The Oh-So-Arty Side of Shanghai's Fashion Week

Shanghai Fashion Week is approaching and it means that besides long lines for fashion shows, gorgeous, androgen models and bizarre and uber trendy fashion victims you also get to check out some new fashion activities crafted under the independent platform- Labelhood. I already mentioned it last season, that the real fashion week happens here and not in the official Shanghai Fashion Week tents. Lablehood is a great example of how government institutions recognized the potential of China’s new emerging design scene and truly support and fund that potential. Within this alternative event Labelhood offers a holistic experience of fashion presentation, fashionable art exhibitions, live concerts and a super cool market selling branded Labelhood products. These guys know what they are doing. Here is a what you need to be prepared for between 12-15 of October if you are in town. 

I.

The Flocks
October 12th to October 15th
Labelhood

The Flocks are a brand that offers daily dress and accessories for young hipsters. Each season they try to capture their creative process within some experimental output- videos, photos, magazines and performance. This season their exhibition will revolve around the topic of partying. They chose to reflect on the notion of human interaction through the carpet as an object that both fixes people in their position but also liberates new forms of expression. You will see some cool interpretations on carpet like fashion objects/products and live performance to maximize the whole experience. Join the Flocks!

II.

Studio Aubruino
October 10th to October 15th, 2017
Labelhood

Studio Aubruino is a newly designed studio founded by Aubrey and Chih Chiu. Both artists attended London universities, Central Saint Martins and  Royal College of Art, respectively. They are showing their exploration of addiction. Their approach is very cool as they compare 60-70’s cyber punk to the current “Appelomania”. From the radical experimentation of back then to the minimal design approach of the iPhone which brought us technology packed in sleek conservatism. They will show the absurd and satiric side of technology and human progress, and of course, clothing.

III.

Angel Chen
October 15th, 2017 at 20:00
Labelhood

Angel Chen is probably one of China’s more curious designers. She is described as Chinese Punk, by the local press, but she could easily be credited for being globally cool. Having trained at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College in London, Angel was named as one of the “Top 5 graduate designers of the year” by i-D magazine, before going on to work for fashion houses Alexander Wang, Marchesa and Vera Wang. Now based in Shanghai, Angel Chen shows collections in London, Milan, Paris and across Asia. Last season she put up a mini quirky concert with Petite Meller and other awkwardly wonderful people to show her collection. This year, she is going back to traditional fashion presentation, though for a punk, nothing is traditional, so let’s see which subculture she going to hunt this time.

IV.

Staff Only
October 14th at 18:30
Labelhood

Staff Only is a pretty cool brand, founded by designers Wen Ya and Zhou Shimei, both studied in London and worked for renowned fashion houses, Alexander Mcqueen, Tom Ford and more. Since they founded Staff Only, these two have rocked deconstructed, radical and cutting edge reflections on the modern life uniform. Quite conceptually and sometimes humorous they challenge gender, urbanism and bring a fresh breeze to the Shanghai fashion scene. This season they are carelessly turning their models and probably us into fishermen- “Catch More Fish” inspiration images and show invite make me want to put on water resistance boots and hop in a river! 

V.

Asian Dope Boys
October 13th at 23:00

Asian Dope Boys, Tianzhou Chen's power house of music performances, parties, fashion label and platform for unique experiences are hitting Shanghai Fashion Week again. Last April they put up one of the best shows in SHFW with a radical collection presented on the coolest kids in town in collaboration with Zebra Katz. This time they are having a multitude of unique live performances. When in Shanghai, be high.

Take a tour with Hadas in Shanghai to discover more!
 

Jerusalem Art Guide - October

If you are visiting Jerusalem this October, the choices for unique art events and exhibitions around the city are in abundance. A few must see events include Manofim Art Festival and The Jerusalem Biennale, but below I’ve narrowed it down to a few events not to be missed. 

I.

Exhibition: Alternative Topographies
Artist: Avner Sher
Venue: Tower of David Museum
Dates: October 8th to November 16th, 2017 

This massive installation on the roof of the Tower of David examined the tension between eternal and the transient, a metaphysical and concrete characteristic of Jerusalem. Avner Sher researches, examines and observes the complexities that result from this tension. The exhibition contains two series, made intensively from worked cork, which refer to the constant state of change and development in the city.  

Image: Avner Sher, Alternative Topographies

II.

Exhibition: Letters to Fritz and Paul
Artist: Inas Halabi
Venue: Al Ma’Mal Foundation for Contemporary Art
Dates: October 11th to November 24th,  2017 

The exhibition explores the expeditions of the Swiss second cousins, lovers and scientists, Fritz and Paul Sarasin who ventured across the Dutch and British colonies as well as parts of Africa and the Middle East between 1893-­1907. Working with original material from the Ethnographic Museum of Basel's archives, Halabi explores the relationship between colonialism and science, ethnographic objects and their collectors, and the settings in which these objects have been placed.

Image: Inas Halabi, Letters to Fritz and Paul

III.

Exhibition: Manofim Contemporary Art Festival
Artist/s: Various Artists    
Venue: Various Venues
Dates: October 24th to October 28th, 2017

This is the 9th annual Manofim Festival for contemporary art, a week which includes a night of exhibition openings throughout the galleries in the city and special events like gallery talks, thought provoking seminars and performances. A word from Manofim founders, Rinat Edelstein and Lee he Shuluv: “ We invite you to take a moment and linger on the city from this unique place, which overlooks the city with a stunning panoramic view. This year, the Festival’s opening night will take place entirely on Mount Scopus. In the following four days, we will wander through the inner parts of the city in the hope to answer the question: “What are we doing in this place? The question “What do we do with art?” which leads the Festival’s annual conference, is revisited in this time of political instability, social and environmental changes, and local and international cultural revolutions.”

Image: Neil Folber Gallery Taking Measures

Image: Ronit Agassi at Ticho House, Jerusalem

Take a tour with Jenna or join her public tour of the Jerusalem Biennale to discover more!

Warsaw Art Guide - October

I.

Exhibition: Love, Memory, Curiosity
Artists: Alicja Bielawska, Tymek Borowski, Magdalena Karpińska, Olga Micińska, Shana Moulton, Katarzyna Przezwańska, Mikołaj Sobczak, Stach Szumski, Nomadic State
Venue: Polana Institute in Geological Museum
Date: until November 6th

Love, Memory, Curiosity is the first exhibition of contemporary art at the Geological Museum. It shows contemporary art as yet another stage of evolution, with the title referring to the words of Charles Darwin: “the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.” Love, memory, and curiosity are common to humans and animals.

The idea for the exhibition was born out of fascination with the function and space of the Geological Museum, where nature becomes a history that needs to be preserved for future generations. Visitors usually struggle to grasp the immense durations of geological eras; the exhibition artists deal with this exercise in geological imagination by incorporating magic and surrealistic elements in their art.  For me the interior of the Geological Museum is the opposite of the white cube. Observing the art object of young artist in such surrounding was a very refreshing and stimulating. 

Magdalena Karpinska_Love, Memory, Curiosity_exhibition view_2017. Photo by Bartek Górk

II.

Exhibition: Views 2017
Artists: Ewa Axelrad, Przemek Branas, Agata Kus, Honorata Martin, Łukasz Surowiec
Venue: Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
Date: until November 12th

Views 2017 is the eighth edition of the competition for young artists, organized by Deutsche Bank Polska S.A. and Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. The committee led by painter Paulina Ołowska selected five finalists. Participating in this year’s Views are artists born between 1984 and 1987, representing various regions of Poland, whose art is linked by a shared interest in humanity — both in the individual, as well as in the social perspective.

The show is a good occasion for an overview of contemporary young art in Poland. This years edition is special because of its vivid comment on the actual political and social reality. 

Honorata Martin „Wikiup”, Zachęta, fot. Marek Krzyżanek

III.

Exhibition: Early Polishness
Artists: Katarzyna Przezwańska
Date: until November 4th

In the gallery window Katarzyna Przezwańska shows a handmade diorama made from paper, depicting the area of Warsaw about a hundred million years ago. The capital of Poland was overgrown with palms and subtropical forest inhabited by dinosaurs. The area was located closer to the equator. The artist sums up, shortly- Poland was better before it was Poland. Przezwańska focuses on the time before humans, escaping from Anthropocene.  

Katarzyna Przezwańska, Early Polishness, by B. Górka. Courtesy of Fundacja Sztuki Polskiej ING

Take a tour with Zuzanna in Warsaw to discover more!
 

Zurich Art Guide - October

The exhibitions selected this month are diverse – from Contemporary documentary photography and Conceptual art to 1960s street photography. All inspired in me a strong emotional response – a reminder of art’s ability to jolt us out of our everyday lives (and reflect on the human condition)!

I. 

Exhibition:  Prix Pictet: Space
Artists: Mandy Barker , Saskia Groneberg, Beate Gütschow, Rinko Kawauchi, Benny Lam, Richard Mosse, Sohei Nishino, Sergey Ponomarev, Thomas Ruff, Munem Wasif, Pavel Wolberg and Michael Wolf
Venue: LUMA Westbau
Dates: September 22nd to October 29th, 2017

The annual Prix Pictet photography award usually leans towards big name artists with a smattering of newcomers, and this year is no different. Touring different locations around the globe, it is always a behemoth event in the photography calendar! The theme this year (always relating to sustainability) is Space, presenting 12 shortlisted artists.

I struggled with the theme Space. The artworks take you in such different directions, from pollution to migration, overpopulation, even outer space with Thomas Ruff’s ma.r.s landscapes, that it lacked to me a wholeness or flow. I was initially perplexed by how Space even relates to sustainability and to each individual artist’s practice, but I started to discover connections the longer I spent with the works. 

This year’s winner is Irish photographer Richard Mosse, for his series “Heat Maps”. Made using a military camera that detects body heat from a distance of over 30 km, Mosse tracked the journeys of refugees from the Middle East and north Africa. In his panoramic photograph “Idomeni”, 2016 (header image), a refugee camp in Greece, the atmosphere is haunting; people appear ghost-like as inverted silhouettes due to the camera only picking up contours of heat rather than light and shadow. Unlike the endless press images of the refugee crisis, which we seem increasingly numb to, I became completely lost in this work, taken in by the huge expanse of the scene and wondering about these individuals’ plight - where will their journey end, how can we find space for them?

In contrast, Michael Wolf’s photographs capture the Tokyo rush hour through close-up portraits of faces pressed against train windows in the morning subway in Shinjuku station. Each passenger seems to be caught in a dream-state. I held my breath, feeling the claustrophobia of this reality for millions of commuters every day. I relaxed a little in front of Rinko Kawauchi’s photograph of the Japanese tradition of yakihata (controlled burning of fields). Her image of a hill divided in two by a wall of flame, one side scorched black, the other untouched is beautifully painterly. The message is meant to be of regeneration, however the blackened hill soon brought to mind global issues of over-farming and deforestation, and only awoke in me a warning. 

We’ve become so desensitized to environmental and humanitarian crisis that there’s certainly a timeliness to this theme. I left affected by unapologetic images of cramped cities, hemmed in commuters, restricted living quarters – perhaps the title should have been more pertinently “Out of Space”!

Michael Wolf, Tokyo Compression 18, 2010, from the series Tokyo Compression, 2008–11

© Michael Wolf, Flowers Gallery, London and Prix Pictet 2017

II.

Exhibition: A Line Between the Morning Sun and the Evening Sun
Artists: Bill Bollinger, Hamish Fulton, Raphael Hefti, Mary Heilmann, Irene Kopelman, Gary Kuehn, Renato Leotta, Haroon Mirza, Roman Signer, James Turrell. 
Venue: Häusler Contemporary
Dates: August 25th to October 28th, 2017

“A Line Between the Morning Sun and the Evening Sun”. What a title! I kept turning it over in my head whilst ruminating over the various works in the show. Later I learnt the curator, Giovanni Carmine (Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen) took it from Hamish Fulton’s artwork “From Coast to Coast (France)” (1992), featured in the show. Fulton is known as the “walking artist” - his experiences from extended hikes transfer to factual, text based graphic works; this one relates to the daily course of the sun’s orbit. The exhibition celebrates Häusler Contemporary’s 10-year anniversary, and for me the title beautifully encompasses a sense of time passing. Many of the artists place emphasis on process, seeing how far they can push materials (through experiments, extreme temperatures and science). They embrace that tension between control and letting go – a key component to any journey! 

In both the first and second space, Raphael Hefti’s “Various Threaded Poles” (2014), soar up to the ceiling, interrupting the space with shifting bands of colour. A quick glance down revealed Gary Kuehn’s “Melt Piece” (1969), fluid aluminium spilling over a rectangular brick nestled in the corner of the room. A playful surprise! Roman Signer’s “Stuhl und Wind i.O.” (2017) comprises an old vintage ventilator fan, noisily blowing out air, beneath a simple wooden chair. As Signer is famous for his exploding artworks, I wondered if any second the chair would lift-off! 

The idea of a line in the title is wonderfully descriptive. Irene Kopelmann’s “Lianas” (2014), a row of faint, delicate pencil drawings reveal knotted vines that lead us round the first corner into the second space. Then a short pause, followed by a minimal grey, horizontal line. At first, I wondered if this was a part of the gallery wall – it is in fact Bill Bollinger’s “Channel Piece for Corner” (1968), which points to small colour drawings by the artist, roughly sketched. 

I loved the way the exhibition incorporated such diverse works – sculpture, painting, drawing, photography by artists young and old. But amongst this multiplicity, I instantly felt a cohesion and relatedness, like the sense of calm you only feel when watching the sun rise or set! 

Installation view, “A Line Between the Morning Sun and the Evening Sun”, Galerie Häusler Contemporary, Zürich

Photo by Mischa Scherrer, Courtesy Häusler Contemporary München | Zürich

III.

Exhibition: No title
Artist: Jill Freedman
Venue: Fabian & Claude Walter
Dates: September 28th to October 21st, 2017

“The first time I touched a camera, I went right out into the street with it” recalled street photographer Jill Freedman (b. 1939, New York). And that’s exactly what you feel when looking at her black & white photographs - the camera was part of her and she was fervidly drawn to her subjects. The small exhibition in Fabian & Claude Walter’s intimate cabinet space present a selection of vintage prints from the 1960s and early 1970s, with a host of characters – anonymous pedestrians, protestors, the downcast on the streets of New York, circus clowns and artists. 

Freedman’s images are gritty with a prickly edge and biting humour. One photograph, “Untitled, NYC” 1970, captures what appears to be two young people having sex surrounded by a crowd, but only the man’s backside and the woman’s hand and legs are visible - the rest is concealed underneath a large sheet of ripped and crumpled canvas or paper. I wasn't sure if I should be appalled or burst out laughing! She also brilliantly captured momentary juxtapositions in the street - in “Christ Loved Men Only, London”, 1967, a dour group of British ladies, one blowing her nose and another taking an ungainly lick of an ice-cream cone is flanked by the wry graffiti scrawl of “CHRIST LOVED MEN ONLY”. 

Sure, the overall message is bleak but amongst all the toughness, I felt her tenderness and wicked humour too. The exhibition offers more questions than answers, as you ponder, you’ll find it hard to look away. Freedman’s images carry both poetry and punch – she’s one girlboss I’d like to meet!

Jill Freedman, Christ Loved Men Only, 1969

© Jill Freedman, Courtesy of Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie, Zürich

Banner image: 

Richard Mosse, Idomeni, 2016, from the series Heat Maps, 2016-17 

© Richard Mosse, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York and Prix Pictet 2017

Take a tour with Diana in Zurich to discover more!
 

London Art Guide - October

It's that time of year again! To get over the September nostalgia, Frieze week is here to dazzle you with the best art in the world. 

I.

Sex Work at Frieze London 

This section pays homage to nine radical feminist artists making work during the 1970s and 80s. Be ready to encounter some pretty intense bodily depictions and explicit sexual imagery. Leave your prejudice and prudishness at home. 

CREDIT:Marilyn Minter, Rivulet, 2017. Dye Sublimation print.

II.

Kallos Gallery London at Frieze Masters

The reason I adore Frieze is mainly for the Frieze Masters as it gives a general, grounded context to my favourite contemporary artworks. One of the most dramatic antiquities stands this year is that of Kallos Gallery with its constructed arched colonnade and intimate niches. 

CREDIT: Gallery. Kallos Gallery. A Roman marble theatre mask acroterion, 3rd century AD

III.

UNFOLD

After the Frieze Week, enjoy a new engaging way to look at art with the festival UNFOLD. Church Street in Central London is transformed into an immersive experience celebrating emerging artists. Go on a journey through a working artist's studio and two innovative exhibition spaces with talks and workshops. 

CREDIT: Artist Adelaide Damoah - UNFOLD Opening night 

Take a tour with Marine in London to discover more!