The Book Is Out! PAVILION OF MALDIVES at the 55. International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia
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THE BOOK IS OUT!
PAVILION OF MALDIVES
55. International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia
Portable Nation: Disappearance as Work in Progress – Approaches to Ecological Romanticism
The book ‘Portable Nation: Disappearance as Work in Progress – Approaches to Ecological Romanticism’ offers a range of geo-political positions and research-curatorial methodologies on climate change and their approaches to ecological romanticism.
It expands on several of the themes which emerged conceptually and artistically in the Maldives Pavilion exhibition and six-month-long public programme, and elaborates them in a philosophical, historical, scientific and poetic register within the specific materiality of a book, with its capacity to extend the time, space and context of the ideas beyond the Venice Biennale. It aims to engage a readership further-reaching than the project’s immediate public.
The publication is structured in three main sections: the artists and their projects presented in the Maldives Pavilion, the parallel projects over the six-month period, and the critical text section which includes interviews and thematic analysis. Featuring essays on the geopolitics of climate change and the idea of urgency, the book offers a comprehensive snapshot of the aesthetic, political and poetic dimensions of the situation in the island nation intertwined with a global vision of the climate emergency around the world.
Editors: Dorian Batycka, Camilla Boemio, Alfredo Cramerotti and Aida Eltoire for the 55th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia – Maldives Pavilion
Publisher: Maretti Editore
Year: 2014
Pages: 176
Language: English
More about the book at Maretti Editore: http://www.marettieditore.com
Alfredo Cramerotti lecture at CCA, Estonia
Alfredo Cramerotti lecture at CCA, Estonia
Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia invites:
On Friday, April 25 at 5 PM an experienced curator, writer and artist, Alfredo Cramerotti will give a public lecture Curating Exhibitions, Conferences, Pavilions and Buildings: The Bizarre Life of the Curator at CCA, Estonia (Vabaduse väljak 6/8, button no. 5).
The lecture will present a few angles on curating, not only about exhibitions but the whole contemporary art culture. Alfredo Cramerotti is visiting Estonia as an invited member of the jury, which will choose the next Estonian Pavilion exhibition project for the 56th Venice Art Biennial 2015.
Alfredo Cramerotti is a writer and curator working across TV, radio, publishing, media festivals, writing and exhibition making. He directs MOSTYN, Wales’ leading contemporary art institute, and is Head Curator of APT Artist Pension Trust. In 2010 he co-curated Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, and in 2013 the Maldives Pavilion and the Wales Pavilion at the 55th Venice Art Biennial, as well as the 4th Trienala Ladina in South Tyrol. Alfredo is Research Scholar at the eCPR European Centre for Photography Research, University of Wales, Newport, and Editor in Chief of the Critical Photography series by Intellect Books. His own publications include the book Aesthetic Journalism: How to inform without informing (2009).
Link to the event:
http://www.cca.ee/en/center/155-alfredo-cramerotti-lecture-at-cc
MOSTYN New Season: Ryan Gander, Bedwyr Williams, Jesse Wine and We’ve Got Mail
| Ryan Gander: Chance Everything Bedwyr Williams: Hotel 70° 18 April–6 July 2014 We’ve Got Mail Gallery 6: Uprisings Preview: Thursday 17 April, 6:30pm, all welcome MOSTYN | Cymru | Wales T +44 (0) 1492 879 201 |
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| MOSTYN, Wales’ foremost contemporary art gallery is delighted to announce a new season of exhibitions.
Ryan Gander: Chance Everything Chance Everything by Ryan Gander presents both existing work and new pieces. Gander’s works are linked by a process of storytelling and by the manner in which they capture the spectator’s imagination. Gander’s works in Chance Everything include, amongst other pieces, a cardigan made from the wool of feral goats living on a nearby headland and to be worn by the exhibition’s invigilators; a short television commercial to promote imagination in the British public as if commissioned by the British government’s Department for Business, Innovation & Skills; and a carbon copy of the artist’s watch. Following his unique approach to artmaking, his works in the exhibition point to a variety of references, from the history of art and design to aspects of everyday life, and from popular culture to his own biography. Encompassing performance, sculpture, painting and video, North Wales-based Bedwyr Williams‘s practice is marked by his unique brand of humour that is informed, in part, by his upbringing in Wales. Drawing from his life experiences, Williams’s work, on the one hand, offers a sharp critique of our everyday world, and on the other, a relief and antidote to life’s pressures. At the heart of Williams’s exhibition at MOSTYN is a full-scale re-creation of the top section of the iconicHotel 70°, which once stood high on a cliff overlooking the nearby town of Colwyn Bay. The hotel was noted for its peculiar architecture where everything from the carpets to the stairs followed the 70° and 110° angles of the building. Also on view is a video piece and elements from the artist’s critically acclaimed exhibition The Starry Messenger, which represented Wales at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Bedwyr Williams’s exhibition has in part been supported by the Colwinston Trust. *Both Ryan Gander’s and Bedwyr Williams’s exhibition are part of the Conversation Series at MOSTYN, a series of exhibitions bringing together two artists and two solo exhibitions in conversation, curated by Adam Carr (Visual Arts Programme Curator, MOSTYN) and produced by MOSTYN. The intention is to present the dialogue collaboration and similarity in exploring themes that occur between artists, and to make this visible on the stage of the exhibition. #ryangander, #chanceeverything, #bedwyrwilliams, #hotel70, #mostyncymru We’ve Got Mail Participating artists: Robert Barry, Gabriele De Santis, Jan Dibbets, Ane Mette Hol, Jonathan Monk*,and Kirsten Pieroth We’ve Got Mail is the second exhibition in a series that examines the history of MOSTYN and its building. This exhibition responds to the context in which it takes place, a former postal sorting office into which MOSTYN’s galleries were expanded in 2010. We’ve Got Mail, of which there will be four exhibitions between now and 2017, will introduce some of the finest historical and recent examples of artists and artworks that have utilised postal mail, as well as original artifacts, documentation and ephemera from the gallery’s previous use as a Royal Mail sorting office. A booklet accompanies the exhibition and features texts by Adam Carr, Visual Arts Programme Curator, and by MOSTYN’s Director Alfredo Cramerotti. It can be ordered by contacting shop@mostyn.org. *On the occasion of this exhibition, Jonathan Monk has produced a new edition exclusively for MOSTYN. Titled Picture Post Card Posted From Post Box Pictured, it is part of a series of postcard pieces, which to date includes those made for venues in New York, London, Brussels and Paris. Each version of the edition depicts an image of the closest postbox to the gallery that it is produced for. After purchasing the postcard, the artist will write the address and message that the purchaser would like, together with his signature. The postcard will then be posted from the postbox pictured on the postcard, which in MOSTYN’s case is directly next door to the building. To make a purchase, please contact shop@mostyn.org. #wevegotmail, #mostyncymru Gallery 6: Uprisings Born in 1983, Jesse Wine’s work combines humour, biography and art history. While Wine’s work is multi-disciplinary, he often describes himself as a ceramicist. His recent work, mostly using clay, has an erudite take on the medium, using its history, its alliance with craft and its placement within the visual arts. His works reveal a fascination with the process of making, form and display. His exhibition at MOSTYN presents entirely new work. Gallery 6 would not be possible without the generous support of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. About MOSTYN | Cymru | Wales Through exhibitions, learning programme, lectures, symposia and publications, MOSTYN plays an active role in discussing contemporary culture in Wales, the UK and beyond. To be kept up to date with MOSTYN’s new programme, please subscribe to our mailing list by emailinglin@mostyn.org. |
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On Expansion: Photography’s Status in a Digital World
On Expansion: Photography’s Status in a Digital World
News Story and Vimeo Links
On Expansion was a roundtable discussion that recently took place at King’s College London on 21 January 2014. It was a closed-door workshop led by curator Alfredo Cramerotti (Director, MOSTYN) in partnership with artist/researcher Michael Takeo Magruder (Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London) that attempted to unpack certain aspects of the status of photography in an increasingly digital world. It is part of the AGM conversation series and was recorded as part of Alfredo Cramerotti’s ongoing research in this area.
The event focused on two lines of enquiry, namely: What is photography’s ontological status in the world today when thought in relationship to the omnipresence of the digital image and video? and How does this (digital) photographic moment in the history of image-making change the methodology of artistic and curatorial inquiries, their value, and their justification?
Discussion topics included:
- considering how the visual translations of ideas through various networked social systems have a major impact on our artistic and curatorial practices; examining how – now – images are made, distributed, recycled or found; and how curators are curating contemporary artists using new technology to reflect upon its meaning today.
- exploring how the artistic and curatorial act of making, manipulating, distributing and ‘digesting’ pictures is hybridized by devices like mobile phones, tablets and computers but, also, virtual reality glasses and game consoles.
- discussing the work of some artists and theorists in relation to these networked systems.
With an invited group of specialists and practitioners from diverse backgrounds, On Expansion looked at the ways in which conceptions about photography, art, digital practices and curating are in flux, and how these shifts – particularly in the artistic production and curatorial presentation of photography – can engender new ways of thinking about archives, collections, exhibitions and display.
Discussants included: Anna Bentkowska-Kafel (King’s College London), Gair Dunlop (University of Dundee), Marialaura Ghedini (University of Sunderland), Andrew Prescott (King’s College London), Anna Reading (King’s College London) and Gillian Youngs (University of Brighton).
Organisers:
Alfredo Cramerotti
Writer and Curator
Director, MOSTYN; Head Curator, APT Artist Pension Trust; Editor in Chief, Critical Photography series, Intellect Books; Research Scholar, eCPR European Centre for Photography Research, University of South Wales
http://www.alcramer.net + http://linkedin.com/in/alcramer
alcramer@gmail.com
Michael Takeo Magruder
Artist and Researcher
Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London
http://www.takeo.org + http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/ddh/people/affiliate/magruder
m@takeo.org
Links:
AGM Culture
http://agmculture.org
On Expansion video documentation
(part 1) http://vimeo.com/85040796
(part 2) http://vimeo.com/85046523
(part 3) http://vimeo.com/85054088
(part 4) http://vimeo.com/85069770
(part 5) http://vimeo.com/85069771
MOSTYN | Wales’ contemporary art centre | We are recruiting! Rydym yn recriwtio!
MOSTYN is currently advertising staff vacancies:
Membership and Development Manager
Visual Arts Programme Administrator
Accounts and Office Administrator
If you are interested, please email your CV and a covering letter telling us how you think your skills and experience are applicable to Alfredo Cramerotti, Director, at alfredoc@mostyn.org . Deadline: 7th February 2014.
Link for download job packs: http://www.mostyn.org/jobs
MOSTYN new exhibition season opening – Preview Friday 17 January 2014
MOSTYN, Wales’ foremost contemporary art gallery, is delighted to announce a new season of exhibitions:
RETURN JOURNEY, A unique journey around the UK through works by UK born artists.
TOM WOOD, Landscapes
MERIÇ ALGÜN RINGBORG
Preview Friday 17 January 2014, 6.30pm onwards
THE BISCUIT TIN PHOTO ARCHIVE – A public engagement project will accompany Tom Wood’s Landscapes exhibition.
2013 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 50 trips to carry that many people.
Closing Conference 55th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia – Meeting on Art: Museums and Biennials
Closing day of the 55th International Art Exhibition – Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace)
Sunday November 24th, 2013
2:00 pm Meeting on Art “Museums and Biennials”
Speakers will include
Paolo Baratta, President of la Biennale di Venezia
Massimiliano Gioni, Curator of the 55th International Art Exhibition
Cristiana Collu, Director of the Mart in Trento and Rovereto
Alfredo Cramerotti, Director of MOSTYN and co-curator of Manifesta 8
Bice Curiger, Curator of the 54th International Art Exhibition (2011)
Abdellah Karroum, Director of the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha
Achille Bonito Oliva, Curator of the 45th International Art Exhibition (1993)
Vicente Todolì, Artistic Advisor of Hangar Bicocca in Milan
Teatro Piccolo, Arsenale
(admission free subjected to seats availability)
RSVP and further information
Press Office Visual Arts
la Biennale di Venezia
Tel. +39 041 5218 849
infoartivisive@labiennale.org
http://www.labiennale.org
FB: La Biennale di Venezia | @twitter.com/la_Biennale
Check-in Budapest curatorial visitor program: Alfredo Cramerotti, Director, MOSTYN ǀ Wales
Whence the Future? – lecture by Alfredo Cramerotti
Alfredo Cramerotti (MOSTYN ǀ Wales) will deliver a lecture on the idea of time, knowledge and future. Following a text co-authored with Jean-Paul Martinon (Goldsmiths College, University of London) and published in ‘The Curatorial. A Philosophy of Curating’ (Bloosmbury, 2013), Cramerotti asks us to abandon our androids, tablets, computers in order to rethink how the future comes? His reply is that it comes from the immemorial past that old stories (for instance, in newspapers) always seem to hold ready for us to discover. Once opened, the work then consists in curating for ourselves our own future. With Cramerotti, the curatorial knowledge becomes the way in which the future is articulated.
The lecture will be held in English.
MOSTYN new exhibition season opening – Preview Friday 25 October 2013
MOSTYN, Wales’ foremost contemporary art gallery, is delighted to announce a new season of exhibitions.
Preview: Friday 25 October 6:30pm, all welcome
Women’s Art Society
26 October–5 January 2014
Nina Beier: Sweat no Sweat
26 October–5 January 2014
Dan Rees: Kelp
26 October–5 January 2014
Gallery 6: Uprisings – John Henry Newton
26 October–12 January 2014
Women’s Art Society
26 October–5 January 2014
Participating artists: Meriç Algün Ringborg, Sol Calero, Volker Eichelmann, Claire Fontaine, Tim Foxon, Guerrilla Girls, Jens Haaning, Catherine Opie, Martha Rosler, Danh Vo, Ai Weiwei
& a historical display of the Gwynedd Ladies’ Art Society
Women’s Art Society is the first exhibition in a series of exhibitions at MOSTYN taking place between 2013 and 2017. Each exhibition in the series will examine the history of MOSTYN and its building, and how that history is tied to events beyond its context locally, nationally and internationally.
This first exhibition reaches back to the inauguration of MOSTYN. Opened in 1902, the Mostyn Art Gallery was commissioned by Lady Augusta Mostyn and built to showcase the work of the Gwynedd Ladies’ Art Society, who were denied membership of male-dominated local art societies on the basis of their gender.
Women’s Art Society presents artefacts, documentation and artwork from the orginal Ladies Art Society, together with artworks by contemporary artists. These artworks are linked to the history of the original society by the way in which they examine the politics of gender, identity and regulation, and aspects of exclusion and prejudice—issues that confronted the Society and were vital in its formation.
Updating the spirit of the original Ladies’ Art Society and looking at it anew, the intent is to present and discuss the history of MOSTYN and its building, while bridging the divide between past and present.
The exhibition is displayed in galleries 2 & 3 and is curated by MOSTYN’s Visual Arts Programme Curator Adam Carr and organised and produced by MOSTYN.
Nina Beier
Sweat no Sweat
26 October–5 January 2014
This exhibition is the first for Nina Beier in a UK public institution, and one of the most comprehensive exhibitions dedicated to her work to date. Beier’s practice is perhaps best characterised by its conceptual orientation and its rigorous investigation of the object and exhibition of art itself as well as its attention to form and context. Aspects of art production and ideas of display, value and ownership, and the manner in which these are perceived and received, are amplified and subverted in many of her diverse works. The performance of objects and materials, how they change through time or alter according to context and presentation and their potential to appear contradictory are crucial and recurring themes in Beier’s work. This exhibition, in MOSTYN galleries 4 & 5, brings together both existing works and new commissions.
The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Council Committee for International Visual Arts.
Dan Rees
Kelp
26 October–5 January 2014
Rees’ starting point for Kelp is his own love of laverbread, which he regularly has sent from Wales to his studio in Berlin. This approach to national identity and Wales’ heritage is entirely characteristic of Rees’ other works, which have regularly drawn from the particularities of his upbringing, his background and his place of birth.
Through a number of different approaches—among them packaging design, photography, sculpture and satirical cartoons—Kelp sees Wales’ trade of seaweed and laverbread rethought and reconsidered, and appealing to the modern-day consumer. This exhibition is displayed in Gallery 1.
This exhibition is organised in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and supported by the Colwinston Charitable Trust.
Gallery 6: Uprisings – John Henry Newton
26 October 2013–12 January 2014
Gallery 6 is a new initiative at MOSTYN housed in its upper level. It is dedicated to presenting the work of young and emerging artists, all of whom are yet to have a solo exhibition in an institutional setting—nationally or internationally. The Gallery 6 space and its associated programme, titled Uprisings, provide the opportunity for an artist to work under professional conditions, and to present their work to a larger audience. It will bring to MOSTYN a diverse range of artists, at the very forefront of contemporary art practice, from both home and away.
Four Uprisings will occur each year. This, the third of 2013, is by John Henry Newton.
Gallery 6 would not be possible without the generous support of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
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MOSTYN | Cymru | Wales12 Vaughan Street
Llandudno LL30 1AB
Wales, UK
http://www.mostyn.org
MOSTYN in Llandudno, North Wales (UK) is the leading, publicly funded, contemporary art gallery in Wales and serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of contemporary life through international contemporary art and curatorial practice.
Through exhibitions, learning programme, lectures, symposia and publications, MOSTYN plays an active role in discussing contemporary culture in Wales, the UK and beyond.
To be kept up to date with MOSTYN’s new programme, please subscribe to our mailing list by emailing lin@mostyn.org.
Contact: T +44(0) 1492 879 201 / post@mostyn.org
Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti] 
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