Weekly Roundup (May 17)

Blok’s Opening Week Picks

May 17

• Bucharest, Romania: Bucharest Biennale 8. The Bucharest Biennale is interested in exploring links between creative practice and social progress, as well as correspondences between local and global contexts. Now in its 16th year, the Biennale continues to build a strong partnership between Bucharest—a geocultural space where the political is reflected in all aspects of life—and the rest of the World. In transcending specific geographical, historical, or political frameworks, it connects to a broader complexity, namely the one of “resistance” within the quotidian realm. Curators: Beral Madra (TR) & Răzvan Ion (RO); Director: Eugen Rădescu; Assistant Curator: Theodor Moise; various artists and venues. Until July 8.

• Tbilisi, Georgia: In and Out of Reality: Three Centuries of Photographic Image. Over 160 photos , some of unseen and unpublished works by few generations of photographers with Dmitry Ermakov’s Collection Gigo Gabashvili Shalva Alkhanaidze Guram Tikanadze Rezo Kezeli Soviet Industrial Photography Alexandre Saakov Georgi Tsagarelili Yuri Mechitov Boris Shaverdiani Natela Grigalashvili Guram Tsibakhashvili Andro Eradze Anka Gujabidze Beso Uznadze David Meskhi Gvanca Jishkariani Cvanci Jishkarianiriani Mariam Sitchinavava Nata Sofromadze Rita Khachaturiani Tako Robakidze Tinatin Kiguradze Vakho Khetaguri Zura Arabidze Lado Lomitashvili, on view until May 20.

• Moscow, Russia: Alexander Kutovoy “Mechanical Hand” at Moscow Museum of Art. Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the museum of Vadim Sidur present the project of Alexander Kutovoy “Mechanical Hand”, built around the problem of the existence of art in conditions of accelerating technical processes. A personal exhibition of the artist will be held in the framework of the parallel program 6 Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. The center of the exhibition will be the sculptural imitation of the main tool of productive labor in the modern world – an industrial robot. On view until June 24.

• Budapest, Hungary: Two Meetings and a Funeral (Naeem Mohaiemen, 2017) at Tranzit.Hu. Tranzit.hu presents the three-channel filmmaking of Two Meetings and a Funeral in Budapest.The Budapest Film Show is connected to tranzit.hu’s long-term interest in creating a pan-peripheral network, a pan-peripheral project that began in 2017. This concept defines Eastern Europe as opposed to “the West”, as it was constructed by the geopolitics of the bipolar Cold War period, but by recalling the ideology of socialist internationalism through its “third world” relationship.

• Berlin, Germany: Exhibition opening: DOME. Our relationship to the cosmos. As an interdisciplinary project of exhibition, film, music and science, DOME focuses on »cosmic realities« in a very different way. Experiences of astronauts are made visible. Artistic work and scholarly contributions invite us to engage in a direct debate that extends our understanding of the universe. In this project, the cosmos stands symbolically for the intangible remoteness, but at the same time it also constitutes our living space, of which we are apart. On view until July 1.

May 18

• Berlin, Germany: WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? at SAVVY Contemporary. Contemplations on the Notions of Hostipitality unfolds through an exhibition, performances, lectures, film screenings and other time-based experiences to deliberate on concepts of hospitality and the triggers of hostility in hospitality. Much is happening today that calls for a reflection on hospitality in Germany, in Europe, and in the world at large. While departing from the national context of Germany, and taking Derrida’s notion of “hostipitality” – that is the presence of hostility in all hospitality and hosting – as a point of commencement, the project is not limited in geography, history, philosophy nor culture to these origins, but rather addresses concepts of hospitality in a global context.

• Prague, Czech Republic: Michał Budny: Everything Shines Blue at SVIT. SVIT presents the most recent works of Michał Budny at his third solo exhibition in the gallery.

• Prague, Czech Republic: Julien Creuzet at DRDOVA Gallery. Julien Creuzet (*1986) is a French-Caribbean artist who lives and works in Paris. His multimedia installations use poetry, sculpture and video to question the role of language for the individual and collective memory. By blurring the border between technology and nature, the native and the foreign, high and low culture, he creates a spatial experience that is poetic and political at the same time.

May 19

• Moscow, Russia: Night of Museums. On Saturday, more than 200 of Moscow’s museums, galleries, exhibition rooms and art centers will keep their doors open until the early hours of the morning, welcoming visitors free of charge to see their usual exhibits and putting on special after-hours even. Various locations.

• Arad, Romania: Thea Lazăr – Let Us Approach The Internet At The Speed Of Dreams. Are we still searching for the meaning of our dreams in the age of technology? Yes, and we are searching for it on google.  Searching for deeper meanings on earth and in the universe is as old as people but in the age of technology, we adapted our old ways to the new. From watching someone read our horoscope on tv to searching for the meanings of our dreams on google, it’s all been updated and we are using technology as a tool. It doesn’t seem like science could kill pseudoscience any time soon. Wanting to know the future or our destiny are not things science could tell us so we look for them in the stars, in our palms, cards or coffee. These are things we don’t have control upon but they influence us in various ways.

• Warsaw, Poland: Marta Ziółek “Seans with Pamela” at “Other dances”. “Session with Pamela” takes place in front of the camera and the camera. The title Pamela is intermedia – plays with the performances of karaoke culture. In her world there are masked figures, referring to the images of ecstatic, fallen saints, jesters and legendary cyberpunk figures. In Pamela’s world, desires of the ritual and the uncommonness of bodily ecstasy are invoked. May 19/20.

May 20

• Kyiv, Ukraine: Tokonoma x Soshenko at Soshenko 33 and VCRC. This presentation will take place within the framework of the Tokonoma artists’ residency at the 33 Soshenko space as a continuation of the collaboration between the two collectives that began at documenta 14 in Kassel. Tokonoma is a platform for young art and club culture situated in Kassel. Tokonoma organizes and hosts talks, screenings, exhibitions and club nights and works on the principle of self-organization. In spring 2012, the Tokonoma collective renovates a former retail store in Kassel to a multifunctional space, the Tokonoma Apartment.

Open Calls

• 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.

• Open call for Lithuania artists: The Contemporary Art Centre (CAC, Vilnius) together with JCDecaux announces an open call for young artists to participate in the JCDecaux Prize 2018 exhibition and presents new curatorial team of two upcoming exhibitions of this cycle. Due June 8. For more info.

Art News from Around the Blok

• Malevich sets new record for Russian art, as per The Art Newspaper Russia: “His Suprematist Composition (1916) was sold at Christie’s for $ 85.8 million. At the same auction, the sculpture by Constantine Brancusi”

• Thousands hit the streets to protest raids on one of Tbilisi’s most iconic clubs BASSIANI. On the morning of May 12, armed police raided Bassiani, a popular nightclub in Tbilisi, Georgia, in response to five drug-related deaths in the last two weeks. Bassiani was blamed for the deaths, despite none occurring on the club’s premises. Since then, protests have rocked the Georgian capital and the country’s minister of internal affairs, Giorgi Gakharia, has had to apologize to protesters.