http://www.robertbarta.de/video/movie_it_shortcut.mov
14 mag 2010
25 apr 2010
Conceptinprogress "Sweeping around a Column", 2010
Premiata Officina Trevana 2010
curated by Maurizio Coccia and Matilde Martinetti
May 8 June 27
Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Palazzo Lucarini, Trevi.
(drawing on the floor)
Robert Barta in "Ceci n‘est pas un Casino"
Press Release
Ceci n‘est pas un Casino
Pierre Ardouvin, Robert Barta, Patrick Bérubé, Marc Bijl, Hermine Bourgadier, Antoinette J. Citizen, Courtney Coombs, Jacob Dahlgren, Paul Kirps, Walter Langelaar, Annika Larsson, Ian Monk, Laurent Perbos, Letizia Romanini, Stéphane Thidet, Olaf Val
1 May – 5 September 2010 / Opening on Friday 30 April 2010 from 7 p.m. to midnight
When referring to Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, perhaps no phrase has been uttered more often than, “This is not a casino!” After all, the name of the centre can fool almost anyone into mistaking the purpose of the building.
The current exhibition sets the tone by adopting this title, further adding to the confusion by exhibiting works that, in fact, evoke the idea of gaming! Indeed, each piece in the show appears to be an invitation to play—whether video console, merry-go-round, playing field, or other games. And yet the reality remains unchanged—no gaming goes on here.
The exhibition therefore reproduces the frustration experienced by visitors who come here thinking they will find games of chance. This theme could have easily resulted in yet another show on the relationship between art and playfulness. But what is underscored here is the double twist and frustration associated with gaming. Art and game-playing—which have
often been compared in recent art criticism—are in fact similar practices: both call for (indeed, embody) a free spirit on one hand, and a precise set of rules on the other hand. Both tend to set up binary oppositions that give rise to meanings, sym- bols and related emotions—like a goal that has either been scored or not scored, once and for all, a status that inherently generates intense, wide-ranging reactions from everyone involved (players, referees, spectators, commentators, TV viewers). This relationship between binary status and analogue reaction is specific to games yet is mirrored in the artistic techniques employed in these works.
A participatory element is also present in this show. The beholder becomes a player, spontaneously drawn into the exhibition with all its subversions and frustrations—visitors may even feel they’re being toyed with. Sixteen artists present their own approaches, chosen according to the rules of this non-casino. Several artists produced site-specific works specially for this show.
Taking ambiguity to its logical limit, the 15th anniversary of the Casino Luxembourg’s transformation into an exhibition venue is, and isn’t, the inspiration behind Ceci n‘est pas un Casino. There is nothing retrospective about this show, and the only historical allusion is the thematic reference. However, the retrospective notion is openly expressed in the catalogue,
which, in addition to an introduction by curators Kevin Muhlen and Jo Kox, features essays on the Casino and its various functions down through history by Marc Jeck, Paul Reiles, and Didier Damiani, not to mention a discussion of playfulness and gaming by a psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Rauchs, and a historical analysis of ludic approaches to art by art historian Bettina Steinbrügge. (ISBN 978-2-919893-83-1)
Curators: Kevin Muhlen, Jo Kox
The exhibition is realised with the support of Menuiserie Lex Weisgerber, Contern.
The project by Jacob Dahlgren is supported by Iaspis.
The project by Patrick Bérubé is realised in collaboration with the Délégation générale du Québec à Bruxelles.
The project by Paul Kirps is supported by Menuiserie Hilger, Manternach.
Ceci n‘est pas un Casino
Pierre Ardouvin, Robert Barta, Patrick Bérubé, Marc Bijl, Hermine Bourgadier, Antoinette J. Citizen, Courtney Coombs, Jacob Dahlgren, Paul Kirps, Walter Langelaar, Annika Larsson, Ian Monk, Laurent Perbos, Letizia Romanini, Stéphane Thidet, Olaf Val
1 May – 5 September 2010 / Opening on Friday 30 April 2010 from 7 p.m. to midnight
When referring to Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, perhaps no phrase has been uttered more often than, “This is not a casino!” After all, the name of the centre can fool almost anyone into mistaking the purpose of the building.
The current exhibition sets the tone by adopting this title, further adding to the confusion by exhibiting works that, in fact, evoke the idea of gaming! Indeed, each piece in the show appears to be an invitation to play—whether video console, merry-go-round, playing field, or other games. And yet the reality remains unchanged—no gaming goes on here.
The exhibition therefore reproduces the frustration experienced by visitors who come here thinking they will find games of chance. This theme could have easily resulted in yet another show on the relationship between art and playfulness. But what is underscored here is the double twist and frustration associated with gaming. Art and game-playing—which have
often been compared in recent art criticism—are in fact similar practices: both call for (indeed, embody) a free spirit on one hand, and a precise set of rules on the other hand. Both tend to set up binary oppositions that give rise to meanings, sym- bols and related emotions—like a goal that has either been scored or not scored, once and for all, a status that inherently generates intense, wide-ranging reactions from everyone involved (players, referees, spectators, commentators, TV viewers). This relationship between binary status and analogue reaction is specific to games yet is mirrored in the artistic techniques employed in these works.
A participatory element is also present in this show. The beholder becomes a player, spontaneously drawn into the exhibition with all its subversions and frustrations—visitors may even feel they’re being toyed with. Sixteen artists present their own approaches, chosen according to the rules of this non-casino. Several artists produced site-specific works specially for this show.
Taking ambiguity to its logical limit, the 15th anniversary of the Casino Luxembourg’s transformation into an exhibition venue is, and isn’t, the inspiration behind Ceci n‘est pas un Casino. There is nothing retrospective about this show, and the only historical allusion is the thematic reference. However, the retrospective notion is openly expressed in the catalogue,
which, in addition to an introduction by curators Kevin Muhlen and Jo Kox, features essays on the Casino and its various functions down through history by Marc Jeck, Paul Reiles, and Didier Damiani, not to mention a discussion of playfulness and gaming by a psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Rauchs, and a historical analysis of ludic approaches to art by art historian Bettina Steinbrügge. (ISBN 978-2-919893-83-1)
Curators: Kevin Muhlen, Jo Kox
The exhibition is realised with the support of Menuiserie Lex Weisgerber, Contern.
The project by Jacob Dahlgren is supported by Iaspis.
The project by Patrick Bérubé is realised in collaboration with the Délégation générale du Québec à Bruxelles.
The project by Paul Kirps is supported by Menuiserie Hilger, Manternach.
16 apr 2010
Andrea Bianconi at Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston (TX)
Andrea Bianconi
A Charmed Life
April 9, 2010 – May 1, 2010
Artist Reception: Friday, April 9, 2010, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce the opening exhibition of international artist Andrea Bianconi: A Charmed Life, on Friday, April 9, 2010 from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. Fresh from his solo exhibition at Volta New York, Bianconi’s A Charmed Life is an exhibition of new installations, sculptures, and drawings with a performance by the artist at the opening
night reception beginning promptly at 7:30 PM.
The Italian native explores the dichotomy of the public-self and the private-self through new works that draw upon fantasy and folklore. His sculptures, installations, and drawings read as a dream-like journey that blurs the boundary between the conscious and subconscious and time
and space.
In his installation, A Charmed Life, various objects are fastened to hundreds of strings, woolen threads, and wires becoming a waterfall cascading from a single wall-mounted faucet. The delicate objects become divinatory charms that mark the memory of personal experience falling somewhere between materiality and spirituality. It is with this spirituality in mind that the installation becomes the focus of the artist’s performance. Shaman-like, the artist dips his hands into the stream of objects and through a series of sometimes graceful and sometimes forceful movements conducts the flow like an orchestra. Each time an object connects with each other the resulting sound is like the meeting of different realities.
About the artist:
Most recently, Andrea Bianconi had solo exhibitions at Volta New York, at Vernon Projekt in Prague, Casa Gallo, Palazzo Brusarosco Zaccaria in Vicenza, Italy, and at Kiton in New York. Born in Arzigano, Italy, Mr. Bianconi currently lives and works in New York and Milan.
11 apr 2010
17 mar 2010
Philip Wiegard 'Uomini-statua-oggetto' coming soon at Furini Arte Contemporanea
Uomini-statua-oggetto
April 10 – June 5, 2010
Opening April 10, 6.30 pm
In ‘Uomini-statua-oggetto’ (Men-statue-object) the German artist Philip Wiegard turns the gallery space at Furini Arte Contemporanea in Rome into an interior, a private and intimate setting in the style of the early twentieth century, where original period drapes and wallpapers, superimposed by painted panels that emulate them, alternate with baroque touches in the form of damask armchairs, and framed photographs lined up on the walls. In this way the artist restores life to lost times through references to classical myth, an exploration of perspective and de Chirico-style metaphysics. Recalling the idea of the old ateliers, Wiegard’s installation draws the viewer into a private environment, where personal taste and desires are revealed and at the same time concealed under the rich, ornamented surfaces of bourgeoise decor.
However, the whole context is subject to a mechanism, in some respects obsessive, whereby Wiegard delights in deconstructing and taking apart ordinary objects like tables, chairs, armchairs, cupboards and entire sets of old furniture in order to give them a new life. This new dimension is neither flat nor three-dimensional, but rather a re-construction of perspective with parts of objects used as lines that restore proportions, depth and size. Wiegard applies to sculpture the optical laws of perspective that are typical of painting, and so empties objects of their volumes, removes their original function and makes them hybrids - part object, part outline - to the extent that the viewer’s sense of perception is confused.
With the same purpose of deceiving the eye and disturbing the mind’s automatic mechanism, which attempts to reconstruct and complete images, Philip Wiegard presents us with a space where what is inside is outside, what seems near is far, and what appears to have depth is actually flat. Thus the people in the photographs on the walls, taken in large format with an antiquated camera, are also outside the image: the composition-statues, the wallpapers and drapes are in this way all part of the same exhibition room.
All this bewitches the eye and was inspired by Wiegard’s recent visit to the home-museum of Giorgio de Chirico in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna, where he photographed rooms that were full of ornament but empty of life and their intended use. Some of the master’s paintings, that we see on the walls of his former apartment were re-enacted in Wiegard’s photography. But by giving us this highly subjective view of de Chirico’s work and by showing the original paintings in the context of the painter’s private home, he succeeds to underline the ambivalent status of art between personal expression and public statement.
Throughout his carreer de Chirico struggled with the representation of the human figure, that was often substituted in his paintings by the famous “manichino”, a hybrid between human, statue and object. Wiegard’s exhibition explores the relations and interchanges between these ideas: the object as representation of personality, the photographic pose as an attempt at immortality and the human body as object of desire.
ITALIAN VERSION: In ‘Uomini-statua-oggetto’ l’artista tedesco Philip Wiegard mette in scena, nello spazio romano di Furini Arte Contemporanea, un interno, un’ambientazione intima e privata stile primi del Novecento, dove drappi di stoffe e carte da parati originali dell’epoca, a cui si sovrappogongono pannelli dipinti che le emulano, si alternano ad ammiccamenti barocchi di poltrone damascate e fotografie incorniciate allineate sulle pareti. L’artista, così, restituisce vita a tempi perduti, fra richiami al mito classico e alle ricerche prospettiche e metafisiche dechirichiane. Richiamando l’idea di antichi àteliers, l’installazione di Wiegard guida lo spettatore attraverso un interno privato, dove il gusto e i desideri personali si svelano e allo stesso tempo si celano sotto la ricca, ornamentale apparenza di un arredamento borghese.
Tutto il contesto creato è però soggetto al meccanismo, per certi aspetti ossessivo, per cui Wiegard si diletta a decostruire e scomporre oggetti comuni come tavoli, sedie, poltrone, armadi e intere composizioni di arredamento per lo più datato, per riportarli ad una nuova vita, una nuova estensione che non è piatta e non è tridimensione, ma appunto ri-costruzione prospettica mediante parti degli oggetti che vengono usate come linee per restituire proporzioni, profondità e misure. Wiegard utilizza in scultura le leggi ottiche della prospettiva tipiche della pittura, così svuota gli oggetti dei loro volumi, li priva della loro funzione originaria e li rende elementi ibridi, fra oggetto e figura, tali da generare il dubbio della percezione di chi li osserva.
Sempre con lo scopo di ingannare la visione, di deviare quel meccanismo automatico della mente umana che tende a ricostruire e completare, Philip Wiegard ci propone uno spazio in cui ciò che è dentro è fuori, ciò che sembra vicino è lontano, ciò che appare profondo in realtà è piatto. Così i soggetti che appaiono nelle fotografie appese alle pareti, scattate con un’antica fotocamera a grande formato, sono anche fuori dall’immagine: le composizioni-statue, le carte da parati e i drappi fanno parte così della stessa sede espositiva.
Si crea quindi un incanto della visione, per il quale Wiegard ha tratto spunto durante la recente visita alla casa-museo di Giorgio de Chirico in piazza di Spagna a Roma, dove ha scattato foto di ambientazioni piene di orpelli, ma vuote di vita e di ogni funzione d’uso. Alcuni fra i maggiori dipinti che si possono vedere in questo appartamento sono riportati alla vita da Wiegard attraverso la fotografia che, concedendoci una veduta estremamente personale del lavoro di de Chirico e mostrandoci i dipinti originali nel contesto dell’appartamento privato dell’artista, riesce a sottolineare lo stato ambivalente di arte fra l’espressione personale e quella pubblica.
Durante la sua carriera de Chirico lottò con la rappresentazione della figura umana, la quale era spesso sostituita nei suoi dipinti dai famosi “manichini”, un ibrido tra uomo, statua e oggetto. La mostra di Wiegard esplora le relazioni e gli interscambi fra queste idee: l’oggetto come rappresentazione della personalità, la posa fotografica come un tentativo d’immortalità e il corpo umano come oggetto di desiderio.
("Trovatore stanco", 2010, silver gelatin print, 20 x 25 cm)
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