Shaking Grounds (now and then)

Armando Lulaj, Gianni Motti, Alejandro Vidal

Curated by Marco Scotini

 26th February– 1st April 2025

Galleria Artra
Via Privata Leopoldo Gasparotto, 4, Milano

WALKABOUT #01 / FOREIGNNESS Enchantment

Begins: 7 April 2018

From an idea of Ermanno Cristini, Al Fadhil, Franco Marinotti, Luca Scarabelli 

This adventure comes from the encounter between two projects, Walkabout and Foreignness, and a place, Fabbrica del Cioccolato and the Blenio valley, two autonomous projects that share an interest in translation and in the territory.

Today an artwork’s destiny is to inevitably “roll” through different media and formats, giving rise to a continuous process of codification and transcodification, or rather of translation. Even the territory with its history is subject to cultural as well as functional-economic transformation phenomena, which by gradually changing its identity trigger a sequence of acts of translation.

Yet every translation is an interpretation, and it becomes so when it fails as a mere act of transcodification resulting from “misunderstanding”, as a condition in which translation is regarded as a testimony.

Using testimonies is guidance to our wandering in this place, the Fabbrica del Cioccolato and its valley, a place leading to enchantment. The source of this rapture is its oversizing, its history of transition across different functions — from hydroelectric station to beer factory to chocolate factory to contemporary art centre — and its being in the middle of the mountains, like a body appearing as a sudden deviation, imposing itself on amazed eyes.

Through the weaving of languages the artworks recall each other by suggestion, they sting and influence the side of feelings making it wrong, a deeply destabilising mistake that alters the consolatory certainties of routine.

It is a relationship with the space and the territory as well as between artists and languages; its purpose is to open itself to the derangement of limit and transformation; a derangement ready to be received by the eyes of a witness to set the following stage.

Keywords for the boarding:

TESTIMONY / TRANSLATION / TERRITORY / FRONTIER / DIVERSITY / INTEGRATION / FOREIGNNESS / CONTRASTS / TRANSITION / PASSAGE / GAP / EXASPERATION / ENCHANTMENT

Guest artists:

Simona Barbera, Sergio Breviario, Umberto Cavenago, Ermanno Cristini, Carlo Dell’Acqua, Hannes Egger, Elena El Asmar, Ronny Faber Dahl, Sophie Ko, Michele Lombardelli, M+M, Angelo Mosca, Giancarlo Norese, Luca Pancrazzi, Javier Peñafiel, Luca Scarabelli, Ivana Spinelli, Giovanni Termini, Enzo Umbaca, Alejandro Vidal, Gabriela Hess

La Fabbrica del Cioccolato
Stabili Cima Norma
Strada Vecchia 100
CH-6717 Torre-Blenio

http://www.lafabbricadelcioccolato.ch/

ForoArte Cáceres 2015 /Third Space, exhibition curated by Miguel Amado

Works from the Collections of the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo and Fundación ARCO

The exhibition Third Space features works by Spanish and international artists selected from the collections of the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo and Fundación ARCO, two Madrid-based contemporary art organizations. It mostly focuses on unfamiliar artists, working in Spain and elsewhere, and on works that provoke reflection on a variety of engaging social issues.

Third Space looks at the productive tensions that appear from the unexpected presence of contemporary art in the heritage town of Cáceres. The title references a concept coined by the theorist Homi K. Bhabha, which speaks of a “third space” to explain the uniqueness of each individual or community as a “hybrid”. Here, the expression “third space” suggests a dialogue between works and hosting venue, art and city.

Third Space is shown across four institutions and two palaces: Museo de Cáceres, Fundación Mercedes Calles-Carlos Ballestero, Sala de Arte El Brocense, Filmoteca de Extremadura, Palacio de Hernando de Ovando, and Palacio de los Condes de Adanero. Throughout the exhibition, the traditional and the modern become intertwined, permitting the temporary reconciliation of a sense of place and cosmopolitanism that Cáceres envisions for itself.

Fundación Mercedes Calles-Carlos Ballestero: Endika Basaguren, Guy Ben-Ner, Walead Beshty, Monica Bonvicini, Dinh Q. Lê, Esther Ferrer, Ken Lum, Jill Miller, Santu Mofokeng, Ester Partegàs, Navin Rawanchaikul, Jorge Satorre, Sean Snyder, Fatimah Tuggar, Erwin Wurm
Sala de Arte El Brocense: Alexander Apóstol, Pedro Barateiro, Andrea Canepa, Daniel García Andujar,David Goldblatt, Juan Fernando Herrán, Marine Hugonnier, Emily Jacir, Hassan Khan, Thomas Locher, Teresa Margolles, Asier Mendizabal, Antoni Muntadas, Txuspo Poyo, Mauro Restiffe, Thomas Ruff, Anri Sala, The Atlas Group /Walid Raad, Alejandro Vidal
Museo de Cáceres: Artur Barrio, Carmen Calvo, Marcel Dzama, Ryan Gander, Mona Hatoum, A Kassen, Nelson Leirner, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Yinka Shonibare, Pablo Vargas Lugo
Filmoteca de Extremadura: Keren Cytter, Mateo Maté
Palacio de los Condes de Adanero: Jacobo Castellano
Palacio Hernando de Ovando: Sara Ramo

http://www.foroartecaceres.es/

The Vacancy ; 33 Rooms and 33 Artists in Berlin

THE VACANCY, a temporary Kunsthaus in Berlin's historic centre that we are launching with 'Zeit Magazin'. The vacant building at Friedrichstrasse 124,  was long used as a hotel and is currently being renovated. The rooms are gutted, the plaster is chipped off and the floorboards are exposed. From 1 until 19 October 2015, we present 33 young artists in the 33 rooms. A bar serving drinks and snacks is located on the ground floor. We will celebrate the opening party from 7:00 pm on 30 September 2015.

Die teilnehmenden Künstlerinnen und Künstler / The participating artists:
Juliette Bonneviot (F), Emmanuel Bornstein (F), Plamen Dejanoff (BG), Carsten Fock (D), Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann (D) mit Emanuel Mauthe (D), Paula Doepfner (D), Jenny Feldmann (D), Sofia Goscinski (AT), Martin Grandits (AT), Mariana Hahn (D), Tobias Hoffknecht (D), Ruprecht von Kaufmann (D), Angelika Loderer (AT), Stefan Löffelhardt (D), Maren Maurer(CH), Peter Miller (US), Robert Muntean (AT), Panos Papadopoulos (GR), David Prytz (DK), Hanna Putz (AT), Gunther T. Reifschneider (D), Volker Renner (D), Max Schaffer (D), Moritz Schleime (D), Pola Sieverding (D), Stephanie Stein (D), Christian Theiß (D), Antony Valerian (D), Alejandro Vidal (ES), Marianne Vlaschits (AT), Peter Welz (D), Michael Wutz (D), Sahar Zukerman (IL)

Galerie Crone
Rudi-Dutschke-Straße 26
10969 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49-30-25 92 449-25
Fax:  +49-30-33 77 388-99
anna.redeker@galeriecrone.de
www.cronegalerie.de

A Farewell to Arms at Neuer Kunstverein Wien

A Farewell to Arms

mit | with
Alejandro Vidal
Ryszard Waśko

Neuer Kunstverein Wien
Herrengasse 6–8, 1010 Wien | Vienna
STG 8, 6.OG, TOP 19 |
Staircase 8, 6th floor, #19

DATEN | DATES
6. Februar bis 28. Februar, 2015 |
6th of February to 28th of February 2015

VERNISSAGE | OPENING
5. Februar, 19.00Uhr |
5th of February, 7pm
Die Künstler sind anwesend | The artists are present

ÖFFNUNGZEITEN | OPENING TIMES
MI-FR 17.00 bis 19.00Uhr |
WED to FRI 5pm to 7pm
und nach Vereinbarung | and by appointment

Kuratiert von | Curated by: Cornelis van Almsick und Katarzyna Uszynska
Text: Cornelis van Almsick

Das Gedicht mit dem Titel ‘A Farewell to Arms’ des Engländers George Peele handelt von der Loyalität eines alternden Ritters gegenüber seiner Königin. Hingegen erzählt Hemingway in seinem gleichnamigen Roman von Henry Barkley, der sich aus Liebe zur Krankenschwester Catherine vom Krieg abwendet.

Der Titel ist Ausgangspunkt der Gegenüberstellung von Alejandro Vidal und Ryszard Waśko, die sich beide nicht nur mit nationaler Identität und deren Konfliktpotentialbeschäftigen, sondern die ebenso soziale und religiöse Abgrenzung und deren Ausdruck in der Alltagskultur
thematisieren.

Im Angesicht von ukrainischem Bürgerkrieg, dem Vormarsch des Islamischen Staat und den Anschlägen von Paris ist das Werk der beiden Künstler aktueller denn je.

–

The poem ‘A Farewell to Arms’, by the english poet George Peele is about the loyalty of an aging knight towards his queen. However Hemingway’s novel of the same title is about Henry Barkley, who in love with the nurse Catherine, averts from the war.

The title marks the starting point of a comparison of Alejandro Vidal and Ryszard Waśko. Both their work not only deals with national identity and its potential for conflict, but also takes on topics of social and religious delineation and their expression in daily cultural life.

In the face of the ukrainian civil war, the advance of the islamic state and the assassinations of Paris the work of the two artists is more relevant than ever.

Siehe auch | See also
www.neuer-kunstverein-wien.at
www.vanalmsick.at
www.alejandrovidal.info
www.rwasko.com

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von | kindly supported by
BKA Kunst | Hochhaus Herrengasse | Leutner Bildwerkstatt |Weingut Weninger | USB Looper | Weinhof Uibel

Public Domain opens 26th June in Geneve

Lo and Behold presents at Milkshake agency in Geneve the project Public Domain 
26th June – 24th August 2014
The project includes 25 artists / 25 site specifics located in 12 different cities in 10 countries and it is curated by Artemis Potamianou and Giorgos Papadatos. 
Public Domain is a map-archive project consisting in documented interventions and actions in the public space.

The participating artists follow a specific working process both in terms of method and end result. They are asked to imagine and to realize an intervention on a public site in the city where they live. Afterwards they are asked to photograph the intervention and submit it in the form of a print. These prints will be exhibited at Milkshake-agency project space together with an index with exact location and time of the actions.

The end result is a linear visual archive of site-specific works which signify the artists’ varying investigations and concerns and also serving as an intervention in the urban environment. An intervention which walks the fine line between legitimacy and illegitimacy, since viewing the art object is not voluntary rather it is imposed upon the viewer. Concurrently, the artist is exposed in a way and on a scale in which not just his/her practice is externalized but individual ideas, feelings and attitudes are also freely expressed, following an internal negotiation where the personal is transformed into the public. 

In this manner, a record is kept, a visual diary, but also a process of dialogue is activated which exceeds the boundaries of personal investigation. 
This dialectic archive is acutely political in that it documents the pulse and the concerns of different artists who, not only reflect the culturally, politically and economically different societies which they are a part of, but in the end are also representative of contemporary art production of their time.

The first part of Public Domain which included 25 documented international interventions was realized and presented at Supermarket Independent Art-Fair at Kulturhuset of Stockholm in 2012

Participating artists 

Lanfranco Aceti / Eftihis Patsourakis / Yiannis Isidorou / Gaël Grivet / Yiannis Grigoriadis / Alexia Turlin / Lina Theodorou / Alix Delmas / Theodoros Zafeiropoulos / Giorgos Gyparakis / Benoît Delaunay / Maro Michalakakos / Iris Plaitakis / Campus Novel / Sofia Touboura / Jenny Marketou / Derrick Piens / Erik Binder / Tea Mäkipää / Marc Bijl & Alejandro Vidal / Ludovic Bernhardt / Elena Bajo / Julie René de Cotret / Celine Peruzzo / Italo Zuffi 

Milkshake Agency 
24 Montbrillant 1201 Genève- CH

organized by LO AND BEHOLD
www.loandbehold.gr

6th Bucharest Biennale. 23.05.2014 / 24.07.2014

Apprehension. Understanding through Fear of Understanding

22.05.2014 press & professional preview

The exhibition will explore the double meaning of the word apprehension, the fear or anxiety that something bad might happen and in the sense of comprehension. The relation between the two needs a closer look. How fear is developed and maintained throughout our lives and how it can become a tool for learning and understanding. How it is administered and maintained socially, politically, how it affects the development of our ideology and how we can learn from it. The time is now to reassess and to raise some questions about certain aspects of everyday life that might have gone unnoticed. (Extras from the curatorial text by Gergő Horváth)

Carlos Aires (ES)
Matei Arnăutu (RO)
Dan Beudean (RO)
Adrian Dan (RO)
Dromedar (NO)
Arantxa Etcheverria (FR/RO)
Filip Gilissen (BE)
Bjørn Erik Haugen (NO)
Jan Kaila (FI)
Cezar Lăzărescu & 1+1 (RO)
Raqs Media Collective (IN)
Marilena Preda-Sânc (RO)
Gabriel Stoian (RO)
Stephanie Syjuco (USA/PH)
János Sugár (HU)
Alejandro Vidal (ES)
Erwin Wurm (A)
Mihai Zgondoiu (RO)
Zoltán Béla (RO)

http://bucharestbiennale.org/

Crime in Art at MOCAK, Krákow, Poland

MAC ADAMS, KJERSTI ANDVIG, VIRGINIE BARRÉ, JAN VAN BIJLERT, MAŁGORZATA BLAMOWSKA, PIOTR BLAMOWSKI, CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI, RAFAŁ BUJNOWSKI, JAKE I DINOS CHAPMAN, LARRY CLARK, HUBERT CZEREPOK, DANNY DEVOS, ROBERT DEVRIENDT, GRZEGORZ DROZD, GENERIC ART SOLUTIONS, MARIAN HENEL, DEBORA HIRSCH, SZYMON KOBYLARZ, JUSTYNA KOEKE, IGNAS KRUNGLEVIČIUS, ROBERT KUŚMIROWSKI, LARS LAUMANN, ZBIGNIEW LIBERA, TERESA MARGOLLES, JAN MATEJKO, BARTEK MATERKA, ANDRZEJ MLECZKO, DOROTA NIEZNALSKA, ANNA ORLIKOWSKA, OLIVIER PIETSCH, AGNIESZKA POLSKA, ANDRES SERRANO, TARYN SIMON, DANIEL SPOERRI, MLADEN STILINOVIĆ, BEAT STREULI, ALEJANDRO VIDAL, ANDY WARHOL, RYSZARD WAŚKO, FRANCISZEK ŻMURKO

Exhibition date: 16.05.2014 - 28.09.2014   Opening date:15.05.2014 at 6 pm

Crime in Art is the 4th exhibition to date in MOCAK’s series which combines art with the most significant civilisational themes such as history, sport, science and religion. To date, three exhibitions have taken place: History in Art, Sport in Art and Economics in Art. The series aims to present these – seemingly non-equivocal – concepts and demonstrate how many creative inspirations and how much symbolic potential there lurks in the everyday reality.

Crime reveals all the inner fanatical turmoil, bleak helplessness and wrong without atonement. Crime has two sources. It stems either from ‘lesser’ crimes that often go unpunished, because they have been committed in the privacy of the home on the weak and defenceless, who go on to seek revenge on society at large. Or else, crime is instigated by politics and religion. Crime reveals the abundance of evil inside us. It is the ultimate lesson in human vulnerability and cultural turmoil.

At the exhibition you will see such works as Debora Hirsch’s The Last Supper, in which the Brazilian artist shows portraits of common criminals, in the form of colourful geometric compositions, blurring their facial features. Hirsch calls the criminals depicted ‘apostles’ and makes a direct reference to religion in the title of the work. For the apostles, the Last Supper was a solemn act, for a criminal it is the last meal before the execution. Amongst the works presented, there will also be the drawing by Zbigniew Libera A Criminal’s Tomb, which refers to two serial killers who were hanged: Stanisław Modzelewski and Zdzisław Marchwicki. In designing his monumental tombstones, the artist postulates a striking solution: instead of trying to pass over the presence of murderers in our cemeteries, we should make it more prominent. One such distinguishing mark (and a warning?) is a realistic, or even hyper-realistic, sculpture of a hanged man. In turn, Lars Laumann’s film Shut up, Child, This Ain’t Bingo tells the story of a young Norwegian girl in love with Carlton Turner, a convict on Death Row. His crime is not referred to – the man is more important than his deeds. For the protagonists, Carlton is ‘innocent’ and no-one doubts his worth as a human being. Such an approach invests their lives with lightness and joy. The atmosphere of the film is saturated with great confidence in the goodness and beauty of people.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a comprehensive publication both in Polish and in English that will develop the themes of the presented works and analyse the significant issues that transpire from the relationship between crime and art. As well as the theoretical texts by Noël Carroll, Brunon Hołyst, Bogusław Habrat, Colin Wilson and Maria Anna Potocka, the catalogue will also have a richly illustrated part devoted to the artists and the works presented in the exhibition.

Curators: Delfina Jałowik, Monika Kozioł,Maria Anna Potocka

38 years Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona

Rambla de catalunya, 54 /  Opening Thursday 27th march 7'30pm 

Frederic Amat, Joan Brossa, James Lee Byars, Anthony Caro, Christo, Eduardo Chillida, Max Ernst, Josep Guinovart, Hans Hartung, Joan Hernández Pijuan, Wifredo Lam, Conrad Marca-Relli, Antoni Miralda, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Pablo Palazuelo, Picasso, Joan Ponç, Ràfols Casamada, Ed Ruscha, Sugimoto, Antoni Tàpies, Vieira da Silva among others.

Balmes, 54 / Opening Friday 28th marçh 7`30pm

Jordi Alcaraz, Alfons Borrell, Fernando Bryce, Hannah Collins,Joaquim Chancho, Enzo Cucchi, Evru, Ferran Garcia Sevilla, Luis Gordillo, Robert Longo, Chema Madoz, Fabian Marcaccio, Enrique Martínez Celaya, Tony Oursler, Caio Reisewitz, Julião Sarmento, José M. Sicilia among others-

Poble Nou/ passatge saladrigas, 5-9 / Opening Saturday 29th march 11am

Sergi Aguilar, Erick Beltrán, Carles Congost, Muntadas, Aleksandra Mir, Javier Peñafiel, Perejaume, Fernando Prats, Alejandro Vidal, Eulàlia Valldosera i Zush. 

Galeria Joan Prats opened its doors on 23 March 1976 with the exhibition Presència de Joan Prats, tribute to one of the figures of the avant-garde in Barcelona, which gives gallery name. 
Today, after these 38 years, we say goodbye to our emblematic Rambla Catalunya space, very close to Joan Miró, Joan Prats and Josep Lluís Sert who made the interior architecture of the gallery, and we do an exhibition that recalls the activity of all these years. 
The last exhibition in Rambla Catalunya, Preséncia de Joan Prats, is therefore another tribute: to the career of all the artists who have exhibited there and made possible to write this story.

Exhibition views at Galeria Joan Prats, 2014

Opening 30th January at Galeria Joan Prats.

Opening reception Thursday January 30th at 730pm

Galeria Joan Prats is pleased to present its third solo show with Berlin-based artist Alejandro Vidal. It is all true even if it never happened will open next Thursday 30th January. The exhibition brings together his latest works in photography and video.

Alejandro Vidal 's work puts us in a friction zone where almost everything is uncertain. A large part of society protest in front of their computer screens. The dominant social networks  became powerful mechanisms of control. The confusion is general and it is not clear which is the fight that we have to face.

Only enemies speak the truth , 2011,shows the need of political turmoil,instability. Tools to overthrow the ruling system. Aspects such as mistrust, suspicion and paranoia are explored in The Potentiality of the worst ,2013. In this latest video a banking executive ,who sufferred from psychosis is looking for bugs using an electronic detector. Frightened about showing what happens to him is real. Vidal uses the images recorded by the protagonist to dive into the culture of suspicion and surveillance.

Critical Heat, 2012, is a group of still images taken by the artist from amateur footage ripped from the Internet . In these images sports cars burn their tires skidding on the asphalt. The smoke produced leads us to conflict,explosions,fires,accidents. Alejandro Vidal tries to redefine the value of the image. He questions its hierarchy and the loss of innocence that comes from its use. Moreover, the photographs Tension and Release, 2013 , show the front glass of a car accident where the glass powder is mixed with the rain and humidity. A more abstract approach to photography in relation to his previous work.