contemporary art

Venice Biennale x 2

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Malta’s Pavilion- Heterotopias of Evocation

Dr Hesperia Iliadou Suppiej (lead curator), Vince Briffa (artist), Klitsa Antoniou (artist), Trevor Borg (artist) and Perit Matthew Joseph Casha (architect/designer). Borg, Briffa and Antoniou. 

Maleth / Haven / Port

“The pavilion is really one artwork – one concept. We look at the concept of the port from three different historical, mythological, philosophical, political and of course artistic standpoints. The Pavilion is in reality a space in continuous flux, where we personally and collectively negotiate concept and space.

Our work is linked on various levels. All the pieces speak of this “other place” which Michel Foucault termed “Heterotopia” – connecting different locations. My work, like the others, also responds to displacement and movement”.

https://www.aestheticamagazine.com/heterotopia-today/

 

The Academy of Fine Arts of Venice and Flash Art Presentation: Heterotopia 1

Peter Halley (Curated by Gea Politi)

Academy of Fine Art’s exhibition space: Magazzini del Sale, no. 3, at Dorsoduro 264, Zattere.

“Using the forty-meter-long exhibition space, Halley has assembled a sequence of eight interconnected rooms that employ digitally-printed wall murals, a varying palette of artificial lighting, and three-dimensional objects to create a hermetic, coded heterotopia – a term borrowed from Michel Foucault, who defined heterotopia as a differentiated, bordered space created for a special purpose that both mirrors and defines itself as separate from everyday spaces”.

https://flash—art.com/2019/04/peter-halley-heterotopia-i-by-gea-politi/

Peter Halley Installation: Heterotopia I (2019 Venice Biennale)

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If you happen to be in Venice from now until August, a must see:

Peter Halley, Heterotopia I (Curated by Gea Politi) May 8 – August 10, 2019

Academy of Fine Art’s exhibition space: Magazzini del Sale, no. 3, at Dorsoduro 264, Zattere.

“Using the forty-meter-long exhibition space, Halley has assembled a sequence of eight interconnected rooms that employ digitally-printed wall murals, a varying palette of artificial lighting, and three-dimensional objects to create a hermetic, coded heterotopia – a term borrowed from Michel Foucault, who defined heterotopia as a differentiated, bordered space created for a special purpose that both mirrors and defines itself as separate from everyday spaces”.

Hope to find out more for future blogs

Peter

Banksy’s walled Off heterotopia

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Chapter in new book:

Khadar, J. (2019) ‘Dystopian dark tourism, fan subculture and the ongoing Nakba in Banksy’s walled Off heterotopia’ in R. K. Isaac, E. Çakmak and R. Butler (eds.) Tourism and Hospitality in Conflict-ridden Destinations London: Routledge.

https://www.routledge.com/Tourism-and-Hospitality-in-Conflict-Ridden-Destinations-1st-Edition/Isaac-Cakmak-Butler/p/book/9781138615212

 

Heterotopia in the Lavatory

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One of the most remarkable heterotopic renditions of heterotopia is found in ‘Heterotopia in the Lavatory’, an on-going  photo-performance project undertaken by Irene Fernández Ramos. Irene reproduces classical paintings inside airplane toilets. For example, see what she makes of ‘Boy in a Turban Holding a Nosegay‘.

Michiel Sweerts Boy in a Turban Holding a Nosegay (1658-1661) 

Peter

Tokyo Heterotopia: Interview with Akira Takayama

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Pleased to see publication of interview with Akira Takayama who created ‘Tokyo Heterotopia’, a theatrical investigation into urban otherness in Tokyo, which is available as digital application on iPhone and smartphone. It becomes an interactive theatrical experience that is site-specific and meditative.

Odate, N. (2018) ‘Heterotopian Transformations  An Interview with Akira Takayama’, in Arfara K., Mancewicz A., Remshardt R. (eds) Intermedial Performance and Politics in the Public Sphere. Avant-Gardes in Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

Akira Takayama explores cities and public spaces by applying a frame of heterotopia, derived from Michel Foucault’s concept, which allows audiences to experience a different way of viewing the cityscape where they wander. Takayama interprets heterotopia as an other space which does exist in reality. His creations are based on his perception of reality gained through extensive research with local researchers and collaborators. Taking examples from four Heterotopia projects as well as other recent works, including his new Wagner project, he discusses with Natsuko Odate how to defamiliarize the audience’s perception and how to keep transforming the public space not as a centripetal place but rather a centrifugal space to adopt a diversity that exists in our society.

Peter

2/7/2018

Artists Respond to Heterotopia

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A revised page to this website:

Heterotopia is being explored by artists in paintings, collages, photographs, films and installations. I have written a brief introduction to some of these artists’ work  – art essay cont pdf. Examples of art inspired by heterotopia include:

1. Åsdam Knut’s works as a film-maker, installation artist, sculptor and photographer. He has written an important essay on ‘Art, pornography and heterotopia’ – knut-asdam-article-pdf.

Knut’s wider work is explored in:

Knut Åsdam: The Long Gaze The Short Gaze (2011). Essays by Kaja Silverman, Philippe Pirotte, Simon Sheikh – a result of Åsdam’s 2010 exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall.

2. Fiona Ackerman’s paintings have explored the art studio and gardens through the lens of heterotopia.

heterotopia-2011-acrylic-and-oil-on-canvas-98_5x98_5-2-300x300

Heterotopia  (2011) acrylic and oil on canvas.

Revolution (2016) oil and acrylic on canvas.

 

3. Many of Vincent J Stoker’s photographs reinterpret heterotopia.

Heterotopia - Autopsy of a Dream (Vincent J Stoker)

Heterotopia – Autopsy of a Dream (Vincent J Stoker)

Heterotopia - The tragic fall - Hétérotopie #HEFMI - 135 x 170 cm

Heterotopia – The tragic fall – (Vincent J Stoker)

4. French artist  Thierry Fournier explores heterotopia as a network of interfaces and surfaces, intimately coupling people and diverse forms of technology.

5. Lien Truong’s paintings include work that  embraces heterotopias ‘as sites that mirror, distort, and invert other spaces‘.

 

720b89_ccd9c22613a74ce4be61c6b7cf948186

Heterotopias as Other, Solo Exhibition, Nhà Sàn Art Space, 24 Lý Quốc Sư Hoàn KiếmHanoi, Vietnam. August 5-16, 2015

6. Karine Laval’s artistic practice encompasses photography, video and installation/projection and a recent body of her work explores gardens and heterotopia.

7. As seen in his exhibition, The View of Heterotopos, You Jin’s work references many contemporary spatial ideas, including heterotopia.

8. Lost and Found – a collaborative installation by artists Patrick Holley, Chris Lillywhite and April Virgoe – explores Foucault’s heterotopia par excellence: the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. I would also pick out a book compiled by Shezad Dawood which was published on the occasion of an exhibition: Black Sun: Alchemy, Diaspora and Heterotopia. Dawood integrates the concept here and there, particularly in relation to a film by Maya Deren: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).

Dawood, S. (2013) Black sun: alchemy, diaspora and heterotopia, London:  Ridinghouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter

11 May 2018

heterotopias : architectural dwellings

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Just missed this exhibition in Paris but the website (see below) has a wonderful collection of images from the show.

“The exhibition shows a selection of art brut works related thematically to architecture heterotopias. Contrary to a utopia, a heterotopia indeed acts like a counter-space that Harald Szeeman would qualify as an “individual mythology.” curator : Matali Crasset

Dec 2nd, 2017 – Jan 20th, 2018 Paris, 3-5 passage des Gravilliers

https://www.artsy.net/show/christian-berst-art-brut-heterotopias-architectural-dwellings

Peter

3 April 2018

Thierry Fournier – Heterotopia

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Pleased to receive Thierry Fournier’s catalogues from his recent solo exhibition, ‘Heterotopia’ at Saint-Denis musée d’art et d’histoire.

Responding to ideas from writers such as Preciado and Harcourt, the exhibition explores heterotopia as a network of interfaces and surfaces intimately coupling people’s interaction with diverse forms of technology.

 

                            Exhibition space

Peter

16 October 2017

Loyauté: Heterotopia, Affordance & New Pragmatism

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A new book on the work of French installation artist Benjamin Loyauté: Heterotopia, Affordance & New Pragmatism (French)

Contributions from Benjamin Loyauté, Géraldine Sfez and  Véronique Dassié.

“Benjamin Loyauté takes an experimental and historical approach to his work. He thrives at the intersection of collaborative systems and cross-disciplinary research: history & cultural sociology, art & semantics, design & geography. His new work explores immaterial culture and New Pragmatism. Loyauté first used the term “semantic design” in 2014. He then defined his work as a language that is constantly evolving under a given climate. He has since begun to reflect on our contemporary societies and all the ways in which they are influenced by language, culture, time and environmental context. Loyauté has spent years experimenting in geopolitics of design”.

Loyauté, B., Sfez, G. and Dassié, V. (2017) Heterotopia, Affordance & New Pragmatism. Paris: Dilecta.

Peter

21 June, 2017

Glasslands: wishful images in a mirror

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Here is the beginning of my reponse to Fiona Ackerman’s wonderful exhibition Glasslands held  at Winsor Gallery –  26 November 2016 – 7 January 2017.

 

Fiona Ackerman makes a mirror box, an enclosure, a theatre, a disruption of images, as both an invention and exploration of gardens. Rather than the tradition of depicting gardens, bounded spaces, the canvasses embody the process of gardening, cultivating an impossible space: a medley of sculptured cut-outs, with branches, grasses, leaves entangled and entangling. The density of foliage is ceaselessly reflected and refracted in texture, colour, size and dimension to produce something that is both a display and a performance. Am I in a glass house or outside?  These inventions seem in-between. I am positioned close-up as if I could reach inside or outside, but to get where?  Glasslands prompt the questions: what is a garden and what are the possibilities of these curious spaces…….?

 

Eden-2016-60x70-Oil-and-acrylic-on-canvas
Eden-2016-60″x 70″-Oil-and-acrylic-on-canvas
Revolution-2016-36x48-Oil-and-acrylic-on-canvas
Revolution-2016-36″ x 48″-Oil-and-acrylic-on-canvas

 

For the rest of my text, Fiona’s introduction to the paintings and further images click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter

22 November 2016

An Atlas of Mirrors

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Looks to be wonderful exhibition for the Singapore Biennale:

27 October 2016- 26 February 2017

With my recent visit to Japan and many Shinto shrines, I was particularly struck by Harumi Yukutake’s ‘Paracosmos’ (2016) – inspired by Foucault’s thoughts on mirrors, ‘different spaces’ and Shinto ideas of interconnectivity.
harumi-yukutake

“Paracosmos propels the viewer into a parallel world – a space of otherness that is recognisable but unfamiliar. Shaped by Shinto ideas of interconnectivity, the site-responsive work is situated in the circular stairwell of the Singapore Art Museum, a central transition space that connects two floors. Here, the ‘membrane’ of hand-cut mirrors dissolves the definition between foreground and background by dissipating the single image into an explosion of reflections. A space of simultaneity, and eternally liminal, the mirror was core to philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of the heterotopia as a kind of zone that could encompass other sites. Yet munificence can also be deceptive, and like a mirror that throws a warped or skewed reflection, heterotopias can disturb and distort the spaces held in their embrace. The mirror reveals itself as a paradoxical device: able to hold every other image by having no inherent image, it canenfold an ‘everywhere’ by being a ‘nowhere’ in itself”.

Peter

1 November 2016

 

The Cultureship

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Was an honour to stay the night on artists Zatorski + Zatorski’s beautifully restored ship on the Thames in London.

“The Cultureship is a cultural catalyst that encourages inter-disciplinary collaboration and promotes engagement with our collective cultural and maritime history”.

“The ship, De Walvisch, has therefore become a catalyst for creativity, a heterotopic space which can take one on both a physical and metaphorical journey. Since bringing her to London in 2011 she has carried afloat creatives of all disciplines, from world-famous musicians and artists to leading marine engineers and physicists, gathered aboard for Salon events or one-off cultural performances and projects. Our aim has been to create an environment conducive to creativity, collaboration and wonderment”.

De Walvisch

Peter

13 July 2016

Gérard Fromanger – exhibition opens in Paris.

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Gérard Fromanger – exhibition: 17 February – 16 May, 2016 Centre Pompidou.

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From my essay Foucault and Heterotopian Art pdf: 

“Foucault’s essay on Gérard Fromanger’s pioneering figurative paintings offers a very different study of the allure of visual spaces that hover between an experiment and an experience. Foucault titles the essay ‘photogenic paintings’ which captures Fromanger’s use of photographs as the starting point for his visual explorations. Foucault begins his essay by describing how in the late nineteenth century the birth of photography produced a mad frenzy in the visual arts, introducing techniques with:

‘a new freedom of transposition, displacement, and transformation, of resemblance and dissimulation, of reproduction, duplication and trickery of effect’ (Foucault, 1999[1975]: 83)

Fromanger rediscovers the joy and love of photography and its transformative potential in painting. ……..Using a technique of painting directly over a transparency projected on a canvas screen, Fromanger converts the image, creating something that is neither a photograph nor a painting but, echoing lines from his essay on Rebeyrolle’s  canvasses, a sort of ‘electric flash of the flight between the two’ . With blocks of dominant primary colours, the canvasses multiply the visibility of a specific event – from pedestrians walking by shop fronts to rioting prisoners tearing up the roof of a prison – and transform it into a ‘thoroughfare’, provoking a dispersion of inter-connected images.  The canvasses do not ‘capture images: they pass them on…..”

Foucault, M. (1999 [1975)]) ‘Photogenic Painting’, in S. Wilson (ed.) Revisions: Gérard Fromanger. London: Black Dog Publishing. pp. 81-108.

Peter

18 February 2016

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