‘Masterclass’, Arnold Newman retrospective @ C/O, March 2nd, 2012
“I am interested in what motivates people, what they do with their lives. I would have made a good psychiatrist.” Arnold Newman
A person’s entire life represented by a single instant – the photographic portrait as a form of visual biography. He intentionally incorporated the personal environment, the work, and signs which revealed the intellectual background of those he photographed. With great sensitivity and care, he brought these aspects so strongly into the foreground that they became symbols and clues to the person’s character. Every one of his “environmental portraits” – as they were called by critics – of artists, creative professionals, scientists, intellectuals, athletes, and statesmen is a formally and conceptually balanced composition. With their POWERFUL metaphoric quality, THEY represent a cross-section of twentieth century culture.
Arnold Newman photographed numerous famous people in his empathetic visual language—Pablo Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Marc Chagall, Igor Stravinsky, Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, John F. Kennedy, David Hockney, Martha Graham, Andy Warhol— but hated the idea of celebrity when it was devoid of achievement. His portraits represent a search for exceptional individuals who were realizing their own ideas with great ability. He was interested in what, not who, people were. For this reason, the individual’s personal context is of crucial importance in his photographs; the austere studio photography of Richard Avedon or Irving Penn was never an option for Newman. His approach was oriented more towards the photojournalistic approaches of Henri Cartier-Bresson or Alfred Eisens- taedt. Each of his portraits is an artistic statement, not just a picture of the person portrayed. With this visual concept, Arnold Newman set high standards for artistic interpretation and aesthetic innovation starting in the late 1930s.
In Arnold Newman was a perfectionist in the application of this idea. His use of a large-format camera forced both him and his subjects to be calm and focused. In order to achieve the unique formal brilliance to which he aspired, he had to gain control over every aspect of the image. This also meant arranging and intentionally staging elements of the scene—and in some cases rearranging the setting altogether to capture every detail. Newman preferred natural light, but when he had to, added complex arrangements of artificial lightings to get the effect he desired.
Arnold Newman loved teaching, as many of his students attest. “Masterclass” shows us that there are still many lessons to be learned from this master. The exhibition, comprises 200 vintage black-and-white photographs from the oeuvre of the most influential portrait photographer of the twentieth century. The posthumous retrospective includes Arnold Newman’s most famous portraits but also many who have previously escaped attention, along with still lifes, architectural studies, early street photography, and revealing contact sheets that have never been shown before publicly.
The exhibition is structured in 9 sections: 1. searches, 2. choices, 3. habitats, 4. light lumen, 5. signatures, 6. weavings, 7. fronts, 8. geometries, 9. sensibilities
Text source: http://www.co-berlin.info/news.html?Itemid=390
David Zink Yi @ n.b.k. (Neuer Berliner Kunstverein), March 2nd, 2012
The exhibition is premiering the video installation Horror Vacui (2009) two-channel video installation which runs for two hours documents rehearsals of the Latin band De Adentro y Afuera, founded by the artist together with Cuban musicians, and combines these images with footage showing rituals rooted in Afro-Cuban culture: Cajon, Tambor Batá, and Wiro from Palo Monte, an Afro-Cuban cult related to Santería and the religion of the Yoruba (practiced primarily in Nigeria and Benin) which is the root of a range of religious traditions in several countries of the Americas. By juxtaposing the band rehearsals and the ritual practices as equipollent elements in his video, Zink Yi examines the structural similarities between music-making and religious performance. The key to this semblance is that both think the emerging musical space as a collective plethora, a polyrhythm made possible by the rhythmical structure of the clave that pervades the entire piece. Zink Yi’s Horror Vacui sheds light on practices that allow individual and collective identities to emerge outside of models that assert identity by means of aggressive oppositions. The artist highlights alternatives to restrictive notions of cultural identity built on relations of power and inferiority.
Also in the exhibition it is presented Twilight Images a series of pictures, gelatin silver prints on baryta paper, that show a public park in Havana at night. There are different themes and areas of interest in Zink Yi’s work intersect in the portrait of Havana: the utopian visions of social revolutionaries, the stark reality of socialism, the cults and rites of the Afro-Cuban population. The black-and-white time exposures document a subtle play of light, a twilight heightened by the presentation in the exhibition space. The photographs are set into recesses of identical size, which are integrated into the exhibition architecture and presented in such a fashion that natural as well as artificial light shines through them, revealing, depending on its intensity, a wide variety of structures and shadings within the picture. As the lighting conditions change, the pictorial space changes accordingly.
Curated by Kathrin Becker. Text source: http://www.nbk.org/en/ausstellungen/
Robert Lippok, Song-Ming Ang & Xavier Mary @ Künstlerhaus Bethanien, March 1st, 2012
ZUSPIEL series presents an installation by Robert Lippok in cooperation with the eLand Workshop. Robert Lippok was invited by Italian architect Matteo Ferroni to develop an audio work for the project Foroba Yelen run by the eLand Workshop in the Segou region in Mali, and to this purpose visited some of the villages there. Foroba Yelen – meaning something like “Community Lights” – comprises mobile LED lamps that were made from partially recycled material by local craftsmen and take light into villages that have no electricity network. The lighting is therefore not a fixed installation but can be transported to suitable venues for social activities and interactions.
As in other works, Robert Lippok has focused on special aspects reflecting local conditions. For example, he noticed the heterogeneous refuse that gathers on the fields all around the mud-built villages, consisting mainly of plastic bags but also of a whole range of civilisation’s refuse. All these objects are, like Foroba Yelen, collective in a certain sense, although they do not “belong” to anyone. In the installation “by the Niger river” in Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Robert Lippok combines two of the Foroba Yelen lamps from Segou with sound recordings made on the spot of conversations with villagers, sequences from musical compositions, texts and found objects, thus creating a fragmentary picture of everyday life in a rural region of Mali.
Cover Versions shows new works by Song-Ming Ang, The key subject of his works and performances is music; he investigates its influences on society and the individual. Ang uses materials such as songs, musical instruments or fan articles, which he reshapes following his own logic and self-imposed restrictions, or puts into new contexts that often astonish the viewer.
The works include a photo poster of the teenie idol Justin Bieber which signature on the poster was produced by Ang. A folder included with the poster documents the time-consuming writing practice, reminiscent of mantras, which Song-Ming Ang undertook to approach the “perfect” signature.
A wall installation that combines several record covers of the indie-band Belle & Sebastian with the same number of monochrome circles of colour, and the video work “The Robots” (2009) in which an amateur women’s choir performs an a cappella version of the well-known Kraftwerk song, without any prior rehearsals or choreographic arrangement. This situation enables improvisation and negotiation processes which create a stimulating contrast to the perfectly staged original by Kraftwerk.
For the piano project “Parts and Labour” Ang has also positioned a piano in the exhibition space – as can be seen on the HD video belonging to the work, the artist dismantled this piano in its very parts and subsequently reassembled it during a complicated, step-by-step learning process in a piano workshop.
Xavier Mary‘s sculptures and installations are as minimalist as they are frequently overwhelming in dimension. Their own dramatic tension enables them to skilfully evade a purely formal reading and to fascinate the viewer merely by employing a truly endless number of technical refinements. For “Eat The Magic Lions” Mary has realised three huge lion’s head sculptures, starting out from a 3-D model of a lion’s head from the Internet. The 732 polygons of the first model in his sculpture were realised using cardboard packages of the breakfast cereal brand “Lions”. Other sculptures were made with the aid of software developed for the computer game “Minecraft”, which creates a landscape in the game using brick-shaped elements.
The second component of the exhibition is a sculptural installation inspired by the architecture of the Khmer temples, “DVD Temple”. Its sculptures are made of common polystyrene blocks and join together to form a kind of “altar”, the central element of which is the looping DVD menu of the film “Apocalypse Now Redux”. Other films available on blue ray are also ironically cited by Mary, including classics like “Terminator” or “Transformers”. His installation accentuates the current multimedia formats such as Internet, 3-D, video games, DVD or blue ray in a kind of self-aggrandising pose somewhere between radicalism, illusion and redundancy. Mary’s installations create a parody of the beacons of popular culture and centre on themes such as “appropriation” and “imitation”, which are and will remain extremely relevant in face of our unlimited networks.
Text source http://www.bethanien.de/kb/index/trans/en
‘Unité d’habitation Berlin’ by Le Corbusier 1959 @ Flatowallee 16, Berlin-Westend, February 27th, 2012
Le Corbusier’s visionary 1922 city plan, known as Ville Contemporaine envisioned massive residential blocks set in open green areas—towers in parks, bringing light and air to the residents of urban housing. Like most grand modernist visions, the Ville Contemporaine was never built in its entirety. Its influence on subsequent developments in city planning, however, is clear – notably on post-war reconstruction in Europe and public housing in the United States.
The unité d’habitation type was most notable for its creation of internal streets (essentially elaborate hallway) and accommodation of social and communal functions: kindergartens, medical facilities, recreational spaces, within the housing block. Le Corbusier designed several variations of the unité d’habitation, the most famous of which is in Marseille, Francein 1952. All were derived from this.
Nowadays the Berlin unité, built between 1956-1959, lacks most of the amenities (save a shop and a post office on the ground floor), but is considered unique for its more generously sized apartments. It accommodates 530 units on 17 floors. The internal streets here are oppressive, windowless corridors. Still, the building is in quite good condition. Its hilltop setting, iconic formal qualities, and polychromatic facades are very striking. Apparently there is a community of intelectuals, architects, fotographers, writers, designers etc… that take good care of the building ’cause they may find very attractive living in a Le Corbusier house, far for the original purpose of the building: accomodating a low class people and trying to do their lives easier.
In the slideshow, pics from the time the building was built (1959), located in the building hall. Text source http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/unitedhabitation/index.htm and my own
‘The King is blind’-100° Berlin-Das 9.Lange Wochenende des Freien Theaters @ Sophiensaele, February 23rd, 2012
Within 100º, the four-day theatre marathon that takes place from 23 until 26 February, Sharon Paz presents The king is blind, 2011, a combination of video and performance, investigating power and control using symbolic images of kings and servants. The performance and video are inspired from shadow theater, using silhouette images of actors placed in two-dimensional environments. The work is inspired by power structures of the past and reflects a critical view on current power structures. Music: Tobias Vethake. Performers: Camilla Milena Fehér, Jürgen Salzmann, Daniela Schulz, Karl-Heinz Stenz. Text source: http://www.sharonpaz.com/index.php?/project/biog/
100º will present more than 130 free productions: Stage versions of Effi Briest, performative concerts with seaman-aesthetics, performances on the topic of work and working-sounds, one-woman-monologues about goulash, virtual live connections to other parts of the world, karaoke singing games and highly acrobatic performances. Once again they have a mix of different aesthetics, contents and formats. Chaos is the concept of 100°.
‘Dark Drives’ exhibition videos part I @ TM – HKW, February 3rd, 2012
Dark Drives. Uneasy energies in technological times – videos – part I. Text source: exhibition catalogue.
Costanza, 2011 – Costanza Candeloro & Luca Libertini: Ever since the practical value of electricity was discovered in the first half of XIX century, close connections between human body and electricity have unfolded multiplicity of trajectories in our culture. Costanza gets in front of the camera touching her body with the tip of a mini jack cable connected to an amplifier. As she moves the cable over different parts of her skin, the current coming from the amplifier connected to the ground through her body and the sound of this electric circuit is heard on the loudspeakers connected to the amp. When she touches her covered parts, no sound is produced. The performance is reminiscent of a peepshow or sex internet video, except she is not striping nor sex, only her body and the electricity connected in a tense act of intimacy.
Armed citizens, 1998-2006. Daniel G. Andujar / Technologies To The People: Originally a website, is a series of images of handguns that can be bought online like the millions of other consumer goods the Internet offers the common user. The images simply present them one after objects of desire mode available by the new economy of digitalised network transactions. Hence, the “armed citizens” the title refers to, are, for whatever reason they buy guns, themselves the products of the commercial logic embedded in the contemporary access culture.
My Generation, 2010, Eva + Franco Mates aka 0100101110101101.org: If you were a teenage boy, what would you do if your mother cancelled your World of Warcraft account? screen like a pig, take off all your clothes, hit yourself with a shoe…? With material found online social platforms such youtube, Eva+Franco Mates demonstrates that computer games are far from mere recreational entertainment. They are extremely addictive and the games industry is fully aware of this. Gamers get hooked on the ‘high’ of the experience, but as any drug-infused high it is also destined to take control and produce effects such as frustration and rage…
Realigning My Thoughts On Jasper Johns, 2011, JK Keller: this is a glitch version of The Simpsons episode “Mom and Pop Art” (Season 10, Episode 19) in which the pop artist Jasper Johns appears as himself. Recalling Johns’ series of ecaustic collages begun in the 50s, Keller handles The Simpsons as mass-produced pop cultural object and distorts image and sound through the misappropiation of standardised software tools. The use Illustrator tool “Allignment abd Distribution” to process the video gives the name to the piece.
‘Dark Drives’ exhibition pics @ TM – HKW, February 3rd, 2012
Dark Drives. Uneasy energies in technological times is the transmediale exhibition in which the main point is to engage with the multiple instances where uneasy energies and the in/compatible, connect and generate processes that challenge consensual and standardized perceptions of technology.
“Uneasy energies in technological times” through an extensive and diverse group of examples claims that distortions, ambiguities, irritations, ironies, and unrest constitute as a significant trajectory in our relations with modern technology and have done so since the use value of electricity was discovered.
The exhibition claims that uneasy energies are insuperable, an integral and constitutive part of technological times. The exhibition is curated by Jacob Lillemose. Text source: http://www.transmediale.de/festival/exhibition
The sequence of pics shows the works in the exhibition, prior the title and after the piece, where it is found two subsequent titles is due to the fact that organization did not allow to film or photograph the next pieces: Dullaart’s video Re: Deep Water Horizon, Chris Burden’c photo+text Doorway to Heaven, Wellmer’s video Error 502… and Dahl, Peill, Zimmer video Web Warriors. Also Borroughs & Balch film The cut-ups and Ant Farm video Media Burn are not photograph or recorded ’cause it was surrounded by 50 people therefore I could not take a close shot.
Manuel Göttsching & Joshua Light Show @ Tm – HKW, February 4th, 2012
The performance programme of transmediale reflects the relationship between “old” and “new” media. A range of works will be presented which use digital “listening devices” to analogue media and thereby lure out the “ghosts in the machine” that gives name to this performances programm.
Joshua Light Show perform in a setting which combines analogue with modern digital projection techniques. As a special highlight, JLS featuring Manuel Göttsching (Ash Ra Tempel/Ashra, de), know as Krautrock / cosmic / minimalism giant, will be bringing together analogue and digital sound-production, and featuring exponents of so-called hauntology and hypnagogic pop.
Manuel Göttsching’s (de) carrier spans over 40 years. First known in the early 1970s as a founder of the German cosmic rockers Ash Ra Tempel – later known as Ashra – Göttsching earned a reputation with his usually atmospheric and subtle guitar work. After a number of albums throughout the 70s, Göttsching’s most decisive and enduring work was released in 1984: E2-E4, a masterpiece of economy. Its hypnotic, treated synth and drum machine loop morphs and unfolds gradually over the entire first side of the album without ever loosing focus – before side two continues with Göttsching’s unique guitar-playing, which unpretentiously blends into the soundscape. With its stringent funkiness and minimalist sonic precision, it became a touchstone for much of the electronic dance music that would later emerge from Germany and internationally. Göttsching has remained active throughout the years while maintaining his position as grand seigneur of Krautrock, cosmic and minimal music.
Text source: http://www.transmediale.de/content/joshua-light-show-ft-manuel-göttsching
Zodiak revisted V featuring KÖHN @ Club Transmediale – HAU 2, February 1st, 2012
Köhn is the moniker of Jürgen De Blonde. Köhn was born sometime in 1997 and is all about electronic music, improvisation, composing on multitrack or computer, playing with sound and language, with styles and references. Köhn plays synthesizer, keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, voice, sampler, computer, software, words and other sound sources that come in handy.
The 2 video belongs to his latest, “Random Patterns”, where he takes a more minimalist approach, focusing entirely on meditative, krauty synthesizer landscapes.
Text source: http://www.ctm-festival.de/index.php?id=11431 and http://kohn.studiomuscle.com/blog/?page_id=2
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