Highlight #2: The biennales and exhibitions in Europe and Asia

Interesting art events in Luxembourg, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi and Torino

Luxembourg, <RUI MOREIRA-I AM A LOST GIANT IN A BURNT FOREST>

8 November 2014~8 February 2015_Mudam Luxembourg

A solo presentation of the Portuguese artist Rui Moreira is on view at Mudam Luxembourg. He often reflects personal lives and the universe in the works. Drawing is regarded as his basis and is an intensive experience in which it is necessary for him to involve physically and mentally. His drawings normally take several months to be completed with detailed and precise descriptions. Whether the content is figurative or abstract, they always express the inner experiences from his travel. The subject matter in his drawings is closely related to new and far away cultures and religions, and sometimes with a resonance connected to literature, music and cinema.

The works can be divided up into figurative and abstract motifs. The landscape motifs in his works seem as if they are recorded physical experiences of the artist in graphics on the borderline to abstraction. Moreira tries not only to create new forms and techniques, but also open new territories of art. A remarkable point of his piece is carefully selected titles of the work. It is also an attraction that could be discovered in this exhibition.

<La Nuit (Les Telepathes)>

2011 Gouache, gel pen and colored pencils on paper 191x184.5cm Courtesy private collection, France ⓒ Rui Moreira, photo: Laura Castro Caldas
<The Holy Family II>

2014 Gouache and gel pen on paper 141×238cm Courtesy Galerie Jaeger Bucher Collection, Paris ⓒ Rui Moreira photo: Laura Castro Caldas
<Telepath I>

2013 Gouache and gel pen on paper 215×140cm Courtesy Galerie Jaeger Bucher Collection, Paris ⓒ Rui Moreira photo: Laura Castro Caldas
<The Machine of Entangling Landscapes VI>

2011 Gouache and gel pen on paper 160×238cm Courtesy the artist and Galerie Jaeger Bucher, Paris ⓒ Rui Moreira photo: Laura Castro Caldas
<I’m a Lost Giant in a Burnt Forest>

2010 Gouache and gel pen on paper 250×318cm Courtesy the artist and Galerie Jaeger Bucher, Paris ⓒ Rui Moreira photo Miguel Angelo Guerreiro

CHINA, SHANGHAI <Shanghai Biennial>

23 November 2014~31 March 2015_Power Station of Art

The theme of the 10th Shanghai Biennial is 'Social Factory' and is under the curatorial directorship of Anselm Franke, a curator and writer based in Berlin, Germany. As the most established art biennial in China, the 10th edition aims to devote to artistic engagement with today and includes historical references. One of the starting points of reference for the Shanghai Biennial is a Chinese writer, Lu Xun. Xun is known as a fundamental figure in the revival of the woodcut tradition in 20th century China. Here at the biennial, it is served as a reflection on popular images and Contemporary art.

Compare to previous editions, this year is concise in scale but staged a broad variety of the significant artistic practice from China and abroad. The exhibition is divided into a series of departments that engage with specific contexts and themes such as reflections on childhood, emotions and their representation. The exhibition represents a various form of cultural production expanding the area of Contemporary art, taken from popular images encompassing music to documentary film.

Adam Avikainen <New Loco Pilot>

2014 Digital photo Dimensions variable
Adrian Melis <The Value of Absence, Excuses to be absent from your work center>

2012 Installation view <New Structures of Production> at ADN Galeria Photo: Roberto Ruiz ⓒ Adn Galeria
Zheng Guogu <The Empire/Unfinished Garden>

2004-present
Carlos Amorales <We'll See How All Reverberates>

2012 Steel, cooper and epoxy paint
Mobil A: 240×580 cm Mobil B: 255×520cm Mobil C: 265×480cm Edition 1/3 Courtesy the artist kurimanzutto, Mexico City
Zhou Tao <Blue and Red>

Single channel HDV 16:9 color with sound 25'14" 2014

U.A.E, ABU DHABI <SEEING THROUGH LIGHT: SELECTIONS FROM THE GUGGENHEIM ABU DHABI COLLECTION>

5 November 2014~19 January 2015_Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation opened a new branch in Abu Dhabi and its pre-opening exhibition introduces the future museum's curatorial vision. Presenting for the first time in representative artworks acquired for their collection. Featured artworks are done by 18 artists who work internationally from the 1960s to the present exploring the theme of light as a primary aesthetic principle in art. The richness and flexibility of subject matter also has particular relevance across cultures and time periods. The exhibition is divided into five sections that examine light in various iterations. The themes of each section are 'Activated, Celestial, Perceptual, Reflected, and Transcendent'.

The exhibition begins chronologically in the 1960s and it quickly blends and mixes time. The visitors are encouraged to move around in impressive environments through a diversity of media including video, painting and sculpture and are able to experience light in its spatial, sensory and perceptual phenomena. <Seeing Through Light remains> on view until 19 January, 2015.

Yayoi Kusama <Infinity Mirrored Room-Filled with the Brilliance of Life>

2011 Mirror-paneled installation with LED lights and water 300×617.5×645.5cm Edition 2/3 Courtesy Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Angela Bulloch <6 Chains: Permutation B (52:4-White)>

2002 LanBox-LCX controller; 21 DMX modules of lacquered birch plywood with diffusion-foiled glass, aluminum panels, cables, and RGB lighting system; six black boxes of lacquered birch plywood, aluminum panels, and cables 50×50×50cm each Courtesy Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Otto Piene <Hangende Lichtkugel [Hanging Light Ball]>

1972 Perforated and chromium-plated brass sphere, chromium-plated brass spheres, light bulbs with electric motor 223.5×68cm Courtesy Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Robert Irwin <Untitled>

1967-68 Acrylic lacquer on formed acrylic plastic 116.8cm diameter Courtesy Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
Installation view <Seeing Through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection>

Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg, courtesy Abu Dhabi Tourism & Cultural Authority
Y.Z. Kami <Endless Prayers XIII>

2008 Cut and pasted printed paper on canvas 177.8 x 195.6cm Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

ITALY, TORINO <SHIT AND DIE>

6 November 2014~11 January 2015_Palazzo Cavour

<SHIT AND DIE> is an exhibition produced by <Artissima 2014>, an international fair of Contemporary art in Torino, Italy. This year's <Artissima> presents the second edition of <One Torino>, a unique project conceived and produced by the fair. Its title is borrowed from the significant artwork called <One Hundred Live and Die>(1984) by a Contemporary American artist Bruce Nauman. The work is a short slogan written in neon that tells stories and brings together living beings through the word, the implicit gesture, space and time. It is a project that captures the cultural sense of vocation of the fair, as an event created out of a desire for constant experimentation and the necessity of involving unexpected views on Contemporary art.

There is a broad range of work on view and a total of 61 artists are featured in the exhibition, including established names and young emerging figures. A director of Artissima is Sarah Cosulich Canarutto and <SHIT AND DIE> is organized by a renowned Contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan, curators Myriam Ben Salah and Marta Papini. ■ with ARTINPOST

Installation view <Shit And Die> at Palazzo Cavour

Photo: Zeno Zotti
Installation view <Shit And Die> at Palazzo Cavour

Photo: Zeno Zotti
Installation view <Shit And Die> at Palazzo Cavour

Photo: Zeno Zotti
Installation view <Shit And Die> at Palazzo Cavour

Photo: Zeno Zotti
Installation view <Shit And Die> at Palazzo Cavour

Photo: Zeno Zotti
Installation view <Shit And Die> at Palazzo Cavour

Photo: Zeno Zotti
Installation view <Shit And Die> at Palazzo Cavour

Photo: Zeno Zotti