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.