Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti]

All That Fits: The Aesthetic of Journalism – General Feeback

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on August 4, 2011
 
“The show is really impressive”
(Keith Jeffrey, CEO of QUAD)
 
“There’s some good thinking behind the show”.
(Alex Farquharson, Director of Nottingham Contemporary)

 

“I enjoyed the exhibition very much and found it chimed at lot with a show we are currently developing for next summer which looks at direct change actions by artists in the public realm.”
(Clive Gillman, Director of Dundee Contemporary Arts)
 
“This is an ambitious show for Derby and it is certainly to the curator’s credit that such a highly original exhibition tackling pertinent and current themes has been programmed outside the context of London or a university gallery (I am not aware of any other institutions programming exhibitions on similar themes). Despite Derby not being a well-provided art destination (Quad only opened in 2008) it appears that Quad’s programme over the last three years has not pandered to populism but has presented an interesting and challenging range of work including solo shows from artists such as Ian Breakwell, Dinu Li and Jane & Louise Wilson as well as group shows such as the Format International Photography Festival. This exhibition, All That Fits, continues the trend for original exhibitions and is a good example of Quad’s uncompromising attitude. I don’t know if the exhibition will be touring but it strikes me that it would easily translate to other venues.”
(David Gritt, art critic for Art Review and Artistic Assessor for Arts Council England)
 
“Thought the show was very daring – a restrained curation, the space was really serene and quite beautiful and the (video) boxes worked very well. It was also interesting to see how much was semi hidden. I felt you managed to combine approachable / accessible with what is actually a very challenging show and conceptually intricate. Well done to all. I particularly enjoyed Katya Sander’s work – both the showing and the content and Graziela Kunsch’s library of open process and the aesthetic punch of Walid Raad and Eric Baudelaire.”
(James Corazzo, Designer)
 
“As a journalist I guess you would expect me to take a keen interest in the current Quad exhibition but I don’t think you need 25 years as a reporter to appreciate what’s on offer at the Derby arts centre. With all that’s going on in the phone hacking scandal at the moment and the changing face of the way information is disseminated thanks to the rise of the internet, an exhibition looking at current trends in journalism and art (and the blurring of those distinctions) seems acutely relevant to us all.
All That Fits is currently in its third and last phase, The Militant, looking at counter images and information. I’d urge you to at least drop into the Quad Gallery and check out French photographer Eric Baudelaire’s war diptych The Dreadful Details.
This striking image is no less powerful for being posed, encapsulating the nature of modern conflict with an almost biblical composition. Foreign troops prowl dusty, debris-strewn streets where a woman cradles a slaughtered child in her arms. Most tellingly, from the safety of an upstairs balcony a man captures the scene on his mobile, ready presumably to upload the horrors on YouTube. “
(Friday, July 22, 2011: Nigel Powlson in ‘This is Derbyshire’)
 
“Firstly, compliments on the current exhibition at the QUAD, I found it very thought provoking and at times powerfully emotive, Eric Baudelaire’s piece in particular had an intense impact. *…+ regards the All That Fits exhibition catalogue. I found its format and layout quite exquisite and was very impressed with the print quality. “
(Michael Sargeant, Photographer and Curator)

New Director at Mostyn

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on August 1, 2011

Blowup: Every Artist, A Journalist

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on July 29, 2011

Blowup, 25 August 2011

Institute for the Unstable MediaV2_

Rotterdam, NL

This edition of Blowup will examine the tension between documentary methods and artistic expression, and address where notions of truth and beauty fit in this mix.

Lino Hellings (NL), Alfredo Cramerotti (UK), Gair Dunlop (UK)

Documentary images are a common method to measure and reflect on the monumental scale of change occurring in contemporary society. These images are also highly aestheticised, making beauty even of images of the most desolate slum or industrialised landscape. As a crossover point between art and journalism, the documentary image also allows us to question the veracity of world events from multiple viewpoints, often offering multiple uncomfortable realities instead of a single, easily-digestible worldview. In an era of a massive data onslaught that individuals struggle to cope with, the documentary image continues to offer us a human face on information, sometimes elegantly summarising a complex situation. But what balance needs to be struck between honest portrayals of reality and artistic license?

http://www.papaplatform.com

http://alcramer.net

http://entropicmodern.blogspot.com/

Institute for the Unstable Media V2_ is an interdisciplinary center for art and media technology in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). V2_’s activities include organizing presentationsexhibitions and workshopsresearch and development of artworks in its own media lab, distributing artworks through its Agency, publishing in the field of art and media technology, and developing an online archive.

Mostyn

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on July 26, 2011

Axis Members News

by Hayley Harding

21 July 2011


Alfredo Cramerotti, currently Senior Curator at QUAD, Centre of Art, Media and Film in Derby, has been appointed as the new Director of Mostyn. Mostyn is the largest publicly funded contemporary art gallery in Wales and Alfredo succeeds Martin Barlow, who steps down in September.

Alfredo Cramerotti on Axis
Alfredo Cramerotti Curator Profile
The Director’s Cut: #3 Martin Barlow, Mostyn, Llandudno

New director for North Wales gallery

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on July 21, 2011
Latest news
attractionsmanagement.com

 

20 Jul 2011

New director for North Wales gallery
by Pete Hayman

Alfredo Cramerotti – currently senior curator at QUAD, Centre of Art, Media and Film in Derby – has been named director of the Mostyn contemporary art gallery in Llandudno.Cramerotti will take up the post in September to succeed Martin Barlow, who has overseen the major £5.1m redevelopment and expansion of the publicly-funded attraction.

“Our aim is simple: to make Mostyn the place to visit for contemporary art in Wales, and the place to watch closer if you are abroad,” said Cramerotti.

All That Fits: review by Regine Debatty of we-make-money-not-art blog

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on July 19, 2011

All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism review on DT

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on July 14, 2011

… the tragedy bloomed. And deceit became knwoledge. Exhibition by Michele Manzini

Posted in nEws and rEleases, shortEssays/cortiSaggi [English/Italian] by Curatorview on July 6, 2011

 

English:

 

“When we recognize the cultural rather than political or physical traits of a context we can call it cultural geography.

“For example, this is what happens when the relationship between artists and the public is based equally on the two sides in order to generate, first knowledge (the ‘what’), and then meaning (in what terms). An artist’s ability consist in pushing himself beyond this artist/viewer dichotomy to create a third space, a cultural geography, an attempt to communicate. And not just communication between artistic and historical disciplines, but above all between “other” undertakings: economy, industrial design, philosophy, agriculture, law, town planning or whatever is most relevant in a particular place at a particular moment. Artists relate together spheres of activity and knowledge through a set of disciplines – and at every step they question themselves about what, how, and why. At least at this point.

“Every event linked to a cultural geography sets off a new challenge for the next action: new formats, new physical and mental spaces, new kinds of relationships, new times. Artists do not invent but simply transform existing infrastructures as the public slowly becomes receptive to them. They might start from museums of natural history and books about the economy to arrive at YouTube and the San Remo festival. They can incorporate buses, advertising hoardings, and scientific measurements. Art comes about when knowledge comes into conflict with the imagination, and this is a healthy, productive, and relevant conflict. “The work of an artist is a centre for possible studies. Not surefire but imaginable ones. And thus doable for the very fact that we can conceive of them.”

Alfredo Cramerotti, 2011

The show by this Veronese artist, who for years has been involved with the theme of landscape, will therefore be characterized by a kind of dissemination of the exhibition across various interpretative planes and levels. A curatorial approach consisting of semantic shifts, the dismantling of conceptual apparatuses, anomalous choices of exhibiting, iterations, invasions of other fields, talks, and the production of texts that describe aims which, at times, are divergent with respect to the artist’s figurative interests and his solid theoretical underpinning.

 

Italiano:


” Possiamo definirla geografia culturale, quando riconosciamo tratti culturali anziche’ politici o fisici di un contesto.

” Per esempio succede quando la relazione tra artista e pubblico si poggia equamente su ambedue le parti per generare prima conoscenza (che cosa), e poi significato (in che termini). L’abilita’ di un artista sta nello spingersi oltre questa dicotomia artista/spettatore, creando uno spazio terzo, una geografia culturale, un tentativo di comunicazione. Non solo tra discipline artistiche o storiche, ma soprattutto tra pratiche ‘altre’: economia, design industriale, filosofia, agricoltura, legge, urbanistica o quello che e’ piu’ rilevante in un determinato posto e un dato momento. L’artista mette in relazione sfere di attivita’ e conoscenza attraverso un ‘set’ di discipline – e a ogni passo si interroga sul cosa, come e perche’. O almeno a questo punta.Ogni evento legato a una geografia culturale fa scattare una nuova sfida per la prossima azione; nuovi formati, nuovi spazi fisici e mentali, nuovi tipi di relazioni, nuovi tempi. L’artista non inventa, semplicemente trasforma le infrastrutture esistenti man mano che il pubblico si apre a queste. Puo’ partire dai musei di storia naturale e dai libri di economia e arrivare a YouTube e al Festival di Sanremo. Puo’ incorporare autobus, tabelloni pubblicitari e misurazioni scientifiche. L’arte succede dove la conoscenza entra in conflitto con l’immaginazione, ed e’ un conflitto sano, produttivo, rilevante. ll lavoro di un artista e’ un centro per studi possibili. Non certi, immaginabili. E percio’ fattibili, proprio perche’ riusciamo a concepirli.”

Alfredo Cramerotti, 2011

La mostra dell’artista veronese, da anni impegnato sul tema del paesaggio, sarà quindi caratterizzata da una sorta di disseminazione dell’evento espositivo su più piani e livelli interpretativi. Un approccio curatoriale fatto di slittamenti semantici, smontaggio degli apparati concettuali, anomale scelte espositive, iterazioni, intersezioni, invasioni di campo, talk, produzione di testi che descriveranno  traiettorie talvolta divergenti rispetto alla ricerca figurativa dell’artista e al suo solido corpus teorico.

Alfredo Cramerotti: Aesthetic Journalism. Public talk at Villa delle Rose, Bologna

Posted in nEws and rEleases, shortEssays/cortiSaggi [English/Italian] by Curatorview on July 4, 2011

Alfredo Cramerotti: Aesthetic Journalism

Public talk at Villa delle Rose

Via Saragozza 228-230, 40135 Bologna, Italy

Thursday 7 July 2011, 7 pm

As part of the Studio of Ælia Media, a project by Pablo Helguera, winner of the International Award for Participatory Art, Alfredo Cramerotti will present his research about aesthetic journalism and the consequences for artistic practices.

 

Alfredo Cramerotti’s curatorial approach does not consist in creating (new) “knowledge” about something, but in sharpening the existing ways of production and circulation of knowledge. That means he encourages artists to create relations of mutual influence with other systems that govern or facilitate our life, like mass media, science, law, architecture and other activities and planning methods. It means to constantly change the perception of society with artistic means. In one of his recent projects, the European biennial of contemporary art Manifest 8 that took place in the Region Murcia in Spain, Alfredo opened a space for information exchange for the participating artists, a suspicious and spiteful terrain compared with the “certainties” of art.

During his conversation at Villa delle Rose, Alfredo will cast light on this kind of approach, from the concept to the realization, and he will invite the audience to discuss the modalities of hybrid practices which – like bio-politics, development of sustainability, virtual reality and other processes that sum up various disciplines – recreate individual and society on an everyday base.
Alfredo Cramerotti is Senior Curator at QUAD art, film and media centre in Derby, UK and is Editor of Critical Photography at Intellect Books. Among his recent research and curatorial activity: Manifesta 8 European Biennial of contemporary art, Region of Murcia, Spain; FORMAT International Photography Festival’s Conference Derby, UK; Fellowship Art Theory and Criticism Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen Innsbruck, Austria; CPS Chamber of Public Secrets, art & media production unit; AGM Culture, roaming curatorial agency.

Cramerotti has curated more than sixty international exhibitions and multimedia projects, working on major shows of, among others, Ian Breakwell, Dinu Li, Daphne Wright, Bill Drummond and Jane & Louise Wilson. He has published in Brumaria, Nolens Volens, Manifesta Journal, MOLE, Esse Arts+Opinions, Altyazi, Journal of Media Cultural Politics, Transmission, Pages Magazine, and authored the books ‘Aesthetic Journalism: How to Inform without Informing’ (2009) and ‘Unmapping the City: Perspectives of Flatness’ (2010). Visiting Lecturer in numerous European Universities such as NTU Nottingham Trent University, University of Westminster London, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and ArtEZ/DAI Dutch Art Institute Arnhem.

International Award for Participatory Art
An initiative of the Legislative Assembly of the Region Emilia-Romagna, Italy
In collaboration with LaRete Art Projects and goodwill.
http://www.artepartecipativa.it

Ælia Media. A project by Pablo Helguera.
Realized together with: Emanuela Ascari, Katia Baraldi, Fedra Boscaro, Lorena Colantuono, Giorgia Dolfini, Vincenzo Estremo, Federica Falancia, Matteo Ferrari. Emanuele Girotti, Eléonore Grassi, Nathaniel Katz, Tihana Maravic, Marianna Mendozza, Stefano Miniato, Stefano Pasquini, Cinzia Pietribiasi, Linda Rigotti, Francesca Pizzo, Ennio Ruffolo, Anna Santomauro, Alessandra Saviotti, Daniela Spagna Musso, Annamaria Tina.

Curated by Julia Draganovic and Claudia Löffelholz.
Organization and coordination: Alice Militello and Federica Patti.

Press and communication: goodwillcom

All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism on N_P Networked Performance

Posted in nEws and rEleases by Curatorview on July 2, 2011

ll That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism [uk Derby]

Networked Performance Blog

by Jo-Anne Green
27-06-2011

[Image: Insurance.AES256 by Michael Takeo Magruder. See video below.]

All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism — Curated by Alfredo Cramerotti & Simon Sheikh :: until July 31, 2011 :: QUAD Gallery, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS.

The exhibition All that Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism presents the provocative idea that art and journalism are two sides of a unique activity; the production and distribution of images and information. The exhibition brings to the surface how images and information are communicated, and the aesthetic principles used in the act of transmission.

Whereas journalism provides a view on the world, as it ‘really’ is, art often presents a view on the view, as an act of reflection. All that Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism will examine both as systems of information that define truth in terms of the visible but also what can be imagined.

In the course of two months, the exhibition will be presented in three chapters: The Speaker, The Image and The Militant. The three separate displays of artwork refer to the rotation of the news cycle, while each responding to the overall theme.

The Speaker (May 28 – June 19) concerns a specific figure, the speaking subject or author, also in terms of editorial processes and camera angles. What can enable a subject to appear as authentic, authoritative and truthful?

The Image (June 22 – July 10) examines how images are produced, through framing and positioning, but also how counter-images are created. Despite the claim of neutrality and pragmatism, this chapter proposes an ‘aesthetics of journalism’.

The Militant (July13 – 31) continues the strand of counter-images, but by using journalistic means such as exposé and research. These methods often work to uncover what a corporate media industry does not, and thus return to some of reportage’s initial claims.

Sammy Baloji (DR Congo), Yael Bartana (Holland/ Israel), Eric Baudelaire (France), Ursula Biemann (Switzerland), Ross Birrell (UK), Michael Blum (Canada /Israel), Broomberg and Chanarin (UK/South Africa), Abraham Cruzvillegas (Germany/ Mexico), Anita Di Bianco (Germany/USA), Marcelo Exposito (Argentina/ Spain), Douglas Fishbone (UK/USA), Zachary Formwalt (Holland/ USA), Wynne Greenwood and K8 Hardy (USA), Tamar Guimaraes (Brazil/ Denmark), Lamia Joreige (Lebanon), Graziela Kunsch (Brazil), Michael Takeo Magruder (UK/USA), Renzo Martens (Holland), Oliver Ressler (Austria), Katya Sander (Denmark), Slum-TV (Kenya), Hito Steyerl (Germany), Walid Raad/ The Atlas Group (USA/ Lebanon) and Alejandro Vidal (Spain).

All That Fits – video introduction of Michael Takeo Magruder’s work from Alfredo Cramerotti on Vimeo.

All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism is supported by the Danish Art Council, Mondriaan Foundation, Autograph ABP, The Jack Kirkland Collection, the Embassy of Brazil in London and Centre National des Arts Plastiques (France).

Also see The Production of Truth: The Aesthetics of Journalism by Alfredo Cramerotti and Simon Sheikh, Digimag.