Aesthetica Magazine Issue 52

April / May 2013

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.

In photography, we present a selection from this year’s World Photography Awards as well as paying homage to Rudy Burckhardt. We also introduce three new photographers: Astrid Kruse Jensen from Denmark, Rune Guneriussen from Norway and Bharat Sikka from India. Jensen creates stark narratives by playing with light and colour, while Guneriussen engages with photography, installation and sculpture. Finally, our cover photographer, Bharat Sikka, blends fine art and documentary to create an arresting visual language with a bold use of colour and fascinating locations.

In film, we chat with Dominga Sotomayor about her debut feature Thursday Till Sunday, which recalls memories of family road trips. We also speak with Lisa Bryer from the BAFTA selection committee about this year’s theatrical release of BAFTA winning short films. In music, we chat with Jonas Bonnetta from Evening Hymns about their new album, and examine the phenomenon of video game music. In performance, Akram Khan discusses his latest show, iTMOi, as he celebrates the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at Sadler’s Wells. Finally, for the last words, Pedro Reyes talks about his latest show Disarm, in which he re-uses decommissioned guns to make musical instruments.

Diffusion

An international exhibition of photography, European Chronicles in Cardiff uses lens-based media to initiate debate about European social identities.

Pedro Reyes

Transforming confiscated firearms into musical instruments and shovels, Mexican artist Pedro Reyes believes in the ability of art to change societies permanently.

The Phoenix Foundation

With a sound blessed with beautiful melodies set amidst lush soundscapes, they have crafted their unique style with a loving attention to detail.

Vito

Vito Russo believed that he should be able to live his life as he chose, with a passion that eventually became politicised as his life, and those of his friends, became a struggle against injustice.

Collecting Art for Love, Money and More

An insider’s guide for the modern art buyer, Collecting Art for Love, Money and More reveals the motivations and secrets of successful collectors.

F*ck For Forest

Marczak brings free love to the fore in his new documentary F*ck For Forest, which follows a Berlin-based charity that believes that sex can change the world.

Planet of Snail

The hero is Cho Young-Chan, a deaf-blind South Korean man on the cusp of a sensory rebirth as he begins to escape from the isolation of his condition.

Surrealism in Latin America

Examining both visual and literary Surrealism, this text explores in intricate detail how the movement embraced different avant-garde ideas and practices.

Love Crime

Love Crime is laden with too many easy clichés – not to say much too drawn out – to warrant fully the descriptions it has earned as “taut thriller” or “modern Noir”.

Secret Diary

College instantly demonstrates his ability to reproduce aspects of existence electronically, as his striking first notes echo a heartbeat gasping to live.

Mice Parade

Named after a bar in Madrid, noted to be a haven for flamenco, Candela is strongest where it references tight, Spanish guitar-laden anguish.

STRFKR

The new release from STRFKR radiates a feel-good electro-pop vibe, hovering somewhere between the grooves of Passion Pit and the electronica of MGMT.

The Pigeon Detectives

It can’t be denied that We Met at Sea is both unpredictable and full of life, driven by punchy guitars and melodies that will easily set feet tapping.

Sightseers

Sightseers accompanies ordinary couple Chris and Tina on a far from idyllic caravanning holiday, as they begin to bump off their fellow campers.

Zaytoun

Set during the first Lebanese war, Zaytoun opens in Beirut as the Palestinian protagonist, Fahed roams the crumbling streets selling cigarettes.

Seaside Polaroids

Jon Nicholson ventures into the realm of nostalgia with his latest book, a collection of 70 Polaroids of British seaside resorts.

Hiss Golden Messenger

A Biblical thread runs through this album, weaving faith and emotive frankness into this tapestry of senses, addressing the relationship between past and future.

Art & Queer Culture

In this first book to be published on criticism and theory regarding queer culture, Phaidon has set the bar high.

Our World Now 6

A picture is worth a thousand words, which is certainly the case in Our World Now 6, a collection of 319 photographs recorded by Reuters in 2012.

NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star

The latest exhibition to open at the New Museum in New York City captures a specific moment in time highlighting the intersection of art, pop and politics.