Stan VanDerBeek, Movie Mural (1968), via Art Observed

If there’s one distinct argument coming out of the Whitney’s expansive exhibition Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, it’s a reinforcement of the expression “the story’s in the telling.”  Drawing on a wide range of artists and collectives practicing in the late 20th Century and early 21st, the exhibition takes a decidedly narrative bent on increasingly pervasive communication technologies, and the cultural effects that these forms have left both on human interaction at large, and the art world itself.

Hito Steyerl, Factory of the Sun (2015), via Art Observed

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Berlin Biennale at the Kunstakademie, all photos via Anna Corrigan for Art Observed

While the DIS-curated Berlin Biennale is spread across a range of exhibitions and venues in the German capital, the beating heart of this year’s show is arguably the Academy of the Arts, a sleek modernist building located adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate and perched over a square heaving with tourist activity and history.  Walking into the foyer of this building, one immediately encounters a series of large, high-resolution photographs depicting warped, fragmented nationalities and identities.  Further upstairs, the cluster of screens, plastic and digital games that have come to define this Biennale buzz take over, creating a clustered, albeit striking experience of the post-digital arts landscape.  The location is densely packed with artists and works whose nationalities and political concerns range from brand-name art projects to a poignantly honest confessional rap about the refugee experience in Berlin.

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The Artes Mundi Prize, offering the largest purse award for UK Contemporary Art, has announced its shortlist, including Neïl Beloufa, Hito Steyerl, Lamia Joreige, Nástio Mosquito, and Amy Franceschini.  “This group of artists…demonstrates the importance and usefulness of art and culture in our everyday lives as it challenges our preconceptions and gives us new ways of engaging with the world around us,” says Karen MacKinnon, Artes Mundi’s director and curator. (more…)

The artists exhibiting at the German Pavilion in Venice have erected a Greek flag in protest against their government’s harsh austerity measures taken against the Mediterranean nation, emblazoned with the word “Germoney.”  “We show our solidarity with the people in Greece and all other places suffering from austerity,” says artist Hito Steyerl.  “As cultural workers and artists we demand an end to austerity for health, culture, and education while public funding for banks and oligarchs seems unlimited.” (more…)