Tag: News

BOSTON, MA.- The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, on May 1st, officially kicked off the public phase of its Campaign for the Gardner with a goal of raising the final $45 million in order to complete the total $180 million initiative. The Campaign for the Gardner will enrich the museum’s legacy by enabling current programming to continue while preserving the historic building and collection for future generations. The centerpiece of the Campaign, a new wing on the museum’s property designed by Pritzker Prizewinning architect Renzo Piano, will create purpose-built spaces that will enhance the museum’s civic and public access, visitor experience, and programming capacity. Additionally, the campaign will support restoration and preservation work within the historic galleries, while also bolstering the Gardner Museum’s endowment. “We were fortunate to have begun this campaign before the econom

VENICE.- On May 3rd, the President of the Venice Biennale, Paolo Baratta, and the Director of the Architecture section, Kazuyo Sejima, presented the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, titled People meet in architecture, that will run in Venice 29th August to 21st November 2010 (Preview on 26-27-28 Aug). Two major projects will be developed for the 12th Exhibition: the Architecture Saturdays (a series of conversations, performances and weekly discussions with architects and critics) and the greater involvement of the Universities (educational opportunities for students). After a series of editions of the Architecture Biennale directed by eminent critics and historians, this Sector is once again in the hands of an architect, Kazuyo Sejima. The first woman to direct the Architecture Sector of the Biennale, Sejima has recently been awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize 2010 (together with Ryue Nishizawa)

SYDNEY.- The 17th Biennale of Sydney announces details of artist projects that will premiere at THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age presented from 12 May until 1 August 2010 at leading cultural institutions, contemporary art spaces and heritage sites. David Elliott, Artistic Director, has selected 166 artists from 36 different countries to contribute works. Seventy (70) artists will premiere new work in Sydney including a major installation by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto presented inside the abandoned Power House on Cockatoo Island. The installation comprises light-box mounted prints from the artist’s ‘Lightning Fields’ series, presented on stage-like platforms that ascend towards a thirteenth-century Japanese sculpture of Raijin, the Japanese God of Thunder. The work results from Sugimoto’s recent experiments of photographically

JERUSALEM.- Magic permeates our daily (Jewish) lives to such a degree that life without magic is close to impossible. An interesting fact is that most individuals are unaware that many items in their daily life and many daily actions and beliefs are magical in nature. Examples of this are endless: knocking on wood, tfu tfu tfu, Evil Eye (בלי עין הרע), not naming a child before birth, the amuletic power of the mezuzah, red ribbon bracelet, khamsas, jinxes… These and many more practices have ancient sources. Some have lost their meaning even though they are still used, for example, the magical formula ABRACADABRA, has its roots in the 3rd century CE, and is continuously used even today. In this exhibition visitors examine the origins and development of magic in Judaism from the First Temple period to the present day by focusing on beliefs, customs and, particularly, the practical use of magic objects in daily Jewish life.

MADRID.- Lourdes Fernández has submitted her resignation as head of IFEMA International Fair of Contemporary Art. Thus ending a career of four editions (2007-2010) in which she has led ARCOmadrid. In her resignation letter she has alleged differences in the development of the project. IFEMA respects the decision made by Lourdes Fernández, which appreciates her contribution to ARCOmadrid, and reiterates its wish to continue working with the industry to define the best model of the fair to meet the challenges ahead. In this sense, IFEMA will announce who will pick up the baton in the Direction of the Fair, while work is progressing on the project settings. ARCOmadrid celebrate its thirtieth edition at Feria de Madrid between 16 and February 20, 2011. ARCOmadrid, the International Contemporary

BERLIN.- Kant, in The End of All Things, suggested that the imagination is more active in darkness than light. In the exhibition noire et pourtant lumineuse, Baudelaire’s description of his lover is applied to the space of the Matthew Bown Gallery, which will be blacked-out for the duration of the show. The exhibition presents work by four artists – Anina Brisolla (Berlin), Alexander Brodsky (Moscow), Gunda Förster (Berlin) and Katie Paterson (London) – which explore our experience of darkness. Anina Brisolla’s video installation Mall explores the after-images that form on the retina when the eye looks into bright light. Created for Noire et pourtant lumineuse, the video-loop conjures these phantom-images by the progressive removal of imagery, transforming light-architecture of a shopping-mall into a disturbing scenario that is

NEW YORK, NY.- The spring 2010 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, the first drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met. The exhibition, on view from May 5 through August 15, 2010, explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from the 1890s to the 1940s, and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and sartorial emancipation. Early mass-media representations of American women established the fundamental characteristics of American style – a theme explored via a multimedia installation in the final gallery. To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, the Museum’s Costume Institute Gala Ben

WASHINGTON, DC.- Some of the most compelling photographs taken by renowned 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) of himself and his fellow Beat poets and writers—including William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, and Jack Kerouac―are the subject of the first scholarly exhibition and catalogue of these works. Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg explores all facets of his photographs through 79 black-and-white portraits, on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from May 2 through September 6, 2010. The works are selected largely from a recent gift to the Gallery by Gary S. Davis as well as from private lenders. Davis acquired a master set of Ginsberg’s photographs from the poet’s estate, including one print of every photograph in Ginsberg’s possession at the time of his death. If more than one

WASHINGTON, DC (AP).- The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced the largest private donation in its history Monday — a $22.5 million gift from Dick and Betsy DeVos to endow a management training program for arts leaders. Arts organizations have been struggling or even closing their doors in the recession and need expert leadership to survive, Betsy DeVos said. The gift is among the largest ever by the Michigan couple. “We spend millions and billions of dollars training the most talented artists in the world, and yet we have invested very little historically in actually helping train and prepare their leadership, those who manage and employ them,” she said. The gift will help fund two-year arts management training programs across the country. The center already has trained leaders from more than 400 small to mid-sized groups in New York,

BRUSSELS.- The 28th edition of Art Brussels has turned out to be an unprecedented success. Sales were clearly up for the young section as well as for the new and returning key galleries. Besides the local collectors, impressive numbers of foreign collectors made their way to Brussels. Unfortunately, the Icelandic volcano eruption made it impossible for –only – 7 galleries to be present at the fair. Despite cancellations from overseas guests, local and international collectors, curators and professionals attended en masse. On the curator front, many faces were recognised wandering through the fair. Amongst them museum directors, independent curators and others professionals; Kris Dercon from Haus der Kunst-Munich, Peter Dorochenko-curator, Marc-Olivier Wahler-Director Palais de Tokyo, Ziba de Weck-Parasol unit Foundation London, Martin Hatebur-President of the Kunsthalle Basel, Florence Parot-Centre Pompidou, Chantal