Weekly Roundup (1 March 2018)

BLOK’S OPENING WEEKEND PICKS

March 1

• Berlin, German: Rimini Protokoll at HKW and Neues Museum. A tetralogy (in four acts) of museum theatre, “the team of author-directors, have been working since the year 2000 in the fissures between reality and fiction on their ‘theater of experts.” The work explores themes like post-truth and asymmetrical warfare, whereby visitors become active participants in geopolitical decision making.  On view until March 4.

Rimini Protokoll | © David von Becker

• Budapest, Hungary: Interpreter’s Booth – Anu Vahtra and Martin Lukač. “Chimera-Project Gallery is pleased to host the exhibition Interpreter’s Booth – an exhibition in two chapters by Anu Vahtra and Martin Lukač, curated by Piotr Sikora, conceived an international collaboration between two artists and a curator, a traveling show within the V4 region and exchange between two art institutions, an active and fresh push for art and its contemporary discourse.” On view until March 30 2018.

• Moscow, Russia: Vladimir Yankilevsky Retrospective, “The incomprehensibility of being” at MMOMA. The late Russian artist Vladimir Yankilevsky, associated with Soviet Nonconformist Art, passed away this past January at the age of 79. More than 200 works of one of the most important unofficial artists of the second half of the XX century were collected by the largest Russian and foreign museums. On view at MMOMA until April 29 2018.

Vladimir Yankilevsky. From the series “Self-portraits”. 1999. Photo: Moscow Museum of Modern Art

March 2

• Athens, Greece. Loukia Alavanou/ Solo Exhibition / Towards New Horizons. “State of Concept is happy to present a solo exhibition of the work of one of the most interesting artists of the contemporary greek art scene, Loukia Alavanou, that opens on the 2nd of March at 19:00. The exhibition is an overview presentation of the artistic practice of Alavanou, entitled “Towards New Horizons” and curated by iLiana Fokianaki.” On view until April 28 2018.

• Łódź, Poland: Jimmy Durham. “God’s Children, God’s Poems” at the Museum of Art in Łódź. “Jimmie Durham is an American artist, performer, poet, and an activist of the American Indian Movement advocating for human rights of indigenous communities. The title of the exhibition makes reference to an old Greek term for animals, which describes them as the beloved works of God, “God’s children” or “God’s poems”. The series of 14 works presented at the exhibition in Muzeum Sztuki includes artworks, in which the artist used the skulls of animals, such as: bison, reindeer, deer, muskox or the Great Dane. Each animal featuring at the exhibition, often coming from vulnerable, endangered species, lives or used to live in Europe and is the biggest representative of its family, curated by Heike Munder and Maria Morzuch.” On view until May 13 2018.

• Maribor, Slovenia. Janez Janša® at UGM. “In 2007, three Slovenian artists joined the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and officially changed their names to Janez Janša. While they renamed themselves for personal reasons, the boundaries between their lives and their art began to blur in numerous and unforeseen ways. The exhibition presents selected of works and projects produced by Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša over the last ten years – most of them arising as collateral effects of the name change or other life events related to it.” On view until March 31st 2018.

• Warsaw, Poland. “Free Gestures” a choreographic exhibition by Ula Sickle opens at the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle. ” The starting point is the question of how ideologies become incorporated into our bodies and language. Here, it is not the performers’ bodies or objects that are the works of art, but rather the performed texts, gestures, and movement.” On view until March 25 2018.

Courtesy Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle

• Warsaw, Poland. Edi Hila. Painter of Transformation. “Edi Hila’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw fits within a series of exhibitions devoted to overlooked artists from Eastern Europe. Over the past few years we have prepared monographic exhibitions of Ion Grigorescu, Július Koller and Mária Bartuszová, and carried out projects with Sanja Iveković and Tomislav Gotovac. But this project extends beyond scholarly curiosity or historical necessity. The reason we are addressing Hila’s oeuvre at this time is the acute currency of an artist who refused to be deceived by the trappings of the transformation, always tracing the subcutaneous threats it carried with it.” On view until May 6 2018.

• Warsaw, Poland. Wild at Heart. Portrait and self-portrait in Poland after 1989 at Zachęta National Gallery of Art.  “The backbone of the exhibition Wild at Heart is the collection of the ING Polish Art Foundation which gathers the works by Polish living artists created post-1990.”  On view until May 6 2018.

March 3

• Warsaw, Poland. Augustas Serapinas: Gym (Jõusaal) at Piktogram. “Gym (Jõusaal) restages a work Augustas Serapinas initially conceived in residence at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia. During this time, the artist came across a number of abandoned sculptures, relinquished and left behind by Fine Arts students. Reflecting on the Academy’s isolation from its surrounding environment – which included athletic training sites used in preparation for the 2012 Olympics – Serapinas revitalized the discarded works by constructing a gym within the Academy’s parameters.” On view at Piktogram until March 30 2018.

• Warsaw, Poland. Jan Domicz: Domicz, Domicz at Wschód. “What kind of film would I have to be in order to become simultaneously a moving image and a building, an object in space?” These and other questions are explored in Jan Domicz’s latest exhibition. On view until March 30 2018.

Jan Domicz, Construction, HD video, 8’49, 2018

March 6

• Milan, Italy. Paulina Olowska “Slavic Goddesses and the Ushers” at Museo del Novecento. “The fourth event in Furla Series #01 features artist Paulina Olowska whose multifaceted work draws inspiration from modernist utopias and from American and Eastern European popular culture—particularly that of socialist Poland—forging a dialogue with history and creating a web of cultural references that explore the notion of feminism and consumerism. Zooming in on figures from the past, the artist unearths small, often forgotten histories; her approach is never nostalgic, but rather guided by a desire to understand their intrinsic value from a contemporary as well as historical standpoint. Paulina Olowska brings to life the Sala Fontana with a performance drawing on the work of visionary artist Zofia Stryjeńska, leading visitors through a magical, evocative experience. Sound by Sergei Tcherepnin.” One time performance from from 18:00-21:00.

March 7

• Budapest, Hungary: Better Bitter / Magdalena Karpińska at Platán Galeria. The show highlights the contrary between visually attractive nature and the bitter content of images in the artist’s work. On view until April 12 2018.

• Washington, DC. New Dates Announced for Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Projection on the Hirshhorn. “The projection coincides with Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s, an exhibition exploring the clash of art, commodity and brand in the 1980s. The group show also includes Wodiczko’s ‘Homeless Vehicle No. 5.’ (1988–89), a device designed to provide homeless individuals with some form of autonomy. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announces new dates for the restaging of the large-scale outdoor projection “Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.” by artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, rescheduled for Mar. 7, 8 and 9, 7–9:30 p.m.”

Krzysztof Wodiczko, “Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC,” 1988. Public projection at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, October 25-27, 1988. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York.

OPEN CALLS

• International Festival Odessa Photo Days Open Call 2018: “The festival is a non-profit platform for photographers and anyone interested in this media. In the course of three years, with the efforts of our team, volunteers and photographers, the Odesa / / Batumi Photo Days festival has become well-known in different parts of the world, appeared on the international map of photo events and has implemented a number of special projects, both in Ukraine and abroad.” Deadline to apply: 1 March 2018

• International Curatorial Residency in Sofia, Bulgaria. Open call for curatorial residency for non-Bulgarian emerging curators, regardless of their age or country of origin. Curatorial experience of at least two years or at least three realized curatorial projects are required, as well as good command of English. Supported byArt Affairs and Documents Foundation, Goethe-Institut Bulgaria and Credo Bonum Gallery. Deadline to apply: 10 March 2018

• Urban Program, the International Festival of Film and Urbanism 86.As part of its Urban Program, the International Festival of Film and Urbanism “86” invites up to 14 urbanists, architects and artists via an Open Call to spend four weeks in the town of Slavutych (Ukraine) from April 18 to May 13, 2018. During their stay, residents are asked to reflect on the historical development as well as potential futures of the 14 districts that make up the city. Deadline to apply: 7 March 2018

• Call for residency applications 2018–19 and 8th Inter-format Symposium on Rites & Terrabytes at Nida Art Colony in Lithuania. The residency programme at Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts (NAC) is open for emerging and experienced artists, designers, architects, curators and researchers. NAC is one of the largest art, residency and education venues in the Nordic-Baltic region. It provides the opportunity to live and work in the Colony’s contemporary architecture, situated in a coastal pine forest. Since 2011 over 350 artists and other culture professionals have stayed at the Colony. Deadline to apply: 15 March 2018

• Arc Bucharest. Arc Bucharest is pleased to announce its second residency open call for curators working and living outside Romania who are interested to get deeper insight into the local art context. Deadline to apply: 18 March 2018

• Artists in Residence program at Club ElectroPutere. A fully-funded residency at Club ElectroPutere, a contemporary art center based in Craiova/Romania. Since 2009 CEP has been devoted to establishing close cooperation between artists, curators, researchers, and other cultural actors through interdisciplinary programs and residencies. The center’s activity focuses on producing and researching contemporary cultural manifestations. Deadline to apply: 22 March 2018

• Cemeti – Institute for Art and Society and Goethe-Institut Indonesia. A well-funded residency for artists living in Germany to work and study in Yogyakarta Indonesia, alongside one Indonesian artist, who will be in residence for the same period.Visual arts, with a specific interest in arts and social practice; duration of stay: 3 months from September through November 2018. Deadline to apply: 31 March  2018

• Open call for rejected proposals. Open call for visual artists, curators, galleries for rejected papers, applications, proposals and projects. We accept past papers and applications, which were sent for competitions, scholarships and open calls, which were then rejected. Send us your rejected project proposal now! Share your failures and transform bad fortune into critical energy. It could release your art practice from a scheme of hierarchical thinking. All submitted proposals will be shown as part of an art installation in Poland. Deadline to apply: April 22 2018

ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE BLOK

• Photographer Wolfgang Tillmans addresses society’s immunity to facts in the “post-truth” era. As per the Guardian: “Why are people today becoming so immune to facts? To find out, the photographer turned to politicians, activists, extremists – and even MRI scans.” Read the full article describing his new book and project published here.

Fluid borders … a spread from What Is Different?
Photograph: Wolfgang Tillmans

• The Calvert Journal reported last week that major cultural infrastructure in Riga is at risk of severe underfunding due to the recent controversy surrounding financial irregularities at the country’s largest bank, ABLV.  As per the report, the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art is under threat as ABLV was one of the institution’s principal benefactors.

“The future of Latvia’s long-awaited Museum of Contemporary Art could be in jeopardy as one of the project’s backers teeters of the brink of bankruptcy.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Riga was due to open in 2021 with significant investment from one the country’s largest banks, ABLV.”

Design for Latvia’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Image: Adjaye Associates / AB3D