metropolis m

1. La natura secondo de Chirico
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome

Curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. Whilst trapped in Rome (under the volcano) I saw this exhibition and realised how little I knew about De Chirico – his range of themes and styles was revelatory and inspirational. Great work, really well curated and clearly installed. Also I enjoyed reading about how De Chirico played around with his own legacy for fun and cash, cynically forging his own ‘classic period’ works for the market whilst pursuing a way more eclectic approach in the studio.

2. Erkka Nissinen
Ellen de Bruine Projects, Amsterdam

This installation of paintings and drawings of figures and objects in distress, with accompanying theatrical ‘commentary’ performed by the artist was technically and conceptually elaborate but realised with a casual confidence. Very funny and clever.

3. Tala Madani, Pictograms
Lombard-Freid Projects, New York

Tala’s ‘Leviathan’ painting of a composite giant made out of letters which were themselves made out of her signature male figures bending themselves into alphabetic shapes was a stand-out work in an outstanding show. In a smaller work similar alphabet men appear to have set themselves on fire. I am biased but she is great.

Also read: M. Kopsa, Dazzled Men. The Paintings of Tala Madani, METROPOLIS M no. 2, 2009

Tim Voss

Director W139, Amsterdam

1. The Potosí Principle
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

The exhibition started at the Museum Reina Sofia in Madrid and I saw it in Berlin last autumn, at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The ‘groupshow’ with hidden authorships, curated by Craischer/Siekmann/Hinderer, tried to follow a defined principle of oppression through the last centuries, called the ‘Potosí-principle’ (od: Potosí Principle). I spent 7 hours in this thrilling exhibition’s architecture, finally following the recommended guided tour of the curators, my eyes got more and more fixed on the instruction-booklet. I climbed stupid referee’s highchairs gazing through children-spyglasses into the void fighting with growing anger. What kept me continuing to do so? Maybe it was the feeling to come with my rising, personal overload closer to the world than ever before. I got an idea, not more than an ‘essential feeling’, how things might be connected – in tension to the impossibility to display this. Finally, it was the most important exhibition for me since a long time…

Also read: G. Borcherdt, Kunst en uitbuiting – een vervolgverhaal. Andreas Siekmann en Max Jorge Hinderer over The Potosí Principle, in METROPOLIS M, nr. 3, 2010.

2. Walid Raad / Atlas Group, Miraculous Beginnings
Whitechapel Gallery, London

In the sense of an experience as described above a well-done, constructed story or – let’s call it a good lie – can come closer to reality (or a moment of history) than 1000 pages of analysis. I think it was the fifth Walid Raad-show I have seen now, he is still one of my favourites. This retrospective brought it to an end. Well, he is 45 or something and he historicized himself now. For me, he could stop working … am I wrong?

3. Beeld Hal Werk
Amsterdam-Noord

Bimm – Bamm – Boom. 59 more or less Dutch sculptors of all generations together in one big construction hall as a lesson about direct visuality. Built up by guts and idealism, in spite of everything else. It’s yours!

Also read: J. Boddy, Beeld Hal Werk in Amsterdam-Noord

Pilvi Takala

Artist

1. Katarina Zdjelar, Parapoetics
TENT, Rotterdam

It’s a challenge to make a solo show of just video work in the big space of TENT and in this show it really worked out. Great work, installed well.

Also read: C. Vesters, Serbian Pavillion: Katarina Zdjelar, METROPOLIS M no. 3 2009

2. Erkka Nissinen
Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam

Erkka Nissinen surprised with a narrative painting-light-sound installation that was even more absurd and hilarious than his videos.

3. Francis Alÿs. A Story of Deception
Wiels, Brussels

This is the show I’m most looking forward to, but I didn’t see it yet. I was one day late in Tate Modern to see the show there, so I’m exited to see the Wiels version.

Also read: J. Wilson, Francis Alÿs. A Story of Deception

Rory Pilgrim

Artist

1. Map Marathon: Maps for the 21st Century
Serpentine Gallery, London

Set in the incredible historical setting of the Royal Geographical Society, London the two-day symposium enabled a crucial reflection and discussion on the concept of ‘mapping’ and its function today. Like all good events the symposium offered an equal amount of frustration and enlightenment. Standout speakers who injected a huge amount of life and practicality came from American artist Suzanne Lacy and her re-enacted Prostitution Notes (from a 1974 Performance) and Marina Abramovic’s speech to the audience entitled Body Maps. Particularly important was a workshop held by artists Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri in attempting the continually daunting task of creating a map of Palestine.

2. Polytechnic
Raven Row, London

Curated by Richard Grayson this exhibition brought together an incredible generation of artists working between the 70’s and 80’s in the UK. Born out of the horrific social changes stamped by Margaret Thatcher, the exhibition displayed a vital emergence of radical and experimental practices of left politics, gay politics and feminism. As a new wave of conservatism and social cuts dangerously threatens the UK this exhibition was too relevant to be missed!

Also read: P. Vermoortel, Three Exhibitions in London: Gasworks, Raven Row, Frith Street Gallery

3. Maria Pask as part of From Dusk till Dawn
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Curated by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part of Your Revolution this night of performances and lectures provided a unique opportunity to spend a whole night at the Van Abbemuseum. After nocturnal happenings throughout the galleries, the museum was woken at sunrise with an outstanding performance by Maria Pask, entitled Floor’s Quest for Truth. Performed by four young girls, Pask enacted a simple choreography of empowerment and social reflection of the 4 F’s, feeding, fighting, fleeing and fertility.

Also read: J. Verlaek, From Dusk Till Dawn, Masquerade in METROPOLIS M no, 4 2010

Binna Choi

Director Casco, Utrecht

1. Hiwa K’s Chicago Boys, While we were singing, they were dreaming…
Wyspa Art Institute, Gdansk, Poland

A group of people assembled by artist Hiwa K forming a neo-liberalism study group and amateur musical band. It all started as Hiwa K temporary resided at Edgware Road in London, a street that, as the artist focused, used to host a cinema and a gathering place of Arab intellectuals in the seventies. The members and configuration of the band change by the encounter with a context but its focal point remains, bringing the songs from the Middle-East of the seventies and using it as well for the discursive occasion for sharing and discussing the performers’ first hand – or second hand – experience of neo-liberalism in the seventies. Not every in-between talk was heard well at a former school building in the vast, snow-covered shipyard of Gdank where Wyspa has been inhabited. However the music proved to be one of the most affective international languages, binding some ‘international’ guests like me, Gdansk youth and other cultural people into a reflexive zone where a partial origin of a neo-liberalism creation myth might be found.

2. Activism and art institutions – critique beyond debate?
Konsthall C, Stockholm, Sweden

Organized by artists Annette Krauss and Petra Bauer in collaboration with Konsthall C and Iaspis, as their continuous engagement with the issues raised by and over their project Read the Masks. History is not Given, this seminar was to discuss institutional critique in light of activist practice or how far an art institution can transgress what it is expected to be. I don’t remember very concrete parts of discussion but the notion of ‘monster’, the reiterated metaphor for a mode of new institutional (critique) operation brought by Gerald Rauning. I am still wondering how appropriate the effectiveness of that metaphor is vis-a-vis an ethical space that an institution might construct, as I am longing for. What is curious and interesting in relation to that is where the discussion took place, Konsthall C. Located in a suburb of Stockholm and in a building that shares a laundry place, its engaged programme poses itself some relevant questions, for example: what else can an institution offer next to and other than a communal laundry?

3. Deborah Hay’s No Time to Fly
Springdance Festival, Utrecht

After the disappointing experience of Trisha Brown’s Pygmalion, Deborah Hay’s performance in Utrecht was moving. Ironically with title, the performance was first cancelled during the Festival time due to the Iceland volcano eruption and finally had a moment later in fall. Reminding of a Korean dancer Ok Jin Gong’s so called ‘Byongshin’ (crooked) dance and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, this solo performance by Hay showed the movements of body that is every move awkward but extremely honest for our bodily condition and therefore empowering and beautiful.

As I finish this, I realize I forgot another. And another! Works that have moved me. So to speak, these are the first three all ‘time-based’, that I recall with still lingering appreciation.