M.I.A. performs “Boyz” from her album “Kala” live at the 2008 Coachella Valley Music Festival in Indio, California, on April 26, 2008.
Archive for the ‘aesthetic’ tag
Hangzhou Bay Bridge is the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world!
Hangzhou Bay Bridge is an S-shaped stayed-cable bridge linking both sides of the Hangzhou Bay. It is the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world! The bridge is 36 kilometres long; it has six lanes in both directions and shortens the distance between Shanghai and Ningbo by 120 km.
First preparations for planning the bridge started a decade ago; close to 600 experts spent nine years on designing the Hangzhou Bay Bridge. Chief Commander of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge project is Mr Wang Yong.
Derek Jarman Exhibition by Isaac Julien. Performance For Blue by Simon Fisher Turner at Serpentine
Curated by the celebrated artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien, the Derek Jarman exhibition presents a selection of work by the leading British film-maker of his generation; it highlights Jarman’s work in film and painting, including his pioneering presentation of the moving image within the gallery context.
Jarman was arguably the single most crucial figure of British independent cinema in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He struggled for Gay Liberation and with the impact of AIDS and lived as a participant observer, recording all that passed before him, from punk to Thatcher, Hampstead Heath to film premiere.
This exhibition is a timely reappraisal of Jarman’s work, conceived as an immersive environment by Julien, featuring rarely seen films from the Derek Jarman Super-8 archive, an installation of his film Blue, 1993, as well as a selection of his paintings.
Julien has also created a series of photographic lightboxes documenting Jarman’s cottage and garden in Dungeness.
The exhibition will mark the premiere of Julien’s new film about Jarman, Derek, the centre of which is a day-long interview Jarman recorded.
Derek Jarman Curated by Isaac Julien
23 February – 13 April 2008
Performance For Blue
Friday 14 March
7 pm
by Simon Fisher Turner
with Black Sifichi
For Blue is a new reworking of the film’s music and sound with narration by poet and musician Black Sifichi presented live in the Serpentine Gallery.
Overheated Symphony (Calling all women everywhere)
Overheated Symphony is all-women directed interactive mobile phone film. This cinematic symphony of women’s voices from around the world is part of the Birds Eye View film festival taking place in London next month which showcases the work of female film-makers.
Women across the world are being asked to make a short film -a “quick flick” – between 40 seconds and four minutes long on a mobile phone and then send it via the internet to a London-based film director who will edit all together.
“If it’s hot, we’d like to see it,” the project’s Web site declares: “Ladies, wherever you are, whoever you are, we want you to join in.”
The inspiration for “Overheated Symphony” was the 1927 film by German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann called “Berlin – Symphony of a Great City,” which used a montage of still pictures from many sources to document city life.
Rachel Millward, director of the Birds Eye View festival, which is now in its third year, says via Reuters the film is as much about new technology as it is about women and heat … Making a film from all these female voices around the world is quite a beautiful thing, but also it’s about shooting down the idea that women are not up to date with technology.”
Contributors are being asked on www.birds-eye-view.co.uk to upload their cinematic efforts onto the festival’s own YouTube channel to be edited.
LIVE EDIT
On Sunday March 9th, between 12noon and 5pm, celebrated artist and film director Sarah Turner (see also her feature screening of Ecology at the festival) and sound designer Annabelle Pangborn will use the structure of a symphony to edit your work. Films submitted by women from around the world will be sampled into one fiery flick, LIVE in London, in the ICA bar, and later published on this website and on youtube.
DEADLINE
Films must be submitted by Sunday 2nd March.
UPLOAD
Once you’ve completed your phone-film please follow instructions (here) and upload it to www.youtube.com with the tag: OVERHEATED SYMPHONY, being sure to put your name and contact information in the descriptions box so that we can credit you and keep in touch.
EXCEPTION: Contemporary art scene from Prishtina (STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS)
STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS, CURATORS and INSTITUTIONS involved in the exhibition EXCEPTION: Contemporary art scene from Prishtina, scheduled to be open on the 7.02.2008 in Belgrade, Kontekst Gallery
The statement is a reaction to the fact that the exhibition EXCEPTION, Contemporary art scene from Prishtina (Kosova) that was scheduled to open on 7 February 2008 (and to be on display until 15 February 2008) at KONTEKST Gallery in Belgrade WAS FORCED TO CLOSE JUST BEFORE THE OPENING.
The Serbian police that had to intervene just before the opening as they estimated that they cannot guarantee safety to the curators and the public, after an organized group of Serbian nationalist forcesattacked the gallery space and even destroyed Dren Maliqi’s work Face to face.The artists taking part in the exhibition are Artan Balaj, Jakup Ferri, Driton Hajredini, Flaka Haliti, Fitore Isufi Koja, Dren Maliqi, Alban Muja, Vigan Nimani, Nurhan Qehaja, Alketa Xhafa and Lulzim Zeqiri.
On 8 February 2008, the curators of the project Vida Knezevic, Kristian Lukic, Ivana Marjanovic and Gordana Nikolic asked PUBLICLY the Ministry of culture of Serbia and the city of Belgrade to react firmly against such nationalist forces in order to protect the exhibition in the future. The curators insist on the right to present the project in Belgrade in the near future.
On 8 February, these violent nationalist forces attacked again, they threw stones in the windows of the KONTEKST gallery and broke them and as well they destroyed gallery’s sign on the door.
All of us signed under this statement are expressing our support TO ARTISTS, CURATORS and INSTITUTIONS involved in the exhibition EXCEPTION: Contemporary art scene from Prishtina.
http://www.kontekstgalerija.org/html/main_en.htm
Petition is directed to Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia, Secretariat for Culture of City of Belgrade, as a demand for express and direct support to the organizers for opening of this exhibition.
Breath Art: Giuseppe Penone Exhibition at Villa Medici in Rome
Idee di pietra | Idées de pierre, 2004-2007
Bronze, acier, pierres, chêne vert | Bronzo, acciaio, pietre, leccio
1270 x 550 x 500 cm – Collection de l’artiste | Collezione dell’artista
Foto: Claudio Abate
Giuseppe Penone was born in 1947 in Garessio, a small town in Piemonte where he passed his childhood amongst cultivated fields and large forests. The son of farmers, his first memories comprise “mountains of chestnuts and rooms full of mushrooms brought in on the backs of mules in enormous sacks.” In search of a personal identity, the artist decided to work in his birthplace and, at just over 20 years of age, he began to work with materials he was more familiar with: tree trunks and bark, forests and stones, lakes and streams. Over the years, and without having lost its apparent simplicity, Penone’s work has been enriched by new registers and nuances, as well as new materials and formats.
The exhibition Giuseppe Penone. La mostra a Villa Medici in Rome gathers together approximately 31 pieces (some in the format of large installation pieces). His work on the growth of matter in space culminate in the installation Idee di pietra (Stones’ Idea), a Life Size Cast Bronze Tree placed in the Villa’s Gardens, and incastonated with marble blocks to stand for crystal ideas. And Pietra di Foglie(Leaves Stone), 2006, reproduces a stone in the natural crypt room covered in bay leaves, where smell plays a very special role to get in symbiosis within substances, species and the environment.
EveryScape (Embedding the World)
Worlds are not born, they are created. EveryScape has driven around each of the cities creating full 360 degree panoramas. However, there’s one key twist — anyone can contribute.
EveryScape is looking for photo contributors to capture indoors scenes and “scape artists” to contribute and filter content on their maps. Paid photographic contributors take the panoramic photos, “scapes”, that serve as the canvasses for embedded information contributed by users.
Contributors range from “graffiti” artists who embed new information to paid professional photographers that take panoramas. There’s also a mid-range for paid amateurs, which lets anyone with a simple digital camera and an IPIX camera kit to take photos that EveryScape can convert into 3D panoramas that means something.
