Installation view, Cellblock I, Andrea Rosen Gallery. All photos on site by Erica Simone for Art Observed

The Andrea Rosen Gallery opened Cellblock I at its main space on December 1st, 2012, and simultaneously inaugurated its new, second location–just down the street at 544 West 24th Street–with Cellblock II. Both shows, held together under the theme (and anti-theme) of imprisonment, were curated by the prominent scholar and curator Robert Hobbs.

Robert Motherwell’s Dover Beach III at Cellblock II, Andrea Rosen Gallery

Hobbs is well-known for his work as an art historian and writer. He has been the Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University since 1991, and a visiting professor at Yale University for eight years. He is known as the definitive Robert Smithson scholar, and has contributed seminal writings on many of the artists he selected to show, including Alice Aycock, Beverly Pepper, and Kelley Walker. (more…)

A work by Santiago Sierra, 111 Constructions Made with 10 Modules and 10 Workers (2004). All images by Art Observed unless otherwise noted.

It is not an accident that La Monnaie Vivante (The Living Currency), a performance art event after Pierre Klossowski, is being staged, or rather, experienced in Berlin. A bold experiment in deconstructing reality and fiction, the piece finds its place in a time when much of contemporary debate revolves around performance and participation art, as well as the a re-evaluation of the market value of an art object. La Monnaie Vivante, presented by Pierre Bal-Blanc as part of the 6th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art at Hebbel am Ufer, is an evolving and infinitely complex project that can be best characterized by its attempt to deconstruct memory as an archive, and in exhibiting content in an open and unstable format. Expanding upon the long tradition of experiential and participation art of Futurism, Dada, The Situationist International, and Fluxus, La Monnaie Vivante aims to establish a dialogue between current and historical investigation of the body in the fine arts and to activate further exploration of the concept of the body within domains of music, dance, and theater. Thus, this particular section of the Biennale becomes an arena for the possible merging and emancipation of form.

Audiences gathered and shifted in response to the events taking place in and around the theater.

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Artur Zmijewski, “Powtorzenie” (Repetition), DVD, master DV, 2005 via Culture PL.

Currently on view at X Initiative as part of Phase 3 is a comprehensive solo exhibition of work by the controversial artist Artur Zmijewski.  It is easy to misunderstand and disprove of Zmijewski’s intentions, and easier to feel uncomfortable and conflicted by his video propositions.  This conclusive installation in a year-long experimental non-profit space marks a culmination of its mission to “inspire and challenge us to think about new possibilities for experiencing and producing contemporary art.”  Mr. Zmijewski reminds us that the experience of art can be as challenging as its production. The subject matter he explores is often heavy, the manner of delivery – raw, frank, often unedited – documentary.  The videos resemble an archive of a continuous social experiment where social situations, belief systems, reality and memory are test-driven for their endurance.

“80064”, DVD, master DV, 9’20”, 2004 via NY Times and Culture PL.

Zmijewski’s work is politically oriented as much as it is emotionally moving and complex. He acts as an activating agent by creating scenarios and situations in which initially passive and apathetic participants are galvanized and stirred, their actions documented and on view.

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