A unique exhibition platform, Art Basel‘s Unlimited sector will this year feature 79 artworks, the largest number of projects to date. Curated for the second consecutive year by Gianni Jetzer, Director of the Swiss Institute in New York, Unlimited will showcase a strong selection of works, many of museum quality, including pieces by Carl Andre, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Lygia Clark, Michel Majerus and Gina Pane. Emerging talents – including Esther Kläs, Emil Michael Klein, Oscar Murillo and Amalia Pica – will be shown alongside established artists Ai Weiwei, Martin Creed, Thomas Demand, Theaster Gates, Antony Gormley, Susan Hiller, Walid Raad and Thomas Schütte.
SPILL Festival of Performance, London
The SPILL Festival of Performance brings together some of the finest and most radical experimental theatre, live art and performances of today’s prominent artists from around the world. The lineup for the 2013 edition is a true delight thanks to the most eclectic performances of our days, all brought together under the theme of ‘contact’, exploring issues of connection, exchange and advocacy.
POP! Design Culture Fashion, The Civic, Barnsley
Pop! Design Culture Fashion opens 4 April at The Civic, Barnsely, celebrating poodle skirts, rockers, Mods, kitsch glamour and 1970s retro. A reminder of when British popular culture first captivated the world, the exhibition uncovers a time when popular images, music, art and fashion blurred the boundaries of commerce, culture and style. Between the optimism of 1955 and the disillusion of Punk, the “Pop” generation created a lifestyle, which reached its apogee in 1966 in “Swinging London”, and values which constantly challenged those of wider society.
Aesthetica April/May Out Now
Aesthetica Issue 52 is now out in the shops. Inside this issue, we start with Amalia Pica’s latest exhibition, which opens in April at MCA Chicago and is the artist’s first major solo museum show in the USA, including 15 of her most significant works. We also look at the Julio Le Parc retrospective on now at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, presenting a vast survey of the artist’s work from the 1950s to the present day. European Chronicles opens this May as part of Diffusion in Cardiff, which is Wales’ first international photography festival. NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star is the latest exhibition to open at the New Museum in New York City, capturing a specific moment at the intersection of art, pop culture and politics.
6 To See this Bank Holiday Weekend
With four days off and weather that doesn’t compliment outdoor activities or picnics, art exhibitions are an obvious solution for Bank Holiday boredom. However, wherever you are in the world, the weekend is always a great time to leisurely explore local art exhibitions. From Amsterdam to New York we uncover the best in contemporary art in both Public and Private galleries across a variety of practices. Whether it be fandom at David Bowie Is… or destruction in Sara Cwynar’s Everything In the Studio (Destroyed) these shows provoke a range of responses.
SPILL Festival of Performance, London
Collating experimental theatre, live art and performance, SPILL Festival of Performance is a presentation of exceptional artists from around the world. Now in it’s fifth edition, the event was established in 2007 by performance maker Robert Pacitti and is now recognised as the UK’s premier Artist-led festival of innovative live work. The event opens 3 April and runs in various venues across London, including the Barbican, National Theatre Studio, Soho Theatre and the Whitechapel Gallery, until 14 April. This years event is curated around the notions of contact and explores ideas of connection, exchange and advocacy.
Interview with Heidi Kilpeläinen, HK119
Heidi Kilpeläinen, or HK119 as she is otherwise known, has a new album out on 25 March. Her third album, Imaginature embodies nature in a surrealist and spectacular recording of electronic chirps and howling lyrics. With each song named after an aspect of nature, Iceberg, Whale and Milky Way for example, Kilpeläinen was inspired by a holiday in her native Finland. Both an artist and a musician, she approaches her work under the identity HK119, a hyperreal character invented to front her performance-art pop project. Aesthetica speaks to Kilpeläinen about her work on Imaginature and the influence of the Finnish text, Kalevela, on the final work.
David Bowie Is, V&A, London
In the year of his 66th birthday, David Bowie is back at the centre of the public’s consciousness. To celebrate his birthday on 8 January, Bowie released a surprise single, Where Are We Now?, with the announcement of an album, The Next Day which was released 8 March. To add to this recent flurry of activity, the V&A opens David Bowie Is 23 March. With ticket sales that look to be record breaking before the exhibition even opens, David Bowie Is demonstrates Bowie’s ability to continually inspire and interest the general public. In Aesthetica Issue 51 we speak to gallery curator, Geoffrey Marsh about the work behind David Bowie Is and what it was that drew the V&A to exhibit this show.
Performance / Audience / Film at John Hansard Gallery
Featuring Artists: Oreet Ashery, Franko B, Blast Theory, Ian Breakwell & Ron Geesin, Jean Dupuy, Rachel Gomme, Dan Graham, Joshua Sofaer. Performance / Audience / Film at John Hansard Gallery, aims to look at the different relationships that are established between the artist and the audience within the realm of performance art, examining the role of the audience in relation to the completion and meaning of the work. The exhibition will include early work from the 1970s, involving pieces that played with the ideas of how artists and audiences interact, before tracing the influence of those experiments on subsequent artists and how they have also approached the idea of ‘audience’.
5 To See This Weekend
The weekend really is the best time to relax and soak up our cultural surroundings. With this in mind, Aesthetica has compiled the very best in international art available to appreciate this Saturday and Sunday. Beginning with Bill Brandt’s stunning photography at MoMA in New York, we take a little detour online and look at the exhibitions you can view from your own laptop with Paul Hart’s Truncated. We take a minute to consider the most inspired contemporary art currently hanging in local galleries.
Franko B: Because of Love, The Place Theatre, London
Taking my seat for Franko B’s latest performance, Because of Love, 2012, it was hard to pre-empt what this evening was about to offer. An artist renowned for using his body and blood in performances, we are in a theatre waiting for his most ambitious production to date to commence, with a title that gives little indication of what to expect from the work. What else can give clues to what we are about to witness? Well, we are at The Place, London’s “place” for Dance training and performance, so this setting is not atypical for this kind of presentation, other than that, we know it is going be quite a spectacle as the artist developed this work in dialogue with Tim Etchells and Giles Jobin with a team of animators, singers set and prop makers. The opening scene sees the stage completely bare except for the distinct light bulb (currently switched off) which is the only “prop” on view. A projected image comes on. It is the familiar grainy image accompanied by white noise commonly used at the beginning of films or at the end.
Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2013 Now Open for Entries
The Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) is now open for entries. ASFF allows for both budding and established filmmakers to connect with new, worldwide audiences and interact with some of the biggest personalities in the film industry today. Over 200 short films will be screened at this unique event, in 15 iconic locations across the historic city of York, 7 – 10 November 2013. It’s a fantastic opportunity for filmmakers in to showcase their work in an impressive setting to an international audience.