news June 14, 2010

International News Digest

New Director for 104; Pinacoteca di Brera to Expand; Milan Debates Cattelan Sculptures; Growing Opposition to Milan’s MAC.

NEW DIRECTOR FOR 104

José-Manuel Gonçalves has been chosen as the new director of the 104 space in Paris. As Le Monde’s Clarisse Fabre reports, the 131,000 square-foot complex in the Nineteenth has suffered from financial and managerial difficulties since its opening in October 2008. Gonçalvès, who has headed the arts and cultural center Ferme du Buisson in Marne-la-Vallée since 1999, replaces Robert Cantarella and Frédéric Fisbach, who decided not to prolong their contract after just one year at the helm of 104. Gonçalvès has also piloted the company Made in Productions and chairs the Rosny

news June 07, 2010

International News Digest

Exhibition Closed Before Opening; Spoerri’s Déjeuner Unearthed After Going Underground Twenty-Seven Years Ago; Private Collections Legalized in Bulgaria; The Trend of Private Collections; Subtitle Conflict: Museum Still Closed; Hamburg Gallery Not Closing; From Russia with Love: A Church and Cultural Center for Paris?

EXHIBITION CLOSED BEFORE OPENING

An exhibition of erotic art never even got the chance to open at the exhibition space of the Bibliothèque départementale de la Somme in Amiens, France. As Le Monde’s Michel Guerrin reports, “Pour Adultes Seulement” (For Adults Only) was canned just a few days before its opening. The show featured about sixty drawings, paintings, and prints by twenty-six international artists, including Tomi Ungerer, André François, Jean Claverie, and Nicole Claveloux. Curator Janine Kotwica’s proposal for the exhibition was accepted over a year ago and welcomed by the regional

news June 01, 2010

International News Digest

Hamburg Museums Closing Temporarily; Orangerie and Orsay Unified; Gaza Artists Refused Exit Visas; No Money to Restore Rome’s Colosseum

HAMBURG MUSEUMS CLOSING TEMPORARILY

Safety measure or budget cut? As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, fire prevention is being named as the official reason for temporarily closing down Hamburg’s Altona Museum and Galerie der Gegenwart (Contemporary Gallery) which is located inside the city’s Kunsthalle. According to city officials, the fire prevention systems in both of the buildings must be revamped. While the closure of the Altona Museum may last for up to two and a half years, the Galerie der Gegenwart is expected to remain closed only until September.

Some believe that “safety first” is not

news May 25, 2010

International News Digest

Richter Criticizes German Pavilion; Paris’s Musée d’Art Moderne Remains Closed; “Ars Homo Erotica” in Warsaw; Squatting Ban Bad for Culture

RICHTER CRITICIZES GERMAN PAVILION

Gerhard Richter is not at all amused with the choice of Christoph Schlingensief to represent Germany at the next Venice Biennale in 2011. “That’s a scandal,” said Richter, quoted by the Berliner Zeitung. “They’re taking a performer although we have thousands of artists.” Moreover, the painter associates the selection of the multitasking director Schlingensief with “the decline of painting.”

Curator Susanne Gaensheimer who made the choice has reacted with a written statement, published by Art magazine. While honoring Richter’s role as “the most important living

news May 17, 2010

International News Digest

Legal Action After Exhibition Closes; North Korea Exhibition Causing a Stir in Vienna; Expansion for Berlin’s Jewish Museum; Museums at Night: From Paris to Moscow

LEGAL ACTION AGAINST MAYOR’S OFFICE FOR CLOSING AN EXHIBITION

As reported earlier on Artforum.com, the French artist Zineb Sedira’s exhibition at the Musée National Pablo-Picasso in Vallauris, France, was closed down prematurely after the subtitles had offended former Algerian Muslim soldiers loyal to the French during the Algerian War. The initial report from Le Monde––that the museum reopened after the artist corrected the subtitles––proved to be incorrect. As Le Monde’s Michel Guerrin reports in an update to the story, the French state is taking legal action against the office of the mayor of

news May 12, 2010

International News Digest

Dak’Art Biennial Opens; More Than 4,000 Protest Cultural Cuts in France; Brussels’s Kunstenfestivaldesarts: Bicultural Haven in Belgian Storm; Oldest Photography Laboratory Found in France; Keïta’s Trunk: Lost and Found.

DAKAR BIENNIAL OPENS

Dak’Art––the biennial of African contemporary art––has opened in the Senegalese capital. As Agence France-Presse reports, this year’s edition features twenty-eight artists from sixteen countries who are presenting works on the theme of “retrospective and perspectives.” Created in 1992, Dak’Art aims to support not only young artists but also emerging critics and curators. Another goal is to develop artist residencies and professional contacts with other biennials, since artists across the continent suffer from a general lack of financing and institutional infrastructures to

news May 03, 2010

International News Digest

Christoph Schlingensief to Represent Germany at 2011 Venice Biennale; No Rock Concert at the Louvre; Exhibition Temporarily Closed Due to Subtitles.

CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF CHOSEN FOR GERMAN PAVILION AT VENICE

The artist and director Christoph Schlingensief has been selected to represent Germany at the next Venice Biennale in 2011. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the curator for the German pavilion Susanne Gaensheimer confirmed the choice with the newspaper. Schlingensief is no stranger to Venice, where he staged his Church of Fear in 2003. The director is currently rehearsing Via Intolleranza II, which will
be presented in Brussels, Hamburg, and Vienna, as part of his opera village project in Burkina Faso. Via Intolleranza II takes its

news April 26, 2010

International News Digest

University of London Starving the Warburg Institute?; Failures of Paris's “104” Space; Belgian Statues Defaced

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON STARVING THE WARBURG INSTITUTE?

The Warburg Institute of the University of London is facing an uncertain future. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Alexander Menden reports, the source of the problem is the original foundational agreement between the institute and the university. The institute’s library, which was created by the German art historian Aby Warburg, became part of the University of London in 1944 with the stipulation that the university maintain the institute as an independent entity while providing it with adequate furnishings and personnel. That clause has put a

news April 19, 2010

International News Digest

Thomas Schütte Honored; Loyrette Will Continue to Head Louvre; Artists' Favorites: Soulages Followed by Bourgeois and Kiefer; Erotic Photography for the Blind; Ash Hits Culture

THOMAS SCHUTTE HONORED

The German artist Thomas Schütte has been awarded the art prize of the city of Düsseldorf where he also lives and works. The fifty-five year old artist–who was honored with the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2005–was praised for the multifaceted nature of his interventions by Düsseldorf mayor Dirk Elbers. Schütte's installations and his staging of exhibition could be understood as an absurd world theater, said Elbers. “His work moves between an ostensible harmlessness and a profound monstrosity.” The Düsseldorf prize, which comes with seventy-four thousand dollars,

news April 13, 2010

International News Digest

Daniel Hug and Michael Neff Speak about the Art Market; “Revolution” in French Art Academies; Cairo Conference on Art Restitution; East Islanders Vote against Sculpture Loan

DANIEL HUG AND MICHAEL NEFF ON THE CRISIS

How is contemporary art faring in our hard times? To get an opinion on the state of contemporary art markets, the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Catrin Lorch talked with Art Cologne artistic director Daniel Hug and Michael Neff, who is involved in the organizational side of this year’s Gallery Weekend in Berlin. “The past year does not even have to have been the hardest,” Neff said. “Now the crisis is really hitting art. Even the Americans prefer to buy an overpriced Gerhard Richter than a short-term fashionable young star, or to jump on the ZERO [group] bandwagon.

news April 06, 2010

International News Digest

New Geography of Parisian Galleries; Bedding For Culture; Eyedea Collection in Peril

NEW GEOGRAPHY OF PARISIAN GALLERIES

Le Monde’s Harry Bellet takes a stroll through Paris’s shifting gallery scene. He identifies three sites of tectonic shifts in the City of Lights. While heavyweights are clustering near the swanky Champs-Elysées, younger dealers are still flocking to the funkier Belleville, and some dealers that set up shop on rue Louise-Weiss in the Thirteenth arrondissement are migrating across the Seine to the Marais in the Fourth arrondissement.

In the Champs-Elysées area, both Christie’s and Sotheby’s have arrived in the neighborhood, along with a branch of the Italian

news March 30, 2010

International News Digest

Karola Kraus to Head Vienna’s MUMOK; Three Architects Named Finalists for Palais de Tokyo Revamp; Born-Again Polaroid?; Elmgreen and Dragset’s Memorial Criticized

KAROLA KRAUS TO HEAD VIENNA’S MUMOK

Karola Kraus has been named the new director of Vienna’s Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (MUMOK). As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the forty-nine-year-old Kraus is currently director of the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden and will take up her new job in Vienna on October 1. She replaces Edelbert Köb who has led the MUMOK since 2002.

“Karola Kraus puts art at the center of her concerns und nurtures an intensive and appreciative dialogue with people making art,” said Austria’s minister of culture Claudia Schmied. A daughter of the German Grässlin

Jennifer Allen