Israeli-Dutch art activist Yael Bartana adds dynamism to 7th Berlin Biennale

“I am focusing on Israel in order to ask: What is this place where I grew up?

“How long will this troubled nation continue to perpetuate this pattern of ignorance? By manipulating form, sound movement, I create work that triggers personal resonance. Personal, intimate reactions have the potential to provoke honest responses and perhaps replace the predictable, controlled reactions encouraged by the state.” –Yael Bartana

7^th Berlin Biennale curator Artur Zmijewski recently named Israeli-Dutch film artist Yael Bartana to sharpen the edges of the contemporary art happening: 28 April – 1 July 2012.

Untitled photograph by Artur Zmijewski

Bartana´s activism may outstrip her art but the two are inseparable.

As a non-violent activist, she has worked with the IsraeliCommittee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).

In 2005, she helped rebuild a demolished Palestinian home in Jerusalem only to be blocked by authorities. 

Jerusalem does not issue building permits to Palestinians but continues selectively demolishing their homes.

She then visually documented summer camp for the ICAHD.

In Berlin she will expand promoting her project, “TheJewish Renaissance Movement in Poland” (JRMiP). It seeks returning about 3.3 million Jews to Poland.

Founded in 2007, JRMiP has grown internationally, according to Bartana. 

The JRMiP manifesto states: 

“We direct our appeal not only to Jews.

“We accept into our ranks all those for whom there is no place in their homelands—the expelled and the persecuted. There will be no discrimination in our movement.”

“We shall not ask you about your life stories, check your residence cards or question your refugee status. We shall be strong in our weakness."(Emphasis mine.)

Bartana said this project is a “response we propose for these times of crisis, when faith has been exhausted and old utopias have failed.

“Optimism is dying out. The promised paradise has been privatized.” (Emphasis mine.)

Her films, film installations and photographs challenge Israel´s national consciousness, according to Wikipedia. “Working outside the country, she observes it from a critical distance.”

Like Bartana, Warsaw-based artist-curator Zmijewski broke from fear and conformism.

“We were not so much taught as intellectually devastated. Truancy enabled me to dig myself out of the ideological dirt that we were in, together with anti-Semitism, which was accepted at my school,” he said during an April 2008 lecture series in Warsaw.

Curator Zmijewski asked 7,500 Open Call artist-applicants to submit statements on their political convictions by 15 January 2011. 

Jewish Renaissance Movement Poster

His Berlin Biennale intends packing political punch.

“So if we were to call critical art a social movement, it would represent a departure from the notion that art is apolitical,” he added.

“The artist should maintain a purity and freshness of view and the sensitivity of a child looking at the world with delight, because the world is beautiful and people are beautiful, despite the atrocities and despite what the media show. The child is a divine creature.”

The KW Institute for Contemporary Art organizes the event while the Kulturstifung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) funds it, according to a news release.

 

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler™

Experience a rewarding week-long mosaics or sculpture workshop, a  walking holiday or both in the mountains of Andalusia, only 40 minutes from the beach. See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

Moira Schepel, rear center, and one of her sculpture graduating classes, photograph by Stefan van Drake (2008)

Contact me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 951 067 703; from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.

ArtTraveler Semana Santa, Palm Sunday, 17 April procession video, Canillas de Albaida.

ArtTraveler´s journey to "Inner Space"

"Random Ghosts," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Togetherness," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Shallow Grave," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Inner Space," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Text Degradable," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Oligarchy," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Mortality," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Revisonism," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

Check out a sculpture or mosaics workshop or walking tour in our beautiful mountains. See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

 

Contact me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 951 067 703; from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.

Repressing freedom of speech takes on monumental 10-ton protest in Moscow

Ostracized Cuban artist Pedro Pablo Oliva in Havana

Mexican sculptor Rivelilno´s "Nuestros Silencios"

I wonder how the Russian press will cover Mexican sculptor Rivelino´s 10-ton protest against suppressing freedom of speech, which opened 25 May at Moscow´s Muzeon Sculpture Park.

"Nuestros Silencios" (Our Silences) –10, one-ton sphinx-like iconic sentinels popping up in Putin´s Russia. 

The show concludes on 30 June.

Moscow´s the end of a long road trip for these monumental nomadic symbols with mouths clamped shut, each differently, each 3.5 x 2.3 x 1.1 meters with a white and ocher patina and built of bronze using the lost wax casting method.

The show started in Mexico in 2009 and heads home after Moscow to be reborn sometime in early 2012 for exhibitions in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Rivelino´s "Nuestros Silencios"

It also visited Lisbon, Madrid, Brussels, Potsdam, Rome and London.

“Conceptually, this project of public art is an invitation to reflect on silence, in other words, it is about freedom of express – in all its manifestations – as a universal and paradoxical theme of communication,” according to the exhibition’s official website.

Where there should be media contact information, videos, news releases and photos focusing only on the Russian show, there´s nothing--under construction, unlike Rivelino´s works.

Nor would Rivelino´s “Nuestros Silencios” be welcome in Beijing or Havana, Cuba.

In Beijing, there´s a communion of silence among the few avant-garde artists sympathetic to Ai Weiwei.

 Ai Weiwei´s provocative performance protest, dropping a Han Dynasty urn

They are hibernating, dispersed to their home towns or quietly gone underground.

Beijing buzz is these edgy artists are waiting to take new political barometer readings in the fall. Meanwhile, many politically prickly projects are under wraps.

But paranoia is contagious and part of Communist Party DNA.

A painting by Edro Pablo Oliva

In Havana last week, Raul Castro´s government shut Cuban painter Pedro Pablo Oliva´s studio in Havana, shorn him of his government job, ridiculing him as a “traitor” and “annexationist,” someone wanting the United States to annex his island nation.

Like Wewei, Oliva blogged his way to official damnation by demanding a multi-party system on Generacion Y, government opponent Yoani Sanchez´s blog.

At the heart of it, Rivelino´s “Nuestros Silencios” and freedom of expression. 

And our silences. 

Oliva in press reports admitted but defended his right to participate in his government by criticizing it.

He vehemently denied he is disloyal to the regime.

Nor does he intend leaving Cuba.

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

Visit Andalusia for a walking holiday or week-long sculpture or mosaics workshop. See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

"Spanish life stilled," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2009)

 ArtTraveler´s video: an interview with Scottish illustrator and painter, Gordon Wilson, about his new "I Love Fish" exhibition, inspired by a commissioned mural he did 12 years ago for a West Glasgow gangster, who loved supporting writers and artists as well as organized crime.

You may reach me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 915 067 703 or from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349. 

"The Object is the Objective," an ArtTraveler photographic study

"Object 1," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 2," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 3," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 4," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 5," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 6," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 7," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 8," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 8," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 9," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"Object 10," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

“The image has become the primary means of mass communication. And it´s worth understanding images, lest we become helpless towards them and they can do whatever they want with us.”

Artur Zmijewski, Warsaw, 2 April 2008.

"Choice," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

"This Way Out," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2009)

New ArtTraveler YouTube 11 May video: The Case of the Missing Bronze Grape Picker Statue (and dog). 

Check out a sculpture or mosaics workshop or walking tour in our beautiful mountains. See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

 

Contact me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 951 067 703; from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.

Ai Weiwei & Artur Zmijewski at 7th Berlin Biennale: The Perfect Storm?

One of Ai Weiwei´s finger installations

 

“The artist is not an innocent and secluded monk or nun living through his or her own individual obsessions – the artist is part of a power network, an ideological machine.”

Artur Zmijewski, 2 April 2008, My History of Art series, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdów Castle, Warsaw, Poland.

Artur Zmijewski--curator for 7th Berlin Biennale

 

Even though it´s been many years since I set foot in the Kreutzberg barrio of Berlin, then West Berlin, and like Radio Berlin, the city´s energy still surges through me.

Polish sculptor and contemporary artist-curator Zmijewski, a product of the Soviet arts regime and now a consummate arts activist, is sifting through 7,500 applications for the 7^th Berlin Biennale (28 April – 1 July, 2012).

Berlin last September named the Warsaw-based Zmijewski to curate the 7th Biennale, to design the thematic architecture of the contemporary art fiesta.

 

Ai Weiwei & Zmijewski in Berlin: The Perfect Storm?

Ai Weiwei

Weiwei, I predict, will be there in Berlin with Zmijewski, alive and well and flourishing, making Berlin the contemporary art hotspot of 2012.

A leading force in post-Soviet critical art in Poland, Zmijewski published his “Applied Social Arts” manifesto in the 1990´s advocating art social and political activism.

The stage was being set for these two powerful contemporary art figures and forces to fuse a powerful arts activism agenda for the 7^th Berlin Biennale.

The German connection, already established between Weiwei and Berlin and likely Zmijewski, grew stronger after Chinese security forces nabbed Weiwei on 3 April at Beijing´s airport.

The Beijing buzz is Weiwei was enroute to Berlin via Hong Kong when he was disappeared.

Age of Disillusionment?

Ai Weiwei´s finger of fate aimed at U.S. White House

 

The future had looked promising for German – Chinese cross-cultural cooperation.

All starting with a lavish and expensive German sponsored exhibition—“The Art of the Enlightenment”—opening 1 April at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

But paranoia flowing from China´s ruling oligarchy spoiled the party.

China refused German Sinologist and author Tilman Spengler a visa. Spengler was invited to speak at the exhibit´s gala inauguration.

Spengler, however, was not welcome, having publically praised Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Liu Xiaobo.

Germany cried foul on two counts: Spengler´s visa denial and Ai Weiwei´s detention.

Two days after its opening, the Age of Enlightenment morphed into the Age of Disillusionment.

Ai Weiwei´s image grows larger

German cultural coalitions demanded the Art of the Enlightenment´s return. 

It had already proved a dismal failure with only about 200 daily and 400 weekend viewers, according to online reports.

 

I think Socrates once said, however, “It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”

Germany did the right thing for the right reasons and continued promoting the age of enlightenment shedding light within dark shadows of a dictatorial regime.

Media War Games

Germany´s media launched a blitz of attacks against Chinese detentions and an obvious crackdown on freedom of expression.

China hit back at German media.

It demanded Germany “…look at this issue (Ai Weiwei) objectively, respect China´s judicial sovereignty and respect China´s judicial departments´ independent handling of this case,” Chinese spokeswoman Jiang Yu said this week.

Meanwhile, the German Academy of the Arts not only demanded Weiwei´s immediate release but made him a member of their club.

The Universitat der Kunste Berlin had already offered Weiwei a guest professorship, and the artist was busy planning to relocate his studios to Berlin.

The university also sponsored an online petition campaign for the artist´s release.

The art world´s heart grows fonder almost daily with Ai Weiwei´s absence as anyone with Weiwei work launches a show combined with protest.

Weiwei´s image grows larger and larger as it is cast over Chinese authorities.

“The image has become the primary means of mass communication. And it´s worth understanding images, lest we become helpless towards them and they can do whatever they want with us.”

Artur Zmijewski, Warsaw, 2 April 2008.

"Choice," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

"This Way Out," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2009)

New ArtTraveler YouTube 11 May video: The Case of the Missing Bronze Grape Picker Statue (and dog). 

Check out a sculpture or mosaics workshop or walking tour in our beautiful mountains. See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

 

Contact me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 951 067 703; from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.