Solo exhibition at HackelBury Fine Art, London until 2nd March 2024
Grand Ave, Chicago, 2017
HackelBury is pleased to present Oli Kellett’s third solo exhibition, Waiting for a Sign, from 24th November 2023 until 2nd March 2024, accompanied by the book of the same title published by Nazraeli Press.
Waiting for a Sign focuses on Kellett’s iconic Crossroad Blues series of large-scale portraits of people waiting at crossroads in urban cities across the globe from London to Mexico City and numerous across North America. The series began in 2016 when Kellett was visiting Los Angeles during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election and the country was at a political crossroads. It continued to evolve over the following four years as a result of Kellett’s numerous visits to countries including Spain, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia.
Great Eastern Rd, London, 2019
In these times of seismic geo-political shifts and significant global events, the series has now taken on a universal significance. It captures still moments of contemplation in which individuals question the direction they take and the life they make. Inspired by the title of Gauguin’s painting “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this series reflects our existential search for an answer.
As the writer and philosopher Nigel Warburton writes in his introductory essay for the accompanying book ‘Crossroad Blues’ published by Nazraeli Press;
“The step each person is about to take seems far more momentous than simply crossing a street”.
As Oli Kellett explains: “I’m looking for a moment when somebody is psychologically removed from the physical space they are in, alone with their thoughts for a few seconds.”
The large-scale photographs in ‘Crossroad Blues’ series contrast the anonymity of urban space with the individuality of human experience. The scale of these photographs captures tangible human expression and allows the viewer to recognise a moment of conscious contemplation in their lives.
Kellett’s commitment to find the perfect light saw him walking the streets of cities for days before setting up his large format architectural camera and waiting to capture these private moments. The way the buildings frame his subjects and his focus on the light and composition creates a cinematic quality, providing a dramatic architectural backdrop to these unstaged scenes which reveal the artist’s deep interest in the human psyche. Kellett’s interest in art history began at art college, when he took up street painting to recreate Renaissance masterpieces. His last composition in the ‘Crossroad Blues’ series in 2019 on Avenida Almirante Barroso in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil shows two people looking skywards, one of them with the gesture of the finger pointing up to the sky. Reminiscent of Raphael’s ‘School of Athens’ painting, posing questions of spirituality and immortality, this was to be Kellett’s last work in the series. For him it felt like a sign and a natural stepping stone to explore more metaphysical ideas in his work.
I don’t look for people or hunt people down. I turn up with my kit, set up and I wait for someone else to turn up on the other side of the road. I feel like we meet in the middle somehow and then we go on our separate ways. The crossroads becomes this space where I like to think people are wrestling with these big ideas – guidance, morality and the weight of decision making. Oli Kellett
Tremont Street, Boston, 2018
About Oli Kellett
Oli Kellett is a British artist based in Hastings, UK. He began taking photographs in 2008. Since 2016 he has devoted himself to exploring the urban setting and our relationship with the crossroad and how people navigate their lives in his series ‘Crossroad Blues’.
After studying at Central Saint Martins, Kellett began his career as a creative in the advertising industry. Although Kellett had experimented with black and white photography since his teenage years, he moved onto colour photography and a large format camera when he left the advertising industry. While Kellett is strongly influenced by painting and the compositional techniques used, he loves the chance moment which one can capture with a photograph and is intrigued by moments of human contemplation. In 2018 Oli Kellett was awarded the Rose Award for Photography and the Royal Academy Arts Club Award, London. In 2021 he was shortlisted for the Photo London Emerging Photographer Award. He was awarded the Royal Photographic Society International Photography Exhibition 161 Bronze Prize. Works from Kellett’s ‘Soap Drawings’ series were included in the RA Summer Exhibition in 2022 and 2023.
Oli Kellett has works in private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA.
“I’m looking for a moment where individuals are dwarfed by what surrounds them, appearing lost but searching for something. They then go on their way, whichever direction that may be.”
Prior to the ‘Crossroads’ series he worked on a series titled ‘Welcome to Paradise’ where he travelled around the UK over ten years photographing places with the word ‘paradise’ in the title; often revealing that these places were anything but paradise and far removed from any utopian vision.
About HackelBury Fine Art
HackelBury Fine Art was founded twenty-five years ago by Marcus Bury and Sascha Hackel. The gallery is committed to championing artists working with the visual arts who push the boundaries of their medium to create meaningful and contemplative work.
The London based gallery initially showcased classic photography from the 20th century including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Berenice Abbott, Willy Ronis, Malick Sidibe, Sebastiao Salgado and Edouard Boubat. The transition from traditional photography to more conceptual work was as intuitive as it was organic, beginning with artists such as William Klein, Pascal Kern, Doug and Mike Starn, Garry Fabian Miller, Katja Liebmann, Ian McKeever, Stephen Inggs and Bill Armstrong. In recent years the gallery has also taken on emerging artists such as Oli Kellett, Nadezda Nikolova, Alys Tomlinson and Coral Woodbury.
Each artist, whether emerging or established, creates work defined by a depth of thought and breadth and consistency of approach. The small group of artists with whom HackelBury work, represent a diversity of practice yet share an artistic integrity which the gallery is fully committed to supporting in the long-term.
A short film directed by Will Garthwaite shows how Kellett explores the use of the large format architectural camera to create these works and allows us to understand the process behind the thinking and making of his Crossroads series.
Film by Will Garthwaite Sound Design by Patrick Lee
On November 18, the exhibition Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth was opened at the Museum Barberini. Organized in cooperation with the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, USA, and the MUNCH in Oslo, the exhibition is the first to focus on Edvard Munch’s fascination with nature. The show features over 110 works by the Norwegian artist, with some of his most famous motifs as well as unknown works. Also on view are the monumental preliminary studies for Munch’s paintings for the Aula at the University of Oslo, which have not been exhibited in Germany for over a century. Lenders include the MUNCH in Oslo, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal. The exhibition in Potsdam is curated by guest curator Jill Lloyd, an expert on modern European art.
The first exhibition of Edvard Munch’s landscapes
Edvard Munch is known for his haunting images of primal human emotion. His interest in the psychological dimensions of existence, however, was matched by an equally strong fascination with nature. Employing his unique sensibility and power of imagination, Munch explored motifs taken from nature, seeking to fathom humanity’s place in the cosmic cycle of life. The image of the landscape in Munch’s work, however, has received little systematic attention up to this point. Now for the first time, the exhibition Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth and the accompanying catalogue investigate the meaning of such images in Munch’s oeuvre, questioning common assumptions and examining the contemporaneous artistic, scientific, and philosophical influences that contributed to his understanding of nature. With motifs ranging from undulating coastlines and fairy-tale forests to snow-covered or stormy landscapes, luxuriant gardens, and the exuberant play of sun, air, and water, Munch’s work also resonates with the present-day climate crisis against the backdrop of current natural catastrophes.
“Although Edvard Munch devoted almost half of his works to motifs from nature, until now he has not been perceived as a landscape painter. With Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth, our desire is to open up this perspective on his work,” says Ortrud Westheider, director of the Museum Barberini. “Especially in conjunction with the Impressionist landscapes in the Hasso Plattner Collection, it is fascinating to see how Munch, a Norwegian contemporary of the Impressionists, connected landscape with the inner life and how such different perspectives on nature could develop at the same time in Europe. While the goal of the Impressionists was to recreate the sensory experience of nature through light and color, for Munch nature was always also a mirror of his own inner turmoil, giving his landscape images a greater sense of drama. We are especially fortunate that the exhibition Edvard Munch: Magic of the North at the Berlinische Galerie overlaps with our Munch show for eight weeks. The public thus has the opportunity to experience the dimensions of the oeuvre of one of the most important artists of the modern era in all its facets in both Berlin and Potsdam. With the preliminary works for the Aula paintings, which were exhibited at the Berlin Secession in 1913 and were enthusiastically received by audiences in Berlin, we also have a direct thematic connection to the exhibition of our Berlin colleagues.”
116 paintings, woodcuts, lithographs, and drawings from twenty-one lenders in eight exhibition chapters
From June 10 to October 15, 2023, the exhibition was on view at its first station, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Curated by Jay A. Clark, it received outstanding reviews: “A revelatory exhibit” (The Wall Street Journal); “Magnificent . . . Munch the landscapist coexists with the connoisseur of affliction” (Financial Times); “Glorious . . . It’s a revelation” (The Atlantic); “a major modern painter in a new, broader, enlivening light” (The New York Times). The Potsdam exhibition, curated by guest curator Jill Lloyd, features 116 works in eight exhibition chapters. In late April 2024, the show will travel to its third station, the MUNCH in Oslo, where it will be curated by Trine Otte Bak Nielsen.
The chapters of the exhibition engage with a variety of natural spaces to explore the active role played by the landscape in the art of Edvard Munch. While the chapter In the Forest exemplifies Munch’s sense of nature as a mysterious realm and a place of romantic growth and decay, the chapter Garden and Field reveals his fascination with the interaction between humanity and nature. In Between Land and Sea, coastal landscapes serve as a backdrop for separation, attraction, and solitude, while the beaches of Åsgårdstrand, Warnemünde, Hvitsten, and Ekely—locations where Munch lived and worked for many years—symbolize a Summer Retreat. The chapter The Scream of Nature addresses existential questions of the relationship between man and nature: here, a lithograph of what is probably Munch’s most famous work, The Scream, is juxtaposed with the explosive color of his monumental painting The Sun. The chapter Storm and Snow explores the degree to which early twentieth-century climate fears, marked by anxiety over the dawn of a new ice age, are reflected in Munch’s landscapes. In a Cosmic Cycle shows how Munch assimilated new scientific discoveries that revealed nature as a dynamic force, visualizing it as vital and ever-changing and interweaving it with the human body and fate. The exhibition concludes with the chapter Light and Knowledge, featuring the designs for Munch’s monumental Aula paintings. For the presentation of these works, some of which are six meters long, the Museum Barberini has installed a special “room within a room,” facilitating a presentation similar to the hanging of the works in the Aula at the University of Oslo.
Tone Hansen, director of the MUNCH, states: “In 1940, Edvard Munch bequeathed the entirety of his oeuvre still in his possession to the city of Oslo. This legacy, now housed in the MUNCH, includes not only texts, letters, photographs, and personal items, but over 26,000 works of art—an extraordinary oeuvre that we can now also spatially accommodate since the opening of the new museum building in 2021. Our primary aim is not only to conserve the collection, but also to investigate and interrogate it again and again, and for us, too, it made sense to focus on his landscape images for the first time. The tremendous interest in the three exhibition stations in the United States, Germany, and Norway demonstrates that even 160 years after Munch’s birth, his work continues to be relevant.”
The works in the exhibition come from twenty-one lenders, including the MUNCH and the Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design in Oslo, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, and the Von der Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 228-page English catalogue published by MUNCH, Oslo, with essays by Jay A. Clark, Nanna Leander, Jill Lloyd, Trine Otte Bak Nielsen, and Arne Johan Vetlesen.
For the duration of the exhibition, the Museum Barberini will extend its opening hours: beginning November 18, the museum will open at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday through Sunday. On Mondays, the museum open at 10:00 a.m. as usual.
Concurrent with the show in Potsdam, a second exhibition on Munch and Berlin, Edvard Munch: Magic of the North, is on view at the Berlinische Galerie until January 22, 2024. A combination ticket for admission to both exhibitions is available from the museums for € 20 (reduced admission € 12).
Both exhibitions are under the joint patronage of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and His Majesty King Harald V of Norway.
An exhibition of the Museum Barberini, Potsdam, the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the Munchmuseet, Oslo. In Williamstown, the exhibition was curated by Jay A. Clark and was on view June 10–October 15, 2023. The MUNCH in Oslo will present the exhibition April 27–August 25, 2024, curated by Trine Otte Bak Nielsen.
Structure of the Exhibition
In the Forest: Myths and Fairy Tales
Munch’s depictions of trees and forests include romantic encounters between couples, children wandering into dense woods, and scenes of Norway’s logging industry. His images of lush Norwegian elm and pine forests capture their beauty throughout the varying seasons. Timber was among Norway’s largest exports in the early twentieth century, and while many of these paintings celebrate nature’s bounty, they also document the depletion of the country’s national resources. Throughout his life, both at home and abroad, Munch portrayed trees and forests as representations of mystery. Inspired by the forests near Åsgårdstrand, Norway, the elm trees near his home at Ekely, outside of Oslo, and the Thuringian Forest in Germany, Munch celebrated the cycle of life in paintings and prints.
Munch’s paintings of cultivated landscapes—land cleared of vegetation and then planted with crops, orchards, or gardens—reflect his keen interest in human interaction with nature. These motifs were inspired by the fertile coastal peninsula around the Oslo Fjord where he owned several properties. Reflecting a horticultural boom in Norway, Munch created flower and kitchen gardens at his various homes; he planted fruit trees, maintained orchards, and kept animals such as hens, doves, and horses. The artist regarded his gardens and fields as places of refuge overflowing with life. They can also be understood as liminal zones between nature and civilization and as symbols of fertility and rejuvenation. During a time when Norwegian agriculture was undergoing modernization and mechanization, Munch depicted traditional small-scale farming practices, celebrating the farmer’s way of life in opposition to industrialization and encroaching urbanization.
Edvard Munch, Young Girls on a Bridge, 1902. Private collection.
Between Land and Sea: Spaces of Melancholy
The shoreline was an important motif for Munch, living as he did on or near the coast of the Oslo Fjord for most of his adult life. Munch depicted a characteristically curving shoreline in his paintings, drawings, and prints from the 1890s through the 1930s. It became a recurring theme in his work, one he identified with the “perpetually shifting lines of life.” In some depictions, the shoreline itself, on a moonlit evening, is the subject; in others it is a backdrop for human emotion. The shoreline features most prominently in Munch’s works depicting themes of melancholy, human isolation, and physical separation. As the Norwegian writer Sigbjørn Obstfelder (1866–1900) remarked in 1896: “He sees in wavelengths; he sees the shoreline weave next to the ocean. . . . he sees women’s hair and women’s bodies in waves.” By setting his depictions of separation, attraction, and loneliness against the undulating shoreline of the Oslofjord the shore became an active agent in his depictions of nature.
Edvard Munch, Summer Night by the Beach, 1902/03. Private collection.
Summer Retreat: Back to the Coast
From 1889 onwards Munch’s family often rented a house in Åsgårdstrand for the summer. The rocky, curving shoreline became a frequent motif for the artist’s work. In 1907 to 1908, Munch spent a period in Warnemünde, on the northern coast of Germany, where he sought water cures and rest before being hospitalized for alcoholism and a nervous breakdown. In Warnemünde, Munch became acquainted with the Lebensreform movement and its belief in the beneficial effects of sunbathing and exercise in the fresh sea air.
He focused on outdoor bathing scenes. Returning to Norway in 1910, Munch bought a summer house on the Oslo Fjord in Hvitsten, where he continued to create bathing scenes and built outdoor studios for his monumental works. His color palette brightened, and his contemporaries began to perceive the artist as happier and in tune with nature.
The Scream of Nature: Humankind and Environment
In the lithographs Anxiety and The Scream, Munch evokes an atmosphere of anxiety that is in stark contrast to his quiet scenes of country life. The people in these images confront the viewer directly, and nature is in a state of turmoil. The Sun, on the other hand, conveys positive, vital energy. Despite the differences between the images, The Scream and The Sun can be seen as pendants. Munch repeatedly depicted the sun. In the cycle that he created for the ceremonial hall of the University of Oslo it serves as a symbol of knowledge. Both The Scream and The Sun show the existential influence of nature on humans. While The Scream raises questions about humankind’s interaction with nature, the composition of The Sun, which is devoid of people, concentrates on the star as an elemental force, a provider of energy, and the foundation of all life on earth. The Scream and The Sun communicate the unity of humans and nature. The cycle that Munch designed for the Aula of the University of Oslo is displayed on the ground level in Wing B.
Munch’s fascination with metamorphosis, together with his faith in nature’s cyclical renewal, led him to depict each changing season. His paintings of snowy landscapes celebrate the mystery and wonder of Norway’s long, dark winters. The large-scale evening scenes painted in hues of white and blue feature starry night skies and sturdy pine trees that have survived the winter cold. His snowcapped forests, townscapes, and moonlit winter skies convey a sense of quiet awe. Munch also depicted extreme weather events such as storms during the warmer months, allowing him to explore tumultuous conditions such as windblown trees and clouds scurrying across the sky. For all his awareness of humankind’s imprint on nature and interconnectedness with the universe, Munch’s paintings of snow, storm, and ice present nature as a force that is ultimately beyond human control.
Edvard Munch, Stormy Landscape, 1902/03. Private collection.
In a Cosmic Cycle: Art and Philosophy
Edvard Munch’s artistic practice was impacted by his overlapping interests in philosophy, religion, and the natural sciences. Raised in a staunchly Christian household, Munch’s religious views in adulthood were shaped by scientific theories such as Charles Darwin’s evolution and Ernst Haeckel’s Monism, a philosophical belief that all existence—both organic and inorganic—is unified. The position of humans as part of a cosmic cycle is a recurrent theme in his art.
Light and Knowledge:
Monumental Paintings for the University of Oslo
Munch represents scientific disciplines such as chemistry, physics, and botany as explorations of a world permeated by light and energy. The overarching theme of his designs for the monumental works of the ceremonial hall known as the Aula at the University of Oslo is enlightenment. The Sun, which casts its prismatic rays across the landscape, is the central motif. It is both a symbol of enlightenment and a vitalistic celebration of nature’s inherent life force. The decorative project of the Aula was the first major art commission in Norway after the country achieved independence from Sweden in 1905. Munch’s concept for the series included romantic and national ideas of vitalism and renewal. History and Alma Mater show old Norwegian peasants who pass on their knowledge to the young. Past, present, and future are thus united, while humankind fuses with the transformative forces of nature in a radiant universe.
Gunther Maria Kolck, Hamburg, and BrücknerAping, Bremen
Exhibition:
November 18, 2023 – April 1, 2024
Museum Barberini, Alter Markt, Humboldtstraße 5–6, 14467 Potsdam
21 Lending Institutions:
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Kupferstichkabinett Dallas Museum of Art, Texas Museum Folkwang, Essen Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas Finnish National Gallery, Ateneum Art Museum, Antell Collections Kunsthalle Mannheim Museum of Modern Art, New York Canica Art Collection, Oslo Christen Sveaas Art Collection, Oslo Munchmuseet, Oslo Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo Frank Mosvold Musée d’Orsay, Paris Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal and private collectors who wish to remain anonymo
The exhibition reflects the entire spectrum of Willi Baumeister’s (1889-1955) artistic oeuvre. Baumeister was an exceptional artist in many respects. His artistic path was characterised by constant change and renewal. One of his specialities was his ability to use a wide variety of media for his purposes at a time when a strict, classical separation of artistic genres still prevailed.
Hannelore Paflik-Huber and Hans Dieter Huber (curators of the exhibition): “Baumeister—this visionary of abstraction—is worth to be rediscovered. We are showing him as a masterful networker of his time.”
From today’s perspective, Willi Baumeister can be characterised as a “social hub.” He was an excellent networker throughout his life, establishing important international contacts very early on in his artistic career, which he was largely able to maintain during the Second World War. His circle of friends included Hans Arp, Hanna Bekker, Max Bill, Robert Delaunay, Sonja Delaunay-Terk, Karl Otto Götz, Camille Graeser, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Oskar Kokoschka. But his extensive contacts in architecture (such as Le Corbusier, Alfred Roth and Richard Döcker) and in the world of commercial art (Ella Bergmann-Michel, Robert Michel, Kurt Schwitters and others) also proved to be extremely fruitful for the wide-ranging development of an essentially intermedial oeuvre that was not limited to painting.
Together with the Domnick Collection in Nürtingen the Museum Gunzenhauser in Chemnitz owns the third largest public collection of Willi Baumeister paintings in Germany after the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Today, the collection comprises 39 works from the artist’s various stylistic phases. This collection, which has never been shown in its entirety before, offers an ideal starting point for a large-scale Willi Baumeister exhibition dedicated to this exceptional artist and all of his work phases and media, his art theory and artistic attitudes. The show has a particular focus on the visualisation of works from artists’ estates that have rarely been shown to date. The exhibits are supplemented by items on loan from other museums.
Furthermore, a wide-ranging selection of films, letters, postcards and photographs sheds light on the artist as a cultural-political cosmopolitan, advocate of abstract art and exceptional university teacher. Supplementary documents and artworks by third parties illustrate the high esteem in which he was held.
Next to works by Willi Baumeister, the following artists are presented in the exhibition: Max Ackermann, Gerhard Altenbourg, Hans Arp, Hanna Bekker, Ella Bergmann-Michel, Karl Bohrmann, Peter Brüning, Carlfriedrich Claus, Le Corbusier, Lily Hildebrandt, Adolf Hölzel, Marta Hoeppfner, Johannes Itten, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Ida Kerkovius, Franz Krause, Fernand Léger, Charlotte Mayer-Posenenske, Kasimir Malevich, László Moholy-Nagy, Otto Meyer-Amden, Robert Michel, Gonn Mosny, Margarete Oehm-Baumeister, Amédée Ozenfant, Oskar Schlemmer, Kurt Schwitters, Hermann Stenner, Ludwig Wilding.
Hanna Bekker, Roter Fuchs, um 1920. Oil on cardboard, 29,5 x 24,5 cm Estate Hanna Bekker/Archive Hanna Bekker vom Rath, Frankfurt/Main Photo: Fotostudio Herbert Fischer FrankfurtWassily Kandinsky, Rot im Quadrat, 1931 Watercolour, pen and ink on paper,34 x 33,9 cm. Private collection Photo: Archiv Baumeister im Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
The Museum of the City of Belgrade, Princess Ljubica’s Residence, 8 Kneza Sime Markovića Street in Belgrade, and The Association of Artists in Fine Arts, Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia (ULUPUDS) is pleased to present:
Annual Exhibition of the Painting and Graphic Section of ULUPUDS
7th – 20th November, 2023
The Association of Artists in Fine Arts, Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia organizes the Annual Exhibition of painting and graphic arts, which, through the presentation of artistic concepts and their elaborations in diverse media, techniques and formats, aims to provide insight into ways of thinking about the very concept of artistic presentation.
The Annual Exhibition, showcasing the individual artistic creativity within the framework of contemporary aesthetic, anthropological, cultural, political, economic, feminist, historical and sociological dimensions, aim to examine the expressive capacities of contemporary Serbian artists dealing with technologically and materially complex ideas.
One of the featured works is Katarina Andjelkovic’s digital graphics, The Levitation Scene, which is a part of the decade-long drawing project called War [Un]Story.
Katarina Andjelkovic, The Levitation Scene (from The Sequence of explosion of architectural orders: patterning of relations). Digital graphics, 76 x 55 cm, 2021.
Katarina Andjelkovic’s digital graphics The Levitation Scene has championed a decade-long drawing project War [Un]Story. The author of this collection has offered an aesthetic reflection on the aftermath of war by appropriating the concept of architecture as a visual resource to (un)tell the apocalyptic scenario of NATO-sanctioned bombings of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A series of digital graphics deal with an aesthetic reflection on political bodies and conditions, asking how they have re-territorialised the material reality of the Serbian Military Headquarters in Belgrade (Generalštab building, architect Nikola Dobrović, built between 1956 and 1965) as a cultural artifact into the performativity of its political function. The project is seen as an opportunity to rethink political power through the analytics of physical sciences. It is revealed as a type of image which, instead of reproducing architectural reality, rather produces new perceptions of the event through the power of the energy and forces war unleashes. To animate the viewing encounter, the author chose to transcribe the energetic event of explosion into visual forms. Material decay of the building granted access to the immateriality of perceptual fields and delineated a multi-layered untold story in a fusion of energy (the fundamental concept in physics), power (the fundamental concept in social science) and transformation. The resulting choreographic notations can be registered and apprehended through the universe of image representation that negotiates physical boundaries by energy and forces. In Boccioni’s early twentieth-century references to the ‘electric theory of matter’, according to which matter is only energy, the exhibition shifts away from representational images to a more abstracted non-representational forms, the fragments of broken structure that are represented in a flow, bearing a striking resemblance to electrons in their ‘bareness’ or lack of materiality.
About Katarina Andjelkovic
Katarina Andjelkovic, with a Ph.D., M.Arch.Eng., M. Applied Arts, is a theorist, practicing architect, researcher and painter. She is a high-skilled draftsman, writer and researcher. Andjelkovic is simultaneously engaged in architectural practice, teaching, and research. Katarina’s research, writing and teaching, focus on how ideas can be translated across different media, crossing architecture, visual arts and film. In Spring semester 2021, Katarina is the main instructor of the HAND-DRAWING COURSE: THE FACE[S] OF ARCHITECTURE at SMT New York in New York City. She served as a Visiting Professor, Chair of Creative Architecture, at the University of Oklahoma U.S.A., Visiting Lecturer at Coburg University of Applied Sciences – Faculty of Design (Department of Architecture) in Germany, Institute of Form Theory and History in Oslo, Institute of Urbanism and Landscape in Oslo, Norway, at The University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture. Katarina is guest-lecturing and mentoring at Master Studies of TU Delft – Faculty of architecture and the built environment, Doctoral studies of AHO – Oslo School of architecture and design, FAUP Porto, DIA Anhalt Dessau, SMT New York, and Bachelor studies of ITU – Istanbul Technical University. She lectures internationally at conferences in film, photography and architecture, urban space and visual representation, exploring architecture with image technologies: from film to VR and AR, modern aesthetics of architecture, film-philosophy, drawing research, teaching-research frameworks, artistic research, and visual culture in more than 35 countries in Europe, United Kingdom, North America, Canada, Australia, China, and South America. Katarina has published her research widely in international journals (Web of Science). She is a full author of the Preliminary Architectural Design, a national project supported by the government of Serbia. She won the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce Award for Best Master Thesis defended at Universities in Serbia in all disciplines. Katarina has published two monographs; an upcoming book chapter and several journal articles with Intellect United Kingdom, University of Chicago Press (U.S.), Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group (London, United Kingdom), Büchner-Verlag eG, Marburg/Germany, etc. During her Ph.D., Andjelkovic’s research stays were all at European universities in Copenhagen, Ljubljana, Porto, Dundee U.K., Brighton U.K., Dublin, Madrid, etc. Andjelkovic exhibited her artwork at 7 Solo Exhibitions and at more than 70 international architectural, fine arts, and photography exhibitions, including group exhibitions at Pall Mall Gallery in London, Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, MAAT Museum in Lisbon, International Biennial of Illustration ”Golden Pen” in Belgrade, Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, TU Delft in the Netherlands, the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade, the National Museum in Belgrade, Prodajna Galerija “Beograd” (Kosancicev venac, Belgrade), Gallery Singidunum in Belgrade, Stepenište in Art Education Center ”Šumatovačka”, Gallery of the Central Military Club, Suluj Gallery, Pavillion Cvijeta Zuzoric of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia, and Mala Gallery of the Association of Fine Artists of Applied Arts and Designers of Serbia. Katarina is a recipient of EDRA’S 2022 AMBASSADOR FUND AWARDS [California, U.S., Awarded in South Carolina], THE ULUS 2021 Spring Exhibition Award “INVISIBLE PORTRAIT” [awarded by Association of Fine Artists of Serbia], and won numerous awards for her architecture design and urban design competitions.
About The Museum of the City of Belgrade, Princess Ljubica’s Residence
The Museum of the City of Belgrade, Princess Ljubica’s Residence, 8 Kneza Sime Markovića Street in Belgrade, is one of the few preserved buildings from the time of the first reign of Prince Miloš Obrenović. Princess Ljubica’s residence was built in 1830. After restoration and reconstruction, the building became part of the Museum of the City of Belgrade in 1980, and in September of the same year, the permanent museum exhibition “Interiors of Belgrade houses of the 19th century” was opened. The display consists of a representative selection of fine and applied art objects from the collections of the Museum of the City of Belgrade. The objects were created during the 19th century as a product of Western European and domestic craft-art and industrial production. Today, the lower level of the building regularly hosts art exhibitions.
Katarina Andjelkovic with her artwork, Princess Ljubica’s Residence in Belgrade, November 2023.Annual Exhibition of The Painting and Graphic Section of ULUPUDS, Princess Ljubica’s Residence in Belgrade, November 2023.
Exhibition opening: Tuesday, November 7th, 2023, at 19h.
Eating is a constant in the living world. But much more than a simple natural need, sharing a meal takes on an undeniable symbolic and philosophical dimension that several unvisual artists have invested. We will meet these artists, all related to ENDA (National Art School of Paris), who revisit this universal act of nourishing themselves by placing themselves at odds with the commercial system of art.
When the only purpose of art is to integrate into a commercial system and to please the public, it necessarily loses its essence. Food coupled with unvisual art is a break with this dynamic. The constant commodification of art amplifies the harmful effects of neoliberalism and the requirements to correspond to a certain aesthetic, in total opposition to the foundations of unvisual art.
This is why food is an important source of inspiration for several unvisual artists who integrate it into a social project, making it possible to unite rather than divide and even to push to commit, all essential functions of art. The concept of anarchist bakery or solidarity canteens flourishing in France recalls the concept of the Conflict Kitchen, a food truck created in Pittsburg that only offers cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict. In addition to the meals distributed, debates on films addressing geopolitical problems, always animate the surroundings of the food truck.
Another More Ethical Model?
Alexandre Gurita, artist and theoretical founder of “invisual art,” also sees the exploration of food uses as a way to reinvent the traditional economic models of the art market by proposing alternative production circuits. These “invisual” practices are ecological par excellence: “There is no production of works of art in toxic materials, which travel around the world several times to be exhibited. These projects are also democratic!”
Ethics is what the unvisual art, putting food at the center, tends towards. Quentin Derouet sees his quest form eaning as a fundamental milestone in the expression of his art. Living near a garden-forest is a way to meet his ideals. His complete immersion in this inspiring nature is a great lever of inspiration: “Ethics is something very important to me. Reducing art to its material characteristics is meaningless while paying attention to others and nature is fundamental for me. In my garden-forest, I leave room for all species. I am experimenting by proposing rose crops from new varieties.”
An adept of naturalness, he has put food at the heart of his art, which he invests in every way, and in an unusual way, he sees creativity as a huge interdisciplinary field of experimentation by making thyme alcohol as well as honey with his parents. He had even set up chicken installations that he cooked with spotlights during festive meals. His artistic approach is, therefore, marked by the desire to create social ties and to reactivate utopias while questioning the conventional aspects of art. Always with a collective perspective, Quentin has recently re-adapted the Croque fruits project with his accomplice Vincent Bourdet, the design and sale of an artisanal fruit bar of dates and almonds, created in Marseille during the Second World War in the free zone.
The artists could then work and continue their artistic practice. A solidarity based company, provider of “beautiful values,” which is, at the origin, the creation of the Itkine brothers. A project supported by Reine Caulet, the last survivor to have participated, and which had given back a glimmer of saving hope in times of war.
Back to the Essence of Art
As for Flavien Paget, after following a traditional path in art school, he, too, decided to put himself on the sidelines of the classical system. Art having lost its essence; he proclaims himself a communal artist advocating a return to the sources and the local. Like Quentin, he makes a point of honor to choose local, natural and quality products. He wants to awaken conscience and make his art move outside the walls of the museum.
Having met several cheese makers around the world, he learned the work of cheese in Scotland. He explores pairings, special refinements from Munster to Picon, creates quirky sweets with cheddar and chocolate where the taste and ethics of food are paramount. He resorts to other dishes such as burger and pizza.
In his text Notes on Pizza, he reveals more about his innovative vision of art: “The work here lies in the approach. And this is the whole point of my artistic work, my practice being built on the principles of autonomous economy, the intersection of disciplines and distancing from the conventional art market. Hethen has every opportunity to rethink the cards of social norms by proposing a cuisine that is accessible, economic and ecological.
Natural Elements as an Artistic Material
In a completely different register, Sylvain Soussan surprises with his bottling project of the water of Paris by diverting the usual use of drinking water. He puts the cursor on this excessive commodification of art despite taking into account the healthy limits of natural elements. By proposing glass bottles marked with a significant message: Eau au naturel, he questions our perception of the invisible in art, like tap water, transparent, colorless and tasteless, but nevertheless essential to life.
Sylvain has multiplied the mediation supports with water as his leitmotif. He first used mobile fountains in living and working spaces. Then came the cups, glasses, bottles, then the watering cans, the cisterns and two water towers on which it is written: Museum of clouds. His art values both recycling and sharing, in a form of circular and solidarity economy.
Collecting water in a glass bottle is a crying call to respect the environment “Ideally, our bottles would arouse a certain attachment, the desire to prolong their fragile existence. The agreement of glass and water is more satisfactory than plastic or metal. Our bottles to be filled on tap encourage us to toast transparency, this form of invisibility where the undetectable flavor of blandness is concentrated,” details Sylvain. The awakened tasting of water is an artistic experience that pushes the drinker to become the own artist of his gustatory pleasure: “This insipid character becomes for the water a guarantee of quality, and faced with this apparent absence of taste, the palate can linger on other taste sensations. The texture, the viscosity, the temperature can take over”—true poetry of water.
Act Imminently
He invites us to become an actor in his own life, also placing himself in opposition to the purely mercantile art world, which would only be a world of great fortunes planetary and a stack of egos to satisfy: the artist’s ego, the collector’s ego, the ego from the art entrepreneur. He announces that the unvisual art remains an effective way to bring about change. Due to its rarity and its diversions, it surprises: “Everything remains to be done for the actors of the unvisual art because they play a score where no one knows their role, since this art invests territories where it is not expected. That’s what makes it difficult and interesting.”
Art should no longer only awaken consciences. He must react and move the lines, he argues: “It would be necessary for each person to consider himself as an artist of his own life and thus acquire a form of autonomy in terms of taste, standards, needs. Art can aestheticize scraps and make desirable projects that are now devalued. It helps us to adopt less aggressive behaviors towards Earth’s resources. Our conceptions of aesthetics need to be reviewed, we would need less gloss, less plastic…” An ecological and social emergency that he expresses in several artistic projects.
The Reunifying Food
Ricardo Mbarkho was the founder of the Tabbouleh Day in 2001. With Alexander Gurita, straight out of fine arts school, he wanted to revolutionize art. The tabbouleh was a way for him to claim it. This tabbouleh day is an extension of these post-war paintings that seek to fight, to raise awareness, and to question what does good and evil. All this to better destabilize the power. This day honors this authentic meeting all over the world. Passionate, he tells us that this event has evolved a lot over the years. A change in perception as his awareness of the importance of bringing together rather than dividing has intensified.
Initially, it was when he realized during a trip to France that the Lebanese tabbouleh recipe was not respected, in the supermarkets, that he wanted to create this day as a sign of national pride. Ricardo then gradually changes his mind: “In 2001, I carry values of belonging to Lebanon. You should know that the dish is presented, mediatized, and taught by Lebanese institutions. Seeing this insolence towards the traditional recipe revolted me. I was touched by this cultural appropriation. Now, that’s totally the opposite of what I’m presenting. In 22 years, I have changed my perception. Today, I’m not talking about a national day anymore! It is an encounter with the other, which allows me a detachment from my environment. Why submit to the wishes of the kings of war who divided the borders? I am a citizen of the world!”
The tabbouleh can be both a tool of community violence but above all it is “like a food for everyone that connects people in the sense of humanizing”. The idea of a shared day makes it possible to centralize the energies of the tabbouleurs of the world. An informal party that takes place on the first Saturday of July, but not only. According to Ricardo, it is a moment to think about our freedom and our authentic being while taking up in his own way the terms monopolized by power.
A Collective Approach to Art, a Factor of Change
For the lazy artist, unvisual art is a fusion of art and life that operates to the end, and which, therefore, re-inscribes art in life: “The ambition of the lazy artist is to change the world but with a little humility. What I can say is that the art of laziness is not a solitary art. It is a question of operating a contamination by laziness and of involving as many people as possible in this practice. It is an approach intrinsically destined to be collective, but I cannot decide for them what others will do with it.”
She summarizes in this way the collective impact of this art, which can lift mountains, because it takes fully into account our lifestyles, such as food or our relationship to work: “Approaching the unvisual practices of various artists through food, is, I believe, one of the best ways to do because it is to discover these practices through the prism of everyday life and what is essential to our lives and not by a somewhat artificial aestheticizing approach. Food concentrates all the topics: economic, environmental, health topics and as an artist, I could not ignore such an important topic.” Recently, for health reasons, she has also questioned her own eating habits. After having distributed a sample of the lazy artist’s diary in a paper micro-edition at the start of the new school year, she is currently working on a cookbook format that she did not choose at random. Much more shareable than an exhibition catalog, the unvisual artists’ cookbook speaks to everyone and highlights the artists’ practices without sacralizing them, with lightness and derision.
Audrey Poussines is a web journalist passionate about culture, ecology, and social issues. She is captivated by all forms of expression and enjoys writing about urban and modern art, food, and music.
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The 100.gallery project invites everyone to create and own a unique artwork. Words, sentences, numbers and characters are transformed into abstract images in a 10 x 10 colour-coded grid. When added to the gallery, two versions of each artwork are produced — a file for web and a vector file for print.
The grid allows for many trillions1 of artwork variations, which means that the 100.gallery has the potential to become one of the largest collection of artworks ever produced.
Our future intention is to showcase a selection of artworks in physical form within galleries around the world.
German Ecodesign Award 2023: 26 Projects Nominated After Assessment of 150 Entries in Berlin
The German Ecodesign Award was first introduced in 2012 as an initiative by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection, in partnership with the International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) and the German Environment Agency. The objective of this prestigious award is to recognize and honor innovative products and concepts that embody high ecological and aesthetic aspirations. The German Ecodesign Award aims to encourage innovation and support the introduction and widespread adoption of environmentally sound products through a high-profile award. It is designed to promote and encourage eco-friendly designs that are both aesthetically pleasing and sustainable. The competition provides an excellent platform for companies and designers to showcase their products and ideas that boast exceptional ecological and design quality. The International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) has been commissioned to develop the competition format and implementation, with the support of a project advisory board. The competition is open to all companies and designers, regardless of their size, location, or industry. To be eligible for the award, the products and concepts must meet specific criteria such as resource efficiency, durability, recyclability, and eco-friendliness. The German Ecodesign Award is an exceptional opportunity for businesses and designers to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and innovation while celebrating and promoting groundbreaking eco-friendly products and concepts.
The two-day session held on September 25 and 26 at the Metropolenhaus Berlin was a crucial event for the German Ecodesign Award 2023. During this period, the jury meticulously inspected and assessed nearly 150 entries. The environmental and design experts spent considerable time reviewing each submission before finally selecting the top 26 projects to be nominated for the award. The chosen projects demonstrated exceptional qualities that stood out from the rest. The winners of the German Ecodesign Award 2023 will be revealed on December 4, at a highly anticipated ceremony to be held at the Federal Ministry for the Environment. An online gallery displays all the nominees.
Dangerous Liaisons section featuring AMAA Collaborative Architecture Office for Research and Development. It’s Kind of a Circular Story is in exhibition at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, showcasing The Laboratory of the Future. Photo by Andrea Avezzù, 2023. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
The 18th International Architecture Exhibition, titled The Laboratory of the Future, takes place in Venice until Sunday, November 26, 2023. The exhibition is held at the Giardini, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera.
The event is curated by Lesley Lokko and organized by La Biennale di Venezia. La Biennale di Venezia is taking significant steps towards combating climate change by promoting a more sustainable model for designing, installing, and operating all its events. In 2022, La Biennale achieved certifications for all the events held that year. This achievement was made possible by meticulously collecting data on the causes of CO2 emissions generated by the events and adopting consequent measures. The entire process of achieving carbon neutrality, conducted in compliance with international standard PAS2060, was certified by R.I.N.A.
The mobility of visitors is the most significant factor in the carbon footprint of all events. To address this issue, La Biennale launched a communication campaign in 2023 to raise awareness among the attendees. The 18th International Architecture Exhibition is the first major exhibition to test the process of achieving carbon neutrality and reflect on the themes of decolonization and decarbonization.
The International Exhibition has the power to act as an agent for change.
Lesley Lokko views architecture exhibitions as both a moment and a process. Although they share the structure and format of art exhibitions, architecture exhibitions differ from art in critical, often overlooked ways. In addition to the desire to tell a story, questions of production, resources, and representation play a central role in bringing an architecture exhibition to life but are seldom acknowledged or discussed. Right from the beginning, it was evident that the primary focus of The Laboratory of the Future would be ‘change.’
The Laboratory of the Future is an exhibition in six parts. It includes 89 participants, over half from Africa or the African Diaspora.
The Laboratory of the Future exhibition showcases the best and brightest architects, urbanists, designers, landscape architects, engineers, and academics from Africa and the Diaspora. The exhibition is divided into two main parts: the Central Pavilion in the Giardini and the Arsenale complex.
The Central Pavilion in the Giardini features 16 architectural practices representing a distilled force majeure of African and Diasporic architectural production. Visitors to this part of the exhibition can see the strengths and capabilities of these practices and how they are pushing the boundaries of architectural design.
The exhibition then moves to the Arsenale complex, where participants from the Dangerous Liaisons section and Curator’s Special Projects gather. Dangerous Liaisons is a section of the exhibition that explores the links between architecture and technology. At the same time, Curator’s Special Projects is a category that showcases the work of young and emerging architects.
Dangerous Liaisons section featuring AMAA Collaborative Architecture Office for Research and Development. It’s Kind of a Circular Story is in exhibition at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, showcasing The Laboratory of the Future. Photo by Andrea Avezzù, 2023. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
Dangerous Liaisons section featuring ZAO / standard architecture. Co-Living Courtyard 共生院 is in exhibition at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, showcasing The laboratory of the Future. Photo by Marco Zorzanello, 2023. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
Throughout both venues, visitors will find young African and Diasporan practitioners, the Guests from the Future, engaging directly with this exhibition’s twin themes, decolonization and decarbonization. Their work provides a glimpse of future practices and ways of seeing and being in the world.
The Curator has thoughtfully opted to refer to participants as ‘practitioners’ rather than architects, urbanists, designers, landscape architects, engineers, or academics. This choice is because Africa’s diverse and intricate conditions and a rapidly changing world necessitate a distinct and more comprehensive understanding of the term ‘architect.’ This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to witness the work of some of the most talented architects and designers from Africa and the Diaspora and to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the field of architecture today. Among ‘practitioners’ from Africa and the Diaspora, there are a total of 64 countries participating in the Biennale Architecture, each organizing their exhibitions across the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, Arsenale, and the city center of Venice.
Pavilion of South Africa.The Structure of a People. 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, The Laboratory of the Future. Photo by Marco Zorzanello, 2023. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
Pavilion of Brazil. Terra [Earth]. 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, The Laboratory of the Future. Photo by Matteo de Mayda, 2023. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
Pavilion of Germany. Open for Maintenance – Wegen Umbau geöffnet. 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, The laboratory of the Future. Photo by Matteo de Mayda, 2023. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
Arcual is delighted to announce its collaboration with Art Basel and Zurich Art Weekend in 2023, bringing together art and collectors through innovative initiatives and engaging activities. At Art Basel in Basel (12-18 June 2023), Arcual will have a booth in the Collector’s Lounge with unique artwork commissioned by artist Phoebe Cummings. Furthermore, Arcual will otherwise participate in several events and panels with leading voices from the art world, discussing collecting and power dynamics and celebrating art and culture at Zurich Art Weekend.
Phoebe Cummings, Detail from ‘Flora’ (clay), 2020. @ Art Basel, Basel.
Arcual will unveil its latest feature, which opens up new possibilities for artists, galleries, and collectors to connect with an artwork throughout its lifecycle. The Digital Dossier feature will be launched ahead of Arcual’s participation in Zurich Art Weekend and Art Basel in Basel, continuing its commitment to placing artists at the centre of the art ecosystem. This new feature will be brought to life through the commission of a unique sculptural artwork by British artist Phoebe Cummings, for their booth in the Collectors Lounge of Art Basel.
Arcual’s Digital Dossier can contain the digital Certificate of Authenticity (CoA), Resale Terms, as well as other supporting documentation relating to an artwork, such as sketches, designs, and photographs showing the artist’s creative process, shipping and installation guidelines, condition reports, exhibition certificates, and more. The Digital Dossier furthers understanding of the artist and the artwork, simultaneously enhancing its value and authenticity for collectors, both now and in the future. Collectors will be able to utilise this feature to keep all of the documentation relating to the artwork in one secure space.
Says Bernadine Bröcker Wieder:“Art is all about storytelling. Arcual’s new Digital Dossier feature strengthens the connection between an artist and their artwork by enabling them to attach documents and images to enhance its story. These may include sketches, designs, even a photograph in the studio showing their creative process. These attachments follow the artwork on its journey from one owner to the next. Further attachable documentation can outline how artists would like for their work to be exhibited, stored, and moved. We have seen a real desire from collectors for deeper engagement with the artworks they purchase, from the very beginning of the process. This new functionality fundamentally enhances the experience of owning and authentifying of an artwork, adding value for the future in a way that’s easy to access and secure.”
Arcual at Art Basel
An official partner for Art Basel in Basel, Arcual will showcase a unique, large-scale sculptural artwork by the artist Phoebe Cummings, commissioned for its booth in the Collectors Lounge, which will be on display throughout the fair. Cummings is known for her ephemeral sculptures that reflect on nature’s beauty and life cycle, created from raw, unfired clay. She will complete the sculpture on site, enabling visitors to experience first-hand the artist’s creative process. Surrounded by mirrors and brought to life through immersive lighting, the artwork will bring an engaging, interactive element to the space and highlight the connectedness between an artist, collector, and the artwork.
The work, which was consigned and purchased through Arcual’s blockchain, will have a sustainable life cycle. It will demonstrate the potential of the Digital Dossier, which Cummings will utilise for the first time.
Phoebe Cummings, artist says: “I am increasingly interested in how we collect the ephemeral, and how collections can encompass different forms of artistic practice that may not result in a permanent object. I have expanded the way I record each work, moving beyond photography and film as the primary method, to include writing as well as other sensory information such as humidity, offering new possibilities in terms of how a work may be re-performed in the future. The Digital Dossier is an interesting feature which enables artists to amplify the storytelling around their artworks, to set out how it has come to be, and to outline how it might best be presented in the world.”
Phoebe Cummings, Detail from ‘Flora’ (clay), 2020. @ Art Basel, Basel.
Arcual will also participate in a variety of talks and events around the fair, with Arcual CEO Bernadine Brocker Wieder joining the Conversations series panel Blockchain, Ownership andCopyright, on Saturday 17th June, 3-4 pm CET. The panel will discuss blockchain as a decentralising and redistributive technology, exploring how works are authenticated, who the copyright belongs to and whether transactions really remain forever on the blockchain, as well as the potential of this rapidly developing field to empower artists, galleries and buyers in equal measure. Alongside Bernadine Bröcker Wieder, the panel will feature Amelie Ebbinghaus (Art Loss Register), Primavera di Filipi (artist and writer) and Sarah Friend (artist), with Brian Droitcour as moderator. The Conversations series is free to attend and open to the public, without a fair ticket and will also be broadcast online. Arcual will also host Arcual Reflections, a series of intimate talks at their booth which will bring together artists, curators, collectors, and tech experts, which will be livestreamed. The details of these events will be released on the Arcual website, ahead of the fair. Arcual will also be working with several galleries at Art Basel, who will be consigning works for sale.
Maja Hoffmann, Founder of LUMA Foundation, says: “Arcual’s mission from the very start has been to offer pioneering technologies that give artists greater ownership, participation, and transparency in their careers, as well as to provide both institutions and galleries the tools to best nurture them. Arcual’s Digital Dossier feature empowers artists, enables a greater connection with their work and places them in the centre, which aligns with the central mission of the LUMAFoundation.”
Arcual at Zurich Art Weekend
Ahead of Art Basel, Arcual is an official partner for Zurich Art Weekend. Arcual hosted a panel discussion with speakers including leading auctioneer, art dealer, and collector, Simon de Pury, alongside art tech expert and advisor, Nina Roehrs, and artist Gretchen Andrew, moderated by Arcual CEO Bernadine Bröcker Wieder on 9th June: How Technology is impacting Power Dynamics in the Art World. The talk explored power structures between artists and galleries, trends and opportunities, how previously marginalised members of the art eco-system who are now being empowered by tech, and more.
Arcual was built with the backing and expertise of the LUMA Foundation, MCH Group (the parent company of Art Basel) and BCG X and launched in 2022. Arcual offers a suite of digital tools and integrations to assist galleries in ensuring verified transactions, digital authenticity, royalty sharing, and secure international payments. Arcual’s first application ‘Salesroom’ offers smart contract terms for physical, primary market artworks, which are registered securely on the blockchain.
Arcual’s customisable, collaborative technology designs a new infrastructure to empower everyone – artists, galleries, collectors, and more – to grow their practices, inspire new opportunities, and solve long-standing challenges in the art eco-system.
Phoebe Cummings
Phoebe Cummingsis an artist based in the UK, creating temporary sculptures and environments from raw clay. The density of labour and skill invested in making sits in direct opposition to the brief existence of the work. There is an inherent instability that simultaneously untethers clay from the fixed, enduring potential of ceramics. The works change as they drip, dry, shrink and crack, and the clay is ultimately broken down and recycled, in different locations and periods of time, as an unending material performance.
Cummings has undertaken numerous residencies in the UK, Greenland and U.S, including six months as Ceramics artist-in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2010 and a fellowship at Camden Arts Centre 2012/13). She continues to show internationally, with recent exhibitions including Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples and Galerist, Istanbul. She was the winner of the British Ceramics Biennial 2011, and the BBC Woman’s Hour Craft Prize 2017. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Brighton in 2019 and continues to work as a Researcher at the Ceramics Research Centre-UK, University of Westminster.
Art Basel
Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world’s premier art shows for Modern and Contemporary Art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through new digital platforms and a number of new initiatives such as the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report and Intersections: The Art Basel Podcast. Art Basel’s Global Media Partner is The Financial Times. For further information, please visit artbasel.com.
Zurich Art Weekend
Zurich Art Weekend highlights the quality and diversity of the city’s art scene by offering unique insights into the curated program of highly qualitative and exceptional events organised in collaboration with the participating art venues. Free of charge, the events and initiatives of Zurich Art Weekend continue the pursuit of actively engaging with an audience interested in the arts on a national and international scale. At the core of the international art calendar, Zurich Art Weekend anticipates the preview days of Art Basel as per tradition.
Zurich Art Weekend nourishes and develops links between all entities and players which form its thriving ecosystem, opening it to the public to best serve the knowledge of artistic creation, alongside artists, curators, museum directors and collectors. With the institutions, galleries, offspaces, publishers collections, foundations and universities, the program in June emphasises the latest trends and experiential formats that distinguish the field. Zurich Art Weekend champions more democratic access to the arts, opening the city’s art scene to regional, national and international cultural exchanges.
The Neue Nationalgalerie, designed by the famous Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe, symbolizes modernism and has become an icon.
By Christiane Wagner
The Neue Nationalgalerie underwent renovation by David Chipperfield Architects from 2015 to 2021. Their work on the refurbishment earned them the European Architectural Heritage Intervention Award in Barcelona.
Every two years, a group of European architectural players gives the European Architectural Heritage Intervention Award to outstanding projects in architectural heritage. According to the jury’s statement, the Neue Nationalgalerie building was restored to its original state through a meticulous intervention that made it look like nothing had ever happened. The structural changes were carried out with great attention to detail, resulting in an impressive statement showcasing the highest level of architecture, heritage, and intervention.
The project was conducted under strict monument protection guidelines, focusing on refurbishing and reusing the original components and materials. New building materials were only used in exceptional cases. The building also underwent modernization in areas such as air conditioning, electronics, and security to meet the demands of a museum in the 21st century.
The Neue Nationalgalerie showcases Mies van der Rohe’s architecture and is known for its open hall and a flat roof that appears to be floating. The spacious showrooms highlight the importance of urban functionality and technological innovation. Mies van der Rohe believed in creating functional forms using glass, steel, and stones to provide an ordered sequence of geometric space. Modern architectural styles change over time, but the aesthetic experience remains integral to cultural heritage. These architectural forms promote coexistence with technology, preserving culture while embracing innovations in architectural design.
Its minimalistic design and glass enclosure set the perfect tone for the collection. The main hall or glass pavilion serves as the venue for temporary exhibitions, while the lower level houses the permanent exhibition. Alongside historical accounts, the exhibit also features artwork from the museum’s collection that visually connects with the building’s architecture.
The collection at Neue Nationalgalerie features a stunning range of paintings and sculptures, spanning from classical modernism to the 1980s. The collection’s focal point is German Expressionism, with key works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Dix, and Max Beckmann. Some pieces take us into the world of Surrealism by artists such as Dalí, Miró, and Picasso, as well as works by Klee and Kandinsky that showcase the teachings of the world-renowned art and design school, Bauhaus. Additionally, large canvases featuring colorful and abstract works by American painters Barnett Newman, Frank Stella, and Ellsworth Kelly mark the beginning of a new era in art.
The Neue Nationalgalerie is located near Potsdamer Platz on the Reichpietschufer. Potsdamer Straße 50, Berlin-Tiergarten.
Art Style | Art & Culture International Magazine 