Weekly Roundup (28 June 2018)

Weekly is published every Thursday morning CET, looking forward to the week’s upcoming art events across Central Europe, links to deadlines for open-calls, residencies, commentary, photos and happenings of the past week worth revisiting. Here’s what you need to know for the week of June 28th, 2018.

Blok’s Weekly Opening Picks

June 28

Prague, Czech Republic: Andrew Norman Wilson: Andrew Norman Wilson at Futura. Andrew Norman Wilson is an artist and curator based in Los Angeles whose videos and installations address a heady rush of images, technology, and bodies caught in the streams of circulation and representation that our era demands.

Berlin, Germany: Skanderbeg Square, Tirana. Esther Schipper Gallery. Ruby Press and Vice Versa Artbooks invite you to the launch of SKANDERBEG SQUARE, which documents the ambitious transformation of Skanderbeg Square, in Tirana, Albania. It is the result of a collaboration between Belgian architecture office 51N4E, Albanian artist Anri Sala, Belgian environmental designers Plant en Houtgoed, and Albanian company for project implementation iRI.

Moscow, Russia: The exhibition “Matter of Horror”. The project focuses on border states and territories: the fusion of biological (body) and technological, the impact of viruses on systems, the “unconscious” of network structures. First of all, the curators Olga Deriugina and Nikita Vasilenko rely on the concept of the “horror of philosophy” proposed by Eugene Tucker, where “horror” is an attempt to think the world without us outside of philosophical discourse and tools.

June 29

Berlin, Germany: Olaf Nicolai: Brecht in der Autowerkstatt. In collaboration with the Berliner Ensemble, KW Institute for Contemporary Art presents the public workshop “Hier wird heute Abend ein Mensch wie ein Auto ummontiert / Ohne dass er irgendetwas dabei verliert. Brecht in der Auto-Werkstatt” by Olaf Nicolai. This workshop will show the assembly and repair of a Mercedes-Benz Ponton, which once belonged to Helene Weigel, the former intendant of the Berliner Ensemble and Bertolt Brecht’s wife.

Tallinn, Estonia: Opening of Baltic Triennial 13 – GIVE UP the GHOST in Tallinn. The opening celebration will include a weekend of performances on Friday 29 June and on Saturday 30 June including by Adam Christensen, Merike Estna, Lina Lapelytė, Paul Maheke, Young Boy Dancing Group and Young Girl Reading Group (Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė).

Maribor, Slovenia: Inge Morath – retrospektiva at Maribor Art Gallery. The first major retrospective exhibition of Inge Morath’s work in Slovenia and in the broader region will present more than two hundred photographs from around the world. Beginning with her first photographic projects in the early 1950s in Spain and Venice, and the large body of artists’ portraits, whom she followed throughout her life, the exhibition ranges from an intense exploration of her adopted hometown of New York, her travels along the Danube, and images of Maribor towards the end of her life.

June 30

Warsaw, Poland. Opening Weekend Brodno Sculpture Park “Biennale.” It is hard to imagine that the biennial is coming to an end. Consolation is the fact that equipped with a catalog and map, we can independently track objects and places from the exhibition for many months, years, and decades! However, this is not like escapades with local experts, museum workers, lovers of cycling, or under the watchful eye of a Bródno shaman. Therefore, we invite you to participate in the last weekend events of the Biennale.

Art News from Around the Blok

Athens, Greece: Greece’s Prime Minister Asks Theresa May to Return the Elgin Marbles—Again. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is trying to revive the case that the UK should return the 2,500-year-old marbles from the British Museum that were taken from the Acropolis in the 19th century. Known as the Elgin Marbles for the British diplomat who removed them, the stones once comprised roughly half of a 500-foot frieze on the Parthenon, as per artnet news.

Moscow, Russia: Russia Opens Exhibition Center for Icons – The Ovchinnikov Ikonoteka space, named after the restoration expert Adolf Ovchinnikov, will trace the history of copying icons in Russia to save them from age or Soviet anti-religious drives. Launched by the Grabar Conservation Center in Moscow, the space will show religious icons made by the restorer between 1958 and 2016.