Winter Voyage to Finland is the result of a patient, passionate work on the Finnish maritime world that Jacopo Brancati started over three years ago. At that time he has just finished a long maritime reportage in Italy, but the call of the sea is already making itself heard. Just then, in Paris, comes the encounter with the photographs of Ismo Hölttö and with the kantele of Arja Kastinen: the enthralling invitation to discover a country whose face can be seen on travel magazines but whose soul remains partly unexplored. A long bibliographical research reveals him the unexpectedly rich maritime culture of Finland. Jacopo Brancati chooses to focus his attention on the work and the universe so particular of the maritime pilots, and on the navigation in the frozen sea. He will have to win the notorious shyness of seafaring people (and of the Finns); he will also have to cope with the harshness of winter navigation in the North that during one journey causes the “death” of his Nikon F4. He is eager but respectful and meditative in his approach to this universe. Black and white film will depict it with precise, all but demonstrative strokes. The exhibition develops through four steps. In the first three sections we follow the author’s exploration of different geographical areas: the south-east (Kotka region), the east (the Archipelago) and the north (the Gulf of Bothnia). His eye focuses on the work of men, on their skills and everyday life, depicting at the same time the peculiarities of the environment they belong to : ships, harbours, open sea, ice pack... The fourth and last section – “Memories” – is a touching, respectful homage to the traditions and to the intimate world of Finnish seafaring people. Sixty large format, black and white fine-art prints made in Paris by the art printer Andres Romero from Label Image.
The exhibition brings the vision of two major contemporary artists, Harun Farocki and Rodney Graham, face to face. Their work shares many points in common, even if they only concern their shared use of film and video and a reflection on medium, history and self-representation. Both artists will present film installations based on four themes that feature in their respective pieces of work: the archive, the non-verbal, the machine (and associated devices) and editing. Each artist will produce a new piece of work for the occasion.
Zilmo De Freitas put together a unique collection of 21 street photography machines, 274 instant cameras and a wide range of documentation concerning street photography. This collection and the oldest collections in the museum enable the visitors to discover the flourishing street work of the 20th century which is in the process of dying out. From Western Europe, street photography is slowly moving south to more tropical zones (West Africa – Central and South America). This exhibtion links the popuar process of instant photography from the 19th century to the present day.
The 61 photographs that will be on display will reveal the major influence his homeland Australia has played in his body of work. Inspired by very specific shapes and lighting unique to Australia, Russell James has translated this influence through his nude, portrait and fashion photographed in Cuba, The Caribbean, South America and many other regions of the world often resulting in dream-like pictures set against paradisiacal landscapes.
In the exhibition, powerful natural landscapes are often contrasted with portraits of Heidi Klum, Gisele Bündchen, Scarlett Johansson, Adriana Lima and many of the most stunning beauties of our time. Furthermore, James' allows us a privileged intimate view into the lascivious hectic rush behind the scenes of the legendary fashion shows of Victoria's Secret.
Following the great success of the exhibit "A gun for hire" at the Helmut Newton Foundation in 2005, which put Helmut Newton's fashion images from the last two decades in the spotlight, the current exhibit "Helmut Newton: Fired" takes a look at his fashion photography from the 1960s and 1970s. Nearly 200 editorial images are on display. Helmut Newton worked for numerous other international magazines in addition to Vogue and that he also worked directly with designers and fashion houses. The photographs for Courrèges that were published in 1964 in the fashion magazine Queen (and were the reason why Newton was fired from Vogue) brilliantly translated the ultra-modern designs of the French designer into the photographic image. The women's trousers, the above-the-knee dresses and the spectacular space-age fashion in particular were revolutionary. The image of women and their position in society were in the midst of radical change. Newton shot the models without accessories in claustrophobic, narrow spaces, whose metal walls reflected and doubled both clothes and women. After Newtown was fired from Vogue, Claude Brouet, who was Editor-in-Chief of Elle, offered him work at her magazine. Five years later, Newton also captured Elle's models within the confines of a mirrored room; this time, however, the photographer himself appeared with his small-format camera behind the women. Dressed in black, his presence provided more than a mere tonal contrast to the light-colored Cardin and Lanvin clothing adorning the models. With a sense of self-irony and self-reflection about his medium that was unusual for the times, Newton slipped himself behind the work process and into the fashion image, and on occasion even put his own camera into the hands of the models. Two years later in 1971, he developed the so-called "Newton Photo Machine," a delayed-action release contraption, with which the female models systematically photographed themselves (and their clothes) in front of a mirror-thereby checking their own poses against their reflection. These photographs were also published in Elle, and in 2007 they could be seen at the Helmut Newton Foundation.
Contemporary dance and visual art presented simultaneously at Victoria Miro Gallery and Siobhan Davies Studios in London ( 85 St George’s Road) At Victoria Miro 14, Siobhan Davies Dance presents a new work which has no beginning or end, but exists as a series of repetitions and counterpoints. Using five performers the continuous piece invites the audience to move in and around the gallery space and experience its intimate and immediate setting. The punctuation of the dance work is being developed in collaboration with the artist Anri Sala, who has created Doldrum which comprises a beating drum and sticks.
In her detailed research with her camera, the photograph artist Ellen Korth has detected in the buildings of Herman Bessels traces of the relationship, capturing them in excerpts that nevertheless represent the whole. This book bears no claim to documentary or biography, but makes a theme of the interplay of two closely-interwoven art forms. It is largely the outer shells of the buildings, which mirror the striving for function, form and shape. And likewise, these are the intentions of the artist, who desires a view behind the façade of human appearance in her photographs. "Beauty in the eye of the beholder". This leitmotif runs like a thread through all details of the book. And the transparent pages equally bespeak the symbolic content of e new view to the actions aiming for clarity, light and transparency. Expressing the inner processes in the outer form, making the interior the principle of the exterior - vice versa.
Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is on the tour schedule of the major retrospective “Avedon Photographs 1946-2004”. Compiled in close cooperation with the Avedon Foundation by Denmark's Louisiana Museum, this exhibition appears at just six venues worldwide. It features over 200 works by Richard Avedon presented in chronological order, from his first photos made in Italy in 1946 to his final portraits, made shortly before his death in 2004. This is the first retrospective of his work to appear in the Netherlands.
Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents a solo exhibition of a renowned photographer Alexander Zabrin, whose new project is devoted toRussian jazz. Since the late 1970’s, Alexander Zabrin was involved in many jazz events, from founding clubs and jazz associations to organizing festivals. His participation consisted in making photography exhibitions that were always agreat success. In1987, the «Soviet Composer» editions published a book entitled «Soviet Jazz», where 90%of illustrations are photos taken by Alexander Zabrin. Trips to jazz festivals and presentations ofworks at «Jazz Photo» international shows in Warsaw brought Alexander a special reputation in photographic circles. In fact, for about 15 years Zabrin went parallel to the photographic community of Moscow and, until 1994, didn’t take part in its projects.
SPAGNA
MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León
On 31 January 2009, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC) is to unveil an exhibition by the title of FIN (END), showing the work of Marina Nuñez (Palencia, 1966). This site-specific project including over 20 videos and a large visual installation approaches post-humanisation, taken as the process whereby we transcend certain features of our humanity that have become obsolete. Resorting to an aesthetic that echoes the episodes by John Bosch, Núñez plunges the viewer into a world of desolation haunted by eerie ghosts, micro-organisms and lifeless seas – hellish scenes that project us into a post-human future; i.e., what will be left once it’s all over. The show reflects upon the death of what is human and the idea of the body’s transformation and collapse.
SPAGNA
MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León
Celebrated Scandinavian artists Elmgreen & Dragset are to open their latest exhibition on 31 January 2009 at MUSAC. In an extensive site-specific project made up of twelve striking large-format installations, six of which they have developed specifically for MUSAC, the artist pair shall take over a total floor space in excess of 2,500 m2, making their forthcoming show a milestone in their career, if only in terms of its sheer size. Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, working with their curator, have developed a project that tackles the fine line between the personal and the collective, exploring the problems we face when our voracious public sphere encroaches on the private. Trying to remember… plunges viewers into a domestic environment, where they are confronted with the idea of community and with the ambivalence between nostalgia and desire.
SPAGNA
MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León
MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, is to host the first major exhibition in Spain for Danish artist Kirstine Roepstorff. Under the title The Inner Sound that Kills the Outer, the show brings together over 50 works produced between 2005 and 2008 in a range of formats (collage, painting, sculpture and mixed media), in an attempt to provide an overview of the artist’s prolific production. Roepstorff explores a range of techniques, but finds a common root in the use of collage as the starting point of her creative process. Alongside her more widely acclaimed works, MUSAC presents the artist’s most recent production, including the installation Quiet Theatre (2008), produced in collaboration with Copenhagen’s U-TURN Quadrienial for Contemporary Art. The piece brings a new approach to collage techniques, placing them within a theatrical and performative context.
