Song Dong, Groninger Museum, Groningen - Life is Art, Art is Life

Song Dong, Life is Art, Art is Life

Groninger Museum, Groningen

13 June - 1 November 2015

A map of the world made of thousands of sweets, a wildflower-strewn hill made of waste and grass made of green whipped cream. These are examples of the work of SONG DONG (Beijing, 1966). His first major solo exhibition, including videos, installations and photographs, is presented at the Groninger Museum. Song Dong is one of the most important internationally operating Chinese artists of our times. His work has been exhibited by leading institutes worldwide.

His eye-catching work Waste Not occupies a prominent place in the exhibition. The installation consists of the household effects that are the result of his mother’s collector mania. This work was previously exhibited by the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Barbican Centre in London and at the Biennale of Sidney in 2013.

Song Dong was traditionally trained as a painter. However in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square protests, he abruptly stopped painting to manifest a few years later with – by Chinese standards – more experimental art forms such as performance, photography and video installation art. In his conceptual work, Song explores themes like impermanence, transience and loss. For his performance Breathing (1996), Song lay on his stomach on Tiananmen Square for 40 minutes on a freezing New Year’s Eve. His warm breath created a temporary layer of ice on the cold ground. He repeated this performance on the frozen Lake Houhai, an artificial lake north of the Forbidden City, this time to no avail. The next morning, all traces of his performance on the square had disappeared as well: all that remains are the photographs that register the performance.

In recent years, the Groninger Museum has regularly spotlighted contemporary Chinese art, in both group and solo exhibitions: ‘Ai Weiwei’ (2008), ‘New World Order’ (2008), ‘Me, Myself and I: Chi Peng’ (2011), ‘Yin Xiuzhen’ (2012), ‘Fuck Off 2. Curated by Ai Weiwei, Feng Boyi, Mark Wilson’ (2013). This major retrospective of the work of Song Dong adds depth to this practise.

After closing in Groningen, the exhibition will travel to the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

GRONINGER MUSEUM

Museumeiland 1, 9711 ME Groningen, The Netherlands

www.groningermuseum.nl

Naoko Tamura, Galerie Taka Ishii, Paris - Thaümata

Naoko Tamura: Thaümata
Galerie Taka Ishii, Paris
4 Juin – 25 Juillet 2015 

Les miroirs feraient bien de réfléchir un peu avant de renvoyer les images.— Jean Cocteau, « Le sang d’un poète » (1930)

La galerie Taka Ishii Photography Paris presente la première exposition de Naoko Tamura à Paris.

Basée à Kyoto mais actuellement en résidence à la Cité Internationale des Arts, l’artiste japonaise présente “Thaümata”, une nouvelle série de photographies. Elle y développe son intérêt pour les différentes possibilités qu’offre le medium photographique pour observer le monde et le spectacle des choses. Sa série « Voice » (2004) présentait des images mentales, abstraites et rêvées. Dans « La Forêt de Sologne », elle photographiait dans la clinique psychiatrique de La Borde; travail exposé en 2010 par la galerie Taka Ishii à Kyoto et publié dans un livre du même nom, en 2012.

“Thaümata” est un mot de Grec ancien que nous pouvons traduire par “merveilles” ou “miracles”. De la poésie de Callimaque de Cyrène aux écrits de Phlégon, les auteurs grecs et romains aimaient compiler les merveilles et les mystères du monde naturel.

Naoko Tamura s’applique elle aussi dans cette série à dessiner un monde mystérieux et fugitif : celui des reflets que lui renvoient avec malice les miroirs du dispositif photographique. Opérant comme la surface d’un lac, l’optique de son appareil photographique Mamiya 330c capte une scène choisie et la reflète à l’envers, sur le verre de visée. C’est cette vue inversée qui se profile dans le viseur que Naoko Tamura photographie ensuite à l’aide d’un autre appareil. Ces phénomènes de miroitement sont très presents dans l’imaginaire japonais. Il y a un plus d’un millénaire les poètes chantaient déjà dans de nombreux wakas les reflets de la lune à la surface des eaux. 

Les images que la photographe obtient et sélectionne ne sont ni cataloguées ni ordonnées par une structure narrative ou thématique. Elles ne sont unies que par leur poésie et leur mystère, l’univers onirique qu’elles font naître. Ces images demandent une attitude contemplative et leur monde se dessine d’autant mieux qu’on rêve plus longtemps. On pense avec Naoko Tamura au philosophe Gaston Bachelard qui suggérait dans “L’eau et les rêves” que si la vie est un rêve dans un rêve, l’univers est un reflet dans un reflet. 

Taka Ishii Gallery Photography Paris
119 rue Vieille du Temple, 75003 Paris
www.takaishiigallery.com

Jacques Henri Lartigue - The Riviera @ Turku Art Museum

Jacques Henri Lartigue - The Riviera

Turku Art Museum

5 June – 20 September 2015

The grand old man of French black-and-white photography, Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894–1986) first visited the French Riviera with his camera and family when he was 11, and from then on he photographed the glamour and enchantment of the region. The self-taught photographer saw around him speed, joy and beauty, fleeting moments of happiness, all of which he carefully preserved in numerous photo albums and diaries. Most of the nearly 200 cheerful photographs in the exhibition were taken in the 1920s–1950s. They transport us to the golden age of the Riviera, with its aristocratic idleness, glamorous society, sporty beach life and parties lasting to the wee hours.

The Riviera (Fr. Côte d'Azur) first became a popular tourist destination in the late 19th century. The pinnacle of its glamour was in the early 20th century, when wealthy tourists and bon vivants populated the sunny coastal area. The mythic reputation of the area owed itself in part also to its popularity as a resort among artists and celebrities. In parallel with his personal narrative, Jacques Henri Lartigue’s photographs also tell about the transformation of Riviera from the Belle Époque to an emancipated beach resort of the 1920s and a pleasure lovers’ paradise in between the war years. In Jacques Henri Lartigue’s eyes, the French Riviera lost it glamour progressively after the war, becoming too crass and artificial. The change was also visible in his photographs, which began containing a new kind of sarcasm.

Jacques Henri Lartigue was first and foremost a painter for whom photography was an all-consuming hobby and a lifestyle, but it was not until the age of 68 that he was discovered as a photographer in the USA through a set of lucky coincidences. During the last decades of his life, Jacques Henri Lartigue enjoyed the acclaim of the public and his photographer colleagues, and in his native France his rise to fame was ultimately sealed in 1974, when the newly elected president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing commissioned Jacques Hneri Lartigue to take his official portrait.

Recording his own life and its moments of happiness was a full-time job, and Jacques Henri Lartigue left behind 130 carefully compiled albums, some 150,000 photographs and 50,000 pages of diary notes, which comprise one of the most out-standing visual biographies of our time. Jacques Henri Lartigue donated his work to the French state, and it is today administered by Donation Jacques Henri Lartigue. 

The exhibition is produced in collaboration with L’Association des Amis de Jacques Henri Lartigue and the French Ministry of Culture. The exhibition has been supported by Mouton Cadet /Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Institut français de Finlande.

Curator: Annina Sirén

TURKU ART MUSEUM

Aurakatu 26, 20100 Turku

www.turkuartmuseum.fi

Jim Dine, Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris

Jim Dine, City of Glass
Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris
6 juin - 24 juillet 2015

JIM DINE

City of Glass #1, 2014

Bronze, verre, acier inoxydable, objets trouvés, peinture laquée, 155 x 150 x 128 cm

Courtesy Jim Dine et Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris

Pionnier du happening et compagnon du Pop Art, grand expérimentateur de techniques, l’artiste américain JIM DINE a choisi Paris pour fêter ses 80 ans avec une installation inédite : City of Glass à la galerie Daniel Templon.

City of Glass réunit un ensemble de sculptures associant bronze, verre, peinture et outils. Chacune de ces ‘Ville de verre’ se déploie sur un socle-établi, à mi-chemin entre l’atelier d’artiste et le cabinet secret de l’alchimiste.

Poète autant que peintre et sculpteur, Jim Dine explique : «  Tout ce que j’ai fait, tout ce que je continue à faire, a seulement à voir avec le feu. J’ai passé les soixante dernières années à entretenir la flamme pour être sûr qu’elle ne disparaisse pas ».

Cette exposition anniversaire jubilatoire, qui dévoile le résultat de deux ans et demi de travail, célèbre la puissance créatrice d’une artiste singulier.

Ici, l’outil et le processus sont aussi cruciaux que l’œuvre achevée. Jim Dine bouleverse les règles et pousse les techniques à leurs limites. Il a lui-même fondu les outils en torsion qui composent les Cities of Glass, incluant quelques rares objets trouvés. Pour la toute première fois, l’artiste utilise le verre, soufflé, afin de ‘sculpter la lumière’. Une série de grands dessins d’outils fait écho à ces installations.

Jim Dine a exposé dans les plus grandes institutions internationales depuis les années 1970. Récemment, il a exposé ses sculptures au J. Paul Getty Museum à Los Angeles (2008) et à l’Ohio University (2011) et ses dessins au Morgan Library & Museum à New York (2011). Le Cincinnati Art Museum a célébré son fameux Pinocchio en 2012. Le Museum Folkwang Essen (Allemagne) consacrera en octobre 2015 une grande rétrospective à son œuvre graphique.

Jim Dine est représenté dans plus de 70 collections publiques à travers le monde, dont celle du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York, du Musée national d’art moderne - Centre Pompidou à Paris, de la Tate Collection à Londres.

Il s’agit de sa huitième exposition à la Galerie Daniel Templon.

Galerie Daniel Templon
30 rue Beaubourg, Paris
www.templon.com

Photo Basel 2015 - New Photography Art Fair in Switzerland

Photo Basel 2015

New Photography Art Fair

June 17 - 20, 2015

Photo basel is Switzerland’s first art fair, solely dedicated to art photography. The unique concept contains that galleries only show works of artists younger than 40.

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The first edition of photo basel takes place during Art Basel week from June 16th to 20th, 2015.

Approximately 30 galleries from around the globe will show contemporary and also  classic works. Furthermore, the fair’s program will contain curated exhibitions and themed program around the topic of photography. 

The exhibition location is the historic Ackermannshof, a complex of medieval buildings in the old town of Basel, a stone throw off the Rhine river and a five minute taxi ride or a twelve minute walk from Art Basel.

“Photography is the most popular medium of our time. Within the last two decades, it has established itself in the art market and museums. Switzerland and in particular Basel has a long history in regards of photography. As of today, photography as medium has not yet reached its full potential during Art Basel week in regards of its exposure, we would like to change that,” says one of the co-founders, the Basel local, Sven Eisenhut who together with a team of several professionals acts as organizers of photo basel fair.

Photo basel is not your ordinary “me too satellite fair” but a valuable and important addition to it’s famed neighbour, Art Basel and other several players in the art fair market. “Photography needs its own spaces, it’s own forum and platform within the context of contemporary art, that is why we are creating photo basel.”

PHOTO BASEL 2015

Ackermannshof, St. Johannsvorstadt 19-21, 4056 Basel

www.photo-basel.com