Highlight #35: Discover what contemporary art explores

The art scene of Spain, Turkey, Belgium and the U.S

Spain, Barcelona <Ignasi Aballi: Infinite Sequence>

1 July ~ 2 October 2016_Fundació Joan Miró

An exhibition of nearly forty pieces ranging from paintings, photography to installations and video works that showcase the oeuvre of Spanish Artist Ignasi Aballi; it also offers an opportunity to see his new pieces specially created for the exhibition. As a mini-retrospective, the show displays the artist’s interests. The title <Infinite Sequence> alludes to a body of works that alludes to the artist’s interest in cinema and audio visual techniques. <Time as Inactivity> is a multi-screen video installation that explores the representation of time and its paradoxes. Another video piece, <Repainting Miro> is made up of a series of works that focus on color.

<A Thousand Words> explores the process of description and homonymy by depicting three different people who describe the same image in a thousand words; Aballi examines the relationship between different languages of text and image. Don’t miss out the chance to see Aballi’s artistic interests which have been explored in a wide spectrum.

<A Thousand Words> 2016

Digital print on paper Three pieces, 70×50cm each
Courtesy of the artist
<Sequence> 2016

Glass and Plexiglas 65×40×25
Courtesy of the artist
<Time as Inactivity> 2016

Set of colour video loops, 120min, 60min, 30min, 15min, 10min, 5min, 1min, no sound
Courtesy of the artist
<This Is Not the End>(poster) 2016

Digital print on paper 100×70cm
Courtesy of the artist

Turkey, Istanbul <Not All That Falls Has Wings>

9 June ~ 18 September 2016_Arter

Falling, or the act of falling, usually implies lack of will. The exhibition explores falling in relation to the notions of gravity and gravitas. It investigates the act of falling not just as a sign of impotence, but from a deeper perspective. Seven artists - Bas Jan Ader, Phyllida Barlow, Cyprien Gaillard, Ryan Gander, Mikhail Karikis & Uriel Orlow, VOID and Anne Wenzel - gather to show the stray movements that connect the unexpected and the mundane. The artists’ unconventional approach towards falling or gravity allows the audience to find out how the artists deal with the surface. Phyllida Barlow’s multi-layered "landscape" installations emphasize the physical force of gravity and emotional tensions.

Mikhail Karikis & Uriel Orlow’s video installation work brings the audience into the underworld and gives them the opportunity to experience the sounds of a disused coal mine.
Through installations and video installation works, the artists focus on the balance between rise and fall. They also look at how the permanence of downfall affects the world around us; from individual lives to the achievement of humans, to the course of society.

Phyllida Barlow Installation view of <Phyllida Barlow. dock> Duveen Commission, Tate Britain, London, England, 2014

Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth and the artist Photo: Alex Delfanne
Ryan Gander <Ftt, Ft, Ftt, Ftt, Ffttt, Ftt, or somewhere between a modern representation of how a contemporary gesture came into being, an illustration of the physicality of an argument between Theo and Piet regarding the dynamic aspect of the diagonal line and attempting to produce a chroma-key set for a hundred cinematic scenes> 2010

Arrows Dimensions variable ⓒ Ryan Gander Courtesy of Lisson Gallery Photo: Ken Adlard
Anne Wenzel <Silent Landscape> 2006

Ceramic, plinth, water, mural with Indian ink 160×300×500cm Photo: John Stoel Courtesy of AKINCI Amsterdam and the artist

Belgium, Leuven <Aglaia Konrad_From A to K>

29 April ~ 18 September 2016_M-Museum Leuven

Aglaia Konrad investigates the urban space of the world through photography. She believes that it is the role of photography to capture the constructed world around us. Discovering public spaces and unusual buildings in a wide array of cities around the world—Sao Paulo, Cairo, Beijing, Dakar, and Chicago—through photography, Konrad has spent the last twenty years exploring the way cities evolve and the borders between sculpture, architecture, and photography.

The exhibition reveals Konrad’s interest in buildings and urbanization through her photography, film and installation works including a new film about a villa on Lake Garda and ‘Zweimal Belichtet’, a photograph series. The exhibition is a visual archive of the artist’s fascination with architecture. She is particularly interested in unusual modernist buildings and rather anonymous urban places. In addition to the photography and film works, the exhibition includes the artist’s books on the subject. She regards the books as a way of organizing space just like exhibitions and they play an important role in the artist’s oeuvre.

U.S.A., Washington D.C <Bettina Pousttchi_Double Monuments>

9 June ~ 2 October 2016_The Phillips Collection

Berlin-based German artist Bettina Pousttchi’s works explore the history and memory of architecture through photography, video, and sculpture.
In the series ‘Double Monuments for Flavin and Tatlin’(2010-2016), Pousttchi transforms the materials of rails, street barricades, and metal crowd barriers into sculptural forms. These five "double monuments," ranging from 5 to 12 feet, are of spiraling vertical towers and neon light tubes that reference the Russian Constructivist sculptor-architect Vladimir Tatlin’s work from the 1920s and American minimalist artist Dan Flavin from the 1960s.

The exhibited works are paired with works from the gallery’s permanent collection including Naum Gabo’s <Gabo’s Linear Structure in Space No.1>(1943) and black and white photographs from the early twentieth century by artists such as Berenice Abbott, Louis Faurer and Alfred Eisenstaedt. Just as Gabo used materials like metal, glass and plastic to create almost transparent sculptures emphasizing space, line and movement, Pousttchi applies neon and powder-coated objects to create sculptural and architectural installations. ■ with ARTINPOST

Berenice Abbott <New York at Night> 1931, printed 1975

Gelatin silver enlargement print 15 5/8×10 1/2in Gift of the Phillips Contemporaries, 2003 The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Bettina Pousttchi <Double Monument for Flavin and Tatlin IX> 2013

Powder coated crowdbarriers, and neon 114×59×55in Courtesy of the artist and Buchmann Galerie Berlin
Naum Gabo <Linear Construction in Space No. 1> 1943

Lucite with nylon thread, 24 1/8×24 1/4×9 7/8in Acquired 1948 The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC