FEATURING SIMON STEINHAUSER AND MAJA DEGIRMENDZIG

We are happy to feature the artists Simon Steinhauser and Maja Degirmendzig and their work “IDENTITY”. In “IDENTITY”, the artists are wondering what is the most importand things in life.

Simon explains:

“During a 10 minutes working break, while making preparations for shows at the Liverpool biennial, I asked Maja what the most important things in life are?

She said: money and where you come from, and sometimes maybe the religion you are born in.

I answered: lets do something which contains all these three parts.

This is how we decided to start with the project IDENTITIES? With the help of some friends, we arranged banknotes from Israel, the USA, Turkey, China, Russia and the EU. After a process of colouring them with acryl in the different colours of their nations flags, we started to sew (and partly cut) them together. The new flags we created, became independent of their content - money, nationality and religion.

At the same time - through changing or using national banknotes for different, opposite countries - they became a different worth.”

You can read more about the artist HERE.

FEATURING ELENA BAJO

This week we are featuring the artist Elena Bajo and her work “ Plan for a Composition in 3 Movements” - a performance that she made in collaboration with London Based actors: Jessica Manley, Kasha Bajor, Joyia Fitch, Lowri James, T Davar, Lucy Thanes, Irene Fuma.

Focusing on precise moments of disruption and change, Elena Bajo presents new work in response to the social, political and technological histories of the Woodmill site in London. In it's current incarnation the building has recently been turned into artists' studios and galleries, but it has previously been, among other things, a council office building, a stables, a bus depot and a wheelwright. In Bajo's work the material conditions of redevelopment and regeneration, the waste generated from urban renewal, the 'stuff' of social change, combine with a performative and ongoing historical document of the local urban landscape to produce dispersed sculptural assemblages and installations that open out on to an investigation of universal political forms.

You can read more about the artist HERE.

FEATURING MARINA BELOBROVAJA

This week we are featuring the artist Marina Belobrovaja and her work “Public Deportation”. Mariana, originally from Israel, lives in Germany where she studied fine arts at the University of Arts in Berlin.

This is what she says about the work:

A bus containing my personal property was parked on Helvetiaplatz in Zurich (Switzerland) for six days. On a large poster on the side of the bus was written: "Take me away! Ladies and Gentlemen, on the 21st of August my residence permit is going to expire. Unfortunately, I do not have a driving license. Please help me to take myself away and do something beneficial for your country!" The artist was present during the performance.


You can read more about the artist HERE

FEATURING FERNANDA CHEMALE

This week we are featuring the interesting photography work of the artist Fernanda Chemale from Brazil. The work, "ElefanteCidadeSerpente", was created from a mix of light, color, and movement, introducing strange noises, juxtapositions and distortions to create an active and innovative vision of contemporary Brazilian photography.

"To see the city, to record its daily life, to feel its irritating pulse, to sense its unrelenting movement. When you see a city, you do not necessarily see truth. This is precisely the main idea that passes by Fernanda Chemale’s ElefanteCidadeSerpente [ElephantCitySerpent], where she took up the challenge of creating a photographic collection of cities today without committing to photographing buildings, avenues, people; in short, the socio-cultural history of urban spaces. Her images are icons of a walker’s purest momentary ephemeral sensation. Fernanda decides to look at the city by photographing it in a speedy-zapping vision, allowing us, her readers, to be partially responsible for putting together her amazing kaleidoscopes. Her sharp perception, combined to a fantastic sense of fluid, plastic unity, allows heterogenic and discontinuous elements existing in contemporary metropolis to emerge as synthesis materializing her free expressive gesture. Her image fragments are arranged in weird framings, forming casual geometries and illogical designs. Her images highlight distortions, juxtapositions, movements, colors, lights; everything as if in an indecisive game that does not always allow us to elucidate the mysteries of the visible world, despite being captured by the camera. In her facing of the cities, Fernanda intends to interrelate shapes, to open expressive cracks in a space busied by daily actions, to highlight lights and shadows involving the scene, to frame landscapes in
rearview mirrors, to materialize the tensions present in everything visible composing spaces. The edition of ElefanteCidadeSerpente, too, adopts the idea of serializing fragments in order to enhance the unity of the book. Fernanda embraces her images produced in movement (in part from a moving car) and, therefore, her photographic gesture is a performance, as we see subjective-strong images, almost immediately unidentifiable, which forces us to reflect upon what we see and to try to imagine this creative wish expanding to the visible world."


Click here to learn more about Fernanda Chemale and her work

FEATURING EVA LIS

This week we are featuring the artist Eva Lis and her work "Made in China". Her work explores issues of globalization, consumerism and the construction of morality.

This is what she has to say about her work:

"Made in China" (2010) was a project that took form of a publication, seminars and presentations. The project looked into globalization and formation of a new class: a virtual labour outsider. Since most of goods for our consumption are produced in developing countries, Lis decided to use the benefits of a free market and to commission her personal statement rather than write it herself. She posted an ad online (Odesk.com) and received 34939 replies within the first couple of hours, most of them from developing countries, bidding for the job. She selected four workers, one each from Pakistan, India, Philipines and Bangladesh and paid them $10 for one week work.

"Made in China" exposed a system of global market without global society. Despite the fact that the workers supply goods for the western market they never will became a part of western society.

You can read more about the artist and her work HERE.

FEATURING "THE FROZEN ACADEMY"

This week we are featuring a collaboration between, "The Frozen Academy" (Kenneth G. Hay and Josef Danek) and Czech artist Vojity Horalká. They are together exploring the phenomenon of Tramping.

This is what they say about the work:

Tramping - a popular form of Czech camping in the forest from the 1900s onwards. Horalká has made work about this curious phenomenon, where bands of comrades would dress up in outdoor clothes, take along a guitar, go tenting and sing nostalgic songs, the whole, infused with a kind of melancholy bonhommie. The action, which will include performance, photography and video will take place in the Forêt de Grésigne, Tarn France, and the Galerie La Vieille Poste, 81140 Larroque from 11 - 27 July 2010. There will be a 'networked meal' using Skype and other communication media so that our 'remote operators, who will also be participating in the project in their own locations, can join us for a sing-along and barbeque on the 18th July at 12.00 noon French

You can read more HERE

FEATURING AMY BASSIN

This week we are featuring the artist Amy Bassin and her work "INTERVENTIONS".

In "INTERVENTIONS" Amy takes photos that were taken in one city and places them in another city, exploring what is real and what is perceived.

In this work she is exploring the following questions:

What is contemporary digital art and photography? What is photography? What is real and what is perceived? If we manipulate photographs with digital technology, is it similar or different than 'staging' a scene and photographing it? Is photography that 'documents' the 'world' really a documentation of what exists or is it all in the photographer's manipulation of the tools they are using (the camera and in the developing). Isn't the process completed and the meaning in the eye of the viewer, regardless of the artists intent.

You can read more about the artist HERE.