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

  
  

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.

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.

Performances | NewYork: SHO at Onishi Gallery

Calligrapher Kimura Ryoyu performed a calligraphy demonstration on Thursday, June 18. The Japanese belly dancer Marea Mizuki and koto musician Chiaki Endo collaborated with Ryoyu during the performance.

Camminando | Rome and Water: a Celebration!

I am always impressed how in Italian cities every utilitarian function has been celebrated with an aesthetic gesture in public spaces.

Drinking water, one of the most basic and simplest human needs and actions can be happen at the corner of almost every block. From the simplest and utilitarian to the most decorated almost sculptural objects, water fountains have been greeting residents and visitors for thousand years, a ready accessible relief in the hot Mediterranean summers.

drinking water in the streets of Rome...

...and in Venice

Photographs and text are excerpts from the conceptual multimedia project

“Axes Mundi: Perceptions and Understanding of Places as Intersections of Space, Time and Culture"

Camminando | Rome: Green Walls

"Green walls", either spontaneously or by design, have been a presence in the streets of Rome for centuries...

Green walls in via Margutta...

...and "pink walls" in Trastevere

Photographs and text are excerpts from the conceptual multimedia project

“Axes Mundi: Perceptions and Understanding of Places as Intersections of Space, Time and Culture"

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

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" art 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/

LA BIENNALE di VENEZIA 53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds | Worldmaking...?

Tomas Saraceno at Palazzo delle Esposizioni

Nelson Goodman's "Ways of Worldmaking" (1978) stated how the facts of the “world” are not found but made: the worlds of science, arts and practices constantly prove this statement. Worldmaking was also a concept much in use in the nineties when cyberspace and virtual realities were expanding to our everyday world; the widespread use of computing and Internet reinforced the presence of virtual worlds and social interaction vs. the physical worlds.

The title of the 2009 Biennale is “making worlds” and the director Daniel Birnbaum emphasizes how a work of art is more than an object, represents a vision of the world and a way to construct a world.
Worldmaking in art is not new: for over 60 years contemporary art has expressed how process is more defining than the final product as art creation. Land art, arte povera, performance art, conceptualism and minimalism are art practices involved with the making of art beyond the production of objects: transformation of sites, use of text and ultimately the artist’s body itself create alternative worlds. Video art is another example of worldmaking where the projected moving images constantly transform the existing physical space and the viewer’s perceptions.
In this Biennale, but for some exceptions, I did not find so much of world making. The majority of works do not relate at all with the site. Although the Biennale exhibition spaces ---Giardini, Arsenale and Venice--- are not “white box” containers in the majority of works there was no relationship with the site. Worldmaking does not happen in a vacuum, but starts from an existing reality which get transformed, but still has a presence: space and time are definers of any possible world and should be expressed even in the most abstract worlds.

But…we are in Venice, the museum city where surreal and real worlds merge in a blend of memories, dreams, history, sublime and decadence. Enjoy!

Guyton Walker "Senza Titolo" 2009

The Cafe designed by Tobias Rehberger

LA BIENNALE di VENEZIA 53rd International Art Exhibition: Making Worlds | The Facts

L'Arsenale

Fare Mondi // Making Worlds the 53rd International Art Exhibition will open to the public on June 7 2009. The exhibition will open in the traditional venues, the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as in various other locations around the city. This year Biennale holds record numbers: over 90 artists from all over the world in 77 national participations and 44 Collateral Events. The exhibition venues include 50,000 square meter at the Giardini and 38,000 square meter at the Arsenale, with several additional sites in the city of Venice and surrounding islands.
La Biennale di Venezia is 114 year old: The first exhibition opened on April 30 1895 with the title "Pro Arte" in the Palazzo dell'Esposizione in Giardini di Castello, at the presence of the Italian king and queen; the first exhibition counted over 200,000 visitors.

The 2009 Biennale visual art exhibition director is Daniel Birnbaum

For more information visit labiennale.org

Palazzo delle Esposizioni ai Giardini, formerly called "Padigione Italia"

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 | Parties: Steve McQueens at Palazzo Pisani Moretta

A reception to celebrate Steve McQueen (representing UK at La Biennale) was hosted on June 3rd, by the Marian Goodman and Thomas Dane galleries at the Fifteenth Century Palazzo Pisani Moretta.
The palace, built in the Gothic floreal style, is located in the Canal Grande half way between the Bridge of Rialto and the Ca' Foscari, exhibits decoration and frescos by several Venetian artists of the XVIIIth Century, including Giambattista Tiepolo, Jacopo Guarana, Gaspare Diziani and Giuseppe Angeli.

Chandeliers and blue lighting

The ceiling by Gian BattistaTiepolo

Almost full moon on the Canal Grande

Steve McQueen

Events | Rome, Celebration of the Italian Republic at Giardini del Quirinale

Il 2 giugno e' la Festa della Repubblica Italiana, che commemora il referendum del 2-3 giugno 1946,in cui il popolo italiano venne chiamato alle urne e scelse la Repubblica come forma di governo, dopo 85 anni di monarchia. Il 2 giugno per gli italiani e' la piu' grande festa nazionale, simile al 14 luglio per la Francia o il 4 luglio per gli Stati Uniti.

Dal 1948 la ricorrenza viene commemorata con una parata militare in Via dei Fori Imperiali; quest'anno in solidarieta' con la tragedia del terremoto in Abbruzzo, il presidente della Repubblica Giorgio Napolitano ha cancellato la parata militare. Come celebrazione il nostro presidente ha invece aperto al pubblico le porte del Quirinale, la residenza presidenziale ufficiale edificata nel XVI secolo, con accesso ai magnifici giardini. Il presidente ha anche fatto un'apparizione pubblica, passeggiando (con pochissime guardie di sicurezza) tra le folle di adulti e bambini esultanti.

Un grosso applauso per questo bel

segno di democrazia: bravo Napolitano!