Writer On Art

A Comprehensive Guide to All Events in Basel During ArtBasel41

istwasesist — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:23:11 +0000

If you want to know the schedule of events in Basel during ArtBasel41, LISTE, Scope, Volta and all the fairs going on, there is a new and very comprehensive online guide to do so: http://basel-in-june.info. It lists all openings, special tours, parties and much more, the best guide to the art week in Basel.

Check it out: http://basel-in-june.info

Jens Kull: Revolution (2009) – An Invitation to Individual and Independent Revolution

istwasesist — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:11:54 +0000

For the 200th anniversary of the Mexican War of Independence in 2010 – the ‘Bicentenario’, Jens Kull proposes Revolution. The 2’30″ video clip shows a 360 degrees revolution of the Morelos statue located in front of the main entrance of the national library in Mexico City. The video is composed of more than 100 stills put into sequence.

-> Go to the full article on writeronart

Take a Freeride Ski Trip With Norwegian Artist Kristine Maudal in San Francisco

istwasesist — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:39:38 +0000

Norwegian painter Kristine Maudal, as appeared previously on writeronart, presents yet another project in the city of San Francisco. Being a passionate freeride skier, Maudal will abstract the feeling, movements and rhythms of this intense sport and transmit it into art in her project “Other Rhythms”. To interpret emotions and feelings of activities other than art into art itself is one of Maudal’s core interests and specialties. The works will be on paper and canvas, alongside with a special video project jointly realized by Kristine Maudal and Norwegian film‐photographer Kjetil Tefke.

The exhibition will take place at Fort Mason, San Francisco, in an exhibition during the annual Norway Day festival opening May 1st at 10:00 AM.

-> Click here to download the press info
-> Click here to go to Kristine Maudal’s website

Why Do People Applaud After a Performance?

istwasesist — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:29:53 +0000

Would you clap at a painting? Would you clap at a painting when the artist himself is present? A performance is an artwork. It doesn’t need applause. On the contrary, the applause takes away a great deal of the magic. Seriously. A performance is not a stage play. An artist is not an actor. We have to get rid of that personality cult.

KATHARINA BLANKE / ARTIST ABSTRACT / 2010

istwasesist — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:26:56 +0000

Katharina Blanke’s works are utopistic-poetic illustrations and constructions of dresses. She analyses existing dress illustrations and garments, decomposes and re-stages them as newly interpreted vestment objects. As clothing architecture and textile sculpture, like a hollow garment shell, the portrayal of the robe becomes a personified object. Its wearability is deliberately left behind. The functional article of daily use thus becomes a self-sufficient piece of art, the garment construction of which is utilized as a means of communication for the wearer’s identity – a personalized world of memory, concentrated and story-told in garment collages. Private mythology, fashion genre history, natural history and autobiography add up to form these textile sculptures.

„I construct the dresses of my dreams, phantasy frameworks. The dress, a second layer of skin and identity, is removed and placed beside me as a sculptural object. This textile shell is of direct concern to me, is a subtle collage of my ideas of sensual dressing and disguise that reflects my desires, my yearning and my environment.“

As a viewer, you see opulent material bacchanalia, assembled in meticulously detailed work. Complex, artistically woven filigree networks proliferate here, a symbiosis of art, fashion and design, in painting or as objects of leather, fabric and papier mâché. The works are not stationary, they stand alone or float in free space.

The theatrical appearance of the garments in their solidified materiality lays the grounds for both indulgence and bewilderment. The exaggerated artificiality of these narrative textiles between quest and addiction astonishes while concurrently provoking by irony and humour. The perception of fiction and reality is blurred and becomes an enchanting eccentric labyrinth. Thus a game of deception starts, oscillating between the presence and absence of persons, memory, traces, symbols and signals. Ornaments wherever you look, like tattoos, amalgamate to become a second outer skin layer. And at the same time, the exuberant mixture of the image content displays the clustering of everyday trivia and essences of fairytale fantasy.

Katharina Blanke’s work shows the pure delight of beautiful abundance and convoluted opulence – a getting lost in a seemingly scurrile world of the image. And in addition, an urge, an almost manic passion for collecting personal findings, contrastingly combined with the intention to find calm in the meditative production of patterns. Subtly, the presentation of the resplendent dress interacts with the feeling of being locked in a textile cage. Using her exchangeable garment shells, the artist slips into the roles of different personalities. But the garment may also serve as a technical vehicle, as a moral mask of decency for dressing up suitably: the dress as a second, social protective cover and armor. Thus the personal vulnerability is beautified and camouflaged by blanketing and disguising clothes: a gentle vendetta against the beauty craze which is now excelled by exaggerated overabundance and edgy beauty. A defiant-vigorous answer to the trauma of not being dressed „properly“. The wicked and the bad, disguised in a cute charming dress.

Editorially assisted and translated by writeronart. Copyright by Katharina Blanke.

-> Visit katharinablanke.net

Dominik Wullimann: Artist Portfolio Now Available for Download on writeronart.com

istwasesist — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:51:06 +0000

The artist portfolio for Dominik Wullimann (previously appearing on writeronart.com) is now available for download. It was created by Dominik Wullimann (of course), consulted and with editorial assistance by Michael Schär, writeronart, and designed by Markus Erdmann, esense gmbh.

-> Download the portfolio in PDF here (14.8mb)
-> Go to the article on Dominik Wullimann on writeronart.com

High-Heels on Prayer Carpets

istwasesist — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:20:41 +0000

Cocktail ou autoportrait en société is the title of Mehdi-Georges Lahlou‘s brilliant installation consisting of prayer carpets layed out like in a mosque. On one of the carpets, the artist places a pair of red high-heels. Of course, it is a provocation, and one on many levels, very cleverly set up. The installation is designed to raise questions, to open the grounds for the discussion on the self-awareness of a religion. The style and the approach reminds of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. And the reaction is not so far away from the one that Rushdie had to face.

After a series of phone calls, reportedly more and more violent and finally stones thrown onto the window storefront, the owner of the Brussels gallery has decided to close the exhibition down. The issue raises a lot of questions about freedom of speech, about censorship and about the ability to handle critique.

-> See the news on telebruxelles.net

New Von Bartha Quarterly Out Now

istwasesist — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:27:31 +0000

The 6th edition of the Quarterly Report issued by von Bartha in Basel is out. Again, it is a nice and good-looking, informative newspaper with good articles on the art scene around the gallery’s activities and beyond. You will find an article on the new group in the GARAGE containing works by Andrew Bick, Daniel Robert Hunziker, Karim Noureldin, Magnus Thierfelder, Jens Wolf and Beat Zoderer, which will open on 5th February; along with articles on art and design, there is – for the first time – “Art and the Daily Madness of a Megacity” by writeronart, an article on the hot art scene in Mexico City, illustrated with photographs by Jens Kull. Worth it!

Download the PDF at vonbartha.com by clicking here

or get your free copy at Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle (Freiburg), Zentrum Paul Klee (Berne), Circuit (Lausanne), Kunsthalle Basel, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen or plug.in (Basel).

Chris Soria: Manufacturing Seasons (2004-2006) and Antiquated Giant (2009)

istwasesist — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:05:15 +0000

Chris Soria’s Manufacturing Seasons series is a documentation of the last days of Greenpoint Terminal Market, an industrial complex in Brooklyn, NY. Closed down decades ago, it just stood there for years, subjected to weather and the use as a temporary shelter for the homeless. In May 2006, one entire part of the complex burned down in a ten-alarm fire. In a series of almost documentary works, Chris Soria used hundreds of photographs to rebuild the Market. He took the photographs before the fire, and this makes the works a historical record of what the complex used to be. Especially with the outlook of the factory being destroyed and the space it takes now being reused for a different purpose, Manufacturing Seasons is a reminder of the futility of human achievement and at the same time an hommage to the beauty of its remnants which experiences its climax in a giant mural Antiquated Giant.

Read the entire article here

Offener Brief: Georg Kreis muss Präsident der Eidgenössischen Rassismuskommission bleiben

istwasesist — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:35:01 +0000

Falls Ihr diesen Brief mitunterzeichnen möchtet, genügt es folgende Angaben zu machen: «Name, Vorname, Funktion, Wohnort» und das Einverständnis an folgende Mailadresse zu schicken:
samia.guemei@air-mail.cc

********************

Sehr geehrter Herr Bundesrat Burkhalter
Wir, die Unterzeichnenden, weisen in aller Form die Aufforderung an Prof. Dr. Georg Kreis, Präsident der Eidgenössischen Rassismuskommission, sein Amt abzugeben, zurück. Wir unterstützen den angesehenen Historiker und Menschenfreund in seiner Entscheidung, dieses wichtige Amt weiterhin auszuüben.

Mit grosser Besorgnis beobachten wir, wie die politische Diskussion in der Schweiz seit der Annahme der Initiative zum Minarettverbot zunehmend von national-konservativen und diskriminierenden Kräften beherrscht wird. Erschreckend ist es da, wenn nicht nur die SVP, sondern gar einzelne Exponenten von Georg Kreis’ Partei, der FDP, sein Präsidium der Eidgenössischen Rassismuskommission in Frage stellen. Die geschichtlich staatstragende Partei par excellence gibt damit dem propagandistisch-populistischen Druck nach, der seit der Annahme der Initiative zum Minarettverbot besteht. Diese reflexartige Rechtfertigung des Plebiszits, in der sich teilweise auch Regierung, Parteien und Medien üben, untergräbt zunehmend Kritik an Volksentscheiden und an deren demokratischen Voraussetzungen und Folgen.

In seinem Votum im Zischtigsclub vom 8. Dezember hat Georg Kreis eine richtige Situationsanalyse gezeichnet: Es ist gefährlich, Vorlagen zur Abstimmung zu bringen, die eine Diskriminierung einer Bevölkerungsgruppe zur Folge haben. Auch in den 30-er Jahren des vergangenen Jahrhunderts hätte der Antisemitismus eine noch grössere Akzeptanz gefunden, wenn er durch eine grosse Partei bewirtschaftet worden wäre – wie heute, da die islamische Religion in den Fokus der Diskriminierung geraten ist. Es ist nachgerade die Aufgabe von Professor Georg Kreis als Historiker und Präsident der Eidgenössischen Rassismuskommission diese historische Parallele in Erinnerung zu rufen.

Gewiss gehört es auch zur duckmäuserischen Geisteshaltung der Schweiz nach dem Minarett-Plebiszit, dass SVP-Präsident Toni Brunner ungestraft die totale Aushebelung der Menschenrechte via Volksrecht» ankündigen kann, währenddem Georg Kreis aus seiner historischen Warnung ein Fallstrick gedreht wird.

Erstunterzeichner: Geri Müller, Nationalrat, Baden; Klaus Merz, Schriftsteller, Unterkulm
Initianten: Samia Guemei, Journalistin, Baden; David Zehnder, Künstler, Beinwil a.S.