Highlight #29: Artists explore new territory

Enjoy walking in Sweden, Mexico, Switzerland and Rebanon

Sweden, MALMÖ <JUMANA MANNA: A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME>

30 January ~ 1 May 2016_Malmö Konsthall

Malmö Konsthall presents Junama Manna’s first solo show in Sweden. The Berlin- and Jerusalem-based artist addresses issues such as nationalism, the construction of communities, and the body’s relation to specific histories of place. This exhibition includes a number of new small-scale sculptures that continues a series shown in 2015. This group of works evokes vases, fragments of bodies or archaeological findings.

A magical substance flows into me(2015), the centerpiece of this exhibition, draws on recordings made in the 1930s for the series of radio programs “Oriental Music” by Robert Bachmann, to point out the musical traditions of communities living in and around Jerusalem today. Manna(1987–) reveals the historical, cultural and linguistic entanglement of disparate communities through the possibility of sound and listening. A shared musical heritage challenges the false binary of Arab/Jew. Her works have been shown in London, Oldenburg, Oslo, Berlin and New York. In 2012, Manna received the A.M. Qattan Foundation’s Young Palestinian Artist Award.

<A magical substance flows into me(Video still)> 2015

HD video length: 70 min
<A magical substance flows into me(Video still)> 2015

HD video length: 70 min
<A magical substance flows into me(Video still)> 2015

HD video length: 70 min

Mexico, MEXICO CITY <LOS MODERMOS>

11 November 2015 ~ 4 April 2016_Museo Nacional de Arte

Organized in collaboration with the Musee des Beaux-arts of Lyon, France, the exhibition "Los Modernos" offers a sample of the development of modern art in the first half of the 20th century, including a selection of significant examples from European and Mexican art. This exhibition is comprised of nine themes corresponding to aesthetics discourse: paisaje, desnudo, retrato, surrealismo, luz, color, línea, espacio and abstracción. It enables an appreciation of statements and dialogues shared by Mexicans and Europeans about the path of the plastic arts, as well as their contributions in the development of Avant Garde movements such as Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism among others.

With more than 140 pieces, the exhibition tries to answer such questions as: What are the common explorations between the two continents? What generated this ideological change and what were its implications in the artistic field? Artists will include Diego Rivera, Ángel Zárraga, Gerardo Murillo, André Breton, Albert Gleizes, Albert Marquet, Raoul Dufy, Pierre Combet-Descombes and more. After the show ends, the exhibition will travel to the Museo de las Artes of the Universidad de Guadalajara(MUSA) in Jalisco.

Fernand Leger <Les deux femmes au bouquet> 1921

Huile sur toile 92×65cm 106.8×69.6cm Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon Legs Jacqueline Delubac, 1997Inv. 1997-38, N14-453 Photographe: Basset Alain
Ignacio Rosas <Retrato de Tomasa Venegas> 1910

Oleo sobre tela 80.9×64.8cm(sin marco) 83×67×3.8cm(con marco) Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA Acervo Constitutivo de 1982
Robert Delaunay <Rythme> 1934

Huile sur papier maroufle sur carton 62.5×47.5cm 78.2×62.6cm Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon Acquis d’un collectionneur, 1959 No. Inv. 1959-48, N08-036 Photographe: Basset Alain

Switzerland, BASEL <JEAN DUBUFFET: METAMORPHOSES OF LANDSCAPE>

31 January ~ 8 May 2016_Fondation Beyeler

One of the defining artists of the second half of the 20th century, French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet’s (1901–1985) first retrospective is on at Fondation Beyeler. The show features around 100 works, including the spectacular multimedia works of art Coucou Bazar(1973), a space-encompassing installation with partly animated costumes that combines painting, sculpture, theater, dance and music. Dubuffet was inspired by the work of artists on the margins of the cultural scene and succeeded in liberating himself from traditions.

Reinventing art, he influenced many others such as David Hockney, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. This exhibition emphasizes Dubuffet’s fascinating notion of landscape transforming itself into a body, a face or an object. The artist experimented in his works with new techniques and materials such as sand, butterfly wings, sponges and slag, creating an individual and unique visual universe. This exhibition shows Jean Dubuffet’s multifaceted, imaginative and brightly colored oeuvre.

<Lettre a M. Royer (desordre sur la table)> 1953

Oil on canvas 81×100cm Acquavella Modern Art ⓒ 2015, ProLitteris, Zurich
Photo: ⓒ Acquavella Modern Art
<Le circulus II (L 53)> 1984

Acrylic and collage on paper mounted on canvas 100×134cm Collection Fondation Dubuffet, Paris ⓒ 2015, ProLitteris, Zurich
<Site avec trois personnages> 1974

Vinyl paint on cut-out pressed wood 296.5×446.7×3.2cm Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Beyeler Collection ⓒ 2015, ProLitteris, Zurich
Photo: Robert Bayer, Basel

Rebanon, BEIRUT <NADIM KARAM: STRETCHING THOUGHTS>

21 January ~ 2 April 2016_Ayyam Gallery Beirut

The multidisciplinary practice of Lebanese artist and architect Nadim Karam incorporates painting, drawing, sculpture, and writing in the creation of bold, inspiring, and uncanny artworks that challenge common preconceptions. With a background that fuses Oriental and Japanese theories of space, Karam has created his own concepts and a distinct artistic vocabulary that tackles the universality of the human condition, working towards the reconfiguration of space.

Stretching Thoughts(2015) questions the impact of national, regional, and global decisions that affect personal histories, and how human creativity has the potential to grow beyond their imposed boundaries. At the center of the exhibition, the large-scale installation Neglected Thoughts(2015) establishes the context of the series. Structured as a square box with suspended scrap metals, the work alludes to the growing intellectual crisis of today: the unused or abandoned thoughts and ideas, specifically in the Arab world, that would otherwise offer alternatives to our current reality. ■ with ARTINPOST

<Raining Thoughts> 2015

Mixed media and gold leaves on canvas 205×205cm
<Serendipity> 2015

Mixed media on canvas 320×205cm
<Reclined Thoughts> 2015

Corten steel finish 60×190×40cm edition of 8