International News Digest
ANOTHER PRIZE FOR REHBERGER
After winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, Tobias Rehberger is enjoying yet another honor closer to home. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Standard report, the forty-three-year-old German sculptor is the very first recipient of the new Hector art prize from the Mannheim Kunsthalle. While the prize comes with approximately forty-one thousand dollars, about thirty-five thousand is allotted to the acquisition of works by the artist for the kunsthalle's collection. The jury praised the “opulent work made of conceptual objects” by Rehberger, who is both an alumnus of and a professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. A second Hector promotional prize of about fourteen thousand dollars was awarded to the artist Benjamin Appel.
DIRK LUCKOW TO HEAD HAMBURG’S DEICHTORHALLEN
Dirk Luckow, the director of the Kiel Kunsthalle, has been chosen as the new director of the Hamburg Deichtorhallen. As Der Standard, APA, and DPA report, the fifty-year-old Luckow will replace Robert Fleck, who is moving over to Bonn to head the Bundeskunsthalle. “I am very happy about the trust placed in me and my new task in this institution, which so wonderfully gives an identity to Hamburg’s arts scene and represents a great enticement for both artists and curators,” said Luckow, who will take up his position this fall. The Deichtorhallen—with its nearly sixty-five thousand square feet––is one of the biggest spaces in Germany for temporary exhibitions of contemporary art.
HERMITAGE OPENS IN AMSTERDAM
The Russian president Dmitri Medvedev and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands inaugurate the new building for the Amsterdam branch of the Hermitage museum this week. As Agence France-Presse reports, the Amsterdam Hermitage—an overseas extension of the famed museum in Saint Petersburg—first opened in 2004. From now on, the branch will be housed in Amstelhof, a seventeenth-century building next to its old location in the heart of Amsterdam. While the old building offered approximately eleven thousand square feet, Amstelhof has about one hundred thousand square feet of exhibition space. The renovations for Amstelhof, which began in May 2007, have been estimated at around fifty-five million dollars, which was raised through public-private partnerships.
The inaugural exhibition—dedicated to the czarist court of nineteenth-century Russia—will feature treasures from the collection of the home museum in Saint Petersburg, from Fabergé jewels to old masters. With eighteen hundred pieces on display, the exhibition promises to be one of the largest ever realized in the Netherlands. For the upcoming opening weekend, the Amsterdam Hermitage will remain open for a record-breaking thirty-one hours, starting Saturday, June 20, at 10 AM. The exhibition continues until January 31, 2010.
“100 GENITALS” DISPLAYED IN BELGIUM
The Belgian artist Jacques Charlier, whose exhibition “100 sexes d’artistes” (100 Artists’ Genitals) was prohibited during the Venice Biennale, has taken his controversial show to the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. As Agence France-Presse reports, the exhibition features posters showing the imaginary caricatured genitalia of well-known artists, from Jeff Koons (deflated) to Christo (wrapped). The seventy-year-old Charlier was supposed to represent the Belgian francophone community in an “off” section of the Venice Biennale, but the show failed to obtain authorization, due to the sexual nature of the posters. “By censoring the project, the Biennale has prevented the public from being able to judge for itself,” said a spokesperson for the Palais des Beaux-Arts. “The organization has taken on a denigrating attitude toward the artists concerned while limiting Jacques Charlier’s artistic freedom.” In Venice, the exhibition was finally shown on a boat that was docked on the Grand Canal. The Palais des Beaux-Arts is only the first stop in what promises to be a European tour, including stops at Namur and Anvers in Belgium, as well as Belgrade, Bergen, Linz, Luxembourg, and Metz. The show continues at the Palais des Beaux-Arts until September 13, with free entry.
EXPENSIVE KISS
The woman who planted a lipstick-red kiss on a white Cy Twombly painting has been ordered by a court in Nimes, France to pay the nearly twenty-five-thousand-dollar cost for the restoration of the work. As Agence France-Presse reports, the close encounter dates back to July 2007 when the artist Rindy Sam kissed the canvas—and left a red, oily lipstick stain—while viewing a Twombly exhibition in Avignon, France. While Rindy defined the gesture as “an act of love,” the curator spoke of “vandalism” and “rape.” The judge seemed to agree with the latter; in addition to the fine, Rindy must also pick up the nearly seven hundred dollars of legal costs of the court case to Twombly.
MOSCOW CURATORS ON TRIAL
Two Moscow curators are on trial for an entirely different—and questionable—set of offenses. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Sonja Zekri reports, Andrei Yerofeyev and Yuri Samodurov are facing charges of hate crimes against religion in a Moscow court for their collaboration on the exhibition “Forbidden Art 2006” at the Sakharov Center. Yerofeyev, who was relieved of his duties as curator at the Tretyakov Gallery last summer, curated the exhibition, while Samodurov was director of the Sakharov at the time but has since been relieved of his duties, too.
“Forbidden Art 2006” included works by artists such as Ilya Kabakov, as well as images of Mickey Mouse as Jesus, and Lenin crucified. “We are even being accused of building up a criminal organization with the goal of destroying the spiritual value of Russia,” Yerofeyev told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Yerofeyev and his many supporters believe that the accusation stems from the right-wing extremist group Narodnyj Sobor (People’s Council), which they allege has close links to both the Orthodox Church and the ministry of culture. If found guilty, Yerofeyev could face a fine or a suspended sentence. By contrast, Samodurov, who was already charged for the exhibition “Caution Religion,” faces the possibility of up to five years in prison.
In another report, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Kerstin Holm reports on further troubles for Yerofeyev. In collaboration with the Moscow Open Book Festival, Yerofeyev curated a historical exhibition on the use of text in Russian artworks at the Central Artists House. Covering fifty years—from Russian Conceptualism to graffiti art to the present—“Lettrism” features paintings, graphics, photographic works, and objects which all rely on text. The finale of the show by the actionist group Voina (War) featured an extra-large-scale photograph of an orgy titled Fucking for the Little Bear. The title plays on President Medvedev’s name (medved means "bear"). Other photographs documented a rowdy Voina performance in a supermarket, where members of the group posed as priests and police. According to Holm, the exhibition opening was disrupted by real police, who took away the artworks and detained a member of Voina. This string of controversies can’t bode well for Yerofeyev's ongoing court case.