(In)dependent Contemporary Art Histories. Various.  LTMKS

Posted in art, critique, writing on December 22nd, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , ,

(In)dependent Contemporary Art Histories 
Artist-run initiatives in Lithuania

This is the third attempt (1st volume of the book was published in 2011, the 2nd in 2014) to compile stories about the genesis and evolution of contemporary art in Lithuania from the period of cold 1980s, Revival (1987) and the restoration of Lithuania’s Independence (1990) to this day. History unfolds in the critical texts by art critics and artists themselves, as well as in first-hand accounts – conversations with the initiators of art events. Texts are accompanied by abundant visual evidence – the documentation of forty-two years’ worth of events and works of art. The book offers a captivating kaleidoscope of subjective stories about artists’ and curators’ initiatives in Vilnius and other cities in Lithuania as well as abroad.

Tai trečias bandymas (I tomas išleistas 2011 m., II tomas – 2014 m.) sudaryti istorijų rinkinį apie šiuolaikinio meno genezę ir raidą Lietuvoje nuo šaltųjų 1980-ųjų, Sąjūdžio ir Nepriklausomybės atkūrimo iki šių dienų. Istorija skleidžiasi kritiniuose menotyrinink(i)ų bei meninink(i)ų tekstuose ir liudijimuose iš pirmų lūpų – įvykius ir meno renginius inicijavusių meninink(i)ų, kritik(i)ų ir kuratorių pasakojimuose. Tekstus gausiai papildo vaizdiniai liudijimai – keturiasdešimt dvejų metų renginių ir kūrinių dokumentacija. Knyga patraukia subjektyviomis istorijomis apie menines ir kuratorines iniciatyvas ir savivaldas įvairiuose Lietuvos miestuose ir užsienyje.

Conversations with artists, curators and art critics /
Pokalbiai su menininkais, kuratoriais ir menotyrininkais 

Česlovas Lukenskas, Rūta Drabavičiūtė-Lukenskienė, Ramūnas Paniulaitis, Arūnas Kulikauskas, Aleksas Andriuškevičius, Darius Čiuta, Redas Diržys, Sigitas Krutulys, Benas Šarka, Juozas Milašius, Audrius Šimkūnas, Armantas Gečiauskas-Arma Agharta, Vita Zaman, Mantas Kazakevičius, Tomas Danilevičius, Reda Aurylaitė, Rolandas Marčius, Skaistė Marčienė, Ignas Gleixner, Saulius Paukštys, Rytis Bartkus, Stasys Banifacius Ieva, Inesa Brašiškė, Gerda Paliušytė, Lina Rukevičiūtė, Laurynas Skeisgiela, Milda Dainovskytė, Justina Zubaitė, Tomas Lučiūnas, Simonas Nekrošius, Živilė Lukšytė, Marius Juknevičius, Vilma Fiokla Kiurė, Aistė Kisarauskaitė, Aistė Ulubey, Kristina Savickienė, Robertas Narkus, Evelina Šimkutė, Juozas Laivys, Lina Praudzinskaitė, Jurgita Žvinklytė, Tomas Karklinis, Laura Garbštienė, Elena Juzulėnaitė, Stanislovas Tomas, Gintaras Čaikauskas, Sabina Daugėlienė, Margarita Kaučikaitė, Matas Šiupšinskas, Šarūnas Petrauskas, Svetlana Šuvajeva, Ilja Budraitskis, Vytautas Michelkevičius, Kęstutis Šapoka, Karolina Rybačiauskaitė

Order here

HaFI 018 – Skip Norman: On Africa. Skip Norman. Harun Farocki Institut; Motto Books

Posted in critique, film, history, Motto Books, writing on November 17th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

HaFI 018 reprints a document containing the script of Skip Norman’s film On Africa (1970). Norman, born in Baltimore in 1933, had left the U.S. in the early 1960s to study German, theater, and medicine in Göttingen. In 1966 he moved to Berlin to join the newly founded German Film and Television Academy (DFFB). By 1969, he had made the films Riffi (1966), Blues People (1968), Cultural Nationalism (1969) and the graduation film Strange Fruit (1969). He shot On Africa together with Joey Gibbs after graduating from the school. The filmmaker about his film: “The starting point is the relationship between Europe’s prosperity and Africa’s poverty; Europe’s destruction of societies and cultures, and the simultaneous use of Christianity and racial theories as justification for a massive exploitation of the colonized.” On Africa was first shown at the Festival in Mannheim in 1970 and then broadcast on television by WDR in 1972.
The script is accompanied by images from the film, and followed by five short commentaries by Sónia Vaz Borges, Madeleine Bernstorff, Marie-Hélène Gutberlet, Tom Holert, and Volker Pantenburg.

Das Heft enthält das Skript für Skip Normans Film On Africa (1970). Norman, 1933 in Baltimore geboren, hatte die USA zu Beginn der 1960er Jahre verlassen, um in Göttingen Deutsch, Theaterwissenschaft und Medizin zu studieren. 1966 zog er nach Berlin, um an die neugegründete Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB) zu wechseln. Bis 1969 entstanden die Filme Riffi (1966), Blues People (1968), Cultural Nationalism (1969) und der Abschlussfilm Strange Fruit (1969).
On Africa entstand gemeinsam mit Joey Gibbs nach Normans DFFB-Abschluss. In Normans Worten: „Der Ausgangspunkt dieses Films ist das Verhältnis zwischen Europas Wohlstand und Afrikas Armut; Europas Zerstörung von Gesellschaften und Kulturen, und gleichzeitiger Einsatz von Christentum und Rassentheorien als Rechtfertigung einer gewaltigen Ausbeutung der Kolonialisierten.“ On Africa wurde am 7. Oktober 1970 bei der XIX. Internationalen Filmwoche Mannheim in der „Informationsschau“ aufgeführt; 1972 lief der Film im WDR.
Das Skript wird begleitet von zahlreichen Bildern aus dem Film und kontextualisiert durch fünf Kurzessays von Sónia Vaz Borges, Madeleine Bernstorff, Marie-Hélène Gutberlet, Tom Holert und Volker Pantenburg.

Order here

THE ANNIHILATION OF SPACE AND TIME. Giovanni Antignano (Ed.). zerofeedback

Posted in art, critique, design, photography on October 19th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Zerofeedback presents a collective publication that delves into the transformation and paradox of our hyper-connected yet fragmented world. A collective effort exploring the theme of The Annihilation of Space and Time. It features the work of 78 photographers, designers, and artists capturing the essence of our changing world, from the physical spaces we inhabit to our perceptions of time. An investigation into the human experience, our ability to adapt, transform, and create new possibilities.

Bruno Silva, Maja Renn, David Bard, Clare Stimpson, José Witteveen, Jeong Hur, Marie Michalikova, M. A. Dubbs, Daniela Dib, Sunniva Hestenes, Franziska Ostermann, Giacomo Infantino, Maria Makridis, Gerasimos Platanas, Stijn Terpstra, Valeria Arenda, wimpy af, Diana Fedoriaka, Katharina Siegel, Laura Sperl, Axelle VM Philtjens, Gabrielle Hall-Lomax, Valerio Figuccio, Alejandra Vacuii, Italo Ferrante, João Salgueiro Baptista, Grant Beran, Andrea Soverini, Johan Brooks, Julie Calbert, Micael Dias Afonso, Federico “Monty” Kaplan, Karol Szymkowiak, Aga Zdziabek, Eleonora Scoti Pecora, Thalles Piaget, Francesca Macis, Till Rückwart, Shota Tsukiyama, Maria João Salgado, Magda Pacek, Jenny Papalexandris, Darnia Hobson, Matteo Capone, Sviatlana Stankevich, Nikos Kapetanios, Marta Mengardo, Özge Ertürk, Bénédicte Blondeau, Antonio Rodriguez, Cian Burke, Marcus Reistad, Vitaly Severov, Valerie Kabis, Konrad Juściński, Jenni Toivonen, Marco Rocha, Thea Josefin Cedervall, Charlotte Mariën, Sam Evans, Nicola Toffolini, SingaSongontheGround, Violeta Morano, Diego Drudi, An Ting Teng, Javier Talavera, Oleg Tymchii, Alison Lubar, Leon Gallo, Yannis Konstantinos, Hanna Moritz, Antoine Grenez, Louisa Boeszoermeny, Carin Iko, Luis Barbosa, Mizue K, Frédéric Rennes

Order here

Tupacproject. Paolo Chiasera. Limehouse Arts Fondation

Posted in architecture, Artist Book, critique, sculpture on August 29th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Tupacproject consists of the construction of a monument dedicated to Tupac Amaru Shakur, the Black Panther rapper who died in 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas Valley.

Since the opening exhibition at the Marta Herford Museum in 2005, it has stood imperturbably in front of the Gehry architecture: the life-size sculpture by Tupac Shakur.

Raised on a nearly 5 m high pedestal and with arms folded behind, shirtless and eyes lowered, the life-size monument by the Italian artist Paolo Chiasera (*1978, Bologna) is one of the first works of art that the visitors* even before entering look into Marta. And meanwhile it has become an integral part of the “museum skyline”.

For many, however, the presence of the gangsta rapper in Herford remains a mystery, as does the German rapper Marteria, who visited the Tupac statue together with rap colleague Casper last summer. Marteria lost a €50 bet because he doubted the existence of a Tupac statue in Herford.

With contributions from Lorenzo Benedetti, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pier Luigi Tazzi.

Order here

Klangteppich V Magazin. Franziska Buhre. Norient Books

Posted in critique, magazines, music, writing on August 24th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Franziska Buhre (ed.)
Klangteppich V Magazin
Festival für Musik der iranischen Diaspora

Editorial Support: Hannes Liechti
Design: MüllerValentini – Agentur für Markendesign
Copy Editing: Angus Finlayson, Tash Siddiqui, Meredith Slifkin, Tucker Wiedenkeller

Since 2021, Norient has been publishing an Online Special together with Klangteppich, the Berlin-based festival for music from the Iranian diaspora. In the meantime, this publication has developed into an archive of lively perspectives on contemporary music-making in Iran and the Iranian diaspora. 

The texts have been created as an invitation to festival artists and other authors to deepen their own narratives and meaningful historiographies of exchange between Iran and the world. 

With this Special, we want to raise awareness of the complex realities in which diasporic artists work. The fifth festival edition is now an opportunity to collect a selection of previous and new texts in a printed magazine.

Table of Contents:

Franziska Buhre und Hannes Liechti: «Prolog»
Impressionen Klangteppich I 2018 (Photo Series)
Shayan Navab: «And Somewhere I’ve Heard the Screams Before» (Short Essay)
Sophie Grobler: «Our Homeland» (Short Essay)
Amin Hashemi: «On the History of Iranian Popular Music» (Short Essay)

Impressionen Klangteppich II 2019 (Fotoserie)
Shaahin Peymani: «One Way Passage to Tehran» (Short Essay)
Franziska Buhre, Hadi Bastani: «Listening Is at the Heart of What I Do» (Interview)
Erum Naqvi: «Diaspora Comes Home» (Round Up)
Arshia Samsaminia: «Making Persian Music More Accessible to Outsiders» (Music Theory)

Impressionen Klangteppich III 2021 (Photo Series)
Franziska Buhre: «Bass Drums, Cowbells, Tambourines» (Essay)
Ali Kamrani: «Lass mich mit Hass nicht allein» (Gedicht)
Tanasgol Sabbagh: «Dard I Door» (Poetic Text)
Pardis Zarghampour: «Wann gehen wir zurück?» (Essay)

Impressionen Klangteppich IV 2022 (Fotoserie)
Nikan Khosravi: «Being on the Right Side of History» (Essay)
Shabnam Parvaresh: «Blinde Passagiere» (Essay)
Matthias Küntzel: «Der Rundfunk als Waffe. Die Persisch-sprachige Nazipropaganda und ihre Folgen» (Essay)

With contributions by Hadi Bastani, 
Franziska Buhre, 
Sophia Grobler, 
Amin Hashemi,
Ali Kamrani, 
Nikan Khosravi, 
Matthias Küntzel, 
Erum Naqvi, 
Shayan Navab, 
Shabnam Parvaresh, 
Shaahin Peymani, 
Tanasgol Sabbagh, 
Arshia Samsaminia
and Pardis Zarghampour

Order here

La résistance des bijoux – Contre les géographies coloniales. Ariella Aïsha Azoulay. Ròt-Bò-Krik

Posted in critique, decolonization, geography, politics, writing on July 24th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , ,

À la mort de son père, Juif d’Oran naturalisé français puis israélien, Ariella Azoulay découvre dans un document que sa grand-mère portait le prénom Aïcha. En deux récits mêlant autobiographie et théorie politique, l’autrice serpente entre les catalogues de bijoux, les photos trouvées et les collections d’objets pillés, pour déployer par fragments l’histoire de sa famille et mettre en parallèle les colonialismes français en Algérie et sioniste en Palestine. Entre ces projets impériaux, elle saisit bien des continuités, à commencer par la volonté obstinée de détruire l’enchevêtrement séculaire des mondes juifs, arabes et berbères, un entrelacs qu’elle revendique pour mieux le restaurer.

-​

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay est écrivaine, chercheuse, cinéaste expérimentale et commissaire d’archives anticoloniales. Née en 1962 dans la colonie sioniste de Palestine, elle est professeure à l’université Brown où elle enseigne la théorie politique, la résistance aux formations impériales et les imaginaires anticoloniaux réclamant le retour, la restitution et le tikkoun olam, la réparation du monde. Autrice d’une dizaine de livres parus dans de nombreux pays, elle a publié entre autres Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism (Verso, 2019) et From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation (Pluto Press, 2011). Inédit, La Résistance des bijoux est son premier livre traduit en français.

Order here

Mousse #84 (Cover 1). Various. Mousse Magazine

Posted in Artist magazine, critique, design on July 20th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mousse #84 – Summer 2023

Opinions
ON JARGON
Pablo Larios

A HYPOTHESIS OF RESISTANCE—PART FOUR: A LECTURE ON UNDETECTABILITY
Cally Spooner

Survey
MRINALINI MUKHERJEE
(A) Overgrowth
Noopur Desai, Emilia Terracciano, Murtaza Vali
(B) Less a Thing Than the Trace of a Movement
Skye Arundhati Thomas

Monograph
PENG ZUQIANG
Touch, Gaze, Motion, Memory: On Two Recent Video Works by Peng Zuqiang
Travis Jeppesen

Fiction
YOUR LOVE IS NOT GOOD
Johanna Hedva

Monograph
LEE LOZANO
Lee Lozano’s Tools and the “Self as Center”
Amelia Jones

Visual
ANGHARAD WILLIAMS
Cars, 2022
Angharad Williams, Maurizio Cattelan

Books
Gabrielle Goliath

Tidbits
Graham Little by Max Feldman
Onyeka Igwe by KJ Abudu
Shaun Motsi by Olamiju Fajemisin
Sydney Schrader by Gloria Hasnay
Rahima Gambo by Sindi-Leigh McBride
Ştefan Bertalan by Krzysztof Kościuczuk

Thinkers
SARA AHMED: ARCHIVING UNHAPPINESS
Ana Teixeira Pinto

Criticism
I’M WITH FANTASY
Kerstin Stakemeier

Reprint
REINCARNATION AND BIOLOGY: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ETIOLOGY OF BIRTHMARKS AND BIRTH DEFECTS
Ian Stevenson
Lawrence Abu Hamdan

Curators
A STUTTERING INSTITUTION
Kabelo Malatsie

Order here

Critical Fictions. Hannah Godfrey. ARP Books

Posted in critique, queer, writing on July 19th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , ,

In her bold departure from conventional art criticism, Hannah Godfrey looks to the work of five contemporary queer visual artists, with attention to, and affection for, the wit, subversion, and many complexities of each of their practices. Shifting through written forms as experiential coves, Critical Fictions is a collection of inventive responses that are delicately linked, and devoted to their subjects.

Alongside the five artists—Derek Dunlop, Kristin Nelson, Hagere Selam shimby Zegeye-Gebrehiwot, Andrea Oliver Roberts, and Logan MacDonald—Godfrey shares a keen interest in intricacies of queer power, the body, and abstraction. Her varied approach to criticism embraces stories, poetry, essays, and other textual formations as means of wayfaring through the work of art. In these pages the reader will find not only celebrations of the depth, beauty, and acuity of the artworks discussed, but explorations of the imaginative thoroughfares they open up.

“It’s with a unique, caring voice that Godfrey speaks about, to, and with the artists in this collection. Even if the reader is familiar with an artist’s practice, the writing, in both its abstract and critical forms, offers the time and space so desperately needed to cover the complicated and intimate relationship of a critic engaging with artwork. Critical Fictions is a special, caring, and necessary book where art criticism is written, challenged, turned on its head and back again, interlacing the varying concepts of the featured artists’ practices like thread in a loom. Only when the reader reaches the end does it become apparent the threads have become a tapestry—a rare and beautiful process that will stay with you into the real world.” —Lauren Lavery, Editor of Peripheral Review

Order here

Cults and Culture Talk / Alex Head @ Motto Berlin. Thursday, 13 July 2023.

Posted in architecture, Book launch, critique, design, Motto Berlin event, politics, Theory, writing on July 7th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dear friends,

We are happy to invite you to Cults and Culture on Thursday, July 13th from 7:00 PM, a talk by Alex Head in which the author will discuss his book Ricochet – Cultural Epigenetics and the Philosophy of Change (Ljå Forlag, Oslo, 2021).

Reflecting on discoveries and debates that have occurred in the two years since its publication, artist Alex Head will read from current works in progress to highlight specific aspects within his ambitious book 
Ricochet to discuss the architecture of power.


It is now well documented that cults have been used to disseminate disinformation. For example the extremist cults of MAGA, The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who’s recruitment pipeline has been funded by Big Oil and crypto libertarians in an attempt to overthrow the United States and 
crash their and the world’s economy.


But what about the arts more widely, is there a form of culture that is transparent about its ideology, particularly in today’s hyper-accelerate media vortex? Are all cultural institutions not also in some way cultish? The cult of patriarchy being just one obvious example that transcends both religious and cultural institutions.


Focussing on specific evidence of how cults have been used to spread disinformation and other historical data the artist will discuss the central motif to his work Ricochet, – the Sacred Date Palm Tree – as a expression of the anti-rhizome. Are we, the unwitting public being continuously gaslit by Sacred Date Palm tree’s in the form of neoclassical architecture? And if so, what can we do to review and 
refocus personal and political objectives as users navigate the web architecture of the app?

Join us at Motto Berlin on Thursday, 13th of July for an insightful talk where we will explore the profound themes of Ricochet and run across topics like January 6th, Classical Architecture, White Supremacy, BND Building Berlin, Mental Health, Libertarianism, Bitcoin, Gold Standard, Going Offline, Art, Publishing, Design, Cultural Epigenetics, Memory, Witnessing and Social Media.

Alex Head

Ljå Forlag

Politics of Curatorship book launch / Norient Books @ Motto Berlin. Friday June 29, 2023.

Posted in Book launch, critique, Motto Berlin event, music, Theory on June 28th, 2023
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dear Friends,

We are happy you invite you to an open-air summer evening with lectures, readings, and a music performance to launch our newest Norient Book Politics of Curatorship on June 29 at Motto Books Berlin from 19:00 onwards.

In essays, academic texts, photo essays, poems, and short comments by 32 writers, artists, journalists, and scholars from all over the world, this volume attempts to encourage different approaches to increase diversity and equality in curatorship within the cultural industry.  

For our Berlin release party, we have invited the Berlin-based curator and book contributor Andrea Goetzke & the activist and DJ Ari Robey-Lawrence for a panel discussion, the musician Tatiana Heuman aka Qeei to play an exclusive music performance, and the sound artist Lendl Barcelos and Norient founder Thomas Burkhalter (both contributors) for remote readings in the lovely courtyard of Motto Books Berlin. Moderated by Carla J. Maier and Philipp Rhensius.

Expect an engaging evening with critical questions, challenging sounds and refreshing drinks. Co-moderated by Norient Books editor and Sound Studies researcher Carla J. Maier and Norient editor and writer/musician Philipp Rhensius.