Santa Maria della Misericordia church converted in THE MOSQUE: The First Mosque in the Historic City of Venice (2015) by Christoph Büchel, all photos by Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

Historically, there have been no mosques in the city of Venice.  Despite the port city’s history as an open gateway to the East and a point of trade that facilitated new cultural, artistic and scientific developments to spread across Europe from trade with the Ottoman Empire and beyond, the city has never permitted the construction or reconstitution of a site of worship for its Muslim population.  Today, in the heated political climate that surrounds international conflicts, not to mention the recent Italian (and, at large, European) controversy regarding immigration from Syria, Lebanon and other regions in North Africa and the Middle East, the prospects for a dedicated Islamic worship site seems even less likely.  For the time being, however, the Venice Biennale has changed this scenario, as the Swiss-born, Iceland-based artist Christoph Büchel opened his frankly-titled installation THE MOSQUE: The First Mosque in the Historic City of Venice this month. (more…)

Olafur Eliasson, Riverbed (2014), via Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Long interested in the possibilities and intersections of natural space with the contexts of the gallery environment, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has brought the landscape of the Icelandic wilderness to the interiors of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, in the Northern Danish town of Humlbæk.

Olafur Eliasson, Riverbed (2014), via Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (more…)

MoMA has announced an upcoming career retrospective for Björk, spanning the artist’s work across a broad expanse of fields including sound, film, visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance.  The show will also feature a brand new music and film experience  made in collaboration with director Andrew Huang and 3-D design leader Autodesk. (more…)

Björn and Dieter Roth, Selbstturm (1994-2013), via HangarBiocca

HangarBicocca, Milan’s 12,000 square meter former industrial space turned gallery, is the perfect place for Björn and Dieter Roth’s Islands exhibition. The huge interactive installation, curated by HangarBicocca’s Artistic Advisor Vicente Todolí (the former Director of the Tate Modern in London), interacts with the space beautifully, creating a unique environment defined by the artists. Visitors are drawn into the artwork as they walk through the several “islands” created by groupings of work: walls of paintings and prints, sculptures, an installation of repurposed materials, musical instruments, furniture, screens and household items that visitors are encouraged to interact with, including the 131 screens of Dieter Roth’s well-known video diary, the floors from the artists’ studio, and their sculptures: Zuckerturm (Sugar Tower), 1994-2013 and Selbstturm (Self Tower), 1994-2013. (more…)

Dieter Roth, Snow, (1964-69) courtesy the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Focusing on the period between the late 1950s into the early 1970s, when artist Dieter Roth produced his most innovative works, MoMA is currently presenting wait, later this will be nothing, a show documenting the artist’s unique book works. The show is titled after a phrase Roth used in Snow (1964-1969), an early book project that represented a turning point in Roth’s style, and which was highly influenced by James Joyce’s  The Dead.

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Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors (Installation View) via Luhring Augustine, New York

Luhring Augustine is currently exhibiting “The Visitors,” a nine-channel video installation by artist Ragnar Kjartansson, a musician and artist living and working in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik.  As a member of the group Trabant, Kjartansson pushes the boundaries between electronic rock and performance while working in multiple media formats, focusing primarily on various aspects of performance. (more…)

Olafur Eliasson, The volcano series, (2012), via neugerriemschneider

Olafur Eliasson, in his sixth solo show at neugerriemschneider Berlin, exhibits new work portraying Iceland, his familial homeland. His new photographic series captures the country’s infamous natural features, and through these stunning images transports the viewer into the scale and physicality of the Icelandic landscape. (more…)

The first public art installation to utilize the Taxi TV format begins running today.  A collaboration between artist Ryan McGinley and Icelandic musicians Sigur Rós, the 30-second video will air in 3,000 equipped taxicabs across New York City.  “I wanted to bring a childhood innocence to the streets, through a character whose own light and wonder affect the world around her. Iʼm always interested in an atmosphere where dreams and reality mingle on equal terms.”  Says McGinley. (more…)