Newsletter #31 – March 2011

'Amikejo: Iratxe Jaio y Klaas van Gorkum', second part of the exhibition cycle 'Amikejo' at the Laboratorio 987: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain, 9 April–12 June.

For the second exhibition of 'Amikejo', the Spanish/Dutch duo Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum will reproduce cultural artefacts from the past as a pretext for spinning a narrative around the changing values of labour and property. Jaio and van Gorkum will take the contents of a cigar-box filled with magazine clippings, sketches and blueprints of different objects made by turning wood left by van Gorkum's grandfather, as the point of departure for a conceptual and reflexive exploration of the notion of artistic production. In a series of sculptural exercises, they will attempt to locate and replicate some of these objects on a lathe. Within the context of Amikejo, the artists aim to question the normative qualities of nostalgic representations of work, and to examine alternative personal and political readings of common cultural heritage.

Forthcoming exhibitions: Uqbar Foundation (25 June–11 September) and Fermín Jiménez Landa & Lee Welch (24 September–15 January 2012).

'Amikejo: Pennacchio Argentato', 29 January–27 March, inaugural exhibition of the 2011 season at the 'Laboratorio 987', MUSAC, Spain.

For the inaugural show of the Amikejo series, the Neapolitan duo Pennacchio Argentato has presented a new installation based on expectations about performativity and interactivity in exhibition spaces. By transforming the Laboratorio 987 space into an interior akin to an abstract fitness gymnasium, the artists frame their own activity as young artists alongside that of Amikejo by addressing the ideas of leisure and overproduction, work and non-work. Presenting a series of rough concrete “muscular” sculptures resembling prototypes for exercise machines, they seemingly promise engagement though, as the artists describe, “without seeing or offering any end result”. (+ info...)

Exhibition 'Christina Hemauer | Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies', Århus Art Building, Denmark, 22 January–3 April 2011.

'Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies' is the most comprehensive presentation of the duo's work to date, and includes 10 works, 4 of which are new productions. Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller have investigated the concept of energy for several years. One of their main areas of interest is the history of oil and its competing alternatives, notably solar energy. (+ info...)

A bilingual Danish/English 36-page full colour booklet has been published on occasion of the exhibition with an introductory essay as well as short texts on each work by the exhibition curators.

Exhibition possible thanks to the generous support of Pro Helvetia and the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.

'Exposition Internationale des Art Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes & des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne', Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, Belgium, 25 February–16 April 2011.

With Kasper Akhøj (1976, Copenhagen, DK. Lives in New York, US); Martí Anson (1967, Mataró, ES. Lives Mataró, ES); Maria Loboda (1979, Kraków, PL. Lives in London, UK); Charlotte Moth (1975, Carshalton, UK. Lives in Paris, FR); Sarah Ortmeyer (1980, Frankfurt am Main, DE. Lives in Frankfurt am Main, DE).

The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts & Arts and Technology in Modern Life presents the work of five contemporary visual artists which engage with specific instances of modernity as represented through industrial or domestic design (and alongside a synthesized ‘period’ exhibition title taken from conjoining the names of the Paris Worlds’ Fairs from 1925 and 1937). A world-famous tower, a street, a range of furniture, and a modular display system, for example, have been metaphorically taken apart before being reconstituted, sometimes literally, through artistic practices and personal affiliations which incorporate historical research, travel, tribute and scenography. (+ info...)