East Contemporary

Category: _Writing about

City Gallery Prague: Lukas Machalicky “Eclecticism Hour”

Prague, Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, May 29 – September 1, 2019, http://www.ghmp.cz A conceptual-minimalist exhibition that featured 3D scans of specific parts of the interior printed out as large framed photographs installed next to the real parts of the interior scanned. Additionally, a room was almost closed off with a high white wall with a little hole…

Venice Biennale 2019, Pavilion of the Republic of North Macedonia: Nada Prjla „Subversion to Red“

Venice, Palazzo Rota Ivancich, May 11 – November 24, 2019, www.2019northmacedonia-labiennale.art I enjoyed “Subversion to Red” a lot. Probably a part of my positive feelings was caused by arriving at the cool palace after wandering through the Venice summer heat. Probably a part of my positive feelings was caused by the off-location in a crumbling…

Biennale Arte, Venice 2019: Moving image works, East Europe, East Asia

Venice, Arsenale and Giardini, May 11 – November 24, 2019, https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/ (videos below text) Venice Biennale… the original mega-show, the art circus. A lot of stuff. This year the show was doubled: The seemingly never-ending long noodle-shaped Arsenale docks exhibition had its double in the large Central Biennale Pavilion located in the gardens (Giardini). The…

The Pavilion of Croatia at the Venice Biennale: Igor Grubic “Traces of Disappearing (In Three Acts)”

Igor Grubic

Venice, Santa Croce 2258, Calle della Regina, http://igorgrubic.org/ Igor Grubic seems to be most of all a documentary photographer and urban explorer: Old factories, temporary shelters built by homeless people, disappearing handicrafts… The printed panels with photo collages in the exhibition looked like storyboards or pages from a book. Indeed a thick catalogue was available…

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…