PiST///: Talk on PERFORMA

PERFORMA is a New York based non-profit interdisciplinary arts organization committed to the research, development, and presentation of performance by visual artists from around the world. PERFORMA’s objectives are to commission new performane projects in visual arts, to present a dedicated performance biennial in New York, to consult and collaborate with art institutions and performing art presenters around the world to create dynamic and historically significant performance programs, and to offer an ongoing educational platform for expanding the knowledge and understanding of this critical area of visual art and cultural history.

PERFORMA's Associate Curator Defne Ayas and PERFORMA '07 volunteer Özge Ersoy will give a talk on PERFORMA projects.

December 28, 2007
6.30 pm, PiST///, Istanbul

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Kar amacı gütmeyen, disiplinlerarası bir sanat organizasyonu olan PERFORMA, performans sanatının geliştirilmesine, sunumuna ve bu alandaki araştırmalara adanmış New York merkezli bir kurum. PERFORMA, görsel sanatlar dahilindeki yeni performans projelerini desteklemeyi, sadece performans sanatı üzerine kurulu New York'da bir bienali faaliyete geçirmeyi, uluslararası sanat kurumlarıyla beraber çalışarak dinamik ve tarihsel önemi olan performansların üretimini teşvik etmeyi ve görsel sanatlar çerçevesinde performans sanatının önemine dair bilgi paylaşımını kuvvetlendirmeyi amaçlıyor.

PERFORMA Küratorü Defne Ayas ve PERFORMA '07 gönüllü çalışanı Özge Ersoy PERFORMA hakkında bilgi verecek, projelerini anlatacak.

28 Aralik 2007
18:30, PiST///, Istanbul

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PiST///
Dolapdere Caddesi
Pangaltı Dere Sokak
No 12 / 14 / 16
Pangaltı 34375
Istanbul TR

From NADA Art Fair: "The Message" by David Ellis and Roberto Lange

At the NADA Art Fair in Miami, Roebling Hall Gallery (New York, NY) exhibits a work by David Ellis who subtlety uses, interprets and investigates sound and music. In collaboration with Roberto Lange, Ellis gives birth to a new kinetic installation, “The Message”, which involves an analogue drum machine orchestrating an old typewriter, a paint bucket, a paint tray, glass bottles and a broken jar in a storage box. While playing the melody of the song, the typewriter also prints out the lyrics by DJ Grand Master Flash. (The work is sold for $22,000.)

Another kinetic installation, titled “Trash Talk” is now on display in "Ensemble" exhibition, curated by Christian Marclay, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

Need a ride?

As Jeffrey Deitch argued at a panel discussion at Columbia University last month, art is becoming more and more integrated into the entertainment culture and daily life. At the Art Basel, Deitch Projects displays “Pimp Juice”, a 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood that is fully customized by Puerto Rican artist Dzine. The work, a part of "Barrio Dreams" project by the artist, features special chrome and 24-carat gold hydraulics, fourteen speakers and five screens showing a custom video.

“I like the ambiguity of it,” Jeffrey Deitch states, “Is it art or not? I always try to push it.”

Ahmet Ogut at NADA Art Fair

Rodeo Gallery at NADA Art Fair
5-9 December, 2007
Miami, USA

Solo Presentation: Ahmet Öğüt

http://www.rodeo-gallery.com
http://www.newartdealers.org/

Puryear at the MoMA

Martin Puryear (b. 1941) retrospective has just opened at the MoMA.
Through January 14, 2008.

"[...] Mr. Puryear's work is humorous but not ironic. It has a complex worldview devoid of trendy critique. It offers more integrity than innovation and proves repeatedly that accessible doesn't rule out subtle. Like Elizabeth Murray, who was also the subject of a recent MoMA retrospective, Mr. Puryear has pursued what might be called an old-fashioned approach to the new. But really, both have done nothing more, or less, than ground formalism in the rich world of their own experience and identity. And that is new enough." (Roberta Smith, "Humanity’s Ascent, in Three Dimensions")
(Thanks to Merve)

Synthetic Performances by 010010110101101.org

Driven by the conviction that the Internet is an antidote to the inalienable paradigms of modern art, namely authenticity, originality and novelty, Eva and Franco Mattes reenact historical performances in Second Life, an online virtual world created in 2003. As known as 010010110101101.org, the artist collaboration questions the limits of the performance art.

Rather than pursuing a mnemonic function, the performances lead the audience to ponder upon the immediate expectations from the performance art such as immediacy, spontaneity and unmediated interaction. As the objects and actions of the performances are coded in advance in the virtual world, Synthetic Performances leave no room for improvisation. Also, the absence of physical feelings in the performance reiterates the statement that performative body loses its significance. Eva and Franco Mattes investigate the communication tactics in art through replication and manipulation in a public arena where “culture is plagiarism.”

Since January 2007, the Mattes duo have been working on Synthetic Performances, that included the reenactment of Chris Burden’s Shoot, Vito Acconci’s Seedbed, Valie Export’s Tapp und Tastkino, and Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks. In collaboration with PERFORMA07, Artists Space invites the audience to attend the projection of three live performances in which the interaction is mediated through avatars, the residents of Second Life.

November 13, 2007
6:30pm-8pm
Artists Space, 38 Greene St 3rd Fl New York, NY 10013

See PERFORMA07 website for further information.

Istanbul 10B

“The very idea of the international survey exhibition is now questioned at its most fundamental level. However progressive the political or economic intentions behind them, international survey exhibitions still invite a presumption that the curators have access to an illusionary world view, and that spectators may follow in their wake. But a more specific and sustained engagement with communities and audiences, creating meanings beyond the spectacular and mere festivalizing of such occasions, may produce a new genre of exhibition. It seems that in order to accommodate both artists’ needs and audience demands, the new exhibition must have reciprocity and dialogue built into its structure. How successfully this is accomplished will determine international exhibition maps of the future.”

Bruce W. Ferguson, Reesa Greenberg, and Sandy Nairne, "On Taking a Normal Situation and Retranslating It into Overlapping and Multiple Readings of Conditions Past and Present" (Antwerp: E. Antonis, 1993)

In the light of this remark, what does the 10th International Biennial suggest? Although I have heard many negative comments from a number of art professionals, I always tend to underline that I liked the dialogue between the works and the venues in which they are exhibited. Instead of creating a local exoticism, the 10B leads to an uncanny interaction through the spaces that Hou Hanru has chosen, especially Ataturk Cultural Centre and Istanbul Textile Traders' Market--significant examples of 'modern' Turkish urban architecture, which share the fate to be torn down in the near future-- as well as santralistanbul that has been transformed from the first electric thermal plant of the Republic of Turkey into a culture and arts center. With a focus of an inquiry of modernization in developing countries, I believe the 10B offers a new expansion in Turkey where the art production is predominantly understood as a part of the national identity. As the art merges with urbanism and architecture, the artworks encounter an innovative reception and offer social intervention in a 'peripheral' city, suggesting a negotiation and reciprocity between the global and local. Thus, the 10B eventually fosters an intellectual debate, which is proved to be quite controversial in regards to Kemalism and republican ideals. Therefore, I believe, the structure of the 10th Istanbul Biennial engenders dialogue, which is produced both in an implicit and explicit fashion.

Intellectual Property Rights

"Various initiatives, like the Navdanya seed bank, the Gutenberg Project, open source software, etc., are attempts to resist the expanding regime of intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights deal with copyright and related rights; geographical indications; industrial designs; integrated circuit layout-designs; patents; trademarks; and undisclosed or confidential information. Since the signature of the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property rights (TRIPS) agreement, a part of the WTO GATT agreement, in 1994, about 147 countries around the world agreed to implement the same intellectual property rights as default. Examples of recent inclusions of intellectual property rights are the patenting of genemanipulated living organisms, indigenous knowledges and sofware, the registration of three-dimensional forms, melodies, smells, and colors as trademarks and the copyrighting of databases, choreography, and architecture. In the context of this book, we would like to highlight one particular example: the copyrighting of exhibitions and collections.

During the last century, Marcel Duchamp claimed that the act of exhibiting or collecting an object, was enough to turn that object into an artwork by exhibited a readymade urinal as a work of art. Marcel Broodthaers installed his collection of eagles and about eagles, that were marked "this is not an art object", itself as a work of art. Such artworks posed problems for the copyright regulations and had legal consequences.

For about a decade now, the makers of exhibitions and museum collections have succeeded in obtaining legal protection for their work authorized under copyright law. In current jurisprudence, judges have decided that exhibitions and museum collections may reflect the personality of their makers. From a legal point of view, exhibitions and museum collections are considered intangible realizations of the mind. So just like any other creative oeuvre, they fall under the same regime of
intellectual property rights.

(No rights reserved. This text may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, used, modified, or otherwise exploited.)"

- Agentschap (Agency), an agency for temporary interdisiplinary and international collaborations

Play. . . as a four-letter word (A.K.)

"PERFORMA07, the second biennial of new visual art performance, will take place in New York City from November 1-20, 2007. As with PERFORMA05, New York’s first performance biennial, PERFORMA07 will bring together more than twenty of the city’s leading cultural institutions to present live work in all disciplines by visual artists from around the world. Performance has always been an important catalyst in the history of twentieth-century art, and the PERFORMA Biennial recognizes its vital and ongoing impact on contemporary art and culture and provides opportunities for both established and emerging artists to present new performance for the twenty-first century."

PERFORMA website!

TM Sisters at AS

Reflecting the dynamics of the digital age, the artist collective TM Sisters fuse performance and video art flirting with energized imageries. Born in Gainesville, Florida, Tasha and Monica López De Victoria produce a new energy using engaging video game installations.

Artists Space, in collaboration with PERFORMA07, hosts TM Sister’s video performance titled 'Things Will End Before They Start' (2005), which will involve two artists performing before a digitally-simulated backdrop that is inspired by their “flat works”, i.e. collages. TM Sisters’ work reveals a do-it-yourself aesthetic that relates to their home-school education and previous body of work, such as musical happenings, fanzines and sewing clothing. With an emphasis on stimulating interaction, the performance presents a play with postures and expressions, which paves the way for a discovery of spiritual energy and emotions.

November 2-3, 2007
6 pm-8pm
Artists Space, 38 Greene St 3rd Fl New York, NY 10013

Biennials: local exoticism, market-dependency, multiculturalism, innovation

Spurred by their proliferation in the last two decades, international contemporary art biennials have become the locus for heated controversies. On one hand, skeptics underline the inalienable and tight relationship between the art market and the biennials, focusing on spicing up the familiar market-oriented artists along with the new tastes. On the other hand, biennials offer an exciting change of the locales and promote international cultural exchange and multiculturalism that has been underscored since 1989 when Jean-Hubert Martin curated the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre in Paris.

Art biennials consist of a complex web of relations among national cultural policies, art markets and usual/unusual/exotic/non-exotic/innovative art practices. Despite their inevitable link to the art market and the marketing goals of the funders, I believe the biennials suggest a multi-faceted position beyond the promotion of 'local exocitism' and market-dependency.

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"International biennials are to the art market what fusion food is to the culinary world: mainstream ingredients with a local flavor snuck into the mix, but not enough to aggravate the conventional palate. What recipe possesses the right balance to allow for necessary mass consumption? Or course, nothing too excessive: Let's start with something a little unusual, say papaya? And then mix it with chicken pâté. Everybody eats chicken, right? And systematically, those with purchasing power dictate the margins of taste.

In the process of 'glocalism' or fusion, power politics play the determining role. Getting back to contemporary art, give me something familiar enough, say Olafur Eliasson, and mix in a little Solmaz Shahbazi? That's just about mild and new enough. I like chicken, and papaya sure sounds sexy.

All of this is a problematic because art is not food, and within the aggressive parameters of the market-driven culture industry, international biennials are the market's white lie: International Food Day. They are about consumption, they are about tourism, they are about branding, and they are about new product lines. But thankfully, they also have a comforting slogan: promoting international cultural exchange, art and ideas.

When the meal is over, although we believe we have widened out horizons (even though it was just chicken!), we are often still too uncomfortable to pick up a papaya the next time we are at a fruit stand. Perhaps it is indeed time to regain our Jamesonian 'distance of critique' because fusion good has yet to fulfill its promise, and we are always still hungry after leaving the table."
(Mai Abu ElDahab)


"Events like contemporary art biennials, initiated by local authorities to promote the position of locales on the global map, are then global events by nature, while they claim to be locally meaningful and productive in terms of new localities. The introduction of 'foreign,' international knowledge, cultures, artworks, and discourses are not only proof of the capacity to master international cultural exchanges and thereby better defend local characteristics. More significant yet, this process reveals that international or global cultures influence and even condition the new reality of the locales. The home is being voluntarily turned into a kind of non-home, a constantly changing and evolving in-between space, a kind of 'glocal' land. The new localities being generated are definitively impure, hybrid, and therefore innovative."
(Hou Hanru)

(Quotes from The Manifesta Decade: Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe.)

New video work by Judit Kurtág

Artists Space hosts "Episode"--a new video work by Judit Kurtág (b. 1975, Budapest) from October 12 through December 8, 2007 . Following her studies on photography at École des Gobelins in Paris, Kurtág honed her skills at École des Beaux Arts in Bordeaux. Participated in many international exhibitions and art fairs in Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Tokyo, Shanghai, Reykjavik and Kiev among many other places, the artist shows her work in New York for the first time.

Judit Kurtág’s videos present an idiosyncratic harmony of sound and image, and an uncanny digital manipulation that reflects contemplation upon subjectivity. “For me reality is what really happens, what we think is happening, and what happens in our memories,” the artist utters, “So these three layers are mixed, in a Cubist way.” Being introspective yet open to wider explorations, Kurtág’s works play within the limits of expression where the difference between artist, narrator and audience become unclear. Taking motion as the ultimate point of reference, Kurtág’s videos embrace a liminal perception of reality instead of a depiction of the world.

Volume 12: Al Manakh

What does the recent bewildering development of the Gulf region mean to the rest of the world? Focusing on this question, the magazine VOLUME 12: Al Manakh is about to be available in bookstores. Co-edited by Archis, OMA*AMO and Moutamarat, Al Manakh was released at the International Design Forum in Dubai that took place between May 27-29, 2007.

Elaborating on the scrutiny of culture, history and architecture of the Gulf region, the magazine calls attention to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khalmah. Considered as the first attempt of a meticulous research of the urban setting of the region, this issue articulates itself as an investigation of the ‘ultimate tabula rasa’.

To quote Rem Koolhaas, “The tragic effect of architecture's inability to recognize and think through modernization's inevitabilities is a wistful language of perpetual disappointment with what is produced and the endless recycling of nostalgic panaceas as well-meaning but moribund alternatives... It is particularly cruel that the harshest criticism comes from old cultures that still control the apparatus of judgment, while the epicenters of production have shifted to the other end(s) of the globe. […] The Gulf is not just reconfiguring itself; it's reconfiguring the world.”

http://www.volumeproject.org/

Frozen Waves: New work for YAMA

FROZEN WAVES
NEW WORK FOR YAMA, ISTANBUL

Babak Ghazi Mustafa Hulusi Paul Snowden Mark Titchner Eva Weinmayr
Curated by Michelle Cotton and Sylvia Kouvali
6 SEPTEMBER – 4 NOVEMBER
Marmara Pera Hotel, Mesrutiyet Caddesi Tepebası 34430 Istanbul
11 – 14 OCTOBER
Urban Screens Manchester 07 Art & Events Programme
Manchester Metropolitan University All Saints Garden Oxford Road, Urbis Cathedral Gardens

"Frozen Waves will broadcast new work by Babak Ghazi (UK), Mustafa Hulusi (UK / Cyprus), Paul Snowden (NZ / Germany), Mark Titchner (UK) and Eva Weinmayr (UK) via publicly-sited screens in Istanbul and the UK.

The project has been commissioned for Yama, a public art programme hosted via a 6m x 9m diode screen on the roof of the
Marmara Pera Hotel in the centre of Istanbul. Since July 2006 Yama has presented work by artists including Wael Shawky (Egypt), Ahmet Ogut (Turkey), Köken Ergun (Turkey) and Jenny Holzer (USA). The screen is sited 72 m above street level in Tepebasi, a busy square in Beyoglu overlooking the Golden Horn and is visible from various points in the city.

Titled after a chapter in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1937 dystopian novel, We, Frozen Waves will play a continuous programme of media work on the screen during the hours of darkness. Five atists employing visual and textual codes familiar from the language of commerce and the information economy were invited to develop projects for Yama and their short works have been informed by the architecture of the screen, the Lumacom technology and the local context.

The format of Frozen Waves is concerned with the role that technology plays in structuring communication, occupying what the architect Robert Venturi refers to as an ‘iconographic surface’, a façade that functions as a source of digital information that is by nature subject to renewal and change.

Frozen Waves will launch during the professional preview for the 10th International Istanbul Biennial in September 2007 and forms part of the public art programme for the annual, international Urban Screens Conference hosted this year in Manchester in October."

For further information contact
Sylvia Kouvali yama.opening@earthlink.net or
Michelle Cotton michelle@melocotones.co.uk

More information.

25 Years Later: Welcome to Art in General

Celebrating its 25th Anniversary, Art in General, a non-profit visual arts organization in Lower Manhattan, and UBS collaborate for the exhibition "25 Years Later: Welcome to Art in General" that is hosted by the UBS Art Gallery in Midtown. Dedicated to unconventional art practices, Art in General curators prefer not to undertake a retrospective perspective; rather, the exhibition focuses on artists and artists collaboratives who proffer the organization's enthusiasm for the experimental wing of recent art as well as its suggestion of art as a social engagement in relational terms.

Installations consisting of performances and event-based works engage with the audience in creative ways. What makes the exhibition more interesting, is its space which is located at the lobby of the UBS building, thus at a platform that is exposed to a heteronegeneous and wide range of publics--different from the gallery-goers. Artists and artists collaboratives include Alejandro Cesarco (Montevideo/New York), Kianga Ford (Los Angeles/Boston), Chitra Ganesh (New York) and Miriam Ghani (New York), Sharon Hayes (New York), Timothy Hutchings (New York), Surasi Kusolwong (Bangkok), Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam), Ana Prvacki (Singapore), Jiri Skala (Prague), and Lee Walton (New York).

Please visit Art in General's updated website for the schedule of events and further information.

10th Istanbul Biennial: Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary

"Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the age of global war"
Curator: Hou Hanru
September 8 - November 4, 2007

"The 10th İstanbul Biennial will not be a thematic exhibition in the traditional manner; rather, it will emphasise artistic production based on collective intelligence and the living process of negotiating with physical sites. The biennial will focus on urban issues and architectural reality as a means of exposing different cultural contexts and artistic visions regarding the complex and diverse forms of modernity. The current mutation of the global art scene reflects the restructuring of the world order prompted by the inventions and realisations of different modernities and modernisation projects beyond the traditional hegemonic vision of the West. This tendency is naturally the focus of the upcoming İstanbul Biennial when it attains its 10th edition. The unique context of Turkey as one of the earliest non-Western modern republics and its geopolitical position as a gateway between Europe and Asia provide a perfect location and momentum for artistic and cultural explorations of such an issue. It represents aspiration and optimism – it’s a kind of realisable utopia. We are living in an age of globalisation. The impacts of globalisation on different parts of the world are complex and contradictory. They not only create economic, cultural and social progress but also spread conflicts and wars all over. Facing such a reality, better visions of our life and society driven by the dynamism of modernisation and certain utopian idealism are urgently needed. Such endeavours are not only possible. They are also necessary. And contemporary art, if it can still make sense in our turbulently mutating world, must engage itself in such a struggle."
Retrieved from the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts website.

For the artist list, special projects and venues' roles within the biennial visit the link.

Muhtelif!

"Muhtelif" cikti!
"Muhtelif" is now available!

Muhtelif 2
Guncel Sanat Yayini/Contemporary Art Publication, Istanbul

Retroakt/Retroact
Igor Zabel
"Diyalog"/"Dialogue"

Şimdi/Now
Hrant Dink
"Ruh halimin guvercin tedirginligi"/"A pigeon-like unease of spirit"

Diskur/Discourse
Natasa Petresin
Tarihi kim yazmali? "Who shall write down the history?

Gunluk/Diary
Ahmet Ogut
"Allahim lutfen beni cok unlu bir sanatci yap!"/"Please God make me a famous artist!"

Diskur/Discourse
Adnan Yildiz
"Deeparture"/"Deeparture"

Gramer/Grammer
Ovul Durmusoglu
"Institution and Crisis: Rooseum"/"Kurum ve Kriz: Rooseum"

Tunel/Tunnel
Jacques Ranciere
"Siyasi Ozne Olarak Sanatcilar ve Kultur Ureticileri, Neo-Liberal Kuressellesme Doneminde Muhaliflik, Mudahale, Katilimcilik, Ozgurlesme"/"Artists and Cultural Producers as Political Subjects, Opposition, Intervention, Participation, Emancipation in Times of Neo-Liberal Globalisation"

Gramer/Grammer
Pelin Tan/Anselm Franke
"Jest Üzerine"/"On Gesture"

Havuz/Pool
Servet Kocyigit
"Brroomm"

Editorler/Editors: Ahmet Ogut, Pelin Tan, Adnan Yildiz
Ceviriler/Translations: Muhtelif, Şevin Yildiz, Oyku Ozsoy, Ozlem Unsal

Muhtelif, PİST, BAS, ve Platform Garanti Güncel Sanat Merkezi'nden, Ağustos'tan itibaren ise BFB (www.bigfamilybusiness.net) Office ve rodeo-gallery'den temin edilebilir.

Muhtelif is now available at Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, at PIST, and at BAS, and will be available at the rodeo-gallery, and at www.bigfamilybusiness.net in August.

Ofis Arhitekti's dynamic facades

Based in Ljubljana, and initiated by Rok Oman and Spela Videcnik in 1996, Ofis Arhitekti is the prizeholder of the Slovenian National Design Competition with "2 Apartment Blocks on the Coast" project in Izola, Slovenia, which was also nominated by Mies van der Rohe Awards 2006.

Currently in construction on progress, these 'smart living units' consist of 30 apartments, 2800 m2 in total, including studios and three-bedrooms. The facades feature fun, dynamic and original details; trapezoid-shaped balconies and colorful sunshades/curtains provide a playful 'outfit' to the apartments with coastal views. As the organization's website utters, "the changing rhythm of balconies creates dynamic elevations and offers privacy to the neighbouring owners."

Frankly, it is relieving to see affordable housing projects that do not claim social engineering.

For further information, please visit Ofis Arhitekti's website.

Did you know that...

Below are some excerpts from Plug In#28--Raimundas Malasauskas writes to accompany a project of Nomads & Residents collective created by Bik Van der Pol:

"Did you know that...

[...]

...“stupid as a table” is an expression used in certain languages to define the void of knowledge and thinking altogether? Most often it refers to a human being, never to an actual table. However some professors of philosophy also tend to use an example of a table as a figure of knowledge or things in itself.

... the paradox of the table exemplifies the phenomena of language games: our thinking differs not only due to the different languages we speak, but also due to the specific language games we play.

... art is just another language according to certain theories? It allows a certain group of people to find each other and communicate the value of their communication.

... language games are an intrinsic part of the design of everyday reality? If you decide that you are the designer of your subjectivity try to design a table of its contents first. I started my table of contents with coffee stains today.

[...]

... art often works as a table of contents for non-artrelated subjects and disciplines? It connects multiple dots of various types of knowledge creating temporary spatial constellations of collective thinking.

... knowledge production is a preoccupation of many contemporary artists? Therefore the content of their work is often redefinition of what they do and what their role should be.

[...]

... it is not enough to make certain types of knowledge accessible and available in order to activate it? Knowledge needs dissemination in order to function. Yet it is hard to believe those who say that the best use of knowledge is not its actual implementation into action, but a circulation only.

... John Baldessari sang “Sentences on Conceptual Art” by Sol LeWitt in 1968 in order to make them more accessible for an audience via a format of the song?

... that certain types of knowledge can activate (or translate) each other in the same way different ingredients activate itself in cocktails? The symbolic transition of an artist from a barman to a mixologist marks this shift in professional sophistication.

[...]

... artists often tend to discuss the impact of their work?

.... that impact is not instantaneous? Don’t expect to experience the impact of the table of contents immediately, it might take one million years, so, as Bruce Nauman says, “pay attention mother fucker.”

... infinite conversation is the way culture functions? (therefore your participation in this culture thus can change it, at least make the conversation shorter or change the subject.)"
-Raimundas Malasauskas

Raimundas Malasauskas is a curator at the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Bik Van der Pol is an artist collaboration that consists of Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol, who live and work in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

For further information, visit the Van Abbemuseum website.

Global Cities at Tate

"Global Cities, a major free exhibition examining recent changes in ten global cities - Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Tokyo - will be presented in a spectacular installation in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern from 20 June-27 August 2007.

The show will feature newly commissioned work by leading international artists and architects Nigel Coates, Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher, Fritz Haeg, OMA*AMO/Rem Koolhaas, Nils Norman and Richard Wentworth inspired by the social, cultural and physical dimensions of London. To complement the other city data are more than twenty works by artists and architects Atelier Bow Wow, Hüseyin Alptekin, Francis Alys, Laurence Bonvin, Osman Bozkurt, Hala Elkoussy, Kendell Geers, Dryden Goodwin, Andreas Gursky, Naoya Hatakeyama, Francesco Jodice, Eva Koch, Maha Maamoun, Neutral, Nils Norman, Scott Peterman, Melanie Smith, Dean Sameshima, Guy Tillim, Paromita Vohra and Yang Zhenzhong.

The exhibition addresses major issues facing some of the most influential urban centres around the world: from migration to mobility, from social integration to sustainable growth. It explores five themes: size, speed, density, form and diversity and draws upon comparative socio-economic and geographic data assembled by researchers at the London School of Economics.

With over half the world’s population now living in urban areas, cities increasingly lie at the centre of public debate, cultural speculation and media attention. A century ago only 10% of the planet lived in cities; by 2050 up to 75% of the world’s population of 8 billion will be living in urban areas, many of them concentrated in the developing regions of Asia and Africa. The shape, size and structure of exploding mega-cities like Mumbai, Shanghai, Mexico City, Istanbul or Cairo affects not only the lives of millions of new urban dwellers, but also the health and sustainability of the planet given that large cities contribute to over 75% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Cities are stronger today as centres of economic, social and cultural exchange than they ever have been, acting as crucibles of creativity, economic growth and social encounter."

From June 20 through August 27 2007.
Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London.

See the website.

New Designs for Classical Music

To what extent does the concert hall influence your reception of music? “Simply speaking, the hall is the instrument of the orchestra,” states Christoph von Dohnanyi--the chief conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony, “If you mess it up, the orchestra will be a mess."

The recent rethinking of the concert halls has challenged the conventional designs as being voluminous, high and rectangular spaces. Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, to a great degree, epitomizes the imagination of the new era. The major ongoing projects include Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany by Herzog and de Meuron, and Paris Philarmonie by Jean Nouvel. Here the question arises: Will the new architecture for concert halls attract bigger audiences? The early 2010s will prove whether these radical projects will rack up success, or not.

Nicolai Ouroussoff from NY Times discusses the previous and contemporary interplay between architects and acousticians; follow the link.

HRW International Film Festival

The seventh art exposes once again its power to inspire and raise consciousness on the worldwide human rights issues. Striking with its selection of films that are fusions of artistic talent and human rights content, the preminent NGO--Human Rights Watch collaborates with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York, and presents the HRW International Film Festival. "We seek to empower everyone with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a very real difference," the organization spokeman states. The festival that will take place between June 14th and 28th, includes twenty-four films and videos from nineteen different countries.

The New York premieres will be,
- Mon Colonel, Laurent Herbiet, Director; Costa-Gavras & Jean-Claude Grumberg, Screenplay; Michèle Ray-Gavras, France/Belgium, 2006,
- Carla's List, Marcel Schüpbach, Switzerland, 2006,
- The City of Photographers, Sebastián Moreno Mardones, Chile, 2006,
- Cocalero, Alejandro Landes, Argentina, 2007,
- Election Day, Katy Chevigny, USA, 2007,
- Enemies of Happiness, Eva Mulvad, Director; Anja Al-Erhayem, Co-Director, Denmark, 2006,
- Sari’s Mother, James Longley, USA/Iraq, 2006,
- Hot House, Shimon Dotan, Israel, 2006,
- A Lesson of Belarusian, Miroslaw Dembinski, Poland/Belarus, 2006,
- Virtual Freedom, Gef Senz and Maung Maung Aye, Australia, 2006,
- Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal, Canada, 2005,
- The Railroad All-Stars, Chema Rodriguez, Spain, 2006,
- Strange Culture, Lynn Hershman Leeson, USA, 2007,
- Suffering and Smiling, Dan Ollman, Nigeria/US, 2006,
- The Violin, Francisco Vargas Quevedo, Mexico, 2006,
- We’ll Never Meet Childhood Again, Sam Lawlor and Lindsay Pollock, Romania/UK, 2007, and
- White Light/Black Rain, Steven Okazaki, USA, 2006.

For further information follow the link.
For the schedule in PDF format, click here.

Politics vs Art

How suscipious are we for what art can offer? What is the role of art in public imagination and democratic participation? Who has the real power--politics or art? Or are these notions more than two mutually exclusive terms?

Sculptor Antony Gormley, film-maker Penny Woolcock, Matthew Taylor--chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts in England, and Rushanara Ali--associate director of the Young Foundation discuss the aforementioned questions in a panel chaired by Madeleine Bunting--associate editor of the Guardian.

Hear the debate.

Tales from the City: Dubai

"Tales from the City: Dubai" - Mark Rappolt's article in Art Review (issue 11) that puts forward a 'seemingly' critical of the flourishing art market in the Emirates made me smile... "[...] As a gang of Indian labourers dragged and shoved a sculpture across the beach, a gaggle of (mainly) Western art critics were listening to (mainly) Western artists describing what they do. This was convened as part of a Global Art Forum, held in a crenellated pavilion complete with AstroTurf lawn. At the opening of the fair itself (of the 40 galleries exhibiting, only one was local), an Emirati stood in front of a Damien Hirst butterfly piece and complained that the whole thing wasn't shocking enough."

Visual communication: redesign of NYC subway map

Eddie Jabbour's redesign of NYC subway map:
"The subway lines run parallel to one another, making the map easier to read, if slightly inaccurate. Each line is marked with a circle bearing the route’s letter or number, instead of oblong station markers. The map does not have a single line representing all the trains in a “cluster” route, like the 1, 2 & 3 trains in Manhattan. It uses the identical type font throughout, and words travel left to right, rather than diagonally. The lines bend only in 45-degree and 90-degree angles, to create a gridlike pattern."
(Source: infosthetics.com)

Global Feminisms

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art (Brooklyn Museum) exhibition opens its doors on March 23, 2007. Curated by Maura Reilly, it is merely dedicated to feminist art that has had a great impact since the 1960s through its initiative to revitalize social issues in art. Rising a counter-discourse to aesthetic formalism, feminist art has been a pioneer in contemporary art scene wth its dedication to challenge the status quo, to produce new publics, and to invite the audience to critique and deconstruct dominant ideas. I must underline that Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party" (1974-79) finally found a spot in a permanent collection of an art space - in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

The Brooklyn Museum will be hosting a symposium titled "Feminisms Without Borders" on March 31, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium. The symposium that accompanies the exhibition "Global Feminisms" will offer two panels:
Resisting Histories of Art, and Local/Global Feminisms.

AI interview with Damien Hirst

Following are some quotations from the AI interview with the Britpack artist Damien Hirst. Artist's new works including a series named after Philip Larkin's (1922-1985) poems as well as after Christian icons, are on display in Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles.

" [...] I did a load of medicine cabinets a long time ago and I named them after Sex Pistols songs. I suppose I must be getting old if I’m naming work after Philip Larkin poems. I don’t know. They’re quite religious-looking, and I think I was just trying to find a way to avoid the religiousness by saying they’re named after poems rather than naming them after churches or anything like that. I’m still coming to terms with my own religion. . .

[...] rather than be frightened by notoriety, I’ve embraced it. When I was growing up I had a lot of friends, older artists, and each of them was just sitting in his studio, painting away, waiting to be discovered. I always thought that was a lonely, sad, depressing pursuit and I was more frightened of that than anything else. I wanted to make art that had an audience, and I didn’t want to wait for that audience to find me. I wanted to go out and get it.

[...] As an artist you’re looking for universal triggers. You want it both ways. You want it to have an immediate impact, and you want it to have deep meanings as well. I’m striving for both. But I hate it when people write things that sound like they’ve swallowed a fucking dictionary. When I make the artwork, anything I say, I try to deny it as well at the same time, so you make viewers responsible for interpretation. I think that’s good. I want to make artwork that makes people question their own lives, rather than give them any answers. Because answers always turn out to be wrong further down the line, but questions are exciting forever."

Does money debase the art?

"Irrational exuberance of the contemporary art market is about the breeding of money, not the fertility of art," SUNY Professor Donald Kuspit opines, "and that commercially precious works of art have become the organ grinder’s monkeys of money." In his article "Art Values or Money Values" in Artnet, Kuspit underlines that the hierarchy of values has been shaken, and it has determined money atop of the spiritual value of the work of art. In art scene where critics have become the mere "intellectual losers" in Kuspit's words, money has arisen as the only determining factor for value. Hence, he argues, money that has become the only raison d'etre of art, leaves no room for the independent evaluation of art. Rather than making an overgeneralized and simple statement that money creates art, Kuspit emphasizes that art's value has been guaranteed by how much it is worth. Thus, validation of art, in Kuspit's view, now depends on money that defeated the intrinsic value of the work of art as well as the critics' criteria; and this is leading and will continue to lead to the rise of "defective artists."

On the other hand, Toby Lichtig criticizes Kuspit's remarks that embody a "comical pomposity." According to his essay "Has Money Contaminated the Art World?", speculation in art should be considered as regrettable, but normal. His argument implies the 'musts' for critics in a realist way. Although it does not seem facile, critics should raise their voices, and "speak louder than money with their expertise." Moreover, public interest often focuses on art that is valuable in monetary terms. However, this does not mean that the audience is inevitably going to accept the "schlock of the new" which risks overvaluing itself. At this point, we need to trust to curators, Lichtig says.

This discussion paves the way for the role of shock value in contemporary art scene. After the divorce of art and aesthetics, art has included works with the beauty to be appreciated with 'taste' in Hume's perspective as well as disturbing or totally new works that reflect the shock value. Contemporary art focused on new ideas and their patenting sometimes may produce 'bad' works with good publicity and high value in price. At this point, I quote Lichtig: "We can lose count of the amount of times certain conceptual artists might try to surprise us; and it is only once they have done so the first time - once they are a safe bet - that money is interested. Damien Hirst can now stuff a porcupine, skewer it on a stick, call it "The Ugliness of Transcendence" and earn a million. There's nothing we can do about Charles Saatchi putting a price on this. But that doesn't mean we necessarily have to take it seriously."

Fraser defines 'artists':

"Artists, like other arts professionals, are often highly entrepreneurial. I would go even further and say that we are the very model for labour in the new economy, a fact that's not an odd irony or quirk of fate, but deeply rooted in our 'habitus' - as Pierre Bourdieu calls the habits, dispositions and preferences generated within a given field. We're highly educated, highly motivated 'self-starters' who believe that learning is a continuous process. We're always ready for change and adapt it quickly. We prefer freedom and flexibility to security. We don't want to punch a clock and tend to resist quantifying the value of our labour time. We don't know the meaning of 'overtime'. We're conceived that we work for ourselves and our own satisfaction even when we work for others. We tend to value non-material over material rewards, which we are willing to defer, even to posterity. While we may identify with social causes, we tend to come from backgrounds which discourage us from seeing ourselves as 'labour'. Finally, we're fiercely individualistic, which makes us difficult to organise and easy to exploit."*

*Andrea Fraser, "A museum is not a business. It is run in a businesslike fashion," in Art and Its Institutions: Current Conflicts, Critique and Collaborations, ed. Nina Montmann (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2006), p. 94.

Art Commerce: Oxymoron, or not?

Between 8-11 March, Dubai hosted the DIFC Gulf Art Fair - the first major international contemporary art show in the Middle East. Dubai has been lately considered as a skyrocketing center of attraction for artistic practice and art market - a possible future-rival to New York and London.

Christie's foresaw the regions's potential in 2005 by establishing an office in Dubai and by initiating auctions. It was followed by Sotheby's that has also positioned itself in the market: "When there is a critical mass in an economy, inevitably it grows by-products and the art market is one of them," Roxane Zand - Sotheby's Middle East and Gulf director opines, "Art is a form of investment. With so much property going up here, people want to put art in the property."

The ongoing debate on the region's growing contribution to the art market paves the way for the tricky question: does the art in the Middle East really begin to blossom?

Here is the official website of the Gulf Art Fair.

Please read Peter Conrad's article published in Guardian:

Rhinoplasty in Iran through Nelson's lenses

Rhinoplasty is one of the themes of London-based photographer Zed Nelson's projects. Nelson's biting eye catches the irresistible desire of young Iranian women to 'change' their appearance of their faces - their visible image in public. The strict rules in Iran that require women to cover their bodies and hair pave the way for different social trends. Despite the ban on make-up in public spaces, Iranian women seek for alternative ways to 'improve' their looks with the emphasis on their face. Hence, nose jobs have been popularized for the last ten years the reports state. Thus, the rate of rhinoplasty has been the highest in Iran in this time period. It is argued that the introduction of satellite television into people's daily life has triggered women's longing to imitate Hollywood-standards of beauty.

Nelson also examines the gun obsession in the Unites States, members of the NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance), dedicated soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, 'Porn Safari', and 'Disappearing Britain' including Yorkshire Miners, Cornish fishermen and World War II Veterans.

Check the photographer's website.

"The List" within the Fortress Europe

"March 14 through March 28, 2007

The List is a project by artist Banu Cennetoglu and curator Huib Haye van der Werf, produced by Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, in collaboration with the Art in Public Space Foundation (SKOR), SMCS on 11, United, Maison Descartes - Institut Francais des Pays-Bas and Idea Books. The List is made possible in part by the American Center Foundation.

Description
The List is a document which contains the names of more than 7000 (known) refugees who died within, or on, the borders of Europe. It is being compiled by UNITED for Intercultural Action - a non-profit organisation composed of a network of more than 560 organisations from 49 different countries (www.unitedagainstracism.org).
For this project the List will be displayed as a poster campaign in 110 MUPI’s - outdoor advertising signs- throughout the city of Amsterdam for the duration of two weeks, March 14 - March 28, 2007. The poster campaign will not be commercially designed or contain any advertising, but only contain the List itself.
The project will commence with a seminar held at SMCS on 11, in which an international group of artists, filmmakers, photographers and academics will present work in the context of the list.
Throughout the week an information center will be made available to the public at SKOR’s INkijk, in the center of Amsterdam. Here supplementary information about the ‘Death List’ and the many other international initiatives dealing with the issues of Europe being a fortress and the fate of refugees will be made available to the public.

The purpose of this project is to confront a general audience with this crucial document by making it visible within the public sphere. The urgency to do so lies in the consistent portrayal of Europe having an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’. The representation of Europe as a fortress - through political discourse and therefore news agencies - leads to singular notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’. However, we are at a moment where the borders of Europe are in a process of redefinition and where what is external (of) today can be internal (of) tomorrow. Rather than portray Europe as an enclosed and limited entity, one could consider embracing the uncertainty of its boundaries as something positive and unlimited.
The List as it is proposed here, however, is not merely meant as a socio-political project, but also as an experiment in exploring the borders and the scope of artistic practise. From this, it seeks out the limits of critical potential of the ‘cultural institute’ as well. What role can art play in the discussion on - and depiction of - Fortress Europe and migration? From what position can it do so?"

For further information please check the link.

Curating is . . .

In his article titled "The Bias of the World: Curating After Szeemann & Hopps," David Levi Strauss discusses the definition of "curator," and puts the emphasis on how Herald Szeeman and Walter Hopps - the two sui generis architects of the curatorial practices of today - contributed to the redefining of the word, and how they challenged the structure and questioning of the curatorial works in contemporary art scene. New curators should take risks in curatorial work, Strauss argues. “The nice thing about utopias is precisely that they fail," Szeeman opines, "For me failure is a poetic dimension of art."

Read the article.
(Thanks to Alpin for the link.)

Research on Medieval Islamic tilings

A research conducted in the U.S. revealed that geometric patterns of the medieval Islamic art reflected quasicrystalline geometry.

On the one hand, the conventional argument was that rulers and compasses were utilized for simple zigzags and geometric star-and-polygones. On the other hand, aperiodic patterns forming diffraction may reflect the artisans' intuitive perception of a complex geometry, the study underlines. Use of symmetrical polygones leads to an unlimited extension of the pattern.

The report of Peter J. Lu from Harvard University, and of Paul J. Steinhardt from Princeton University is published in the February 23, 2007 issue of the Science Magazine.

Related link.

Can I . . . ?

"Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by force," said Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech in 1972, "This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation's heart, the excision of its memory."

Freedom of expression and its inextricable foe - censorship have been controversial for centuries. Considering the present jigsaw puzzle, Boyd Tonklin talks about examples of the moral, religious, and military censorships in his article published in The Independent newspaper.

Read the article.

Photography and the Self

In contemporary visual culture, portrait that epitomizes a wide range of identities – personal, sexual, national, ethnic, or religious, has gained a different dimension outside the commercial realm. It has become a powerful and controversial means of communication between the artist and the viewer who is invited to interpret the portrait-photograph at various levels.

From this perspective, “Photography and the Self: The Legacy of F. Holland Day” at Whitney Museum of American Art calls attention to the self-portraiture with a collection whose center-artifact is “The Seven Words” (1898) by Day. The exhibition picks up Day’s performative portraiture, and juxtaposes contemporary artists with a focus on the 1960s onward.

“[Christ] is just like a piece of art. . . the beautiful white Christ,” Oscar Wilde asserted. Deeply influenced by Wilde, F. Holland Day (1864-1933) created a series of depiction of Christ on the cross. Each of Day’s seven platinum prints at Whitney mezzanine, positions itself as a reference to Christ’s seven statements in the time between his crucifixion and his death. For his project, Day grew his hair and beard, and lost weight to capture the picturesqueness. At this point, other photographers/artists explore the performed portraiture from their point of view.

Curated by Carrie Springer, the exhibition puts together the portraits in which artists’ own bodies are used as the object/raw material. Although the size of the show remains small due to the limitation to the Whitney’s collection, the photographs introduce an elaborate investigation of the theatrical depiction of the artist-centric photographs.

Among the artists, Cindy Sherman draws attention with “Untitled” (2004) in which she depicts a nonchalant clown. Considered as a touchstone for the photographic portraiture, Sherman appears again with her play with the notion of identity and of the masquerade we live in.

Creating an antithesis of the controlled portraits, Adrian Piper articulates himself through a series of fourteen photographs that gradually blacken. In the “Food for the Spirit” (1971), Piper who faces the camera and hence the viewer, becomes almost invisible because of the darkness. The project opens up a wide range of connotations from the critique of racism to the confirmation of the self.

One of the disguised artists, Lyle Ashton Harris chooses the famous jazz vocal Billie Holiday as the centre of his self-portrait – “Billie #21” (2002). The artist’s iconographic photograph positions the African-American subject as a self-reflecting and powerful figure who stands up for life.

Moreover, Hannah Wilke (1940-1993) examines gender inequality and sexism in “S.O.S. Stratification Object Series” (1974) with a delicate discourse. The artist questions the labels used for women, and the perception of female body in the society. Wilke’s portrait arises as a part of her eight-year project that started as a performance in which the artist collected the chewing gums from her audience, molded them into vulva-shaped forms, and attached to her skin.

Besides the ones mentioned above, the exhibition includes the photographs of Chris Burden, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Charles Ray, Lucas Samaras, Carrie Mae Weems, and Francesca Woodman.

In sum, there is an important point to be underlined: Day’s intention for “The Seven Words” radically differs from the other works: it is argued that the theatrical imposture in Day’s project is related to his reverence and devotion for his subject matter, whereas his contemporaries use reactionary stances against specific discourses. However, this does not change the fact that fascinating show –“Photography and the Self: The Legacy of F. Holland Day” successfully undertakes the question of how a performative portrait functions.

On view through March 4, 2007.
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street

[Published in Free Press Binghamton, March 1, 2007]

Abu Dhabi hosts Gehry, Hadid, Nouvel and Ando

Celebrity architects Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, and Tadao Ando revealed their Abu Dhabi projects for “an audacious multi-billion dollar cultural district whose like has never been seen in the Arab world,” as New York Times wrote.

The new Cultural District of Saadiyat Island situated in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates will be hosting three museums, a biennial exhibition space, art schools, and an art college. The four venues in the cultural district are planned by famous names: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi branch by Frank Gehry, Performing Arts Center by Zaha Hadid, Louvre Abu Dhabi branch by Jean Nouvel, and Maritime Museum by Tadao Ando. Scheduled for completion by the year of 2012, the 271-hectare (670-acre) complex will include luxurious hotels, leisure facilities and golf courses as well.

Saadiyat Island (Island of Happiness) will redefine its name and its context where the high arts will find a novel space to be spread and appreciated.

Ecoboulevard from Ecosistema Urbano

Opposing to the passivity of the classical architecture, Ecosistema Urbano raises a new voice for urban space operations. Following the principle of optimization of energy resources and budgetary limits, Ecosistema Urbano triggers a new project, EcoBoulevard in Vallecas, Spain.

EcoBoulevard aims to recover uncontrolled urban planning, and creates a portable recycling system. The project consists of three "air trees" of 20 meters in diametre. The first tree can be defined as a temple of photosynthesis: the column that is covered with vegetation inside functions with the energy it creates itself thanks to the photovoltaic system. The second tree will be a similar structure, yet the third "air tree" will provide a public space where the audience will have the opportunity to sit and watch the videos projected on the huge screens inside the column.

Easy to dismantle, "air trees" present a light structure that serves as an urban recycling system as well as a regeneration of social public space.

Ecosistema Urbano website: http://www.ecosistemaurbano.com/

"Prêt à Porter" Bodies

Nicole Tran Ba Vang is a Paris-based artist who explores one of the most questioned concepts in contemporary art - the body. Her photographs examine the cult of perfection and the value of clothing. Investigating the fashion, its language, and aesthetics, Nicole Tran Ba Vang does not hesitate to critique the absurdity of trends with humor.

The artist uses the body as a space of transformation of the self and of the identity. In her works, the clothes are in an ambiguous play with the body; they transform into nudity, and they confuse the viewer. Each series of photographs paves the way for diverse reflexions on the notions of desire and bodily modifications including bronzing, pilosity, buttocks, and breasts.

Will the obsession of appearance lead to the "prêt à porter" bodies?

Artist's Website: http://www.tranbavang.com/

Look Up. Look Up.

Militia movement in the U.S., popular support for the National Front in France, rise of Neo-Nazism in Germany, and the steady increase of racism in Norway - the alleged role-model for social democracy exemplify the frigthening social trends. As the economy goes sour, we keep asking the despairing question: what does the future bring - cosmopolitanism or fascism?

In this context, Jordan Wolfson's documentation video exhibited in the Whitney Biennial of 2006 transforms the final speech of Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" (1940) into the sign language. Wolfson's silent movie introduces a contemporary reading of the fascist governments of 1920s and 1930s. The work invites the viewer to question the validity of the speech on freedom and humanity for today.

The title of the work is composed of the entire final speech of the "Great Dictator": "I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor—that’s not my business—I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls—has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair.” The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people will return to the people, and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish.… Soldiers—don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you—who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate—only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers—don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty. In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written “the kingdom of God is within man”—not one man, nor a group of men—but in all men—in you, the people. You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power—let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers—in the name of democracy, let us all unite! Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting—the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality. The soul of man has been given wings—and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow—into the light of hope—into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up."
“The Great Dictator” (1940), 2005

Haluk Akakçe's new work in Deitch Projects

"Sky is the Limit," Haluk Akakçe's (b. 1970, Ankara) new work is exhibited in Deitch Projects only for two weeks. Deitch Projects hosts Akakçe's animated artwork exhibited in Las Vegas's Viva Vision that showed video art on the largest video screen of the world - 90x1500 feet, in November 2006. The gallery also provides the documentation of the Las Vegas project and essays on the artist. Fogle, a curator and art critic, interprets Akakçe's videos as the mediums that "take us through the looking glass into a world where the future is often yesterday and flatness manifests a new kind of depth.”

Deitch Projects 18 Wooster Street, New York
Through February 24, 2007.

Dangerous Beauty

As members of the mobility/globalism generation, we intuitionally choose to `become beautiful` to communicate with others. In our struggle against the monotony that is antagonistic to human nature, fashion leads the changes of our behaviors, habits, attire, make-up, and body. However, contemporary trends that set up the forms of thought, styles, changes and acceptances, create idealized role models.

Curated by Manon Slome, Dangerous Beauty, a selection of various medias – including painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation, explores the ideals of beauty, mass consumerism, and the impact of the glossy media. The group exhibition reveals the anxiety of the present beauty-oriented society.

The viewer has the chance to grasp the ambiance of the exhibition through Jacob Dahlgren's installation "Heaven is a Place on Earth" (2006) at the entrance. In the context of the exhibit, standardization and minimalism are to be mocked by Dahlgren's interactive piece.

Among the works in the exhibition, Nicola Constantino's "Savon de Corps" (2005) plays with the notions of aesthetics and ethics. Having produced soaps from her own body fat – removed through liposuction, Constantino explores the antithesis of beauty and attractiveness of female body through her anthropomorphic soaps. Trapped between disgust and admiration, the viewer hesitates to touch the exhibited soap.

E.V. Day installs two fighting cat skeletons floating in a steel cage. Her new work – "Cat Fight" (2006) reminds the "Bride Fight" (2006) which displays two quarrelling wedding gowns that are suspended in space. Carefully engineered pieces of the artist invite the viewer to make amusing readings rather than to interpret a normative discourse.

Standing against the idea of models, Orlan's photographic documentation of her own plastic surgery, "Omnipresence" (1993) shows the artist's recovery period of 40 days.

Fiction of desirability raises the questions of perfection, fashion industry, bodily manipulation, anorexia, aging phobia and violence related to beauty. In this context, Dangerous Beauty captures the moments when beauty myth meets the harsh realities.

Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 2nd St. at 11th Avenue, through April 21.

Open Letter from Joost Lagendijk

Open letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and opposition leader Deniz Baykal



Brussels, February 1 2007



Dear Mr Erdoğan and Mr Baykal,



Tomorrow it will be two weeks since Hrant Dink was killed. Last week at his funeral more than 100,000 people made it clear they want to live in a country where writers and journalists do not have to fear for their lives if they express controversial opinions or touch on sensitive issues. Now the time has come for you to act.



After being present at the funeral I stayed for a couple of days in Istanbul: talking to people, trying to understand what the mood in the country was. Some were pessimistic, believing that there was little reason to hope for change, as similar tragedies have occurred in the past. Others were optimistic and hoped that the developments in Turkey over the last couple of years would make it possible this time to make a break with the past.



All of them made a link, in one way or another, between the murder of Hrant Dink and the climate of rising intolerance and aggressive nationalism that has been growing in Turkey over the past two years. Article 301 of the new Penal Code is a symbol, which represents this climate.



In your reaction to the many calls from the Turkish media to abolish or fundamentally change article 301 you have both used similar arguments. It is true that the Penal Codes of various EU member states contain articles penalising the denigration or insult of the state organs and the administration. The German and Austrian texts are among the most explicit. Insult of or contempt for the State is punishable by imprisonment of up to three years. In my own country, the Netherlands, insulting the authorities or a public body or institution can lead to imprisonment. So why is article 301 different?



There are two points. First there is the word 'Turkishness' (Türklüğü) in the first paragraph of article 301. This is an expression which you will not find in any European Penal Code: denigrating 'Germanness' or 'Austrianness' is not forbidden. In these countries, the issue at stake is insult of the state. It is the word Turkishness that led to the proliferation of prosecutions against journalists and writers in Turkey. It was for insulting Turkishness that Hrant Dink was convicted. The word is vague, open to various interpretations and lacks legal certainty for the Turkish citizens: what can they say, what not?



The second point concerns the reasoning behind the article. In the Netherlands and in other European states, the reason is pragmatic: it serves the orderly functioning of the public service. Due respect for the administration is important in a democratic society. It serves the general interest. Convictions on the basis of these articles in member states of the European Union concern insults of police officers on duty, threats against civil servants or against members of the government. The added value of these articles for society seems obvious, and they are consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights article on freedom of expression.



None of the high profile cases against writers and journalists brought before Turkish courts under article 301 correspond to this type of reasoning. The articles written and opinions expressed did not constitute a threat to the general interest. Prosecution of the authors was therefore not necessary in a democratic society.



You have always said: let us wait and see how the article is interpreted, let us see what the judges make of it. We cannot wait any longer. Hrant Dink was convicted for insulting Turkishness and his appeal was rejected. This conviction made him a target for his murderer. How much more proof do you need? Article 301 in its present form and with the present interpretation by the judiciary, leads to life threatening situations.



Assuming that is was not the intention of the Turkish government or the Turkish parliament to create such situations, there is only one solution. Apparently the legislators have not been clear enough. Therefore, the article needs to be withdrawn. If it is deemed that protection of the state against insult is necessary for the functioning of the Turkish democracy, an article should be adopted that no one can misinterpret or exploit for criminal purposes.



I sincerely hope both of you have the courage to confront those people in Turkey that want to break with the reforms that have brought your country closer to Europe. With so many more challenges ahead, Turkey needs political leaders that take the country forward not backward; leaders that realise that Turkey’s long term interests are not served by giving in to extreme and violent nationalism; leaders that are willing to lead the country in the direction of more democracy, tolerance and respect for divergent views.



Yours sincerely,



Joost Lagendijk MEP

La Muse

Here are Alfred de Musset's verses; they are inspiring just as Terpsichore would be.

Poète, prends ton luth et me donne un baiser;
La fleur de l'églantier sent ses bourgeons éclore.
Le printemps naît ce soir; les vents vont s'embraser,
- Et la bergeronnette, en attendant l'aurore,
Aux premiers buissons verts commence à se poser.
Poète, prends ton luth et me donne un baiser.

(Alfred de Musset, La Nuit de Mai)

What is art?

"Art is not entertainment; art is not some novel element in a 'creative' or 'knowledge' economy whose prime function is to produce placid, contented, brand-conscious consumers... Art streches and challenges us with the difficulty of what it says and how it says it."

-Chris Townsend, New Art From London (UK: Thames & Hudson, 2006)