Applications now available for
The Armory Show 2014

Deadline: Friday, July 5th, 2013

www.thearmoryshow.com

The upcoming edition of The Armory Show, the leading New York art fair, will take place on Piers 92 and 94 in central Manhattan March 6–9, 2014 with a professional preview on March 5. What started as a hotel-based art fair in 1994 has grown into one of the most respected modern and contemporary art fairs in the world.

The 2013 Armory Show was an overwhelming success anchored by strong sales, extensive coverage in the international press, and attendance of more than 60,000 visitors.

In 2014, The Armory Show will again feature an acclaimed VIP program, a lively opening night party at the Museum of Modern Art, the engaging Open Forum discussion series, and Armory Film. Next year’s fair will also coincide with the opening of the 2014 Whitney Biennial in early March, further enhancing the line-up of Armory Arts Week events planned in partnership with New York’s cultural institutions, and attracting a wide range of international collectors, curators, scholars, and press.

The Armory Show is currently accepting applications for Contemporary – Pier 94 and Modern – Pier 92. Applicants to each pier will be reviewed by appointed gallery Selection Committees; preference will be given to proposals with a strong curatorial vision, supported by exemplary work.

The Armory Show – Contemporary on Pier 94 premiers new works by living artists. This section of the fair is dedicated to showcasing leading galleries in the main section, invited exhibitors as part of Armory Focus, and Armory Presents, featuring single and dual artist presentations by galleries founded after 2004.

The Armory Show – Modern on Pier 92, now in its sixth year, features presentations by international galleries and dealers specializing in modern and secondary market material of the late 19th and 20th century. This section will highlight masterworks by artists created before the year 2000.

To apply, please visit: www.thearmoryshow.com/application
Applications must be completed online; the deadline is Friday, July 5th, 2013.

For further information regarding the show or application procedures, please contact Michelle Darnell, Exhibitor Relations Manager, at m.darnell@thearmoryshow.com.

The Armory Show
7 West 34th Street, Suite 1027
New York, NY 10001

Sarkis
Ikiz / Twin

May 23–July 6, 2013

Galeri Manâ
Kemankes Mah.
Ali Pasa Degirmeni Sok. No: 16
34425 Beyoglu
Istanbul, Turkey

www.galerimana.com

Sarkis in Conversation with Uwe Fleckner and Nico Anklam
24 May 2013, 6pm
Galata Greek Primary School
Kemeraltı Cad. No: 49
34425 Beyoğlu, Istanbul

Galeri Manâ is pleased to announce Sarkis‘ solo exhibition İkiz-Twin in Istanbul from May 23 to July 6, 2013. This first solo exhibition of Sarkis at Galeri Manâ will present a new installation by the artist, bringing together his most recent works.

In Ikiz/Twin, Sarkis creates a universe of dualities at work in multiple layers. Copper surfaces with their reflective and transmissive properties take the central stage in a setting where each floor of the gallery space acts as an original twin to the other. The twins are endowed with minor distortions expressed in the time lapse and spatial divide between the two floors, and also in the substance and the form of each work. Each object is encountered twice but both are of essence, referring to the founding dualisms of the human experience and conception of the universe. This duality is transcended only by the sound element of the exhibition. A musical score fills the entire space; also connecting the exhibition to Sarkis’ Ballads installation at the former shipyard in Rotterdam, the distant, ringing sound of bells conveys the song of two whales in dialogue as Sarkis engages in his own conversation with John Cage.

“We hear the far-off sounds of bells or ringing coming from loudspeakers covered with copper. We keep finding ourselves doubled in the exhibition space and look into the face of our mirror-image twin through a curtain of colorful fingerprints. Leaded windows display photographic portraits whose protagonists appear to be saints of everyday life. We find a brownish shirt, worn just by a copper rod, which is adorned with numerous applications. It hangs strangely high on the wall.”
–Nico Anklam, March 2013

A fully illustrated catalog will accompany the exhibition with contributions by Uwe Fleckner and Nico Anklam focusing respectively on Sarkis’ use of visual phenomena in relation to memory and on this latest installation of works. There will be a conversation between Sarkis, Uwe Fleckner and Nico Anklam on May 24, 2013 at 6pm at the Galata Greek Primary School.

Since the earliest stages of his artistic practice, Sarkis has searched for an aesthetic language and experience characteristic of our time. A constant urge to create a new language underlies Sarkis’ oeuvre, always reflective of the nature of the materials, media and sites he uses. Taking inspiration from autobiographical elements as well as art history, literature, music and film, he emphasizes the historicity and performativity of objects and sites. Through the physical, historical and conceptual encounters he stages, the artist brings new life into fixed and frozen depositories of memory.

Recent retrospective exhibitions of Sarkis were held at Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2011); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010) and  İstanbul Modern (2009). Sarkis has participated at numerous international exhibitions including When Attitudes Become Form (Kunsthalle Bern, 1969), Les Magiciens de la Terre (Centre Pompidou, 1989), Sydney (1989), Lyon (2009), İstanbul (1987; 1989; 1995; 2007), Moscow (2007), Venice (1990) Biennials and Documenta (1977; 1982).  In 2012, his installation Ballads was exhibited in the port of Rotterdam with the support of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, his stained glass works at the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire in France at the exhibition Ailleurs, ici; and his installation La Frise des Trésors de Guerre at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris within the Triennale.

Galeri Manâ, located in the Tophane district of Istanbul, is a converted wheat mill that dates to the 19th century. Founded by Mehves Arıburnu in 2011, the gallery seeks to establish an inclusive and interdisciplinary dialogue through its artistic program, special events and publications.

Galata Greek Primary School, constructed in the late 19th century for the education of Greek children in Istanbul, regularly opens its doors to exhibitions and cultural events since 2012.

Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing

A Hayward Touring exhibition opening at Turner Contemporary, Margate
25 May–15 September 2013

Turner Contemporary
Rendezvous, Margate
Kent CT9 1HG
England

www.turnercontemporary.org

Curated by Brian Dillon and organised in collaboration with Turner Contemporary, Margate, in association with New York art and culture magazine Cabinet.

Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing is a startling exhibition that moves wittily, sometimes mysteriously, between contemporary art, anatomy, Old Master drawings, the history of criminology, Cold War secrets, the origins of museums and voyeurism in everyday life. Taking as a starting point the cabinets of curiosities that flourished throughout Europe in the 17th century, Curiosity is a detailed and spectacular meditation on the nature of wonder, fascination and inquiry. Turner Contemporary architect David Chipperfield conceived the design for the exhibition’s initial showing in Margate, and Curiosity is set to tour to Norwich and Amsterdam.

Like its ancestor the Wunderkammer, this exhibition happily juxtaposes past and present to create a picture of knowledge and invention that is encyclopedic but highly eccentric. Contemporary works include Nina Katchadourian’s sly and hilarious photographs made on long-haul flights: the artist disappears into the aircraft toilet and, using materials to hand, photographs herself in the costumes and poses of 17th-century Flemish portraiture. Back in her seat, she composes landscapes and animal studies out of in-flight magazines and meals. Attention and concentration are recurrent themes of the exhibition: under hypnosis, Matt Mullican videos himself becoming deeply interested in his own shoe and other objects. Tacita Dean films the artist Claes Oldenburg in his studio as he cleans the objects on his bookshelves. Katie Paterson invites us to pore over identical images of darkness sourced from observatories all around the world, and prepares a fragment of meteorite that will be taken into orbit by the European Space Agency in 2014, becoming the subject of live webcast lessons in astrophysics. Gerard Byrne films and photographs the territory around Loch Ness, and produces a compelling map of the frontiers between art, science and fantasy.

Visitors to Curiosity will encounter such recent works among an intriguing array of historical artefacts. Curiosity can coax us too into seeing things that are not exactly there: a collection of ravishingly patterned and coloured stones that belonged to the Surrealist writer Roger Caillois is part of the long tradition of artists projecting their visions onto the natural world. The German glassmakers Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka did not call themselves artists, but in the late 19th century, they produced an astonishing array of exquisitely detailed models of aquatic creatures: still used as teaching aids, they hover somewhere between works of art and scientific specimens. But curiosity has a less alluring history too; the Centre for Land Use Interpretation, a scholarly-artistic institute based in Los Angeles, will exhibit a series of Rolodexes and index cards that once belonged to the US nuclear facility at Los Alamos: bearing the names and addresses of contractors hired by the government, they attest to an era of intense military-industrial secrecy.

Curiosity is a venerable subject that has long been a theme for artists as much as scientists, philosophers and writers. This exhibition includes three examples of Leonardo’s drawings of emblems, puzzles and curious objects; Dürer’s celebrated woodcut of a rhinoceros, of 1515; and Nicholas Maes’s Eavesdropper: his 1655 painting of a scene of domestic spying. But curiosity is also a compelling topic today, perhaps especially in the era of the Internet when it seems that there has never been so much knowledge available, but also that we have never been so easily distracted. Curiosity is an exploration of the ambiguous history and present meaning of wonder, attention and the urge to know. It shuttles engagingly between rigour and intuition, and asks us to focus on objects, images and ideas at vastly different scales: from the microscopic through the bodily to the cosmic and infinite. The exhibition—developed and mounted in association with Cabinet magazine and Turner Contemporary—is accompanied by a suitably playful, and informative book that includes essays by Marina Warner and Brian Dillon.

Turner Contemporary architect David Chipperfield conceived the design for the exhibition’s initial showing in Margate, and Curiosity is set to tour to Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery and de Appel in Amsterdam.

Ion Grigorescu
Trauma of the Exposed Body

May 19–July 26, 2013

Opening: Saturday May 18, 7pm

Ex Chiesa San Matteo
Piazza San Matteo 3
55100 Lucca, Italy
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 3:30–7pm,
other days by appointment only

T/F 39 02 26 92 44 50
info@prometeogallery.com

www.prometeogallery.com

Curated by Maria Rus Bojan

prometeogallery di Ida Pisani is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Trauma of the Exposed Body, the first solo project of the acclaimed Romanian artist Ion Grigorescu, in the gallery’s premises in the Church San Matteo, Lucca.

Curated by Maria Rus Bojan, the exhibition revisits an important period from his creation, presenting works from the end of the 1970s, when the artist investigated body issues through self-performative practices and also newer works, in which the body plays a central role.

Within the recent history of Romanian art, Ion Grigorescu has been one of the first artists who examined the social and cultural significance of body art, providing a new conceptual framework for defining a particular neo-avant garde that underlines the dramatic shift in the conception of the artistic subject.

Embracing a rather particular mix of approaches and spiritual perspectives, Ion Grigorescu practices body art as a mode of transfiguring himself, and as a tool to interrogate the meaning of his own existence, and also of the human condition in general.

Trauma of the Exposed Body is an artistic approach that reiterates the idea that the essence of life is inscribed on our body. Referring to the biblical moment when Adam and Eve, having disobeyed God by tasting fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, lose their innocence and become suddenly aware of their nakedness, Grigorescu emphasizes his own trauma caused by revealing his nude body in front of divinity. A practicing Christian and an artist who earned his existence by painting orthodox churches, Grigorescu underlines that the biblical sense of nudity indicates man’s spiritual purity and therefore, it is not a sacrilege, nor an offense to present himself naked before God.

The exhibition describes the artist’s struggle to conciliate the fundamental contradiction between his desire of experiencing nakedness as an expression of primordial spiritual purity and the traumatic acknowledgement of the original sin. Considering that too many layers had covered the spiritual nakedness of this world, Ion Grigorescu has chosen the oldest church from Lucca, the tenth-century Romanic Basilica San Matteo, as a background for a spiritual unfolding of his ritual of harmonizing the body and mind. One can perceive this performative approach as a ritual of healing and of liberation from dogma and prejudice.

Conceived to work as a single installation, the display alternates projected images alluding to Christianity from his most famous 1970s series of photographic works, such as Ritual Bath and Washing with Light, with mundane elements such as White Wash, Braiding Hair, Athletics or Homage to Muybridge, and with a more recent video projection titled Start. The aim is to create the impression of a performative frieze that adds a different layer to the already sacred and charged space of the church.

prometeogallery di Ida Pisani proudly announces the participation of three artists represented by the gallery at the 55th Edition of the International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia:
Zbynek Baladran within the exhibition Still the Same Place, curated by Marek Pokorny, Czech and Slovak Pavilion
Rossella Biscotti within the exhibition Palazzo Enciclopedico, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Arsenale
Stefanos Tsivopoulos within the exhibition History Zero, curated by Syrago Tsiara, Greek Pavilion

Offspring 2013

May 22–June 2, 2013

Opening: Tuesday, May 21st, 5pm

De Ateliers
Stadhouderskade 86
1073 AT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Hours: Daily 1–6pm

www.de-ateliers.nl

On Tuesday May 21, Offspring 2013 will open. This is the yearly exhibition of the internationally renowned artist institute De Ateliers in Amsterdam. The eighth edition of the show features work by eleven talented young artists, who are completing their two-year working period this summer at De Ateliers.

Offspring 2013 is curated by Francesco Stocchi, curator of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

The exhibition catalog is designed by Rutger Fuchs (NL), the texts are written by art critic Jen Allen (Berlin).

The exhibition and publication are made possible by generous support from the Ministry of Education, Mondriaan Fonds, Ateliers Support Fund, ING Group, Rabobank, AkzoNobel Art Foundation, SNS REAAL Fonds, Dr. Hendrik Muller Fonds, Stichting Dioraphte, Regina Fonds and Dommering Foundation.

As Seen 2
Notable Artworks by Chinese Artists

by Karen Smith

Post Wave Publishing Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd.
No. 137, Chaonei Avenue
Beijing 100010 P. R. China

T 86 010 64072833 808
F 010 64018116
copyright@hinabook.com

www.hinabook.com

“There are many interesting and original artists in China. For reasons of the lack of museums and institutional support, lack of galleries and sponsorship, artists are engaged in fragmented dialogue with an audience that has restricted access to their work.”

China’s art world has come a long way since Beijing-based critic Karen Smith made this observation almost two decades ago, in 1994. Today, the broadening space for culture and art in Chinese society has created an environment that accommodates many more interesting and original artists than was possible in 1995. The most marked development, however, is the process by which the former “lack” is being reversed: today, no one speaks of a lack of museums, of galleries and art spaces, or of the funding that artists seem able to tap into to realize ambitious, monumental art works and projects. Slower to develop has been the soft power, specifically institutional systems where the art of “now” unfolds within a broader cultural or historic context.

That said, China’s art institutions, in their various and somewhat unconventional forms, are, today, changing the way art is seen in the PRC. For artists, curators and art professionals they provide a dynamic platform, even if that space is still protean in nature. For the public, they offer an unprecedented volume of art, in exhibitions large and small and of extraordinary variety and quality.

It is no longer true to describe audience access to contemporary art as restricted, and yet the artist-audience dialogue remains fragmented. Where institutional support is in its infancy, the access to information about individual artists and their works in the context of either the local or the international art scene has yet to shake off its fragmentary, restricted nature. Bridging that gap was the inspiration for As Seen, a periodic survey of the art of China’s most influential and promising young artists, as shown in all forms of exhibition spaces across the PRC. Conceived and compiled by Karen Smith, a recognised expert in the field of China’s contemporary art, As Seen explores the direction of China’s contemporary art scene through the diverse range of art presented in public institutions, private museums and commercial galleries.

“Published simultaneously in English and Chinese language versions, this volume goes a long way toward creating a common frame of reference for recent developments in Chinese art, both inside and beyond China,” comments Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing.

With particular focus on the achievements of young artists, As Seen follows a process Smith describes as “documenting art within a specific time frame, attempting to record the mood of a moment, the values and fascinations that drive the work.” The process of identifying and analyzing the work of artists who may or may not be making history addresses itself to the ubiquitous sense of urgency that permeates our time: the pressing desire to see and appreciate art, as much as for contemporary artists to produce. Future critical perspectives may see some of the artists featured in As Seen written into obscurity, but at this time, they are of significant influence upon the current direction in which contemporary art is moving.

As Seen 2 features the avant-garde pioneers Gu Dexin, Geng Jianyi, Chen Zhen and Xu Bing, other internationally acclaimed figures such as Liu Wei, Yang Fudong, Li Songsong and Cao Fei, and a group of emerging artists who work is only now becoming familiar to audiences in China and abroad such as Li Ran, Li Shurui, Hu Yun, Heman Chong and Pak Sheung Chuen.

Since arriving in 1992, Smith has witnessed and chronicled the evolution of China’s art world. As an overview of artists who are actively contributing to one of the world’s most exciting art scenes, As Seen is a reliable entry point for anyone interested in current artistic practice in contemporary China.
Book details
As Seen 2, released April 1, 2013, Post Wave Books, Beijing (an imprint of Beijing World Publishing Press Corp.) and UCCA, Beijing
As Seen 2011, published May 2012, Beijing World Publishing Press Corp.

Size: 240 x 172 mm
Pages: 220
Illustrations: full colour throughout
ISBN: 978-7-5100-5833-2
Retail Price: 88 Yuan (Chinese language) / 150 Yuan (US25) (English language)
Distributed in North America by DAP

Yellowing of the Lunar Consciousness

24 May–29 September 2013

Mestre
via Torino 105/q
Opening: Thursday 23 May 2013, 7pm

Venezia
Palazzo Bonvicini
Santa Croce 2164
Opening: Friday 31 May 2013, 6pm

www.massimodeluca.it

Curated by Andrea Bruciati

From 24 May to 29 September 2013, in conjunction with the 55th Venice International Art Exhibition, Galleria Massimodeluca proposes its first show to feature international artists, titled Yellowing of the Lunar Consciousness.

The exhibition, curated by Andrea Bruciati, will be held in two sites: the Mestre-based gallery (via Torino 105/q) will be working in partnership with the Palazzo Bonvicini in Venice (Santa Croce 2164). There will also be two openings: Thursday 23 May at Galleria Massimodeluca and Friday 31 May at Palazzo Bonvicini.

The exhibition, which follows on from exhibitions focused on photography (Enten-Eller, Teresa Cos) and performance art (The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress, Nicola Ruben Montini) will bring painting once more to the fore at Massimodeluca. The artists who have been invited to participate in the exhibition will be placed in dialectical relationship, inviting comparisons of their artistic vision and work, whether they use the most traditional of materials, the canvas, or other supports.

The artists chosen to participate were all born in the 1980s and include Paola Angelini, Marco Basta, Juliette Bonneviot, Mihut Boscu Kafchin, Melissa Gordon, Tomasz Kowalski, Dario Pecoraro, Gianni Politi, Florian & Michael Quistrebert, Matthieu Ronsse, James Ryan, Giovanni Sartori Braido, Vito Stassi, and Joris Van De Moortel. The Galleria Massimodeluca exhibition is a project of exchange, communication and close collaboration, placing artists who have yet to participate in an exhibition of this scale alongside artists who have already been on the international exhibition circuit for some time.

In Bruciati’s curatorial project, the painting is seen as a dialectical space between the artistic ideal and its actual painted form, a transformation which involves both alchemy and craftsmanship and which is lived by the artists  as an ongoing investigation into the practice of painting itself, and so into their own personal mythology.

“During the Biennale, Venice becomes the meeting point for the world of contemporary art, and Galleria Massimodeluca wants to offer an exhibition with an international flavour during this period,”—explains the Gallery’s manager, Marina Bastianello—”while still focusing on showcasing and promoting artists under the age of 30.”

The Yellowing of the Lunar Consciousness exhibition has been created in association with the CO2 (Rome), Galerie Crèvecoeur (Parigi), Monica de Cardenas (Milano – Zuoz), Juliette Jongma (Amsterdam), Galerie Michael Janssen (Berlin), Almine Rech Gallery (Parigi – Brussels), Galeria Sabot (Cluj Napoca), and Tim Van Laere (Anversa) galleries.

Media partner: Celeste Network

Gelitin
You You and W

16 May–29 June 2013

Tim Van Laere Gallery
Verlatstraat 23-25
2000 Antwerp
Belgium

T +32 3 257 14 17
F +32 3 257 14 25
info@timvanlaeregallery.com

www.timvanlaeregallery.com
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Tim Van Laere Gallery is pleased to announce You You and W by Gelitin, the Austrian collective’s second solo show at the gallery.

Known for their unconventional exhibitions, site-specific installations, interventions and performances, Gelitin collides a fresh playfulness with vulgarity. Like their Austrian predecessor Franz West, they ascribe to the idea that art should be fun and accessible, and should be objects for manipulation rather than contemplation.

Challenging the space of the gallery with their works, Gelitin’s spirit of generosity is once again demonstrated with simultaneous conviction and irreverence in the You You and W show. Gelitin has chaos as a means of creation and infinite possibilities, aiming for an intimate exchange with the audience.

Gelitin is comprised of four artists. They first met in 1978, when they all attended a summer camp. They have been playing and working together since then. From 1993 they began exhibiting internationally. They participated twice at the Venice Biennale and have exhibited globally with museums and leading art galleries, including solo shows at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris; Galerie Nicola von Senger AG, Zürich; Carlson Gallery, London; Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan; Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna; Gagosian Gallery, London; Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, Miami; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; group shows at Hayward Gallery, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Teatro Arsenale, Milan; and Kunsthalle Krems, Krems.

Flash Art International no. 290

May–June 2013

www.flashartonline.com

Flash Art International May–June features two covers—Andra Ursuta and Gelitin

News
In London, Agnieszka Gratza reviews Charles Atlas‘s installation MC9 as part of the BMW Tate Live Series which is now in its second year. Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, director and chief curator of the 9th Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, discusses her plans for this year’s edition. Curators of Project Biennial D-0 ARK Underground, Branko Franceschi and Başak Senova, tell Flash Art about this year’s project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Umberta Genta interviews the art director of the Prix HSBC Pour la Photographie, Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais, about the prize’s significance. Nicola Trezzi reviews the 11th Sharjah Biennial, Re: emerge – Towards a New Cultural Cartography, curated by Yuko Hasegawa. Leading collectors Frank Cohen and Nicolai Frahm explain the mission of their recently launched non-profit art space The Dairy Art Centre in London. The curator of the upcoming 13th Istanbul Biennial, Fulya Erdemci, talks about her curatorial theme and title “Mom, Am I Barbarian?” Wendy Vogel reports on the triennale discursive event, Home Works, at Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts in Beirut. Swiss artist, Fabian Marti, shares the background to his project, TwoHOTEL in Brazil. Daniela Ambrosio speaks with the artist Fiona Tan about her current solo exhibition, Inventory, at the National Museum of the 21st Century Arts (MAXXI) in Rome. Flash Art sheds light on the new Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton in Venice. Lucy Rees reveals the new plans and ambitions for the new Palestinian Museum and speaks with the director, Jack Persekian, about the challenges to be faced. In anticipation of this year’s edition of Pinta in London, the director Alejandro Zaia, reflects on the fair’s beginnings and divulges the countries that collector’s should keep an eye on.

Features
From their beginning through evolutions, fights and successes, New York-based artist Liam Gillick tells us the true story about Gelitin.

On the eve of presenting her projects at the Frieze Art Fair, New York and the Venice Biennale, Romanian artist Andra Ursuta is the next protagonist to be interviewed by Maurizio Cattelan.

Yongwoo Lee, founding director and chief executive officer of the Gwangju Biennale, interviews artist and political activist Ai Weiwei, who is currently under house arrest in Beijing.

The May–June issue features a questionnaire of a selected group of art professionals based in Hong Kong.

Through an exploration of the Chilean artist, architect and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar‘s recent survey shows in three Berlin institutions, New York-based writer Kathleen MacQueen highlights the political tone of the artist who’s representing Chile at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

The multifaceted practice of Chicago-born, New York-based artist Rashid Johnson is presented in a text written by his long-time friend and supporter Naomi Backwith, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Brand New / Spotlight
Candice Lin by Patrick Steffen.
New York 1993, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star by Wendy Vogel.

Reviews
Wolfgang Laib; Rodney McMillian; Adel Abdessemed; Jack Pierson; Tell it to my heart: Collected by Julie Ault; Hu Qingyan; and Reina Saini Kallat.

Mounir Fatmi
The Blinding Light

2 May–2 June 2013

Galerie Analix Forever
2 rue de Hesse
1204 Genève, Switzerland

www.analix-forever.com
www.analixforever.wordpress.com

Some lights enlighten, some blind. The light of The Angel’s Black Leg light does both.

For The Angel’s Black Leg, Mounir Fatmi drew his inspiration from a painting of Fra Angelico titled The Healing of Deacon Justinien (1438–1440, San Marco Museum, Florence). As a posthumous miracle, Saint Côme and Saint Damien, two twin doctors of Arabic origin, converted as Christians in Rome, saved the life of the Deacon by transplanting on his white body the black leg of an Ethiopian who had just died: The Angel’s Black Leg.

Fra Angelico is offering us a miracle story as well as one of his miraculous paintings. With The Blinding Light, Mounir Fatmi is going even further. For him, the Deacon’s survival is not sufficient to fulfill our “need for consolation” (Stig Dagerman). The Ethiopian has to survive too and Mounir Fatmi thus proposes a scientific, aesthetic, political and cultural cross-transplant: the Angel’s “White Leg.” The artist indeed bears the conviction that only civilization—or better said, the civilizations and the fully acknowledged exchanges between them—will allow the Beautiful Language (from the title of another video of the artist), a language both unique or shared, transiting, in The Angel’s Black Leg, from one world to another, from Asia to Florence, from a time to another, from the third century to the Renaissance—from Morocco to France as Fatmi himself.

With this double video projection specifically conceived for the space of gallery Analix Forever as if it were a sanctuary, the light both enlightens and blinds, as a dual, positive-negative, and sublime experience, associating dread to beauty. According to Kant in his Critique of the Power of Judgment: “Is sublime what demonstrates the ability of the soul to move beyond all meanings thanks to the only act of thinking.” And Fatmi’s personal history is indeed about reciprocal cultural and linguistic thinking, knowledge and exchange. “Cultural graft” as painful it might be, is indispensable for the survival of humanity as a whole. This concept of cultural graft runs through all of Fatmi’s artwork.

In The Blinding Light, Fatmi also surprises us with the power of his drawings. Mounir Fatmi, who is well known for his sculptures and installations, has always been drawing, and possesses a indisputable talent for drawing. Drawing is a practice deeply embedded in Fatmi’s major themes: cuts and bounds and cables and communication and Face(s), too. Finally, one more time, Fatmi announces that God is Dead, and that in every mirrors in which we seek him, we will only find ourselves, our only hope for the future: we, human beings, and this blinding light from our own fantasy.