ARTMargins

Contemporary art across the evolving global peripheries

Author: ARTMargins

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Natascha Drubek ·

Interview with Karel Och

The International Film Festival (Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary) is held annually in the Western Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary, (formely also known as Karlsbad). This A-festival in the last 15 years gained worldwide recognition and has become one of Europe’s major film events. Notable programme sections are East of the West (a selection of films from the former Soviet bloc) and an overview of the Czech and Slovak films made during the past year. Natscha Drubek talks to Och about the festival. http://www.kviff.com/en/news/

Made during the 46th edition of the International Film Festival Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, in … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Natascha Drubek ·

Interview with Urszuła Antoniak

The Polish born director talks to Natascha Drubek about the symbolic place of the Hospital, about Death as the only portal to spirituality in Western societies; about unconscious Catholicism; windows in art and voyeurism in Code Blue; the cleanliness of Berlin hospitals; the non-existence of female sexuality; and the withholding of permission to use a DVD cover of the film Doctor Zhivago in Code Blue.

Made during the 46th edition of the International Film Festival Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, in July 2011.

Urszuła Antoniak was born in Czestochowa. She studied film production in Poland and graduated as film … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by Beata Hock (Leipzig) ·

Agency Gendered: Deconstructed Marriages and Migration Narratives in Contemporary Art

Throughout the past two years and in three consecutive exhibitions the Budapest Ludwig Museum has displayed parts of its collection, with an accent on recently acquired or rarely seen artworks. The show Kind of Change, which ran between March and May 2011, offered pieces purchased by or donated to the Ludwig between 2009-2011. The museum’s board selected works by Hungarian artists who have already entered the national canon of contemporary art, or who have made a name for themselves internationally, as well as works by a younger generation of East-Central European artists who are anticipated to become household names on … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Sven Spieker ·

Interview with WHW Collective (Zagreb)

What, How & for Whom/WHW is a curatorial collective formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb. Its members are Ivet ?urlin, Ana Devi?, Nataša Ili? and Sabina Sabolovi?, and the designer and publicist Dejan Krši?. WHW organizes a wide range of production, exhibition, and publishing projects. The collective directs Gallery Nova in Zagreb. “What, how, and for whom” are three basic questions that are central to any economic organization. They also concern the planning, concept, and realization of exhibitions and the production and distribution of artworks together with the artist’s position in the labor market. “What, how, and for whom” … Read more

ARTMargins Online: New Media & Film

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 by Stephen M. Norris (Miami University, Ohio) ·

Lev Kuleshov (Dir.), “Proekt Inzhenera Praita” (“Engineer Prite’s Project”); “Velikii uteshitel’ (O. Genri v tiur’me)” (“The Great Consoler (O’Henry in Prison”) (DVD Review)

Proekt Inzhenera Praita (Engineer Prite’s Project), Directed by Lev Kuleshov, 1918, 30 Minutes; Hyperkino commentary by Nikolai Izvolov and Natascha Drubek-Meyer. RUSCICO: Kino Academia 1 (2 DVDs);

Velikii uteshitel’ (O. Genri v tiur’me) (The Great Consoler (O Henry in Prison), Directed by Lev Kuleshov, 1933, 91 Minutes); Hyperkino commentary by Ekaterina Khokhlova. RUSCICO: Kino Academia 3 (2 DVDs

The life and career of Lev Kuleshov pose certain paradoxes. Kuleshov appears in every account of early Sovietcinema and is typically cited—along with Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Vertov–as one of its true pioneers. Kuleshov, who was born in 1899, was also the youngest … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Raša Todosijević ·

Raša Todosijević in Conversation with Dietmar Unterkofler

Dietmar Unterkofler: You will represent Serbia at this year’s Biennale in Venice, while Tomislav Gotovac will be Croatia’s representative and Marina Abramović will also be there for promoting her Cultural Center in Cetinie (Montenegro). So, three of the key figures of the 1970s avantgarde scene in the former Yugoslavia will be present in Venice. Do you think this is a signal for the late rehabilitation of the still marginalized generation of conceptual artists of the 1970s?

Dragoljub Raša Todosijevi?: I think we can’t speak of a real rehabilitation, and even if so this is only partly true. I think it … Read more

20th / ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Juliane Debeusscher (Budapest) ·

Interview with Artpool Cofounder Júlia Klaniczay

In 1979, Júlia Klaniczay co founded Artpool together with the artist György Galántai. From 1976 onward she was a participant of many art projects concieved by Galántai within the framework of Artpool. Klaniczay is in charge of Artpool’s archives and publications. From 1977 to 1992 she was also the editor-in-chief at Akadémiai Kiadó, the publishing house of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Klaniczay has authored several articles and seved as a researcher for the alternative art scenes of the 1970s and 1980s. Since 1992 she has been the director of the public nonprofit institution Artpool Art Research Center in Budapest.… Read more

ARTMargins Online: New Media & Film

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 by Robert Bird (Chicago) ·

Uzbek Elegy: The Films of Ali Khamraev

Along with Andrey Konchalovsky and Otar Iosseliani, Ali Irgashaliyevich Khamraev (in Uzbek, Ali Hamroev; b. 1937) is one of the great survivors of Soviet New Wave Cinema. Since 1964, Khamraev has been active in numerous genres, from the Romantic Comedy to the Political Drama, and from the Western to the Art-cinema Parable, to the TV mini-series. The son of a Tadjik man and a Ukrainian woman, he typified Soviet poly-nationalism, working for studios across Central Asia and Russia, from Tadjikistan to Moscow. Since the fall of the Soviet Union he has also lived for a time in Italy. Kent Jones … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Exhibition Reviews

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 by Susan Snodgrass ·

Yael Bartana Screening at Gene Siskel Film Center (SAIC)

Conversations at the Edge, Gene Siskel Film Center (SAIC), Chicago, March 4 – April 14, 2011.

Yael Bartana, known for her politically charged films and videos that explore Israeli culture and Jewish identity, will represent Poland at the 54th Biennale of Art in Venice, the first artist of non-Polish nationality to do so. Her project, and Europe will be stunned, co-curated by Sebastian Cichocki and Galit Eilat, “calls” for the return of Jews to Poland and the rebuilding of a multicultural society, as explored in her previous films Mary Koszmary/Nightmares (2007) and Mur I Wieza/Wall and Tower (2009). The … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Aleksandra Kaminska (Toronto) ·

Interview with Aneta Szylak

Aneta Szylak is a curator and writer, and co-founder and current director of Wyspa Institute of Art in Gdańsk. After co-founding and running the ?a?nia (Bathhouse) Centre for Contemporary Art (1998-2001). she pursued a career as an independent curator and researcher. In 2005, she received the Jerzy Stajuda Award “for independent and uncompromising curatorial practice.” Syzlak has taught and lectured at many art institutions and universities. including New School University, Queens College. New York University, Florida Atlantic University, Goldsmith College, and Copenhagen University. She held the position of a guest professor at the Akademie für Bildende Künste in Mainz. Currently … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Book Reviews

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 by Klara Kemp-Welch (London) ·

Edit András (ed.), “Transitland. Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009” (Book Review)

Transitland. Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009, Edit András (ed.), Budapest: Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art / ACAX, 2009

“Video,” writes the editor of the volume, Edit András, “was pretty much the medium of transition (…) it was the first liberal media of the period (…) the strand of visual arts that through its inherent characteristic, kept and reflected recent history to the utmost.”(Transitland. Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009, Edit András (ed.), Budapest: Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art / ACAX, 2009, p. 226.) András’s volume Transitland. Video Art … Read more

ARTMargins Online: New Media & Film

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 by Greg Dolgopolov (New South Wales) ·

Aleksandr Medvedkin (Director) —“Счастье / Happiness” 5th DVD of RUSCICO Academia Series. (DVD Review)

Happiness,  Directed by Alexander Medvedkin, 1934, 95 minutes, 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio. Moskombinat, Vostokfilm Mosfil’m

Like many cinephiles I became familiar with Alexander Medvedkin’s work through Chris Marker’s wonderful documentary, The Last Bolshevik, that featured a tender portrait of the topsy-turvy Soviet director. I emphasize “Soviet” as I was continuously astounded as to how Medvedkin got away with his earnestly over-determined socialist sketches that equated Soviet modernity with naïve folk culture. Some of the images from Medvedkin’s 1935 film Happiness really stood out in Marker’s essay with their striking iconography and ridiculous approach to socialist realism. The film style borrows … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Daniel Grúň (Slovakia) ·

Interview with Petra Feriancova (Interview)

Petra Feriancova lives and works in Bratislav. She studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti, Rome, Italy and Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava. Her work has been exhibited at many venues, including the Secession Museum in Vienna (2010); Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2009); HIT Gallery, Bratislava (2009); and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne (2008). In 2010 Feriancova was awarded the Oskár ?epan Award (2010).

Daniel Grún: I want to start by asking about the way you work with the modern methods of documentation in the natural sciences, particularly the way you trace the breeds in connection with their … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Hedvig Turai ·

Gabriella Csoszó in Conversation with Hedvig Turai (Interview)

Gabriella Csoszó (1969) is a Hungarian artist currently living and working in Budapest. Csoszó displays a unique series of photographs, specifically portraits, which examine identity and individuality. Csoszó uses texts, fragments, and often installations to accompany her pictures. She is presently exhibited at Paris Photo by Raday Gallery. Most recently, Csoszó has been experimenting with landscapes, deteriorated buildings, and construction sites that reveal traces of the recent past, on the Cold war period. Currently she is working on the photographic recording of the Georg Lukács Archive in Budapest, focusing on its history with curator Lívia Páldi.

http://www.fotokontakt.hu/csoszo.html

Hedvig Turai: How … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Larissa Babij (Kyiv) ·

R.E.P. Group in Conversation with Larissa Babij (Interview)

The R.E.P. (Revolutionary Experimental Space) Group, which debuted in 2004 with art-protest actions during the Orange Revolution, is now one of Ukraine’s best-known young contemporary artist collectives. Its members each maintain their own artistic practice in addition to producing projects together. Also acting as curators, they continue to play a significant role in highlighting the activities of other Ukrainian artists of their generation, especially those involved in social-political activism. In recent years, R.E.P. has been attracting more attention abroad, taking part in exhibitions in Hungary, Russia, Sweden, Estonia, Italy and other European countries. http://www.rep.tinka.cc/

Larissa Babij: Tell me about your … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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 by Katalin Timar (Budapest) ·

A Conversation with Attila Pőcze and László Gergely (Interview)

László Gergely is a founding member of Lumen Photography Foundation and Lumen Gallery (since 2002). He lives and works in Budapest. The term Tehnica Schweiz is used for his collaboration with Péter Rákosi (since 2004).  Tehnica Schweiz is a member of POC – Piece of Cake, an international network of photographers (www.pocproject.com). Gergely László is an alumnus of ICP – NYC and has exhibited at many institutions in Europe, including M?csarnok (Kunsthalle, Budapest); NBK Berlin; Witte de With (Rotterdam); Norwich Gallery; and the Vienna Secession.

Attila P?cze opened Vintage Gallery (Budapest) in 1996. He studied car design at … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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The Editors About Hungary’s New Media Law

As expressed in this special issue, since the political changes of 1989 and Hungary’s subsequent membership in the EU, there has been a significant transformation of the country’s cultural atmosphere, avenues of discourse and forums for artistic expression. The diversity of the articles appearing in this ARTMargins Hungary Focus issue are indicative of this reshaping of the cultural environment. Yet in contrast to this transformation, in July of 2010 the Hungarian parliament established the National Media and Communications Authority; on December 21st a national Media Council was established. At the beginning of 2011 the laws resulting from this legislation came … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Interviews

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Piotr Piotrowski About His Resignation from the Polish National Museum

Recently the Director of the Polish National Museum in Warsaw, Piotr Piotrowski, resigned after the museum’s Board of Trustees rejected his ideas for the further development of the museum. The Board of Trustees had offered Piotrowski the position only two years earlier on the basis of what Piotrowski called his project for “a critical museum.” Some local observers think that the Board of Trustee’s rejection of Piotrowski’s plan was related to his controversial exhibition ’Ars Homoerotica‘; others believe he had to resign because the museum staff couldn’t accept his development strategy.

The interview podcast here was recorded … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Exhibition Reviews

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 by Larissa Babij (Kyiv) ·

“ЯКЩО / ЕСЛИ / IF”, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art (Exhib. Review)

“???? / ???? / IF”, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, May 21 – July 10, 2010

The presentation of Ukrainian contemporary art in the exhibition ???? / ???? / IF at the PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art in Russia–the first such comprehensive display outside of Ukraine’s borders–appeared to be a political act. The initiative of the Moscow-based curator, Ekaterina Degot, raised immediate suspicions. How will a Russian curator, essentiallyan outsider, approach the task of showcasing Ukrainian art in her native country? How will the exhibition address the long and complicated shared history of the two neighboring countries? What are the … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by Administrator ·

Snapshot: Erika Deák Gallery, Budapest (Article)

The Erika Deák gallery was founded in 1998. Before this, Erika Deák lived in the United States for almost a decade. She graduated from Temple University, Philadelphia, and was working in several art galleries in New York City, while writing for different art magazines.

After moving back to Budapest in 1998 she opened her gallery in a small apartment on the third floor of a residential building in Buda. It was one of the first commercial galleries in Budapest. The first exhibit was a collaboration with the Ludwig Museum, Budapest. While the museum exhibited the large-scale installation works of Spanish … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by Allan Siegel (section editor), Lívia Páldi, Eszter Lázár, Beata Hock, Adèle Eisenstein, János Szoboszlai ·

Shifting Perspectives on Curatorship (Article)

Introduction

A filmmaker, visual media artist, writer, teacher, curator and co-editor of ARTMargins, Allan Siegel has been involved in the experimental film movement and is one of the founding members of the documentary film collective Newsreel. He has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has exhibited work in New York, Chicago, London, Montreal, Pécs and Budapest, and is currently a lecturer in the Intermedia Department at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.

In Hungary, prior to the political changes of 1989 (and then still for a good number of years afterwards) the practical opportunities for … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by Sándor Hornyik (Budapest) ·

Aesthetics and Politics: Critical Art in Hungary Today (Article)

Critical art practices (once also labeled avant-garde) have been playing out their death throes ever more dramatically in recent years.(For a historical and theoretical reconstruction of the death throes of avant-garde art in the 20th century, cf.: Paul Mann, Theory-Death of the Avant-Garde (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991).)  On the one hand, this might be so precisely because more and more artists, curators, and collectors have taken an interest in them; but on the other hand, if they do die out definitively, then the real danger exists that there will be no alternative at all to global techno-capitalism … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by Mónika Bálint (Pécs) ·

Participatory Practices in Hungarian Contemporary Art (Article)

Participatory art projects are not common in the Hungarian visual art scene. If we see this kind of artistic activity as having something to do with social engagement, it might be easier to understand its rarity. After a rising interest at the turn of the century, only a few artists have continued to develop socially engaged projects in the past few years. The art scene is not receptive to self-restricting artistic activity and autonomy.(See texts on some art collectives of the 1980s and 1990s  (the Újlak Group, Szürenon, INDIGO etc. in IMPEX: We Are Not Ducks on The Pond … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Exhibition Reviews

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 by Beata Hock (Budapest) ·

Manifesta 8 (Exhib. Review)

Manifesta 8, Murcia and Cartagena, Spain; 15 venues plus various channels of mass media, October 9, 2010–January 9, 2011
Curatorial collectives: Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF), Chamber of Public Secrets (CPS), and tranzit.org

The memorable night party scene in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita was inspired by a real life event at the birthday party of a millionaire’s fiancé in a Trastevere restaurant. Anita Ekberg, one of the invited celebrities, kicked off her shoes and with her spaghetti straps hanging loose, performed an impassioned barefoot cha-cha. The year was 1958, so the gesture came across as audacious even for … Read more

ARTMargins Online: New Media & Film

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 by Eva Binder (Innsbruck) ·

Execution or Amnesty? Pavel Lungin’s Lesson on Russian History (Review Article)

Russian cinema has shown noticeable interest in Russian national history over the past few years. When dealing with representations of history in film, the most enlightening question is not whether the depicted events are true, but rather how the past is viewed from the contemporary perspective. Historical films, therefore, provide insight into the ways history is dealt with in public discourse on the one hand, and how they exert influence on the historical awareness of society on the other.

Pavel Lungin’s 2009 film Tsar, the latest work of the well-known Russian filmmaker, focuses on one of the most controversial … Read more

ARTMargins Online: New Media & Film

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 by Ana Mitrovici, Maria Corrigan, Jeff Scheible and David Gray ·

Eastern European Films at this Year’s L.A. Film Festival (Film Review Article)

It is hard to imagine any of this summer’s movie events as anything other than preamble to the much-anticipated release of Christopher Nolan’s latest thinking-man’s blockbuster, Inception. Nevertheless, while the big screens were lying in wait for their crowds, the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival (June 17-27) was in midst of a small transformation. With a change of location that has had veteran festival goers grumbling about the schlep from Westwood to downtown LA (though the parking is no doubt a welcome novelty), a line-up that is far less headliner-heavy but with a greater eye for international features, the … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Exhibition Reviews

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 by Kamila Wielebska ·

Andrzej Wróblewski at the Van Abbemuseum (Exhib. Review)

Andrzej Wróblewski, To the Margin and Back, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, April 10 – August 15, 2010.

It is difficult to discuss Polish art after 1945 without taking into account the specific political context of the time. This is especially true about Andrzej Wróblewski’s work in Poland which is discussed, primarily, from a historical perspective of the war and its brutalities, or within the specific conditions of the post-war period in Poland. The exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the first international museum solo show, was an attempt at representing a new approach to Wróblewski’s work.

In her … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by József Mélyi (Budapest) ·

Notes for a Budapest Museum Master Plan (Article)

Similar to the country’s system of cultural institutions, the Hungarian museum system is bloated. Budapest is the cultural center of the country, as anything outside its limits is still referred to as provincial. The country’s major art museums with their most important exhibitions, large art schools, journals, artists, and the richest collections are all situated in the capital.

The most serious attempt to decentralize the museum system dates back to before the political transition. However, this was not a once-and-for-all resolution, since the upgrading of rural locations outside of Budapest was actually a project in the works intermittently from the … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Articles

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 by Zoltán Kékesi (Budapest) ·

A Short Guide to Hungary’s Contemporary Art Scene (Article)

Institutions

The two most weighty Hungarian contemporary art institutions, M?csarnok (Kunsthalle) and the Ludwig Museum Budapest have gone through significant changes during the last couple of years, in terms of both  their institutional structures and exhibition policies. M?csarnok-founded in 1877, opened in 1896, and still utilizing its original exhibition space-follows the model of the German Kunsthallen. Since 2007, after a long period as a state funded institution, it has been a non-profit, limited liability company with two external exhibition spaces; the Ernst Museum and the Dorottya Gallery (director, Zsolt Petrányi since 2006).

The Ludwig Museum, officially founded in 1996, but … Read more

ARTMargins Online: Exhibition Reviews

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 by Olga Kopenkina (New York) ·

Yevgeniy Fiks, Ayn Rand in Illustrations (Exhib. Review)

Yevgeniy Fiks, Ayn Rand in Illustrations, Winkleman Gallery, New York, June 18 – July 30, 2010

Yevgeniy Fiks’ project Ayn Rand in Illustrations combines two divergent ideological paradigms – Western Objectivism, as it is expressed in Atlas Shrugged (1957), a lengthy novel by American author and philosopher Ayn Rand, and Socialist Realism, an aesthetic dogma formulated in Soviet Russia under Stalin. Both converge on a new hybrid counter-image of modern history. Illustrations consist of a large number of book pages (even with the page numbers), each divided in two sections: a text with a fragment from Rand’s book, and an … Read more