OMER FAST: PRESENT CONTINUOUS - BALTIC CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORAY ART, GATESHEAD

OMER FAST
PRESENT CONTINUOUS
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
S Shore R, Gateshead Quays - Gateshead
18/3/2016 - 26/6/2016

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead presents Present Continuous, the UK’s first comprehensive monographic exhibition by Omer Fast. On view until June 26, 2016, the exhibition is comprised of new and recent work. Fast is best known for video works that question the conventions of storytelling, media reportage and historical representation. He employs cinematic techniques and complex narrative structures to explore the ways stories, and consequently history and identity, are formed. Undermining the divide between reality and representation and between document and artifice, his practice also interrogates the status of the image.
Divided over two floors, the exhibition includes seven installation and projection-based works beginning with CNN Concatenated (2002), an 18-minute-long video collage edited from thousands of individual words spoken by presenters on the Cable News Network. The footage is reconstructed to form a disconcerting poetic narrative with an underlying sense of threat. The first floor of the exhibition presents Continuity (2012) and Spring (2016). Continuity, first presented at dOCUMENTA (13), follows a young soldier returning from Afghanistan to a home situation that is increasingly uncanny as his authenticity is called further and further into question. Spring, a new commission made for the exhibition, expands his tale. Presented on five screens it is a portrait of two young German men whose lives intersect violently. The work delves into emotions of longing, loss and revolt before reaching a surprising end from two different perspectives.
The exhibition’s second floor includes a presentation of 5,000 Feet is the Best (2011) at cinematic scale. Underpinned by an interview Fast conducted with a former operator of Predator drones, the film weaves together the operator’s account of his life and work along with scenes depicting crimes in and around Las Vegas. Shown in proximity, Everything that Rises Must Converge (2013), follows four adult film performers during their day at work in the San Fernando Valley. The film is presented as four simultaneous projections. And finally, Looking Pretty for God (2008) and A Tank Translated (2002) present documentary portraits edited from conversations the artist recorded with funeral directors in the US and the crew of an Israeli tank. The two works are presented on small screens scattered throughout the exhibition.
Despite their often overt political content, the narrative constructions and deviations of Fast’s videos ensure they transcend the issues he at first seems to address. It is, rather, the traditions of storytelling and its role in creating fact and identity that is central to his work.
Present Continuous is accompanied by a major new publication with new essays by writer and critic Jennifer Allen, author Tom McCarthy, BALTIC Chief Curator Laurence Sillars and a conversation between Omer Fast and Jeu de Paume Curator Marina Vinyes Albes. The full scripts of each film included in the exhibition are also reproduced. Publication available from shop.balticmill.com.

DOCUMENTARY ACROSS DISCIPLINES - THE MIT PRESS 2016

DOCUMENTARY ACROSS DISCIPLINES
edited by Erika Balsom, Hila Peleg
The MIT Press (April 1, 2016)
Copublished with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin

Contemporary engagements with documentary are multifaceted and complex, reaching across disciplines to explore the intersections of politics and aesthetics, representation and reality, truth and illusion. Discarding the old notions of "fly on the wall" immediacy or quasi-scientific aspirations to objectivity, critics now understand documentary not as the neutral picturing of reality but as a way of coming to terms with reality through images and narrative. This book collects writings by artists, filmmakers, art historians, poets, literary critics, anthropologists, theorists, and others, to investigate one of the most vital areas of cultural practice: documentary. Their investigations take many forms -- essays, personal memoirs, interviews, poetry.
Contemporary art turned away from the medium and toward the world, using photography and the moving image to take up global perspectives. Documentary filmmakers, meanwhile, began to work in the gallery context. The contributors consider the hybridization of art and film, and the "documentary turn" of contemporary art. They discuss digital technology and the "crisis of faith" caused by manipulation and generation of images, and the fading of the progressive social mandate that has historically characterized documentary. They consider invisible data and visible evidence; problems of archiving; and surveillance and biometric control, forms of documentation that call for "informatic opacity" as a means of evasion.

Contributors: Ariella Azoulay, Zach Blas, Christa Blümlinger, Stella Bruzzi, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Kris Fallon, Evgenia Giannouri, Ben Lerner, SylveÌre Lotringer, Antonia Majaca, Sohrab Mohebbi, Volker Pantenburg, Veìreìna Paravel, Christopher Pinney, Ben Rivers, and Eyal Sivan

DOCUMENTARY FILM READER - OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2016

DOCUMENTARY FILM READER
History, Theory, Criticism
edited by Jonathan Kahana
Oxford University Press (February 18, 2016)

Bringing together an expansive range of writing by scholars, critics, historians, and filmmakers, The Documentary Film Reader presents an international perspective on the most significant developments and debates from several decades of critical writing about documentary. Each of the book's seven sections covers a distinct period in the history of documentary, collecting both contemporary and retrospective views of filmmaking in the era. And each section is prefaced by an introductory essay that explains its design and provides critical context. Painstakingly selected from the archives of more than a hundred years of cinema practice and theory, the essays, reviews, interviews, manifestos, and ephemera gathered in this volume suit the needs and interests of the beginning student, the advanced scholar, the casual reader, and the working documentarian.

JONATHAN KAHANA teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he directs the Center for Documentary Arts and Research. He is the author of Intelligence Work: The Politics of American Documentary (Columbia UP, 2008).

ANDREA CHENIER - TEATRO CARLO FELICE, GENOVA

ANDREA CHENIER
opera lirica in quattro quadri
Libretto di Luigi Illica
Musica di Umberto Giordano
Teatro Carlo Felice
Passo Eugenio Montale 4 - Genova
da martedì 12 aprile 2016, repliche 13, 16, 17, 19, 20 aprile 2016

INTERPRETI
Andrea Chénier: Antonello Palombi
Carlo Gérard: Alberto Gazale
Maddalena di Coigny: Norma Fantini
Bers: Sofia Koberidze
La Contessa di Coigny: Elena Traversi
Madelon Alessandra: Palomba
Roucher: Paolo Maria Orecchia
Fouquier Tinville: Dario Giorgelè
Il sanculotto Mathieu: Roberto Maietta
L'abate: Enrico Cossutta
Un "Incredibile": Enrico Salsi
Schmidt: Alessandro Busi
Pierre Fléville: Dario Giorgelè
Il Maestro di casa: Loris Purpura
Dumas: Roberto Conti

Direttore: Giampaolo Bisanti
Regia: Lamberto Puggelli - ripresa da Salvo Piro
Assistente alla regia: Salvo Disca
Scene: Paolo Bregni
Costum: Luisa Spinatelli
Coreografo: Giovanni Di Cicco
Orchestra: Teatro Carlo Felice
Coro: Teatro Carlo Felice
Maestro del Coro: Pablo Assante
Danzatori DEOS: Luca Alberti - Filippo Bandiera- Emanuela Bonora - Fabio Caputo - Dario Greco - Maria Francesca Guerra - Barbara Innocenti- Nicola Marrapodi - Erika Melli - Francesca Zaccaria

Martedì 12 aprile 2016, alle ore 20.30, va in scena Andrea Chénier, l’opera più celebre di Umberto Giordano che dopo la rappresentazione del 2009 torna al Teatro Carlo Felice.
Sul podio Giampaolo Bisanti, affiancato da un cast di protagonisti di livello internazionale: Marcello Giordani e Piero Giuliacci nel ruolo principale, il poeta Andrea Chénier, Alberto Gazale e Sergio Bologna in quello del suo rivale Carlo Gérard, Norma Fantini e Patrizia Orciani nella parte della nobildonna amata da Andrea, Maddalena di Coigny, inoltre, tre co-protagoniste femminili Sofia Koberidze (Bersi), Elena Traversi (La Contessa di Coigny), Alessandra Palomba (Madelon) oltre a Paolo Maria Orecchia (Roucher), Dario Giorgelé (Pierre Fleville e Fouquier Tinville), Roberto Maietta (il Sanculotto Mathieu), Enrico Cossutta (l’abate), Enrico Salsi (un “Incredibile”), Alessandro Busi (Schmidt), Loris Purpura e Matteo Armanino (il Maestro di casa), Roberto Conti e Alessio Bianchini (Dumas).
Il periodo storico in cui l’opera è ambientata, che va dai momenti immediatamente precedenti alla Rivoluzione Francese fino a Roberspierre, tra trasparenze di giustizia sociale da una parte e terrore dall’altra, rivive nella messa in scena di Lamberto Puggelli ripresa da Salvo Piro. Le scene realizzate da Paolo Bregni e i costumi curati da Luisa Spinatelli, ricostruiscono le drammatiche vicende di quel cruciale momento della storia moderna con cura cinematografica e ricchezza scenica da kolossal: il Coro del Carlo Felice al gran completo diretto da Pablo Assante, mimi e danzatori guidati dal coreografo Giovanni Di Cicco e figuranti danno vita tutti insieme alla miriade di dame, abati, sanculotti, gendarmi, venditrici ambulanti, giudici, prigionieri, pescivendole, guardie nazionali, strilloni e altro ancora, che affollano il dinamico libretto in quattro quadri di Luigi Illica. Le luci sono firmate da Luciano Novelli.

ISA GENZKEN: MAKE YOURSELF PRETTY - MARTIN GROPIUS BAU, BERLIN

ISA GENZKEN
MAKE YOURSELF PRETTY
Martin Gropius Bau
Niederkirchnerstraße 7 - Berlin
9/4/2016 - 26/6/2016

Isa Genzken (1948) is one of the most remarkable and radical artists of our time. The exhibition presents the broad spectrum of Genzken’s work, from her early films, drawings, ellipsoids and concrete sculptures to complex narrative collages and everyday items integrated into montages. The presentation highlights topics such as modernity, the human body, portraits, city culture and architecture. Genzken has earned international renown with her profound work. Her diverse works represent one of the most important contemporary stances of our time. Her oeuvre is now comprehensively on show in Berlin for the first time.
As an artist, Isa Genzken is prepared to risk it all in her quest for artistic regeneration. In her radical manner she develops diverse works, which are concerned with the topic of beauty in the sense of the essential and absolute.
Based on the category of sculpture, her work distinguishes itself through the constant and further development of imagery and unlimited use of media and materials. In the 1970s, she produced sculptures designed on the computer, and thereby referred back to American minimalism and conceptual art. Starting from the long, elegantly slender wooden sculptures, so-called “ellipsoids” and “hyperbolos,” one radical step followed another: sculptures made from bare plaster or concrete, collaged books, complex narrative assemblages of industrially produced materials and everyday items, various film formats, photography, paintings, architectural models and outdoor sculptures.
Her art is playful and sometimes brightly-coloured but anything other than superficial. With her feel for materials and their arrangements she creates pieces that make you think. Her power of innovation and her ideas are rich in autobiographical elements and subtle comments on society, and they serve as a point of reference and source of inspiration for generations of artists.

  

GALLERIE MILANESI TRA LE DUE GUERRE - FONDAZIONE STELLINE, MILANO

GALLERIE MILANESI TRA LE DUE GUERRE
a cura di Luigi Sansone
Fondazione Stelline
corso Magenta 61 - Milano
25/2/2016 - 22/5/2016

Dal 25 febbraio al 22 maggio 2016 alla Fondazione Stelline saranno esposti dipinti e sculture che riportano alla luce la vita culturale e la vivacità artistica delle gallerie milanesi nel ventennio successivo alla “Grande Guerra”. La mostra “Gallerie Milanesi tra le due guerre”, curata da Luigi Sansone, permette di riscoprire una Milano artistica di grande fermento e richiamo internazionale.
Il periodo storico-artistico preso in esame in questa mostra passa in rassegna l’attività delle principali gallerie milanesi che tra il 1919 e il 1939 diedero prova di grande vitalità culturale; presso le loro sedi infatti si tennero mostre di artisti che spaziavano dal tardo Ottocento al Futurismo, dal Gruppo Novecento all’Astrattismo, dall’Aeropittura al Chiarismo per giungere al movimento Corrente.
Nel periodo storico tra le due guerre Milano vive un momento di fervida attività culturale, con un forte riflusso della figurazione che seguiva la rivoluzionaria esperienza dei Futuristi. Storiche gallerie – come Pesaro, Bardi, Scopinich, Milano, Salvetti, Dedalo, Bottega di Poesia, Il Milione, Barbaroux, Micheli, Gussoni, Centrale e Mostre Temporanee – ospitavano artisti di diverse correnti: Balla, Carrà, Campigli, Casorati, de Chirico, de Pisis, Fontana, Funi, Guttuso, Kandinskij, Licini, Melotti, Prampolini, Rosai, Medardo Rosso, Savinio, Severini, Sironi, Usellini, Wildt e molti altri.
La mostra espone sapientemente dipinti, sculture e documenti facendo riscoprire ai visitatori una Milano artistica di grande richiamo internazionale, dove anche artisti come Kandinskij trovarono un terreno fertile per esprimersi.
Il percorso espositivo ricostruisce l’evolversi e il susseguirsi dell’arte italiana in tutti i suoi molteplici aspetti e offre visioni di cambiamento e proliferazione artistica a cui ancora oggi assistiamo. Vengono sottolineati momenti di primaria importanza del nostro passato, grazie ai quali si comprendono le radici artistiche e culturali delle eccellenze nazionali e internazionali.
Accompagna la mostra un esaustivo catalogo (Silvana editoriale) che raccoglie il saggio introduttivo del curatore della mostra, Luigi Sansone, oltre ai contributi critici di Elena Pontiggia e Nicoletta Colombo, e un’importante testimonianza di Gillo Dorfles. Il volume offre una ricca panoramica sulle opere in mostra, divise in sezioni, e una selezione di documenti, alcuni anche inediti.

PUBLISHING OF ARTISTIC PRACTICE - STERNBERG PRESS 2016

PUBLISHING OF ARTISTIC PRACTICE
edited by Annette Gilbert
Sternberg Press
March 2016

Texts by Hannes Bajohr, Paul Benzon, K. Antranik Cassem, Bernhard Cella, Annette Gilbert, Hanna Kuusela, Antoine Lefebvre, Matt Longabucco, Alessandro Ludovico, Lucas W. Melkane, Anne Moeglin-Delcroix, Aurélie Noury, Valentina Parisi, Michalis Pichler, Anna-Sophie Springer, Alexander Starre, Nick Thurston, Rachel Valinsky, Eva Weinmayr, Vadim Zakharov

What does it mean to publish today? In the face of a changing media landscape, institutional upheavals, and discursive shifts in the legal, artistic, and political fields, concepts of ownership, authorship, work, accessibility, and publicity are being renegotiated. The field of publishing not only stands at the intersection of these developments but is also introducing new ruptures. How the traditional publishing framework has been cast adrift, and which opportunities are surfacing in its stead, is discussed here by artists, publishers, and scholars through the examination of recent publishing concepts emerging from the experimental literature and art scene, where publishing is often part of an encompassing artistic practice. The number and diversity of projects among the artists, writers, and publishers concerned with these matters show that it is time to move the question of publishing from the margin to the center of aesthetic and academic discourse.