Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig presents a conference and book release, fall 2014

September 30, 2014 Markus Weisbeck, Gravitationsmaschine, 2012. Courtesy of Krome Gallery, Berlin; Kai Middendorff Galerie, Frankfurt am Main. Photography: Das Schmott. Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig "Curatorial Things" and Timing: On the Temporal Dimension of Exhibiting / Cultures of the Curatorial Vol. 2 kdk-leipzig.de  Share Conference: "Curatorial Things" October 30–November 1, 2014 Haus der Kulturen der Welt  John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10  10557 Berlin Germany Meaning and status of things have changed significantly since the beginning of the 21st century. This becomes particularly evident with regards to the handling of things in the context of presentation. In the practice of today's globalized exhibition system they are of high mobility just like people, discourses and spaces, and are involved in changing signifying contexts. As a result traditional concepts of how things obtain meaning as exhibits begin to dissolve and get re-formulated, which in turn entails far-reaching consequences for the ways of dealing with them as well as for the conditions of these practices. The current trans-disciplinary interrelation of discourses and praxis-theory approaches provide a situation which allows for an analysis of the status of things which is specifically related to the curatorial.  "Curatorial Things" will investigate the implications, consequences, and potentials which arise from the changing meaning and status of things. It is based on the understanding of curatorial practice as constructing constellations. Bringing together theoreticians, academic researchers, curators and artists from a variety of professional and disciplinary backgrounds the conference aims at exploring from different cultural and institutional perspectives the changes, effects, and power attributed to things as participants in such curatorial constellations. Conference program Contributors: Sabeth Buchmann (Wien), Clémentine Deliss (Frankfurt a.M.), Anselm Franke (Berlin), André Lepecki (New York/Sao Paulo), Maria Lind (Stockholm), Florian Malzacher (Berlin), Susanne Neubauer (Berlin/Braunschweig), Kerstin Schankweiler (Berlin), Peter Schneemann (Bern), Jana Scholze (London), Mario Schulze (Zürich), Leire Vergara (Bilbao), Victoria Walsh (London), Katharina Weinstock (Konstanz) Concept: Beatrice von Bismarck, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer  Supported by the Michael & Susanne Liebelt-Stiftung, the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, the Freundeskreis of the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig Cultures of the Curatorial, Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig in Cooperation with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin  Timing: On the Temporal Dimension of Exhibiting Cultures of the Curatorial Volume 2 Beatrice von Bismarck, Rike Frank, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer, Jörn Schafaff, Thomas Weski (Eds.) Processuality and performativity, and more recently dramaturgy and choreography, are terms often used in analyses of exhibitions and other curatorial formats. These attributions reflect the changes curatorial practice has undergone over the past 20 years in the wider context of cultural and economic globalization and the related notions of acceleration, action orientation, and mobility. In this light, the exhibition manifests itself as a transdisciplinary and transcultural set of spatio-temporal relations, which is time-based by its very nature. Focusing on time instead of the typically predominant category of space, this publication—the second volume in the "Cultures of the Curatorial" series—takes up the key aesthetic, social, political, and economic issues of the early 21st century running through the field and framed by the axes of exhibiting and the temporal. Contributions by Pierre Bal-Blanc, Bassam El Baroni, Claire Bishop, Beatrice von Bismarck, Sabine Breitwieser, Barbara Clausen, Maeve Connolly, Rike Frank, Adrian Heathfield, Nikolaus Hirsch, Inka Meißner, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer, Maria Muhle, Philippe Parreno, Jörn Schafaff, Bennett Simpson, Kerstin Stakemeier, Thomas Weski, and Catherine Wood.   Sternberg Press, co-published with Kulturen des Kuratorischen, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig Design by Surface July 2014, English 14 x 21 cm, 396 pages, 65 b/w ill., softcover ISBN 978-3-943365-99-3 Cultures of the Curatorial  Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig Wächterstr. 11  04107 Leipzig   www.kdk-leipzig.de  Contact Subscribe Unsubscribe RSS

Viktor Kopp at Blondeau & Cie

September 30, 2014 Blondeau & Cie Viktor Kopp, A or B (4), 2014. Oil on canvas, 78 x 52 inches. Photo: Andres Ramirez. Viktor Kopp 18 September–20 December 2014 Blondeau & Cie 5 rue de la Muse 1205 Geneva Switzerland Hours: Thursday–Friday 2–6:30pm, Saturday 11am–5pm T +41 22 544 95 95 F +41 22 544 95 99 muse@blondeau.ch www.blondeau.ch Download the art-agenda iPad App Share     This is a joint exhibition of Ribordy Contemporary and Blondeau & Cie. Blondeau & Cie and Ribordy Contemporary are pleased to announce Viktor Kopp's second solo exhibition in Geneva. Paintings will be presented in both galleries to form a single exhibition. For several years Viktor Kopp´s paintings focused on motif, illusion, perspective and geometric abstraction, the viewer being confronted with works that often oscillated between abstraction and representation. Over time vivid colors yielded to an intentionally neutral monochrome palette—greys and whites ("Corner"  paintings, 2011–present) or browns ("Chocolate" paintings, 2007–12). At the same time, the surrealist and comical landscapes which mixed architectural elements and isolated body parts began to be replaced by paintings in which figure and background merged together. For this joint exhibition, the artist presents his latest body of work: "Corner" paintings and "A or B" paintings. The "A or B" paintings push the image in a new direction—from a personal or internal space towards the public realm. Viktor Kopp relates these paintings more than before to art, as opposed to personal matters. Instead of letters forming his initials (KV, 2011) they are now the more anonymous A and B, suggesting a more open reading of their meaning. Plan A–plan B, example A–example B. The relationship between figure and background remains, however the letters are now either painted flat on the surface of the canvas or even unpainted; the result being less illusionistic than before. There is a sense of removal and irony, the viewer looking at a painting depicting paintings or examples of paintings. The brushstrokes and painterly traces of the backgrounds, being in some sense arbitrary, literally seem to hang on the firmness of the letters, both in terms of form and of language, attempting to define and categorize something that eludes absolute definition and specific categories. The painterly background gradually invades the space of the letters and obscures them. Borders are crossed, rules are broken, what we see as firm and reliable gets dissolved. Viktor Kopp's floating letters have an analytic quality and contribute to a rational logic within painted abstraction. Exhibition:  September 18–December 20 at Blondeau & Cie  September 18–November 1 at Ribordy Contemporary, Boulevard d'Yvoy 7b, 1205 Geneva Opening: September 18, 6–9pm in both galleries Viktor Kopp (b. 1971, Stockholm) completed studies in fine art in Malmö, Gothenberg and Helsinki. Previous solo exhibitions include Passagen Linköpings Konsthall, Linköping (2013); Bureau, New York, (2012, 2010);  Ribordy Contemporary, Geneva (2012); and Galleri Magnus Åklundh, Malmö (2011). He participated in several group exhibitions at Galleri Riis, Stockholm (2014), Malmö Art Academy, (2012), Ribordy Contemporary (2011), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2010) and Bureau, New York (2010). He teaches painting at the Malmö Art Academy and lives and works in Stockholm. In 2013, the artist received the International Artists Studio Program Studio Grant, ISCP, New York. Viktor Kopp is represented by Bureau, New York and Ribordy Contemporary, Geneva. 311 East Broadway New York City, 10002 USA Contact Unsubscribe

University of Wisconsin - Madison's Department of Art announces their visiting artists schedule, 2014–2015

September 29, 2014 Brad Kahlhamer, Je Suis Orange! Mozart (I am Orange! Mozart), 2009. Oil on canvas, 51 x 64 inches. University Of Wisconsin - Madison Visiting artists 2014–2015 All lectures begin at 4:30pm University of Wisconsin - Madison Conrad W. Elvejhem Building  Room 160 Madison, WI 53706 humanities.wisc.edu  Share The Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin - Madison is pleased to announce our 2014–2015 schedule of visiting artists.  Each week during the semester, we welcome an artist, curator or critic to campus, where they present both a formal lecture and also participate in meetings with graduate students in the form of studio visits and workshops. This year's group represents a wide range of perspectives and practices including from studio-based production and innovative curatorial approaches to politically engaged performance, collaboration and advanced digital strategies.  In addition, this fall the Department is also hosting photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar  through the Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Artists-in-Residence program. Over the course of their semester-long seminar "Truth, Lies, Memory and Imagination: The Photograph As Story," a number of prominent figures related to their work will be joining us on campus (see asterisks).   During the spring semester, the Arts Institute Residency program continues with "Transcommunality." "Transcommunality" documents the work of Mexican-born New York-based artist Laura Anderson Barbata; focusing on the decade-long project she pursued with stilt-walking communities in Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, and Brooklyn. Her project highlights the vitality of the moko jumbie stilt walking tradition and demonstrates the possibility of using this storied art form as a platform for social contemporary performance, group participation and protest. All events are free and open to the public. They take place at 4:30pm in Room 160 of the Conrad A. Elvejhem Building. 2014–2015  September 10 Fulford and Shopsin* September 17 Lisa Frieham September 24     Susan Miesales* October 1            Monona Rosol October 8           David Rathman* October 15          Michael Lesy* October 22          The Goggles* October 29          Jeremiah Day November 5        Brad Kahlhamer November 12      Ginger Strand* November 19     Lori Waxman               December 3       Iris Eichenberg January 28        Lauren Fensterstock February 4          Faythe Levine February 11       Clayton Colvin February 18        Sean Caulfield  February 25         Dan Byers  March 4              Bad At Sports March 11            Jenni Sorkin March 18            Paolo Salvigione March 25            Chris Fraser   April 8                   Locks and Mazurek April 15                  Beuavais Lyons April 22                  Bennett Simpson     April 29                  Roger Ricco  The visiting artist program is generously supported by the Anonymous Fund of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the Brittingham Foundation.  Contact Subscribe Unsubscribe RSS

Fall Semester 2014 in Miami

September 29, 2014 Humberto Torres, Untitled (#2), 2010. Chromogenic print, 5 1/2 x 7 inches. From the series "Near The Blue Ridge." Fall Semester Fall Semester 2014 October 9–10, 2014 175 NE 40 Street  Miami, FL Private entrance at the rear of the building off of NE 41 Street. Free entry. www.fallsemester.org  Share Fall Semester has the pleasure of welcoming you to its first iteration of a series in Miami, which will take place over the course of two days, from October 9 to 10. Fall Semester is an independent initiative for public discussion on contemporary society and culture, aiming to test what can be achieved in the sped-up production of discourse, what can happen when new material is introduced into local discourse—a bomb-drop of new data. Will such a thing have quantifiable effects? Will it be jolting enough to speed up our own desire for a deeper dimension of self-understanding and reflection? Will it, on the contrary, only be another event in which theoretical performance is put to the service of spectacle, showing up the divisions that we face daily? Fall Semester's wager is laid down in the space cracked open by these questions. Having the general scheme of public lectures and a digital platform, Fall Semester invites a group of international theorists and architects to take on topics of urbanization, turning their focus on the very city in which it is happening—Miami—since this city may itself be a model of what the contemporary city is slowly becoming. Fall Semester has structured its first iteration around four basic thematic lines: The Urban Real; Architectural Weather; Plasticity of the City; and The Urban Unreal. Guest speakers Thursday, October 9 "Material Consequences," 4pm Nick Gelpi "North - South Collisions," 5pm Jean-François Lejeune "The Matter of Struggle in Urban Space," 6pm Nick Srnicek "Soft Monumentality," 7pm Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss Open Forum, 8pm Friday, October 10 "Second Landscape," 4pm Grey Read "City Bodies: Undead or Alive?," 5pm Jan Verwoert "The Stack We Have and The Stack To Come: Designing Sovereignty and the Geopolitics of Computation," 6pm Benjamin Bratton "Where have all the leaders gone?," 7pm Michael Hardt Open Forum, 8pm Online contributors Keller Easterling, Jason Dittmer, Léopold Lambert, Matteo Pasquinelli, François Roche, Nathalie Rozencwajg, Leandro Silva Medrano, and Marion von Osten About Fall Semester Founded in Miami in summer of 2013 by artists Odalis Valdivieso and Lidija Slavkovic, Fall Semester seeks to bring together a diverse group of theorists, critics, researchers, and interested individuals to engage in multifaceted discourse on contemporary society and culture available across multiple platforms at no cost to participants. A special thank you to the following sponsors  Miami Dade College Museum of Art + Design, University of Wynwood, Miami Design District, Manuel Estrada Design, Maman Fine Art, and The Freehand Miami. Contact Subscribe Unsubscribe RSS

Finishing School and Yucef Merhi Present Psychic Barber at the Riverside Art Museum

September 29, 2014 Riverside Art Museum Finishing School and Yucef Merhi, Psychic Barber. Image courtesy of Finishing School and Yucef Merhi. Psychic Barber September 30–November 25, 2014  Live psychic haircutting event: Friday, October 3, 7–9pm Riverside Art Museum  3425 Mission Inn Ave. Riverside, CA 92501 www.riversideartmuseum.org www.finishing-school-art.net www.cibernetic.com Download the art-agenda iPad App Share     "Every flame contains fire, any bone from a dead body contains death, in just the same way as a single hair is thought to contain a man's life force."  –Marcel Mauss, A General Theory of Magic Psychic Barber is a public engagement situated in a sculpture inspired by barber shops and psychic storefronts. The sculpture is staffed with hair stylists who also possess supernatural gifts. They give free psychic readings and create a new hairstyle for the participant that reflects the insight gained through the experience. Megan Steinman has written an essay to accompany the project, titled "The Law of Contiguity."  Psychic Barber was first commissioned by Side Street Projects and generously supported by the Pasadena Art Alliance. Psychic Barber is a collaboration between Finishing School and Yucef Merhi.  Established in 2001, Finishing School is a socially engaged artist collective that explores an expansive range of subject and media territories. The Los Angeles-based collective has seven members who represent a broad range of skills. Finishing School produces interdisciplinary actions, installations, workshops, design, studio art, performance, and new media. They have presented work throughout the United States and internationally. Recently, FS has produced projects for Occidental College in Los Angeles, Side Street Projects in Pasadena, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Hammer Museum, the 2010 California Biennial, Engagement Party: a three-month residency program at MOCA, Living as Form: a 20-year survey of social practice for Creative Time in New York, The Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, and a site-specific commission for DFLUX in Detroit. Finishing School has also presented projects internationally in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, England, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Italy.  Yucef Merhi is an artist, poet, and computer programmer. Considered by many to be the pioneer of Digital Art in Venezuela, Merhi creates interactive environments, computer-based works and digital applications, while proposing various ways to experience natural language and code. He has exhibited across the US and internationally, including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, Exit Art, Orange County Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), de Appel in Amsterdam, the 2007 Biennial de São Paulo, and the 10th Istanbul Biennial. Contact: Lindsey Rossi  pstcurator@riversideartmuseum.org / T +1 951 684 7111 311 East Broadway New York City, 10002 USA Contact Unsubscribe

AlhóndigaBilbao presents THE CONTRACT

September 29, 2014 AlhóndigaBilbao Luca Frei, Strength #1 (banner), 2013. Photo © Simon Vogel. Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Wien Lukatsch. EL CONTRATO (THE CONTRACT) October 2, 2014 – January 11, 2015 AlhóndigaBilbao Plaza de Arriquibar, 4 48010-Bilbao www.alhondigabilbao.com Download the art-agenda iPad App Share     "That we shall know with whom we have to do, is the first precondition of having anything to do with another." This statement by Georg Simmel inspires the following questions: What does a contract commit us to? What rights does it give us, and what liabilities? What is the relationship between valid, legitimised contracts and the other tacit agreements that govern them, based on unwritten or invisible affective relationships? Can the terms of these contracts and agreements be revised? And, finally, can we imagine new models of contracts that correspond to the aspirations and desires that drive our practices? EL CONTRATO (THE CONTRACT) is a two-year project developed by Bulegoa z/b in collaboration with AlhóndigaBilbao. The project has two phases: a reading group developed during 2013 and an exhibition in autumn 2014. The exhibition is articulated around the themes examined in the reading group, and comprises works by around 30 artists, as well as a film programme, talks, performances, and a new reading group. EL CONTRATO aims to enquire into the ways in which generally accepted, tacit agreements condition practices and ways of making, doing, being and acting.  The basic aim of EL CONTRATO is to enquire into the ways in which generally accepted agreements from modernity to today have conditioned the evolution of certain practices within the humanities such as art, history or social theory. The question is whether it is possible to negotiate such established accords without falling into the indifference so often associated with consensus; and if the need for the social pact can be critically considered without forcing an agreement between different agents. The starting point of the EL CONTRATO reading sessions was the revision of the four areas that reflect the practices that anchor Bulegoa z/b's general project as an office of art and knowledge: sociology, curatorship, criticism and choreography. The reading group shared different documents: essays, historical texts, legal acts, conferences, poems, prose, film reviews, news, interviews, films, audio recordings. Members read aloud, debated and did exercises in collective writing. The exhibition EL CONTRATO is comprised of 12 parts—reflecting the number of reading sessions—resulting from group discussions: the staging of the social contract, the contract between bodies, the contract in forms of production, the contract as dispositif, dismantling the contract, contracts between theory and practice, declassifying the contract, written and spoken contracts, pedagogical contracts, the performativity of the contract, the archive as contract, and the contract with thought. The exhibition sets up a dialogue between different art media—painting, film, sculpture, photography, poetry, sound, theatre and dance—and accepted protocols in exhibition and performing arts spaces, questioning them or possibly reaffirming them. Participants in the show: Eulalia Abaitua, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Agency, Elena Aitzkoa, Malús Arbide, BADco, Ricardo Basbaum, Josu Bilbao, Kajsa Dahlberg, Jon Mikel Euba, Luca Frei, EL CONTRATO reading group, Arne Hendriks, Joost Janmaat and Jasper van den Berg (Academy of Work), Iñaki Imaz, Jeleton, Teresa Lanceta, Karl Larsson, Arantxa Martínez, Asier Mendizabal, Adriana Monti, Rabih Mroué, Anxela Caramés, Carme Nogueira and Uqui Permui (Contenedor de feminismos), Itziar Okariz, Catarina Simão, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Gertrude Stein, Teatro Ojo, Wendelien van Oldenborgh This exhibition is curated by Bulegoa Zenbaki Barik. Works in the exhibition are brought together in a structure designed by artist Luca Frei. 311 East Broadway New York City, 10002 USA Contact Unsubscribe