Weekly Roundup (10 May 2018)

Blok’s Opening Week Picks

May 10:

• Moscow, Russia: Weredog at Electrozavod Gallery.This work is about subordination and disobedience to the proposed circumstances, ways to get out of these circumstances and the states associated with them. All these internal, semi-mystical transformations are forced. The Weredog project tells the story of a series of transformations of a person into something else and back again, exhibiting the works of Victoria Chupakhina.

• Poznan, Poland: “Someday it will be a Merrier” – opening at FWD: and Imagination Hides Life. The works made for the exhibition are the result of walks that took place after the Pink Passage, during which I thought about the current condition of this place, by Rafał Żarski. On view until June 17.

May 11:

• Bucharest, Romania: Thomas Tsang: Soundwich. For the first time since its opening, we can take out Sandwich for a walk through the city, while keeping its proportions intact. Thomas Tsang, architect and artist based in Hong-Kong, constructs a structure that incorporates one of his sound pieces as a support system. On view until June 26.

• Vilnius, Lithuania: Baltic Triennial 13- Give Up The Ghost- Vilnius, Opening Weekend. The opening celebration will include an evening of performances. It will be followed by a weekend of live art and public events (see below for the detailed programme). Artistic Director: Vincent Honoré. Various locations, dates and times through to August 12.

• Moscow, Russia: Opening of the project “Escapism. Training program” at CCIFabrika. How often do you want to run away from the demands of society? How do you avoid work, relationships and other undesirable situations? Do you want to improve your shirking skills? Is there a difference between your escape from reality and escape from the reality of the artist? Questions explored in the form of a training program in a dialog between artists and curators. One of the most common tactics of escaping from reality is reading. In addition to the cooperative apartment escapists in the TIC “Factory”, this year “Escapism. Training program “opens a temporary branch” Escapism. Reader’s Club “in the Library. ON. Nekrasov. On view until  June 10.
• Warsaw, Poland. Opening of Jakub Julian Ziółkowski’s exhibition “Saint Nic” at Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle. “Saint Nic” is an exhibition presenting new works of the artist: sculptures, paintings, ceramics and installations, some of which were created during a few months stay in Hanoi, in Vietnam, and part in cooperation with the artist Hyon Gyon. They refer to the most archaic forms of the magical and religious phenomenon of “transformation.” A metaphorical cosmos is created, full of references to religious symbolism and cult objects. Curated Patrycja Ryłko, on view until Patrycja Ryłko.

• Poznan, Poland: Cabinet of True Horizons (How far can you see?) Group show at Gallery Rodriguez. How far can you see? – asks Michał Martychowiec in the Rodriguez Gallery. The horizon is a very important figure in the show. Can you collect perspectives? Fields of view? Many of the artworks gathered within the Cabinet to the line and notion of horizon. Others evoke the figure of the eye. These two things are strictly related; the horizon is a view of the view of the beholder. Curated by Stach Szablowski, on view until June 13.

• Kyiv, Ukraine: The Kyiv International – ’68 NOW will open at the Red Hall of the Kyiv’s House of Cinema with the lecture “Repoliticizing the French 68” by the philosopher Jacques Rancière on Friday, 11 May at 19:00.The project will take place on May 11–25 in the Kyiv’s House of Cinema in the format of an international forum for art and knowledge with participation of such outstanding contemporary philosophers and historians as Jacques Rancière (France), Chantal Mouffe (Belgium), Aleida Assmann (Germany), Agnes Heller (Hungary) and Alexei Yurchak (USA). The Kyiv International – ’68 NOW explores the political and cultural heritage of the revolt and struggle of 1968, considering the antinomies of this moment for the West and East of Europe fifty years onward.

May 12:

• Berlin, Germany. Art / Politics at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. One-day conference featuring Boris Buden, Catherine David, Hans Haacke, Alfredo Jaar, Trevor Paglen, Alexandra Pirici, Kerstin Stakemeier, Hito Steyerl, Adam Szymczyk, Klaus Theweleit, Rosemarie Trockel, and Franciska Zólyom In the course of the 20th century avant-gardes, numerous artistic approaches evolved that considered art from a political standpoint. From 1pm-9pm, free.

May 16:

• Moscow, Russia: Nikolay Onischenko and Miķelis Fišers at Triumph Gallery. The Triumph Gallery presents a two-part exhibition, arranged in the form of a visual dialogue between the Latvian artist Mikelis Fischers and his Russian counterpart Nikolai Onishchenko. The exhibition will unite the project “Pass” Kolya Onischenko and “Open fracture” – MIĶELIS FIŠERS, curated by Kristina Romanova, on view until June 3.

Open Call

• Call for Applications: Residency program MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38, the Goethe-Institut New York. Located on Manhattan’s Lower EastSide, Ludlow 38 has provided for curatorial experimentation in the tradition of the German “Kunstverein” since 2008. The residency program’s mission is to introduce new, international perspectives to the local art scene and to foster dialogue within the greater aesthetic and political context of New York and the United States. Deadline to apply: May 31. For more info.

• Call for Proposals: The European ArtEast Foundation (EAEF)  is an inspiration for the 1950’s and 1960’s. The purpose of this project is to give art historians and curators the opportunity to carry out an important history of Eastern Europe. The Foundation’s goal is to stimulate the development of an important political context. Deadline to apply: June 4, 2018. For more  info.

Art News from Around the Blok

• Marina Abramović and Ulay Are Reuniting to Write a Joint Memoir, as per artnet News: the greatest duo in the history of performance art, Ulay and Marina Abramović, will reunite to write a book about their 12-year partnership. “There are so many unbelievable anecdotes which most people don’t know, and I think they’re worth reading—they will sound like fairy tales,” Ulay told artnet News at the opening of his current exhibition at New York’s Boers-Li Gallery last week.

• Russian Art Collector Tied to Michael Cohen Payments – The New York Times has uncovered unreported payments to a shell company used by President Trump’s lawyer—including $500,000 from an investment firm in New York with ties to the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. (A lawyer for the firm described it as a “consulting fee.”) Vekselberg also owns a pricey collection of Fabergé Imperial eggs and sued Christie’s in 2010 over its sale of a fake work said to be by the artist Boris Kustodiev.