Saturday, June 27, 2009

Exhibitions: New York | Worldmaking at the Whitney


A pleasant surprise from my yesterday visit at the Whitney Museum. As perhaps an answers (at least in my personal interpretations) to the "making worlds" of la Biennale, three exhibitions were a real proposition of worldmaking as an artist's re-creation of realities.



  • Dan Graham: Beyond is the artist's first retrospective of work spanning from the mid-1960s to the present. Dan Graham's work includes conceptual art, video and film installation, performance, site-specific sculpture, as well as musical collaborations. His installations are involved with with visual perception: the ambiguos relationship between the perceiving subject and subject of perception re-creates reality and makes ever-changing worlds where the viewer becomes active participants to the world making creations

June 25-October 11, 2009



  • Lucinda Childs: Dance presents the material that choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer Philip Glass, and artist Sol LeWitt generated for Dance, the perfomance commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1979. The perfomance represents a world created by the intersection of movement, sound and images in one of the most complete and harmonious interactions ever presented.

  • Photoconceptualism, 1966-1973 has to be found in the museum mezzanine, and presents series of photographs from the Whitney’s collection. Photography and his conceptualization is presented in a combination of different two-dimensional media, in the works of artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition includes work by Mel Bochner, Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Michael Heizer.

    May 22-September 20, 2009


Friday, June 26, 2009

Exhibitions: Rome | Bruno Ceccobelli "Atti Unici" all'Attico

ATTICI UNICI è una mostra realizzata con 'installazioni' create da Bruno Ceccobelli, all'interno di uno spazio dalla dimensione 'domestica', potremmo dire: una galleria d'arte che si sviluppa all'interno di un'attico nel centro storico di Roma, via di Paradiso,tra piazza Campo de' fiori e piazza Navona.
Il nome della via, l'ambiente espositivo, il buio illuminato solo da lampade che illuminano il percorso, già sono rivelatori della mostra in sè: dei sacchi sono appesi al soffitto e ci è consentito, attraverso un'apertura alla loro base, di inserire la nostra testa all'interno di essi e scoprire una dimensione metafisica della realtà : i 4 elementi + l'uomo. Odori, suoni, colori, luci e composizioni in vari materiali.

Un tuffo in un utero primordiale dove ancora le forze vitali si mescolano e sono sul punto di prendere forma in un afflato vitale magico.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Camminando | New York High Line Opening on June 8

The High Line park in Chelsea opened to the public on June 8. After several years of petitions, public debates, design competitions and major fundraising, the abandoned elevated railways tracks are successfully being transformed into a public park. The first section opened to the public runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 20th Street.
Already the community are greatly enjoying the pedestrian only elevated park, an oasis in the busy neighborhood down below.


My competition entry in 2003

And a few photos from my usual strolls...






The High Line is opened to the public every day from 7am to 10pm.

For more information visit the official High Line site.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Camminando | Acqua Alta a Venezia


Walking in Venice became extremely difficult in the evening of June 6.
"Acqua Alta" ---the flooding happening in Venice , due to tides and very unusual in late spring--- unexpectedly ended the Biennale preview, after a magical night of full moon.




Photographs and text are excerpts from the conceptual multimedia project
“Axes Mundi: Perceptions and Understanding of Places as Intersections of Space, Time and Culture”

La Biennale di Venezia 53rd International Art Exhibition Fare Mondi / / Making Worlds | Art and Architecture: Giardini

La Biennale has never been a “white box” container. Since the Biennale beginnings at Giardini, national pavilions architecture was designed as symbol of the country of the pavilion. Although many pavilions architectural style is outdated, their architectural presence becomes is a memory of the time when they were built. Often artists works become specific to the architecture of the pavilion.
At the 2009 Biennale the most interesting examples of art installations relating to the architectural pavilions are from Russia, French, Japan, and Germany.



Video Installations at the Russian Pavillion



Claude Lévêque at the French Pavilion



MiwaYanagi's Windswept Women at the Japanese Pavilion



Liam Gillick at the German Pavilion

Saturday, June 6, 2009

La Biennale di Venezia 53rd International Art Exhibition Fare Mondi / / Making Worlds | Parties: Abu Dhabi at the Peggy Guggnheim


The United Arab Emirates first participation at the Biennale was celebrated in two memorable parties.

The first party was at a celebrated "traditional" ar
t venue, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Later a shuttle transported us through the water of the Canal Grande ---and less well know canals--- to the ADACH (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage) a late-night party at Spazio Thetis, across the water from the Arsenale.

A few visual memories, including a snapshot of
an unusual empty Arsenale, taken during my return to the hotel, recovering from getting lost in a rainy night at 3am in Celestia ---and those of you are familiar with the venetian labyrinths can sympathize!



Photographs and text are excerpts from the conceptual multimedia project
“Axes Mundi: Perceptions and Understanding of Places as Intersections of Space, Time and Culture”

Fuori Biennale | Performances: Diritti Negati by Maimuna Feroze Nana


On June 4 the Pakistani artist Maimuna Feroze Nana presented a performance in front of Teatro del Piccolo Arsenale, entrance to the Arsenale section of La Biennale: a group of 15 silent women wear the "burqua" representing the symbols inherent to this piece of clothing.

The performance has been presented in collaboration with Centro Donna del Comune di Venezia e del C.T.R. (Centro Teatrale di Ricerca di Venezia).

Maimuna Feroze Nana website: http://www.maimuna-art.com/