Haegue Yang, Sellim (2009), via Art Observed

Currently on view at MoMA through April of next year, Scenes for a New Heritage: Contemporary Art from the Collection offers a carefully balanced rumination on the processes and practices that have defined the past three decades of contemporary art. Looking back at a diverse series of explorations into the political, visual and spatial interests of artists and their recent practices, the show is a remarkably broad rumination on contemporary art today, one that feels particularly strong during the summer gallery lull in New York. (more…)

Thomas Hirschhorn, In-Between (2015), Photo by Mark Blower Courtesy of South London Gallery

Thomas Hirschhorn has returned to London for his first solo show in the British capital is some time, bringing a new, site-specific work that continues the artist’s interest in crisis, temporality and mediation as necessary components in the understanding and mitigation of trauma.  Borrowing from the aesthetic languages of installation and sculpture, the artist maps a fictitious moment of violence across the South London Gallery, bringing with it a state of suspended aftermath. (more…)

Artist Thomas Hirschhorn, in New York for the opening of his Gramsci Monument at Forest Houses in the Bronx, appeared last week at Artists Space in Manhattan, for a discussion with art historians Hal Foster and Lisa Lee on his practice, writing and the necessity of documentation. “The act of writing is a good way of taking it seriously, to be clear with the work, and also to be clear with intention.  The act of writing is most important for the artistic will.”  He says. (more…)

The last of artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s monument structures, constructed in in tribute to writer Antonio Gramsci, opens today at the Forest Houses housing project in the South Bronx.  Consisting of a library, performance space and Internet access point, the Gramsci Monument will stand all summer, welcoming all visitors to engage with the writings of the Italian anarchist at a space constructed by Forest Houses residents.  “I tell them, ‘This is not to serve your community, per se, but it is to serve art, and my reasons for wanting to do these things are purely personal artistic reasons,’” Hirschhorn says. “My goal or my dream is not so much about changing the situation of the people who help me, but about showing the power of art to make people think about issues they otherwise wouldn’t have thought about.” (more…)

Thomas Hirschhorn, Concordia Concordia (2012), installation view. All images courtesy of Gladstone Gallery

Visitors to Gladstone Gallery can re-live the wreckage of the marooned Costa Concordia cruise ship that made headlines in January through the lens of Thomas Hirschhorn’s scrutinizing eye. Concordia, Concordia, on view through October 20th, is the artist’s reproduction of the overturned ship’s casino based on photos and video of the wreckage.

Video of “Concordia, Concordia” on Site at Gladstone Gallery

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Musicians play in front of a work by Alex Katz at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, where the painter’s show Face The Music runs through November 19th, 2011. All Photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed

Thursday evening, October 20th, Parisian galleries across the city participated in what is called Nocturne des Galeries (Galleries Night Out). Hosted by FIAC, the event is an opportunity to survey the French art scene, as well as to “step up the commitment and increase the visibility of galleries focused on 20th century furniture conceived by architects and and contemporary design work.” The galleries are divided into five different sections: Louvre/Saint Germain, Champ Élysées, Eastern Paris, Louise Weiss, and Marias, which boasts the largest number of galleries. Art Observed was on site for openings at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Galerie Chantal Crousel and Emmanuel Perrotin.

Xavier Veilhan, opening of Orchestra at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin through November 12.

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Yutaka Sone Little Manhattan (2007-2009) at David Zwirner Gallery – All images by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed

Art Observed remains on site in Basel, Switzerland for Art 42 Basel 2011.  The following is our second of the photosets of the main fair.  Stay tuned for more coverage of the main fair before the end of the week as well as profiles of the satellite exhibitions and events.

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Artist Wim Delvoye before one of his sculptures at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin

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All photos by Caroline Claisse.

Andrea Thal and Thomas Hirschhorn represent Switzerland in the 2011 Venice Biennale.  Previous representatives have included Silvia Bächli and Fabrice Gygi (2009), Ugo Rondinone (2007), and Pipilotti Rist (2005) whose work is visible in the Arsenale.

Hirschhorn is a Bern-born, Paris-based artist best known for large-scale “DIY” style installations using duct tape and tinfoil.  Thal’s practice is based in music and performance; she runs an artist-run gallery space in Zurich, Les Complices.* Hirschhorn has also created a special website for the project, which provides insight into his working process: Crystals of Resistance.

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Jeff Koons, Ushering in Banality, 1988. Polychromed wood. All photos by Christian Saltas, unless otherwise noted.

The Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe (FACE) is a collaboration between five non-profit art foundations: the Deste Foundation in Athens, Greece; the Ellipse Foundation in Cascais, Portugal; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy; La Maison Rouge in Paris, France; and Magasin 3 Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. Established in 2008, the FACE alliance is dedicated to the promotion of emerging international artists by supporting the production and exhibition of new works. Their first initiative takes the form of a traveling exhibition entitled “Investigations of a Dog.”

Bruce Nauman, Untitled (Suspended Chair, Vertical III), 1987.

The exhibition draws its title from a 1922 short story by Franz Kafka, and the selection of works take up the existentialist themes present in Kafka’s work: disillusionment, humanity, and marginalization. Among participating artists are: Maurizio Cattelan, Roberto Cuoghi, Mark Dion, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Urs Fischer, Fischli & Weiss, Claire Fontaine, David Hammons, Thomas Hirschhorn, William Kentridge, Kimsooja, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Mark Manders, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Martin Parr, Aurel Schmidt, Santiago Sierra, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker.

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Sarah Morris, “Beijing Intersecting” (2009), one of the proposals for filling the Guggenheim’s void as part of its 50th anniversary show. Photo by Art Observed.

AO was at the press preview for “Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim” as the museum celebrates the 50th anniversary of its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on the East Side. For this new exhibition, organizer Nancy Spector commissioned two hundred proposals from artists, designers, and architects to fill the void.  Through April 28, proposals are on the walls of the Guggenheim, a set of dreams and interventions.

Detail from “Remember Beuys” (2009), by Bolles+Wilson, at the Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

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“Extremities (smooth, smooth),” Pipilotti Rist’s contribution to “Walking in My Mind,” the Hayward Gallery. via The Guardian.

Currently showing at the Hayward Gallery are the minds of ten artists — or, at least, how the artists feel they can represent the melding of product and creative process.  Ten installation artists from around the world are featured in the show.  Some are relative newcomers who are showing new pieces at the Hayward, like Swedish Bo Christian Larsson and Japanese Chiharu Shiota, who exhibit for the first time in London, and Dutch artist Mark Manders, who shows for the first time in a major British exhibition. Others are more well-established, including Yayoi Kusama and Turner prize-winner Keith Tyson, as well as the late controversial American artist Jason Rhoades.  Also exhibiting are Charles Avery (UK), Thomas Hirschhorn (Switzerland), and Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland).

Related links:
Hayward Gallery: Walking in My Mind
Art Review: Walking in My Mind Hayward Gallery, London SE1 [The Observer]
Thoughts go astray at the Hayward Gallery’s Walking in My Mind show [The Guardian]
Dark delights from the lonely mind of Japanese genius Yoshitomo Nara [The Independent]

Yoshitomo Nara in “Walking in My Mind.” Via The Guardian.

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