Lisbon Art Guide - November

November is again busy month for Lisbon. New exhibition openings and also some bigger projects to be developed. In the field of new media – which is not very present in Lisbon normally - this month I would recommend visiting The New Art Fest 2017 and open day of Temp Studio residency project in an amazing Anjos 70.

I.

Exhibition: ONE DAY IT WILL ALL MAKE SENSE
Artists: Hugo Cantegrel
Venue: FOCO
Dates: Until October 28th, 2011

New exhibition in FOCO, young gallery, run by French gallerist – Ben Gonthier, is all about autobiographical creation. Lisbon based French artists – Cantegrel – has changed the space in very theatrical manner. Ephemeral and personal nature of artworks is visible in colours and composition of installations. Hugo’s work should be read in a whole, as a story, which occupies the space, not as parts. It makes me think about my family’s photo books of old times and cheerful moments of childhood. Although it’s small venue, it’s definitely worth visiting this month.

II.

Exhibition: Follow You; opening of new project space
Artists: Gina Folly
Venue: Belo Campo
Dates: Until January 1, 2018

In November, we will witness an opening of a new artist run space in Lisbon. It’s called Belo Campo and will function in framework of commercial gallery, but it’s main structure is not- for-profit. Project will serve as a laboratory to artistic experiment with space, time and contemporary culture in general. This is what they say about the project: ‘Belo Campo is an epiphyte space for contemporary cultures initiated and run by Adrien Missika and hosted by Galeria Francisco Fino. It is located in the basement of the gallery in a former wine cellar.’ On the November 10th there is an official opening on the occasion of new, solo show by Adrien Missika for Francicso Fino Gallery.

III.

Exhibition: Gender in art. Body, sexuality, identity, resistance
Artists: various artists
Venue: Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado
Dates: March 11, 2018

New thematic exhibition in MNAC Chiado museum is composed by excellent fifteen Portuguese artists, who all talk about Gender issues in daily constructions. It’s an attempt to reconstruct stereotypes about dimensions of Gender and to bring into an institution a debate about them. Museum itself is more know of small collection of contemporary Portuguese art and temporary, solo projects, so in this case, exhibition Gender in art. Body, sexuality, identity, resistance is an exception, worth seeing.

Take a tour with Kasia in Lisbon to discover more!

Vienna Art Guide - November

I.

Exhibition: Robert Frank
Artist: Robert Frank
Venue: Albertina
DATES: Until January 21st, 2018

A group of photos shot by Robert Frank between 1955 and 1957, made photographic history: these works, which Frank took on a series of road trips through the US, illuminate the post-war 'American way of life', revealing a reality of pervasive racism, violence, and consumer culture. Curated by: Walter Moser.

Foto: Robert Frank © Albertina

II.

Exhibition: Natural Histories – Traces oft he Political
ARTISTS: Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Stan Douglas, Candita Höfer, Margherita Spiluttini etc.
Venue: Mumok
Dates: Until January 14th, 2018

The exhibition explores representations of nature in reference to social processes and historical events. The presentation spans the period from the 1960s to the present, beginning with works of conceptual art that reflect on both the conditions of artistic production and reception and also their social dimensions and critiques of history. Curated by: Rainer Fuchs.

Foto: Joseph Beuys, Courtesy Archiv Block, Berlin © Bildrecht Wien, 2017

III.

Exhibition: Aging Pride
Artists: Carola Dertnig, Lucian Freud, Alex Katz, Gustav Klimt, Nives Widauer etc.
Venue: Belvedere Wien
Dates: November 17th, 2017 to to March 8th, 2018

Anti-aging is heard more often in our society than the wisdom of age, it would seem. Bowing to the cult of youth, images of age are often dictated by the cosmetics industry. Countering this are the many historical and contemporary works by artists pursuing a completely different idea of age. For the first time these are being showcased in a comprehensive exhibition at Belvedere.

Foto: Daniela Beranek © Margot Pilz, 2010

Take a tour with Itai in Vienna to discover more!

New York Art Guide - November

I.

Artist: Various Artists
Exhibition: Performa 17
Venue: various locations around New York City
Dates: Until November 19th, 2017

Performa is a performance Biennial held in NYC. Every other November, Performa Biennial is spread all over the city, featuring performances by acclaimed artist from around the world. This year, Performa will be focused on the use of live performance as central to artistic practice in African art and culture, the intersection of architecture and performance, and the hundred-year legacy of Dada. During Performa we reccomend seeing the Berlin based artist Kris Lemsalu in collaboration with NY based musician Kyp Malone and shows by Bryony Roberts, Mabel O. Wilson, and The Marching Cobras of New York.

II.

Artist: Jimmie Durham
Exhibition: Jimmie Durham: At The Center of the World
Venue: Whitney Museum
Dates: Until January 28th, 2017

Jimmie Durham, born in texas in 1940, has long claimed to be Cherokee but that claim has been denied by tribal representatives. Durham was active in different African American and Native American civil rights movements in the the 60’s and 70’s. In the late 70’s he turned back to art, moved to Mexico and then to Europe, where he lives and works to this day. He is described as having "made a career of being Cherokee with no known ties to any Cherokee community", although he was raised with Cherokee as a first language.  

Durham often combines organic materials, found objects, and text to reveal Western-centric views and prejudices hidden in language, objects, and institutions. At the Center of the World, will Trace 120 works in sculpture, drawing, collage, photography, video, and performance.

III.

Venue: Jane Hotel
113 Jane St, New York, NY 10014

A great match to your Whitney visit is this beautiful gem a the heart of Greenwich Village. The Jane Hotel is the inspiration of the the beloved Was Anderson’s Movie- Grand Budapest Hotel. Rumour has it that Anderson rented a room there for a whole year to study this magical place. It was originally established in 1908 as a hotel for sailors. The hotel boasts a colorful history, having once served as lodging for the fortunate survivors of the tragic demise of the Titanic! The Jane Hotel has a “secret” ballroom bar and a rooftop bar, serving high-end cocktails. This is a great spot to chill after an exhausting museum visit and enjoy the luxurious design of the place.

Take a tour with Maya in New York to discover more!

Zurich Art Guide - November

The exhibitions selected this month shift between documentation, a quest for purity and escape from reality.

I.

Exhibition: Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Curated by Martin Jaeggi)
Artist: Walter Pfeiffer
Galerie: Gregor Staiger
Dates: Until November 25th, 2017

This is Galerie Gregor Staiger’s first exhibition of Walter Pfeiffer (b.1946, Switzerland). Pfeiffer is best known for his candid and informal photographs recording his life, friends and lovers. What makes this exhibition unusual is it presents his less known, but no less important, drawings (he only started photographing in the 1970s as a means to inspire his drawings!), alongside the photographs.

There’s a playful rhythm to the hang with its variety of scale, format, tones and subject. A pair of black & white closely cropped portraits of two young men with intense, knowing stares really grabbed me on entering – I felt like they were challenging me to come inside! Groups of small drawings (switching from colour inks to pencil sketches) of nudes and still lifes, are interspersed with photographs. A small ink drawing of a simple wooden chair covered in a thick, red blanket hangs next to a minimal line drawing of a seated nude, his chin rested on his knee with a wistful gaze. This intimacy is reflected on the opposite wall by a black & white photograph of an empty sofa bathing in morning light with a dented pillow pressed in its corner, a trace of someone’s sleeping head? The mood changes with a photograph of a wide-eyed cat, its head poking out of the top of an upside down cardboard box. It seems the cat was just as perturbed by my intrusion! I loved these shifts in gear, from quiet reflection to explosive energy, with moments of humour and lightness.

In its extension of his own life and snapshot style, his work naturally aligns with other photographers such as Larry Clark, Peter Hujar and Nan Goldin. However, his quest for seeking out beauty (albeit often the darker sides) sets him apart. When asked what drives him to capture beauty, he responded: “Because you don’t know how fast it is fading”. The exhibition title, “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars”, is taken from Antônio Carlos Jobim’s song (reinterpreted by Frank Sinatra). The languid mood exudes the same sense of nostalgia and serenity as Pfeiffer’s photographs, but still augers something darker. Sinatra sings “We will live eternally in this mood of reverie away from all the earthly cares around us”. I allowed myself to get lost in Pfeiffer’s dream-like world of care-free yet melancholic protagonists, but wondered ‘from what and whom are they escaping?’

Walter Pfeiffer, Untitled, 1978/2017
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich

II.

Exhibition: Bernd and Hilla Becher (Selected by Max Becher and organised with Olivier Renaud-Clément) 
Artists: Bernd and Hilla Becher
Galerie: Hauser & Wirth Zürich
Dates: Until December 22nd, 2017

For over 40 years, the husband and wife duo Bernd (1931–2007, Germany) and Hilla (1934-2015, Germany) Becher photographed the architecture of industrialisation from the 1960s to early 1990s. Hauser & Wirth presents their archetypal blast furnaces, cooling towers, gas tanks, water towers and winding towers, perceived by the artists as modern-day cathedrals. As professors at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the artists significantly influenced a younger generation of artists including Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth, who retained the Bechers’ controlled objectivity and documentary method but applied new technical/digital possibilities with a contemporary vision.

The Bechers described their subjects as “Anonymous Sculptures”, transformed into abstract forms, focusing on the geometry of circles, triangles and rectangles and closely aligning with the minimalist art movement of the time (particularly in the US with artists such as Sol LeWitt and Carl Andre). Always shot with an 8x10 large format camera and on grey overcast days (sunshine was their nemesis!), they would isolate their subjects with close cropping, usually taken from the same angle. They organised their photographs into series based exclusively on functional typologies and arranged them into grids or rows, both highlighting and reinforcing the sculptural properties of the architecture.

Every frame reveals an absence of humans and nature. This was essential to achieve their desired pure aesthetic, focusing solely on their subjects, without distraction. Indeed, they went to great lengths to achieve this – they’d been known to cut down tree branches or pay train drivers to move out of the frame (beer was their currency of choice!), in order to remove any extraneous information. Just as scientists work in labs, it seems the Bechers were documenting these disappearing industrial landmarks as specimens for preservation, with the same level of dedication and obsession! As I observed structure after structure, I was reminded of biomorphic forms. Overall the exhibition has an unsettling post-apocalyptic quality, removed from any recognisable reality.

Bernd & Hilla Becher, Terre Rouge, Esch-Alzette, L, 1979
© Estate Bernd and Hilla Becher, Courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth

III.

Exhibition: Lento Violento
Artist: Talisa Lallai
Galerie: Bolte Lang
Dates: Until December 16th, 2017

What a pure sensory pleasure to enter Talisa Lallai’s (born 1989, Germany) exhibition, which radiated the southern Italian summer heat on a blustery Autumnal day in Zürich. Although the artist has always lived in Germany, both her parents are Italian and she spent many summers in southern Italy. The exhibition comprises Lallai’s own photographs alongside found photographs, objects and installations - a utopian view of a place she feels part of, but has never fully belonged.

Entering the gallery, I was immediately transported: a vibrant photograph of banana plants set sharply against a bright blue sky, the leaves rustling in the summer breeze like arms swaying in a crowd. A quick glance up revealed a terracotta plant pot with bright green vines drooping freely. To the right, a colourful swimming towel depicting a kitsch beach scene complete with ocean, palm trees and sunset in faded pinks, yellows and green hangs from a white towel rail. The works awoke in me a yearning for summer, a time for relaxation, where the days stretch out into a seemingly never-ending distance, but a season that nevertheless seems to end all too soon.

A sense of nostalgia continues in Lallai’s celebration of a period when photography was still developed manually, and was subject to imperfections. There is an installation of three found photographs depicting a beach and typical southern Italian village, dimmed in fading colours with a slight reddish tint, hung in their original gilded frames. Opposite hangs one of her own photographs, a peaceful ocean-scape behind a minimal, geometric rail – the exact same location as in one of the found photographs, which you would have no way of knowing but the kind of subtle hidden connection, Lallai enjoys. Taken with a cheap 1960s camera, the print contains all the grain and blur that she holds dear, far from high-end, crisp digital photography.

The meticulous display of works is both clean and minimal, and the objects pure. For example, I imagined the towel rail would be rusty, but it is pristine white. Another piece – a white postcard rack with a single pile of postcards, faded by the summer sun, is radiantly clean and new. The same goes for the plant pots. Though the installations are direct reflections of what the artist finds in Italy, they are removed from their context, like cut-outs. These contrasts give distance to the romantic view of crumbling, dusty streets and create a contemporary aesthetic. Lallai successfully combines nostalgia with an elegant and fresh aesthetic - a cool, energizing view to the haze of summer heat!

Installation view, Talisa Lallai “Lento Violento”, BolteLang, Zürich. Photo by Alexander Hana, © Talisa Lallai, Courtesy of BolteLang

Take a tour with Diana in Zurich to discover more!

The 'Perpetual Becoming' of Yaacov Agam

“My aim is to show the visible as possibility in a state of perpetual becoming”

— Yaacov Agam

This month marks the official opening of the much anticipated Agam Museum in Rishon LeZion, Israel. David Nofar's 3200 square meter spacious building dedicated to the work of Yaacov Agam is well worth the wait.

The Pillars of Clilla

From the moment visitors step onto the grounds of the museum they are engulfed into the rainbow world of Agam. 'The Pillars of Clilla,' named for his late wife, includes 29 monumental columns (20 at the entrance and 9 inside the building) which make the distinction between indoors and outdoors inconspicuous. Meeting visitors in the courtyard, these columns transport them into the mind of Agam and lead them into the museum’s central space, which boasts his ‘panorAgam’ work, originally displayed on the bow at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 1981.

Agam is widely considered the father of kinetic art because of his early preoccupation with time and movement. Kinetic art is defined as art that relies on motion to create its desired effects. Agam’s work is concerned with the what he refers to as ‘the fourth dimension,’ which is the idea that time is visible within the artwork and the piece is not static. This element is broadly explored and thoroughly explained through the myriad of works in various mediums in the museum. 

In fact, without the active role of visitors the kinetic elements of Agam’s works would not be possible. Viewers cannot remain passive if they are to truly experience Agam’s art as he intended. His work requires you to be active physically, cognitively, and emotionally. This concept is better experienced than explained as the ‘perpetual becoming’ of Agam’s oeuvre reveals itself to viewers within the museum.

Agam’s signature style is well known to the Israeli public who would recognize his major works in Tel Aviv: the ‘Water and Fire’ fountain at Tzina Dizengoff Square and the facade of the Dan Hotel on the Tel Aviv Promenade. Yet, his work resonates on an international scale with non-Jewish communities. However, it would be negligent to discuss Agam without acknowledging his connections to Judaism. Born in Rishon LeZion in 1928, in what was then mandate Palestine, to a Kabbalist Rabbi father, spirituality and Torah teachings permeated his youth and stay with him to this day. Judaism forbids figurative artworks and since Agam is restricted in this way he uses abstract figures in his work to express the feelings of life. 

At 89 years old, Agam is embracing technology and is increasingly interested in applying his artistic principles to new medias. Through computers and applications he has created interactive works that activate the participants senses of touch, sight, and sound. This convergence of the senses breaths a new life into Agam’s work and keeps it relevant in the 21st century.

Abundant with Agam classics such as his signature ‘Agamographs,’ the museum provides a comprehensive look at his oeuvre that both longtime followers of his career and novice art fans will appreciate. As the director of the Agam Museum, Gilad Meltzer, explained, “In the spirit of the artist, a visit to the museum will encourage a multiplicity of views and points of view, emphasizing the universal language of art and the unique and groundbreaking qualities of his work.”

Agam Art Museum
1, Meishar St, Rishon LeTsiyon, Israel