NEWS
(selected recent news)
Manifesta 8 - In Dialogue with Northern Africa
VAGA Tour 6-8 October 2010
VAGA Visual Arts and Galleries Association Newsletter
13 August 2010
Manifesta 8 takes place in the Spanish cities of Murcia and Cartagena. It is being curated by Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Chamber of Public Secrets and Tranzit.org and explores the idea of Europe in the 21st century, focussing on the
boundaries of the continent and engaging with Europe's present-day frontiers and its interrelation with the Maghreb region. The South of Spain, specifically Al-Andalus, has been a historical blend of Islamic, Judaic and Christian cultural influences co-existing together.
Wednesday 6th October 2010
MURCIA
6.00pm
Introductory Talk with Alfredo Cramerotti, Co-Curator of Manifesta 8, part of the
Chamber of Public Secrets curatorial collective and Curator at QUAD in Derby.
Media Lounge Espacio Molinos del Rio-Caballerizas C/Molinos 1
Pure Water Vision: Acea EcoArt Contest 2010
Contest deadline postponed to October 31st and nominated new curatorial team.
12 August 2010
Pure Water Vision: Acea EcoArt Contest 2010 is the international contemporary art contest created by the EcoArt Project cultural platform and sponsored by Acea. The contest will award the Acea EcoArt Prize 2010, consisting in an acquisitive prize for the value of € 10.000,00 to the winner artwork that will become part of the Acea collection, it will also publish the “EcoArt Book Two” catalog (see EcoArt Book One already online) with 30 selected artworks and organize an exhibition in Rome for 10 finalists.
The theme of Pure Water Vision: Acea EcoArt Contest 2010 requests artists to express their creativity to represent the relationship between water, man and the environment with relation to sustainable development of the planet. This reflection can also be extended to water pollution, water as source of life, water as source of renuable energy, process of desertification and emergency situations. All of which themes which simultaneously grip the planet and ask a series of burning social, anthropological, political and cultural questions.
The objective is to highlight little known aspects of the water cycle, to stimulate, through the universal and metaphorical language of art, a series of reflections on what lies behind the apparent simplicity of pure water and what happens before and after the distribution of this precious resource that flows from taps in our homes and through waterworks, sewers and water treatment facilities.
The contest is curated by Laura Cherubini, art critic, curator and teacher of Contemporary Art at the Fine Art Academy of Brera, Milan; Eugenio Viola, art critic and curator of the Project Room of Museum MADRE (Contemporary Art Museum DonnaREgina) of Naples; Alfredo Cramerotti, curator QUAD Derby, co-curator of the biennal Manifesta 8 and art critic.
Submissions are now open until october 31st. To participate go to www.ecoartproject.org at the Pure Water Vision box.
Finally, we present you with a preview of GAD – Green Art Database the new project of the EcoArt Project platform made possibile thanks to the support of our Sponsors Acea Group and Kaspersky Lab. GAD is the online global archive of the works coming from international competitions organized by EcoArt Project and of those of noted artists who follow our initiative exhibiting in our virtual galleries.Sustainable development and respect for the planet are the themes to which all the works present on GAD refer. GAD will be used to create communication and cultural marketing projects, exhibitions, events and online promotion for artists.
info@ecoartproject.org
Fascinating tales will be told through photography and film
Derby Evening Telegraph
10 August 2010
Quad curator Alfredo Cramerotti has been overseeing a new exhibition being installed there.
The themes of family, cultural heritage and migration are being explored in depth on the walls of Quad this summer. And the three artists involved all have fascinating tales to tell.
"It's like a book, but in a different format," says curator Alfredo Cramerotti.
To accompany the main exhibition by Dinu Li are "corridor exhibitions" by two young artistic talents.
Seba Kurtis, who originally comes from Argentina, and Welsh Esyllt Hedd Evans have both produced works which are the perfect complement to the main exhibition, according to curator Alfredo Cramerotti.
"The two artists were selected because they are somehow related to the gallery exhibition, by Dinu Li, which is about cultural and family heritage and how the transition between one culture and another has affected his identity."
Seba Kurtis has created two works; a series of pictures and a series of videos.
For the picture collection – entitled Salam – he travelled to North Africa, where he planned to document migration to Europe. However, his plans were thwarted both by the language barrier and because he says he was made to feel unwelcome in many areas. He found himself drawn to village photographic studios.
Seba's work, explains Alfredo, shows not the images taken by the African photographers but their studios.
"Through the equipment, proofs, negatives and posters, you can clearly see how the studios work, telling the history of people through family portraits – it's a bit like a family album."
Seba's video project tells a story of his own family life. Shoebox takes its name from the artist's own migration from Argentina in the 1980s. Alfredo explains: "They left everything behind. The only thing they brought was a shoebox containing family pictures. Some of these have been water-damaged because the place where they were living was flooded."
The second artist exhibiting in Quad's corridors is Esyllt Hedd Evans, who continues the family theme with photographs based on her grandparents' lives.
Esyllt lives and works in North Wales, in the home of her late grandfather and her grandmother. Her slide show takes images from her own family album, while her photographs explore the finer details of the two buildings; her grandparents' family home and the old people's home where her grandmother now lives.
"The three artists are really related to each other; they have different approaches, different stories and different locations around the world but they all have something to which all of us can connect," says Alfredo
Alfredo is delighted that Quad is providing a stepping stone for the two young artists.
"Their previous shows were more intimate. This is their first time presenting their work to a wider audience," he says.
The works of Seba Kurtis and Esyllt Hedd Evans can be seen in Quad's corridors, to accompany the Dinu Li exhibition, until September 5. More details on 01332 290606 or at www.derbyquad.co.uk.
How to Inform without Informing
Symposium at Collective, City Observatory, Calton Hill
Edinburgh, UK
Friday 30 July 2010
Dinu Li: Yesterday is Hisotry, Tomorrow is Mystery
Derby Evening Telegraph Newspaper
5 July 2010
Artsway / QUAD - Dinu Li: Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is Mystery
e-Flux announcement
25 June 2010
MANIFESTA 8 | Collective Curating: Means in Common
ART BASEL 41 | Art Salon Program
Friday June 18, 2010
Participants:
Alfredo Cramerotti, Chamber of Public Secrets (CPS), Denmark, Italy, Lebanon, Member of the M8 Curatorial Collective
Esther Regueira, General Coordinator, Manifesta 8, Murcia
Georg Schöllhammer, Member of the collective tranzit.org, Central Europe.
Manifesta 8 sbarca sulle coste spagnole, Roma ne parla…
Francesca Campli / Art a part of cult(ure) newsletter
3 giugno 2010
Manifesta 8 sbarca sulle coste spagnole, tendendo il braccio sulle coste africane…
La città capitolina, nuovo aspirante polo della cultura contemporanea, in quest’ultimo week-end di maggio, tra openings, stand fieristici, mostre, conferenze e dibattiti, è lo scenario più idoneo per la presentazione dell’ottava edizione di Manifesta, biennale d’arte contemporanea itinerante tra i paesi europei che fra pochi mesi aprirà al pubblico il suo nuovo fitto e multiculturale programma.
In una ventilata, a sprazzi soleggiata, mattina tra i tavolini del Bar della Pace, a due passi da Piazza Navona e di fronte all’elegante portico del Chiostro del Bramante, alcuni partecipanti del vasto e internazionale team della manifestazione – tra cui Alfredo Cramerotti, unico italiano tra i curatori coinvolti e la coordinatrice generale Esther Regueria – hanno dato un appuntamento informale per presentare alla stampa e ad alcuni personaggi del sistema dell’arte accorsi, il progetto di questa nuova edizione (aperta dal 2 ottobre 2010 per 100 giorni, fino al 9 gennaio 2011). Manifesta è un evento d’arte contemporanea che ogni due anni (a partire dal 1997) sceglie un paese diverso come scenario del proprio programma, interessandosi innanzitutto ad un dialogo con le tradizioni e popolazioni locali e ricercando una stretta collaborazione con questi e con il territorio ospitante. Ogni volta il team operativo viene formato, coinvolgendo le istituzioni culturali del paese scelto, per poi sciogliersi a conclusione dell’evento. Solo un piccolo gruppo è permanente con una sede ad Amsterdam (Manifesta At Home, direttore fondatore è Hedwig Fijen).
Dopo Rotterdam, Lussemburgo, Lubiana, Francoforte, Donostì-San Sebastin, Nicosia e, due anni fa, il Trentino-Alto Adige, la nomade manifestazione sbarca nella Spagna meridionale, scegliendo per la precisione le città di Murcia e Cartagena, per il patrimonio storico-architettonico-artistico che le caratterizza (il passaggio dei Visigoti, degli Arabi, dei Romani e la presenza delle testimonianze architettoniche lasciate da queste popolazioni, oggi in relazione anche con opere di linguaggio moderno), ma anche per l’ineguagliabile atmosfera multiculturale che qui si spinge fino alle coste del Nord Africa, allacciando relazioni con i paesi del vicino Maghreb.
Centro d’interesse, quindi, della manifestazione è la volontà di presentare e diffondere i linguaggi artistici contemporanei, ma nel fare questo resta primaria un’indagine del luogo prescelto come campo d’azione, in modo così da sviluppare un discorso inerente alle tematiche sociali, politiche, economiche che lo contraddistinguono. A testimoniare l’ esplorazione territoriale e la ricerca di un dialogo multidisciplinare all’interno dei progetti degli artisti vi è innanzitutto la scelta di allestire all’interno di edifici e strutture preesistenti, elementi della cultura e della storia del paese, in alcuni casi recuperati e riadattati per ospitare gli interventi degli artisti, ma destinati a sopravvivere all’evento espositivo.
Così nella cittadina di Murcia ci si introdurrà nei vecchi mulini ad acqua sul fiume Segura (già recuperati per ospitare il Cultural Centre and Hydraulic Museum), si dialogherà con gli ambienti dell’eclettico Mubam – Fine Arts Museum of Murcia e con i decorativi ambienti di quelle che furono le Caserme dell’Artiglieria (oggi Centro Pàrraga), ci si confronterà con le architetture neobarocche (sulle orme dello stile introdotto nel ‘600 dall’architetto Juan de Herrera) dell’antico Ufficio Postale della città. A Cartagena alcuni luoghi scelti per le esposizioni sono il Muram – Regional Museum of Fine Art, emblematico esempio di decorazione Belle Epoque; l’Arqua – International Museum of Underwater Archeology, progetto internazionalmente conosciuto dell’architetto Guillermo Vazquèz Consuegra e sede ideale per avviare il dialogo trans-continentale proposto da Manifesta 8. Più inconsueta, ma molto stimolante, è la scelta di un antico padiglione (costruzione del 1768) del Royal Navy Hospital, sede ospitante lezioni di anatomia ed autopsie; la Prigione di San Antòn, edificio a pianta pentagonale, terminato di costruire alla fine della Seconda Repubblica; El Parque Cafe-Restaurant, struttura aperta, in vetro, collocata sulla più alta delle cinque colline intorno a Cartagena.
Oggi, alla presentazione romana, c’è solo uno dei curatori, Alfredo Cramerotti. In realtà la manifestazione vede per la prima volta (anche se nella passata edizione c’era un’ “anticipazione” di questa tendenza) la collaborazione di tre distinti team curatoriali: Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (Egitto e Stati Uniti), Chamber of Public Secrets (Danimarca e Medio Oriente) e tranzit.org ( Austria , Repubblica Ceca, Ungheria, Slovacchia) tutti coinvolti nella scelta degli artisti e delle tematiche da seguire.
I linguaggi e gli approcci mediatici proposti dai curatori sono i più differenziati, permettendo lo slittamento da un livello relazionale all’altro, in modo da esprime quel dialogo trans-regionale e trans-continentale che è intento primario della manifestazione. Il duo Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum si concentra sulla figura e sul lavoro dell’artista contemporaneo, spaziando dal dibattito televisivo ad azioni performative di chiara tradizione teatrale, ma segue anche i progetti realizzati da artisti in residenza a Murcia che hanno studiato documenti provenienti dal Museo di Arte Contemporanea Spagnola (esistente a New York fino al 1990). Chamber of Public Secrets, invece, include progetti che adotteranno il linguaggio dei giornali settimanali, dei programmi radiofonici ed anche l’una collaborazione tra artisti e un gruppo di attivisti sociali (Wooloo, operanti a Copenaghen e New York). Il collettivo tranzit.org , di più antica e ampia formazione, mostra invece, tra le sue proposte, un progetto più complesso e di ampio raggio d’azione, che coinvolge 32 persone, tra artisti e curatori, nella realizzazione di una costituzione che “regolarizzi” le varie relazioni esistenti nel sistema artistico (tra artista e curatore, tra pubblico e spazio…).
Per portare a termine i progetti e l’impegnativa e costante relazione con le popolazioni locali e le loro tradizioni, Manifesta ha sviluppato un programma di mediazione e educazione tra i più organizzati e sviluppati. Il dipartimento che si occupa di queste operazioni (mediacion@manifesta8.es) è considerato un po’ il cuore dell’intera manifestazione. “Mediatori ed educatori saranno impegnati a Cartagena in una serie di corsi estivi già nei mesi precedenti l’inaugurazione, collaborando con l’Università spagnola”, ci spiega la coordinatrice generale Esther Regueira, “affrontando temi anche più generali circa le differenti politiche culturali da seguire a secondo si tratti di una biennale, una fiera d’arte o un festival”. Si sono creati anche particolari programmi (online o offline) dedicati al confronto tra gli artisti “ospiti internazionali” di Manifesta8 e quelli locali. “A coordinare i programmi educativi saranno innanzitutto studenti di Murcia e Cartagena”, continua Esther Regueira, “ma verranno anche educatori ed esperti d’arte da molti altri paesi.” Non poteva mancare, infine, uno spazio interattivo (Medular blog) dove raccogliere le idee e i progetti relativi alle attività educative, da poter commentare e discutere su una piattaforma internazionale accessibile a tutti.
Enjoy Poverty: Screening and Conversation
with alfredo Cramerotti and Renzo Martens
Manifesta 8 and new Manifesta Journal "Collective Curating"
Presentation in Berlin
Friday June 11, 2010, 10 a.m.
Clärchens Ballhaus, Auguststraße 24, Berlin-Mitte
Meet the curators of Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, and Hedwig Fijen, Director of the Manifesta Foundation.
The editorial team of the Manifesta Journal will be delighted to launch the new issue of the Manifesta Journal "Collective Curating", published by the Manifesta Foundation and Silvana Editoriale.
Presentation of Manifesta 8 in Rome
28 May 2010
At the historic Belle Époque cafe, Bar della Pace in Via Santa Maria della Pace, one-minute walk from Piazza Navona, from 11.00am to 12.30pm
The event will see the participation of Hedwig Fijen (Director Manifesta Foundation, Amsterdam), Alfredo Cramerotti (curator M8, from the curatorial group Chamber of Public Secrets, Copenhagen), Lisa Mazza (Manifesta Foundation, Amsterdam), Esther Regueira (the new general co-coordinator of M8 in Murcia) and Jonathan Turner (M8 editor, Rome).
The presentation will take place in concurrence with the art fair Roma - The Road to Contemporary Art, and with the press launch and official opening of the new MAXXI - Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome, designed by Zaha Hadid.
The Geopolitical Turn: Art and the Contest of Globalisation
Conference
Nottingham Contemporary
08 May 2010
Ian Breakwell: The Elusive State of Happiness
David Briers / Art Monthly
Issue 5 April 2010
(excerpts)
[...] This exhibition, in Breakwell's home town, is the first retrospective survey of the artist's work since his death in 2005.
[...] Selecting a representative but not unwieldy group of works cannot have been an easy task, but one which the exhibition's curators have achieved with perfectly judged restraint - this is the best exhibition of Breakwell's work that I have seen [...]
DAVID BRIERS is an independent writer and curator based in West Yorkshire.
Ian Breakwell: The Elusive State of Happiness
Paul Carey-Kent / Art World
4 April 2010
Hi Louise / Alfredo
I just thought I'd congratulate you on The Elusive State of Happiness, which I thought was a fabulously put together show, as good as anything in the country at present. I did already like Ian Breakwell's work (see eg my blog review for March 8 on the recent Anthony Reynolds show) but I didn't expect such a comprehensive and effectively-installed presentation of his virtues.
Best wishes,
Paul
Paul Carey-Kent
(Editor at Large, Art World - currently suspended)
Recommended London shows @ blog: http://paulsartworld.blogspot.com
IMAGE FESTIVAL Toronto
Chamber of Public Secrets
29 Mar 2010
Co-curated by Khaled Ramadan and Alfredo Cramerotti
Chamber of Public Secrets works as a network of artists, curators and thinkers who have been collaborating since 2004 on the organization, production and circulation of film and video festivals, exhibitions, TV and radio programs, political fictions and documentaries. CPS members have also established forums for debate and published books and articles on issues like media representation, migration, mobility, colonialism, gender and difference. CPS helps to debate the position of artistic and media narratives and the function and responsibility of both in relation to society.
The CPS Archive was established in Copenhagen 2007 as an independent, non-profit art project focusing on the latest developments in visual art culture. The archive collects, preserves, and provides photographs, video films and documentaries about a variety of issues, thereby exploring, exposing and exemplifying the way contemporary art interacts with society through the use of new media.
The archive functions as an information and research centre and is open to the public. It consists of an electronic image, video and film database, which forms the basis for exhibitions, debates, symposiums, artist presentations, performances and screenings. The CPS Archive is open for cooperation with individuals and institutions that share the interest in exploring, examining and informing the contemporary artistic usage of visual elements - with the aim of enhancing communication between people of different societies.
For this screening, Alfredo Cramerotti will be presenting recent works from the archive by artists including Mounira Al Solh, Dalia Alkoury and Raed Yaseen that will serve as an introduction to a curatorial project he and Khaled Ramadan have worked on for Manifesta 8 called The Rest Is History?
Through operating as a roving Biennial, Manifesta must each time address and negotiate a different context with specific geographical, historical, aesthetical and political structures. In this way, its curators are offered the opportunity, and the challenge, to engage with local, global and networked communities using a variety of platforms and methodologies.
In the vision of CPS, Manifesta 8 is a series of 'transmissions' that critically use artistic, relational and media(ted) strategies to explore ideas of what Spain / Europe is today and focus on its boundaries and relationship with Northern Africa, encouraging viewers to ask questions.
CPS's approach to curating encompasses (mass) media platforms such as television, internet, radio and newspapers, alongside other exhibition formats. Broadcast airtime, online streaming, printed matter, human relations and physical venues are all 'channels' in which we present different types of constructions. These media(ted) channels are an extremely interesting place to situate a series of projects for Manifesta 8. By challenging artists and contributors to explore new terrains beyond their usual practice, we question what is the media's relationship to the construction of a local reality, how does it relate to ideas of truth, fact and history, and what are its possibilities for engaging with new audiences? And why do we need to expand the existing boundaries of art by introducing the notion of media?"
Khaled Ramadan is an artist and curator currently based in Helsinki. His fields of specialty include the culture and history of broadcast aesthetics, with interests in the fields of aesthetic journalism and documentary film research. He has produced several documentary films, theoretical texts and books on broadcast aesthetics, journalism and documentary filmmaking. Ramadan also has extensive experience curating video exhibitions and film festivals. He is the founder of the MidEast Cut festival, the Made in Video festival, the Coding-Decoding documentary festival, the video festival Not on Satellite, and the Video File. He is member of the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art, IKT and is currently co-curator of Manifesta 8.
Alfredo Cramerotti is a writer, curator and artist. His work explores the relationship between reality and representation across a variety of media. He is co-curator of the forthcoming Manifesta 8, a European biennial of contemporary art in Murcia and Cartagena, Spain, and curator of QUAD, an art, film and media centre in Derby, UK. He co-runs the collective art and media projects Annual General Meeting and Chamber of Public Secrets. Recent publications include Aesthetic Journalism: How to Inform without Informing (2009).
Autograph ABP London Newsletter
Thu, 25 Mar 2010
Alfredo Cramerotti: Aesthetic Journalism
13 April 2010, 6:30-8:00, Rivington Place, London
Autograph ABP is proud to present a talk at Rivington Place with writer, curator and artist Alfredo Cramerotti. Addressing a growing area of focus in contemporary art, Aesthetic Journalism investigates why contemporary art exhibitions often consist of interviews, documentaries and reportage.
Art theorist and curator Alfredo Cramerotti traces the shift in the production of truth from the domain of the news media to that of art and aestheticism - a change that questions the very foundations of journalism and the nature of art. The book probes the current merge of art with the sphere of investigative journalism and explores how this new mode of information is appropriating more and more space in modern culture. Aesthetic Journalism suggests future developments for this new relationship between art and documentary journalism, offering itself as a useful tool to audiences, scholars, producers and critics alike.
Cramerotti probes the current merging of art with the sphere of investigative journalism. The attempt to map this field, here defined as 'Aesthetic Journalism', challenges, with clear language, the definitions of both art and journalism, and addresses a new mode of information from the point of view of the reader and viewer.
The talk is free to the public, and booking is essential. Please email bookings@rivingtonplace.org or call 020 7749 1240.
Derby Evening Telegraph Newspaper
20 March 2010
Ian Breakwell: The Elusive State of Happiness
Arts Council England
2 March 2010
by Kate Stoddart
Arts Council England Assessor
(excerpt)
The exhibition celebrated this Derby artist with a national and international reputation by showing several bodies of work dating from the 1960's to 2005. Not presented as a retrospective, the exhibition gave a vivid impression of his life's work and his main preoccupations - finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, the Diaries (diary making across several formats, sometimes fusing fiction and fact). He worked with the media that best expressed the idea - photography, film, drawing and text, and collage. The exhibition was curated by QUAD, in partnership with the artists widow and gallery .
[...]
Unlike some conceptual artists, there is a close attention to the viewer, a desire to communicate clearly. There was a melancholy dark humour that was communicated via this work, part of the artists personality and presence.
50 Reasons for Getting out of Bed 2005 - a poem presented in large format vinyl letters on the wall, was very moving - a list of the ordinary things the artist loved seeing, doing, feeling, eating ending with a give away line abut the nausea accompanying the treatment for his cancer, the reason for the poem. Yes, I felt the artist's' voice' (as stated in the introduction panel and in the companion book) was well explored, as was his way of working. The work will leave an impression with me.
[...]
The publication was a strong addition to his current published works however. One of the best publications accompanying an exhibition in that it will help give a comprehensive recall of the works in the show but also gave a strong feel of what it felt like being in the show.
Ian Breakwell: The Elusive State of Happiness
Nottingham Visual Art (eds Jennie Syson and Andrew Cooper)
26/02/10
by Wayne Burrows
(excerpt)
This resistance to containment within any particular interpretation or genre across a body of work that spans drawing, photography, writing, film, audio, performance and television generates its own confusion about the fundamental nature of Breakwell's project, and this extreme fluidity has almost certainly contributed to both his widespread influence on younger artists (without Breakwell's example, it's unlikely that artists as different in sensibility as Jeremy Deller, Heather & Ivan Morison and Tracey Emin would be working quite as they do) and his relative neglect inside the art world since the 1970s.
[...]
The exhibition begins with a 1964 etching, The Regent Snooker Hall, Derby, made in the year that Breakwell graduated from the local art college. It's a canny choice of starting point by the joint curators Louise Clements and Alfredo Cramerotti, because despite its apparent straightforwardness - an elegant, roughly rendered evocation of a dimly lit space populated by shadows, perhaps looking back to the 1950s kitchen sink realism of John Bratby and Joan Eardley - it also points forward to the perspective that would inform everything that followed. It's all here, in embryo form: the mundane urban setting and oblique viewpoint, the snatched quality of the image, the glancing fascination with an otherwise unobserved corner of everyday life. These things would become the raw material for all Breakwell's later work.
[...]
The addition of material from the AD period of 2004 onwards makes this the first retrospective to follow the threads of Breakwell's practice to their inevitable, if premature completion. Yet even as Breakwell's death becomes the main subject of the work, he never allows autobiography to dominate: instead, it's as though the art - from which Breakwell often removed himself, acting more as engaged, bemused and fascinated observer - obliges him to stand slightly detached even from his own physical decline, bringing that experience into sharp universal focus. Despite the roots of all his art in his own immediate life, he exists here as a figure defined by what he has observed and experienced, rather than a protagonist, and his literal absence makes the web of incidental details he leaves behind seem all the more solid.
complete review at
http://www.nottinghamvisualarts.net/writing/feb-10/ian-breakwell-elusive-states-happiness
Ian Breakwell: The Elusive State of Happiness
METRO Newspaper
22 February 2010
Manifesta 8
TELEPRENSA.ES online newspaper
19 February 2010
Ian Breakwell:
The Elusive State of Happiness
The Guardian Newspaper, Saturday 13 February 2010
This is the first major retrospective of the work of Ian Breakwell, who died just five years ago after establishing his reputation as the greatest artist to come out of Derby since Joseph Wright of Derby, and one of the most mischievously spirited artworld provocateurs of the late-20th century. Working in just about every medium, his deadpan take on the world amounts to a life long series of mundane epiphanies. One of the most engaging diarists of his time, he was arguably one of the last great diarists before the blog age. Typical is The Walking Man Diary 1975-78, a series of photographic and textual observations made from the window of his Smithfield home of a lone passerby imbued with pathos.
QUAD, Sat to 18 Apr
Robert Clark
Ian Breakwell:
The Elusive State of Happiness
Derby Evening Telegraph
12th February 2010
February 12, 2010
Ian Breakwell:
The Elusive State of Happiness
13 February - 18 April 2010
Seminar Event 14 April 2010
QUAD
Market Place
Cathedral Quarter
Derby
DE1 3AS
UK
http://www.derbyquad.co.uk
The Elusive State of Happiness is a major exhibition of the work of Ian Breakwell (1943-2005), a man with an eye for seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. Breakwell was a world renowned prolific artist who took a multi-media approach to his observation of the minutiae of life through a wide range of media including dairies, film works, TV, audio and drawing.
Spanning a career of 40 years, his work is an attempt to subtract the obvious from the everyday, to isolate and bring it to another level of meaning, and aesthetic experience. The diary is the central motif of the exhibition, and the link of Ian's books and films with his video, drawing and audio works - all of them speaking as reference for his Continuous Diary lifelong project.
The humour, mischief and oblique wonder at the world that permeates his verbal and visual legacy is already legendary. His voyeurism -social rather than sexual- is always mitigated by humour: "The humour that I love is the morose, the deadpan, the seemingly unfunny stuff that is close to misery, but not quite." By presenting a continuous re-interpretation of what we already know, and have overlooked, Breakwell invites the viewer not to discard, but to reinvent the meaning of things. He invites us to see with other eyes.
Born in Derby and educated at the Derby College of Art, Ian Breakwell was a remarkably talented artist in any medium he handled, written, spoken and depicted, including media broadcasts, notably with adaptations of his Continuous Diary and Christmas Diary on Channel 4 in 1984 and 1988.
- - - - -
Curated by Louise Clements & Alfredo Cramerotti, in partnership with Anthony Reynolds Gallery and Felicity Sparrow.
- - - - -
A Seminar Event on Ian Breakwell will take place in QUAD, Derby, UK on 14th April 2010. Contributions by Breakwell's scholars and experts and special screening of the film works Auditorium (1993) and Variety (2001).
- - - - -
A richly illustrated Exhibition guide with over 80 colour reproductions accompanies the exhibition with original texts and visuals on more than 20 works from Breakwell's illustrious career through a wide range of media. Full colour, Brossard cover, available through QUAD.
- - - - -
During March a Film Season curated by Felicity Sparrow and David Sin will screen in QUAD's cinema, showcasing some of the films that impacted on the work and life of Ian Breakwell.
For more information:
http://www.derbyquad.co.uk
info@derbyquad.co.uk
Tel. +44 (0)1332 290606
Image: detail from: Walserings 1991
© the estate of Ian Breakwell
Courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
Manifesta Coffee Break 2009
Manifesta Coffee Break is a recurring public meeting, serving as an active tool to discuss the concept of Manifesta within a larger critical context. The fifth Coffee Break takes place on 12 and 13 December 2009 in Murcia, Spain, in preparation for Manifesta 8, and in direct relation to the context of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, which will take place in 2010. Titled Towards Manifesta 8, this Manifesta Coffee Break brings together both local and international artists, curators, theorists, writers and other art professionals to reflect on Manifesta's logic in direct relation to Murcia-Cartagena and its links with northern Africa. It is open for all who are interested, and consists of sessions by the three curatorial teams of Manifesta 8 together with invited speakers and guests.
Chamber of Public Secrets (CPS)
“Unfaithful Relations: Art, Engagement and Audience within the Biennial Model"
December 12, 10.00-13.30
with contributions by: Sara Black, Alfredo Cramerotti, Christine Eyene, Rian Lozano, Fay Nicolson and Khaled Ramadan
Through presentations and work groups at the Manifesta Coffee Break, CPS will start a dialogue about the role and involvement of the audience in the region of Murcia: visitors, artists, students and media presence. How can the local art scene, cultural producers and activists make a sustainable use of a biennial, in terms of time, space and continuity? What possibilities are there for audience development? And how to avoid or respond to the common skepticism of the local (art) scene towards a biennial which can be viewed as welcome/unwelcome or invited/invasive? The presentations by Sara Black (Great Britain) and Christine Eyene (France/Cameroon) do not attempt to answer these questions, but discuss potential approaches towards audience inclusion.
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF)
“The Aesthetic Compass: Human Geography and its Reverberations in Art"
December 12, 16.00-19.30
with contributions by: Jeremy Beaudry, Sherif El Azma, Bassam El Baroni, Nida Ghouse and Yaiza Hernández Velázquez
tranzit.org
“Post-Communist as well as Post-Colonial"
December 13, 10.00-13.30
with contributions by: Zbyněk Baladrán, Erick Beltrán, Vít Havránek, Dóra Hegyi, Richard Kostelanetz, Boris
Ondreička and Georg Schöllhammer
For a video excerpt of MCB:
http://www.manifesta8.blip.tv/
QUAD Derby / Hayward Gallery 'MAGIC SHOW'
The Guardian Newspaper
Saturday, 28th November 2009
The Times Newspaper
Saturday, 28th November 2009
Alfredo CRAMEROTTI: Aesthetic Journalism
Book launch and lecture performance by Fay Nicolson
Sat 07.11.2009, 7.30 p.m.
Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen
Weiherburggasse 13, Innsbruck, Austria
New York Photo Festival Newsletter
New York, 27 october 2009
.jpg "Images call for Critical Photography")
Manifesta 8 Curators
Announced September 2009
Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art | ||
  | | Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, will take place in 2010 in the Region of Murcia, Spain, in dialogue with Northern Africa. |
| Share this announcement on: Facebook | Delicious | Twitter | ||
In keeping with Manifesta's aim to experiment with innovative curatorial models and methodologies, no individual art professionals were considered for the position of curator of Manifesta 8. Instead, curatorial groups, artistic and interdisciplinary collectives and/or existing institutions were invited by the Board and the Director of the International Foundation Manifesta to propose a new working model for Manifesta 8. In doing so, the Board wishes to initiate a transcontinental collaborative strategy, connecting regions and institutions located around the Mediterranean. In the next few months the three selected collectives will define a mutual working methodology which will culminate in the concept and realization of Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art. | ||
Critical Photography book series
Announced August 2009
National Photography Symposium
Manchester 19-21 June 2009
Redeye Network Meeting
Tuesday 19 May 2009, 7.30pm
Speaker: Alfredo Cramerotti
Alfredo Cramerotti will present his recent project Faulty Lines. Shot in various cities around the world, the project explores the relationship between the two-dimensional photographic image and a three-dimensional built environment. Alfredo Cramerotti is an artist, curator and writer based in Derby. His work as an artist is primarily concerned with questions of narrative in photography, installation, video, performance and text. Organised in collaboration with Open Eye Gallery, Redeye's Liverpool Network meetings take place every couple of months. They offer photographers of all kinds the chance to meet, catch up on news and gossip, meet members of the Redeye and Open Eye Gallery teams and see short talks and presentations of work.
http://www.openeye.org.uk/events.asp
Aesthetic Journalism: How to Inform without Informing
Intellect Books
In print from September 2009
Aesthetic Journalism
How to Inform Without Informing
By Alfredo Cramerotti
Intellect Books
ISBN 9781841502687
Paperback 112 pages 230x174mm
Published September 2009
Price £19.95
As the art world eagerly embraces a journalistic approach, Aesthetic Journalism explores why contemporary art exhibitions often consist of interviews, documentaries and reportage. This new mode of journalism is grasping more and more space in modern culture and Cramerotti probes the current merge of art with the sphere of investigative journalism. The attempt to map this field, here defined as 'Aesthetic Journalism', challenges, with clear language, the definitions of both art and journalism, and addresses a new mode of information from the point of view of the reader and viewer. The book explores how the production of truth has shifted from the domain of the news media to that of art and aestheticism. With examples and theories from within the contemporary art and journalistic-scape, the book questions the very foundations of journalism. Aesthetic Journalism suggests future developments of this new relationship between art and documentary journalism, offering itself as a useful tool to audiences, scholars, producers and critics alike.
ARTIST TURNS AUTHOR
Derby Evening Telegraph
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
A STAFF member at Derby's Quad arts centre has published his first book.
Exhibitions officer Alfredo Cramerotti's book, called Aesthetic Journalism: How to Inform Without Informing, looks at how writing about art has become more journalistic in recent times.
Alfredo Cramerotti is an international artist, curator and writer and has worked in radio, TV and publishing.
Art and Design Industrial Liaison Committee
Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology
27 February 2009
Dear Alfredo
Out of respect and in recognition of your contribution to the creative industries you have been nominated by University of Derby, Art and Design academic staff for membership on the newly formed Art and Design Industrial Liaison Committee.
The committee is to be understood as a positive and dynamic link between the creative industries and respective subject areas of Art and Design education at the University; it will operate in an advisory capacity for future programme design, delivery and curriculum development; enabling us to maintain a relevant and pertinent portfolio of programmes which are in tune with the needs of industry and providing our students a more critical and creative edge when preparing themselves for future employment.
Scott Green
Head of Subject: ART
University of Derby
Exhibition Take a Line for a Walk
METRO Newspaper
26th January 2009
AGM 09 under.ctrl
QUAD Derby, UK & Radiator Biennial Festival of New Media Art Nottingham, UK
METRO Newspaper
14th January 2009
.jpg "agm 09 metro 14 janaury 2009")
Derby Evening Telegraph Newspaper
9th January 2009
.jpg "Press cover AGM 09 - DET")
Exhibition and Performance AGM 09 under_ctrl
QUAD Latest News
12th December 2008
Exhibition and Performance The17
METRO Newspaper
29th July 2008
Derby Evening Telegraph
20th May 2008
INTERNATIONAL APPOINTMENT FOR QUAD
QUAD Latest News
15th January 2008
Alfredo Cramerotti has joined the QUAD team as Exhibitions Officer. He will work closely with QUAD's senior curator Louise Clements to support, develop and coordinate the delivery of high quality exhibitions in QUAD and a related programme of events and talks with artists. Alfredo has moved to Derby from Bologna in Italy. The appointment shows the international appeal of QUAD even at an early stage of development.
Alfredo has extensive experience as a curator and commentator of contemporary art in Europe. Alfredo has an MA in Art in Context from the UdK Berlin (Germany); he participated in the Critical Studies Programme at the Malmö Academy-Lund University (Sweden) and Fellow Theory and Art Criticism at the Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen Innsbruck (Austria).
Fellowships final lecture and presentation
Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen Innsbruck, Austria
Tiroler Tageszeitung
25th January 2008
Die Neue
25th January 2008
AGM 07 Doc.Art
Symposium and Exhibition
Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen Innsbruck, Austria
Die Neue
15th November 2007
Tiroler Tageszeitung
16th November 2007
AGM 06 Discompact Exhibition
AIRplay Copenhagen, Denmark
30th October 2006
.jpg "Press release AGM 06 Discompact AIRplay, Literature House and LAB Copenhagen, Denmark")
Made In Video International Video Festival
Chamber of Public Secrets Copenhagen, Denmark
7th August 2006
