Curator Artus Zmijewski creates exhibition of activist art
by Michael Lithgow on May 7, 2012
When you go to the website for Berlin’s 7th Biennale, you encounter a stream of changing photographs from occupy and protest movements from around the world — Venezia, Toronto, Florence, Malacky, Athens and on and on. It is emblematic of curator Artur Zmijewski’s approach the largest art exhibition in Germany, which opened on April 27.
In the forward to Forget Fear, the accompanying publication of the Berlin’s 7th Biennale, Zmijewski explains that “Art needs to be reinvented, but not as some crafty option to aesthecize human problems of the impoverished majority. What we need is more art that offers its tools, time and resources to solve the economic problems of the impoverished majority. For the actual limit to the possibilities of left-meaning art is effective engagement with material issues: unemployment, impoverishment, poverty.”
Zmijewski wants to transform the art of impotence and individualist survival, which is how he describes contemporary art markets and the institutionalized art world of galleries and curatorial careers, into art that is “genuinely transformative and formative”, art that “practices politics”, and art that is “real action in the real world and [that bids] a final farewell to the illusion of artistic immunity”.
Over the coming weeks, Art Threat will be profiling some of the artists and their contributions to the 7th Berlin Biennale (which runs until July 1), and some of the events that will be happening in Berlin in the coming months. In today’s report, quick look at two upcoming events: a workshop for using art in political protest, and a performance installation that features interviews with 16 economists, historians, thinkers from around the world speaking on viable economic alternatives to capitalism.
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Social media facilitates another political misunderstanding
by Ezra Winton on April 19, 2012
Recently the Swedish Minister of Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, was presented a cake at an event that many have decried as racist – understandably when one takes a first glance at the thing. The story and ensuing outrage has gone viral, with accusations of racism flying faster than homophobic comments from Rick Santorum.
The whole thing is reminiscent of the recent Kony 2012 viral video and of the ways in which we engage with social media in general. More than once I’ve clicked a link, sometimes even adding my own disgust to a public outcry over something that seems terribly unjust or wrong, only to discover later that I should have actually looked just a little bit further to discover the true nature of the situation.
So is the case with the now infamous “racist Swedish cake,” made as a political statement by a black Swedish artist, Makode Linde, wishing to draw attention to Western conceptions of blackness whose message has been lost in social-media fueled frenzy of racist accusations. It turns out it’s more complicated than it looks, as Makode Linde explains in this video on the Afro Europe site (after the jump).
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Artists winks at Chinese authorities with a Big Brother flourish
by Michael Lithgow on April 4, 2012
Artist Ai Wei Wei has installed live webcams in his home so that authorities – and worried supporters – can keep track of his day-to-day whereabouts and welfare. Feeling hemmed in by increasingly invasive state surveillance – being followed day-to-day, round-the-clock surveillance on his home, searches of his studio, phone taps, opening his mail — Wei Wei decided to go the extra step and demonstrate that he has no secrets, despite the Chinese government’s persistent paranoia.
Wei Wei was detained last April for 81 days amid Chinese fears of political dissidence in the wake of Arab Spring uprisings. He was charged with tax evasion, a charge supporters say was politically motivated. His fines were paid by friends and supporters. Perhaps most controversially, he questioned the government’s role in poor construction standards after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake killed more than 5,000 schoolchildren because buildings collapsed. In November last year, officials demolished his studio in Shanghai.
Thanks to The Guardian for the original coverage.
3rd gathering in Montreal set for March 17
by Michael Lithgow on March 12, 2012
Bryant Park, Manhattan. Photo by Eric Walton
Montreal artists are invited to join the growing collaboration of the Occupy Arts Committee, a gathering of artists from all disciplines who want to support
Occupy Montreal with creative practice.
According to organizers, this meeting will be a creation workshop to start imagining, painting & drawing … Artists are encouraged to bring material, art supplies, paint & brushes, etc…. and to think YELLOW.
March 17, 2012 Café l’Artère, 7000 ave. Du Parc (métro Parc). 14h / 2pm
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National Gallery of Canada invites young artists to submit art & public to judge
by Michael Lithgow on February 6, 2012
"Beat Nation(by Corey Bulpitt)" at Grunt Gallery, Vancouver
Calling young (aged 16-19) Canadian political artists. Here’s a chance to get your work noticed, publicized and into the
National Gallery of Canada (NGC).
The NGC has announced its second annual So You Want to Be an Artist contest. It’s a cheezey title, but an opportunity for young artists to get some work in the gallery and maybe a little public approbation.
Submissions are posted online. The public selects a shortlist of 12 entries through online voting (the shortlisted entries will be shown in the National Gallery). A jury selects a winner.
Deadline March 18, 2012.
Tell your (young) friends and spread the word. For more info go to the contest website.
Online, international platform for performances, installations, actions in real time
by Michael Lithgow on January 31, 2012
Project Lowlives is seeking artists for a global online live presentation of artistic work in support the Occupy movement. Lowlives: Occupy! will take place on March 3, 2012.
From the website:
The Occupy protests, and the myriad of perspectives and experiences related to this unique moment, will be amplified, explored, and experimented with, through Low Lives’ internet-based creative platform. Low Lives: Occupy! recognizes the powerful opportunity that is the presentation of performances from around the world, and invites artists to open eyes and minds by presenting a radical re-imagining of possible ways of existing and relating.
Deadline for proposals: 6 February 2012
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Gestalten has published a new book about art and politics — Art & Agenda: Political Art and Activism, edited by R. Klanten, M. Hübner, A. Bieber, P. Alonzo, G. Jansenby.
This full-colour coffee table treat introduces, explores and has contributions from more than 100 artists whose work is pushing political and artistic boundaries including Ai Weiwei, YesMen, William Kentridge, Voina Group, Swoon, Elmgreen & Dragset, Fernando Bryce, Gregor Schneider, Hank Willis Thomas, Jennifer Karady, Jota Castro, Marina Abramovic, Maurizio Cattelan, Milica Tomic, Paul McCarthy, Santiago Sierra, and Zhang Huan.
A sneak preview on the Gelstalten website suggests that this is a beautiful and remarkable collection of activist art.
I don’t have my copy yet, but it’s definitely on my list.
The politics at Art Basel, one of the largest contemporary art exhibitions in the US, may be hard to find, but they’re there for those who know where to look. On December 4th Karen Rosenberg wrote an article in the New York Times (entitled “Art Basel: Business Over Activism”) highlighting the lack of political art at Art Basel. The only exception was mention of Andrea Bowers and Olga Koumoundouros’ work “Transformer Display of Community Information and Activism,” which Rosenberg gave a brief, three-sentence nod.
I agree with Rosenberg’s basic premise, and as I more or less ranted in my blog, consumption appears to be the primary lens and motive for the festival. Overall, it struck me as such a convincing performance of upper class privilege and aggressive interaction that the whole festival should have been labeled its own performance piece.
However, I also think that Rosenberg should have looked beyond the convention center proper where artists like Bowers, Kounoundouros and others were showing their more politically engaged work – still part of the official Art Basel program – and deserving more consideration and context. The artists whose work is more deserving of attention include Paulo Nazareth, Andrea Bowers, Olga Koumoundouros, Love Yourself, and Jason Florio.
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Kremlin and mass media seek to depoliticize Voina through appropriation and integration into the mainstream art world
by Caitlin Bruce on December 5, 2011
Voina Wanted unfurled on Charles Bridge, Prague. Photo: Yana Sarna.
For the last year Vorotnikov and Nikolaev have been waging a legal battle with Russian authorities for their freedom. While these challenges facing Voina have been well documented on Art Threat, Free Voina, and other alternative media sources, another battle is being fought: against state, art world, and dominant media attempts to contain Voina’s message.
Much of the coverage of Voina is focused on their spectacular, shock art identity. True, in Russia, it is an innovation, and their work offers strong fodder for gossip, revolutionary solidarity, and establishment outrage. In short, there is a risk that Voina’s revolutionary movement is turned into frozen images.
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