Adrià at Documenta?; Documenta's Magazine; Nicolai to Receive Zurich Prize; Russian Censors Stop Art; Nitsch Museum Opens; Hadid Controversy
ADRIÀ AT DOCUMENTA?
Will star chef Ferran Adrià show up at Documenta 12 or not? According to a report in this month's issue of the German art review Monopol, Adrià would be spending "the hundred-day museum" cooking at his famed restaurant, El Bulli, located outside Barcelona. Speaking to Der Standard, Documenta 12 artistic director Roger M. Buergel denied the Monopol article and called the report "nonsense." While Buergel insisted that Adrià is part of the artist list, the director would not confirm whether or not the artist-chef would be present at the June 12 opening.
DOCUMENTA'S "LIFE" MAGAZINE
In other Documenta news, Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on the launch event at Berlin bookstore b-books for the second issue, Life!, of the D12 magazine project. Headed by Georg Schöllhammer, the magazine project has invited other journals from around the world to respond Buergel's three thematic questions, which also drive the exhibition: Is antiquity our modernity? What is bare life? and What is to be done? Like the first issue—whose abbreviated title was Modernity—Life! offers a selection of responses. "The interest was great," reported Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "About a hundred people stood in front of the overcrowded bookshop and looked with expectation at a loudspeaker, from which English greetings were relayed outside the shop. But one understood next to nothing, content-wise."
NEW PRIZE FOR NICOLAI
The German artist Carsten Nicolai has been awarded the first Zurich prize. As Der Standard reports, the prize of 80,000 Swiss francs ($65,300) was created by the city of Zurich, in cooperation with Museum Haus Konstruktiv, and will now be awarded annually. According to a press statement from the prize organizers, "Nicolai's installations reflect both the universalistic and the socially relevant demands of the classical avant-garde while relating them through a completely contemporary handling of these topics." The prize will be officially presented to Nicolai during Art Basel.
LEARNING FROM MOSCOW CENSORED
As the dpa and Neue Zürcher Zeitung report, Russia prevented six paintings from leaving the country for the Dresden exhibition "Learning from Moscow." Organized by the Städtische Galerie Dresden, the exhibition takes a look at contemporary art from the Russian capital with works by AES, Oleg Kulik, Vladimir Dubossarski & Alexander Vinogradov, Boris Michailov, and Boris Orlov, among others.
According to the reports, Russian customs officials seized the six paintings from a shipment of forty artworks and claimed that the paintings might lead to "international resentment." But the director of the Städtischen Galerie Dresden, Gisbert Porstman, has described the move as "a sudden act of censorship," which attests to the increasing challenges in Russia to freedom of speech. Works held back by customs include the Blue Noses' The Candle of Our Life and the poster Putkin from Konstantin Latyshev, along with works showing erotic images. The censored works have been reproduced as photographs in the exhibition, which continues until September 2.
NITSCH MUSEUM OPENS
The Hermann-Nitsch-Museum has officially opened in the Museumszentrum Mistelbach (MZM). As Der Standard reports, over three thousand guests joined the artist for the festive inauguration, including representatives from the church and political figures. Wolfgang Denk—former head of the Krems Kunsthalle—is the new director of the museum, which is located ten miles away from Prinzendorf, where Nitsch orchestrates his Orgien-Mysterien-Theatre seances (Theater of Orgies and Mysteries).
The MZM building—a former plow factory—has been revamped by architect Johannes Kraus. "In the entire area, especially inside the halls, a monumental, archaic, sacral expression seemed appropriate," Kraus told the newspaper. "That matched up perfectly with the work and the person of Hermann Nitsch, since religion represents an important impulse for him."
Nitsch, who was "moved" at the opening ceremony, seems to be pleased with the results. "The museum should be not only an exhibition room but also a place that can serve for 'painting actions' and summer academies. There, feeling and composition must fit together."
HADID DESIGNS FROM GOOGLE EARTH?
Zaha Hadid's plans for redesigning Nicosia's Eleftheria Square have not pleased all the locals. In an assessment written for the Cyprus Mail, the civil-engineering professor Dr. Savvas Levtchitch claims that Hadid "has shown an inexplicable contempt" for the divided and walled Cypriot capital. "She did not visit the place," writes Levtchitch, "Her vision of the square is based on the Google satellite image. This is a provocative arrogance and a cause of being totally out of touch with conditions at the particular site."