian); l'ECOLE DE STEPHANIE (curated by Stéphanie Moisdon, l'école is a small temporary school that offered lessons, lectures, debates, performances, and screenings); ARTISSIMA CINEMA (a festival of animated shorts and artists films from Indonesia and China); ARTISSIMA VOLUME (devoted to contemporary music); ARTISSIMA COMICS (an exhibition of a promising young talent of Italian comics, Michelangelo Setola); ARTISSIMA DESIGN (an exhibition of Paolo Mussat Sartor, the photographer and narrator of Art Povera) plus the CONTEMPORARY ARTS NIGHT on Saturday 8th, where galleries and art spaces premiered shows or performances until the wee hours...
T2 artists and venues in the user-unfriendly website www.torinotriennale.it
Artissima 15: www.artissima.it
'X, Y, etc.!', Video Lounge, Artissima 15, Turin, 7–9 November 2008
Mon, Oct 27 2008
Fort’s masterful collections of oddities can seem random and jumbled, yet they are also a carefully clustered continuum of humor, data, wonder, and ridicule. Hence in X, Y, etc.!, everything can be considered plausible – the banal with the unique, artistic with non-artistic, fact with fake, sincere with insincere, correct with incorrect, etc. In this contrary borderland of knowns and unknowns, cynicism and speculation, science and fiction, each film is anomalous and the whole is underdetermined. Art and reality are far more mysterious, complex and nuanced than we realise. “It does not matter where we begin”, Fort wrote, “whether with stars, or laws of supply and demand, or frogs, or Napoleon Bonaparte. One measures a circle beginning anywhere.”
Films selected for the 2008 Video Lounge (in screening order, starting 11.30am):
* Mark Titchner, Ivy Meets Mike, 2007, Peres Projects, Berlin & Los Angeles
* Hans Op de Beeck,The Building, 2007, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Boissy-le-Châtel
* Christelle Lheureux, Non ricordo il titolo, 2008, Artericambi, Verona
* Elizabeth McAlpine,The Film Footage Missed by the Veiwer Through Blinking While Watching the Feature Film ‘Don’t Look Now’, 2003, Laura Barlett Gallery, London
* Elizabeth McAlpine, Light Reading (1500 Cinematic Explosion), 2005, Laura Barlett Gallery, London
* Michael Fliri, Early Morning With Time to Waste, 2007, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milano
* Emilie Pitoiset, Othello, 2006, Galerie Lucile Corty, Paris
* Gianni Motti, The Messenger, Raël and Brigitte Boisselier, 2003, Cosmic Galerie, Paris
* Sven Johne, Elmenhorst, 2006, Klemm’s, Berlin
* Swetlana Heger, Untitled (The Cohen Residence / Paradise Valley), 2006, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris
* Morag Keil, Fainting for YT, 2008, Grimm Fine Art, Amsterdam
* Danai Anesiadou & Sophie Nys, X, A & M, 2008, Elisa Platteau Galerie, Brussels
* Christian Jankowski, Hollywood Schnee, 2004, Cosmic Galerie, Paris
* G.R.A.M., Zephyr, 2007-8, Christine König Galerie, Vienna
* Anja Kirschner & David Panos,Trail of the Spider, 2008, Hollybush Gardens, London
_BREAK_
* Carles Congost, La Mala Pintura, 2008, Artericambi, Verona
* Andrea Büttner, Little Works, 2007-8, Hollybush Gardens, London
* Pia Maria Martin, Go, 2008, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart
* Jordan Wolfson, Favourite Things, 2008, T293, Naples
* Judith Hopf & Deborah Schamoni, Hospital Bone Dance, 2005, Croy Nielsen, Berlin
* Shana Moulton, Whispering Pines #4, 2007, Pianissimo, Milano
* Gianni Motti, Shock and Awe, 2003, Cosmic Galerie, Paris
* Sergio Vega, The Ants, 2006, Umberto Di Marino Arte Contemporanea, Napoli
* Julika Rudelius, Adrift, 2007, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart
* Delphine Reist, Averse, 2007, Triple V, Dijon
* Gareth James & Cesare Pietroiusti, Untitled, 2006, Franco Soffiantino ArteContemporanea, Torino
* Haris Epaminonda,Tarahi I, 2006, Rodeo, Istanbul
* Haris Epaminonda,Tarahi III, 2006, Rodeo, Istanbul
* Aurelien Froment, Théâtre de Poche, 2007, Motive Gallery, Amsterdam
* Shimabuku, Fish & Chips, 2006, NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona
_BREAK_
* Hans Schabus, Loch, 1999-2000, Zero..., Milano
* Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, All Together Now, 2008, Elizabeth Dee, New York
* Donna Conlon, Low Tide, 2004, Galleria Giorgio Persano, Torino
* Donna Conlon, Summer Breeze, 2007, Galleria Giorgio Persano, Torino
* Alice Cattaneo, Untitled 1, Untitled 2, 2007, Galleria Suzy Shammah, Milano
* Patrick Tuttofuoco, La Noce d’Oro, 2005, Studio Guenzani, Milano
* Guillaume Leblon, Notes, 2007, ProjecteSD, Barcelona
* Clemens von Wedemeyer & Maya Schweizer, Rien du Tout, 2007, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
* Alterazioni Video, Black Hole ... Our Understanding of the Universe is About to Change, 2008,V.M. 21 arte contemporanea, Roma
* Cezary Bodzianowski, Cacadu, 2006, Zero..., Milano
* Matthew Darbyshire & Sam Gunn, Le Chant du Rossignol, 2008, Herald St, London
_TOTAL SCREENING TIME_ 6 hours 20 min
The films will be shown continuously each day in a specially-constructed screening environment, and will also be available on three video-on-demand consoles.
For further information on Artissima 15 programme, dowload the newsletter 'Radio Sick 2008 #3' here
Lingotto Fiere
via Nizza 280
10126 Torino, ITALIA
T +39 011 197 441 06
F +39 011 197 461 06
info@artissima.it
www.artissima.it
7-8-9 November 2008. Open to the public 11.00 am - 8.00 pm
Image credits: (TOP) Leaflets of the programme. Photo: Latitudes. BELOW: Aurélien Froment, production still of 'Théâtre de Poche', 2007 (12 min). Photo: Aurélien Mole. Courtesy: the artist and Motive Gallery, Amsterdam.
Wilfredo Prieto wins The Cartier Award 2008
Sat, May 10 2008
According to Frieze Art Fair 2008, "Prieto will present Pond, a site-specific installation of more than 100 oil drums. The mirrored pond-like effect created by water in the lids of the drums will be punctured by the presence and movement of a frog. The work will be a beautiful and poetic reflection on the current international obsession with accumulation and growth."
A version of the work is currently on view in the group show Latitudes curated with Ilaria Bonacossa at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin
To know more about Prieto's work, read the profile that appeared in Frieze Magazine (October 2007, Issue 110) and the images of 'Grasa, Jabón y Plátano' (2006) in 'Extraordinary Rendition', the exhibition we curated in NoguerasBlanchard (March 2007).
Following is an excerpt of the artist entry in the 'Greenwashing...' catalogue:
The artist’s most visible contribution to Greenwashing is Estanque (Pond) (2007), a new sculpture in which a congregation of crude oil barrels have seemingly been transformed into an idyllic, ‘eco-friendly’ lily pond habitat with the addition of water puddles and a live frog. Though the oil barrel is not commonly part of our everyday surroundings as a physical object, it has a familiar significance as the standard unit of volume for the production and consumption of petroleum, and as such, it is often cast as a symbol of all of the ills of fossil-fuel dependency. Furthermore, the price of a barrel is a global index of macroeconomic conditions, geopolitical stability, and the fundamentals of energy supply-and-demand. [1] The environment that Prieto has created by converting the petroleum containers is no more ‘natural’ than the oil itself – which is, after all, an organic substance. Yet the sculpture inevitably suggests the prospect of eco-advertising, as if its graphic visual summary of apparent amphibian-petroleum harmony could perfectly lend itself to an audacious company marketing department in a bid to demonstrate their ‘green’ industrial principles. [2] – Max Andrews
1. According to the 2007 CIA World Factbook, in Italy the equivalent of 32.1 barrels of oil are used each day for every 1000 people – or 11.7 barrels per person per year. The figure for the US is roughly double this estimate, and for Cuba, roughly half.
2. The connection to a recent Ford Motor Company campaign is irresistible: the well-known character Kermit the Frog appears pedalling on a bicycle singing his 1970 song ‘Bein’ Green’, before he spots a Ford Escape Hybrid in a verdant wood, ‘I guess it is easy being green’, Kermit declares. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKotANcNVyo
[Image: Wilfredo Prieto 'Estanque (Pond)', 2008. Oil barrels, water, frog. Courtesy the artist and Galería NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona. Photo: Courtesy Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino]
Greenwashing update and Jorge Peris's 'Fairy' (2008)
Mon, Mar 3 2008Curated by Latitudes with Ilaria Bonacossa, Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities finally opened to the public on Thursday and continues at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, until 18 May (e-flux mailing). La Stampa previewed the show here. We are currently working on redesigning the project website (www.greenwashing.LTTDS.org) which will include installation photographs, audio interviews with participating artists and details about the 192-page catalogue (English and Italian editions). Details to be announced here on the Latitudes blog.
Meanwhile to whet your appetite here are some photos of Jorge Peris's Fairy (2008), one of several new productions specially commissioned for the exhibition: a cave-like environment consisting of 400kg of clay kept from drying out through the use of a humidity system. Peris has likened the experience of the work – which took three weeks to complete – to being inside the belly of a whale.
All images: Courtesy the artist and Zero..., Milan.
2008, Ecology, Fondazione Sandretto, Greenwashing, Jorge Peris, Torino
Meanwhile to whet your appetite here are some photos of Jorge Peris's Fairy (2008), one of several new productions specially commissioned for the exhibition: a cave-like environment consisting of 400kg of clay kept from drying out through the use of a humidity system. Peris has likened the experience of the work – which took three weeks to complete – to being inside the belly of a whale.
Latitudes in Turin
Sun, Feb 10 2008
Tonight we are taking the 'Salvador Dalí' night train from Barcelona to Turin—in part as response to RAF / Reduce Art Flights—to install and work on the catalogue for our show 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities', which will open at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo on 28th February (19-21h).
The show will include works by Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Lara Almárcegui, Maria Thereza Alves, Ibon Aranberri, Amy Balkin, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Chu Yun, A Constructed World, Minerva Cuevas, Ettore Favini, Cyprien Gaillard, Tue Greenfort, Norma Jeane, Cornelia Parker, Jorge Peris, Wilfredo Prieto, RAF / Reduce Art Flights, Tomás Saraceno, Santiago Sierra, Simon Starling, Fiona Tan, Nikola Uzunovski, Sergio Vega, Wang Jianwei and James Yamada.
'Greenwashing...' website
Wed, Dec 12 2007 |
| Sergio Vega, 'Paradise on Fire', 2007. Series of five inkjet archival prints, 106 x 134 cm each. Courtesy the artist and Umberto di Marino Arte Contemporanea, Naples. |
We have launched the project website for 'Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities': www.greenwashing.lttds.org. The site will be updated over time as an extension to the printed catalogue, with expanded contents such as installation shots, interviews, artists CVs, etc.
So far we have confirmed the participation of Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Lara Almarcegui, Maria Thereza Alves, Amy Balkin, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Chu Yun, A Constructed World, Ettore Favini, Cyprien Gaillard, Tue Greenfort, Norma Jeane, Cornelia Parker, Jorge Peris, Wilfredo Prieto, RAF / Reduce Art Flights, Tomás Saraceno, Simon Starling, Nikola Uzunovski, Sergio Vega, Wang Jianwei and James Yamada.
The show will open on 28 February 2008 at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin and remain on view until 11 May. The exhibition is curated by Fondazione's curator Ilaria Bonacossa and Latitudes (Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna).
For any press enquiries please email: press@fondsrr.org
GREENWASHING exhibition announcement
Fri, Nov 16 2007
We are delighted to announce that Latitudes will curate, with Ilaria Bonacossa, the exhibition Greenwashing. Environment: Perils, Promises and Perplexities / Ambiente: Pericoli, Promesse e Perplessità / Medioambiente: Peligros, Promesas y perplejidades at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, 28 February – 4 May 2008.
More information here. And eventually on this site.
