East Contemporary

Author: EC

The Pavilion of Bosna and Herzegovina at Venice Biennale: Danica Dakic “Zenica Trilogy”

Venice, Palazzo Francesco Molon Ca’ Bernardo, May 11 – November 24, 2019, http://www.labiennalebih.com Danica Dakic’ exhibition consists of three videos, prints and a golden shovel. The show deals with transformation of a specific place and people in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Zenica, a decaying polluted steelworks town. I found the people aspect, most prominently contained in…

Staedelmuseum: “Air Conditioned, Staedelschule Graduation Show 2019”

Kristin Reiman, The Drowse, 2019

Frankfurt am Main, June 20 – July 14, 2019, https://www.staedelmuseum.de The graduates of the Staedelschule are very blessed to be from a school attached to a large museum, resulting in the wonderful opportunity to have their graduation show in the generous museum space, in immediate proximity to already canonized artists-masters. The “inherited” exhibition architecture of…

Prague City Gallery: “Carnations and Velvet. Art and Revolution in Portugal and Czechoslovakia”

Prague, Municipal Library 2F, April 30 – September 29, 2019, http://www.ghmp.cz The exhibitions attempted to compare Czechoslovak and Portugese art on the basis of historical similarities between the “Carnation Revolution” in 1974 Portugal and “Velvet Revolution” in 1989 Czech Republic. The focus was on art spanning this period, with a little excursion into the contemporary…

Prague City Gallery: Ondrej Filipek “Ligament”

Prague, Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, May 29 – September 1, 2019, http://www.ghmp.cz The “Start Up” exhibition series is dedicated to the youngest generation of artists from Czech Republic. It takes place in one smallish room of the palace. Filipek’s sculptures strongly referenced the human body and its scale. They resembled furniture or objects from the urban environment…

Julia Stoschek Collection: “New Metallurgists”

Düsseldorf, October 7, 2018 – April 28, 2019, https://www.julia-stoschek-collection.net I was very impressed on my first visit to the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf: A perfect installation of a video-only show. Even the fact that all projections in a video show work as expected in quite extraordinary, but on top of that the light and…

MMCA “The Essential Duchamp” + “Vertiginous Data” + Harun Farocki ”What Ought To Be Done? Work And Life”

Seoul, December 22, 2018 – April 7, 2019 (Duchamp), March 23 – July 28, 2019 (Data), October 27, 2018 – April 7, 2019 (Farocki), http://www.mmca.go.kr Three shows were taking place at MMCA during my visit. The Essential Duchamp was what the title suggested: An overview of Marcel Duchamps oeuvre. At first I almost wanted to…