I’ve Dreamt About Exhibition
Art and reality are forever entangled in a complicated relationship. Some artists strive to mirror societies and portray them in their truest light, some indulge in creating utopist ideas of them, and some are doing both, or neither.
This is contemporary art at its best, and in those transitional after-holiday months when life can seem a bit bland and lifeless, I’ve Dreamt About might just cheer up your spirits!
Ultimately however, life and art will always be one. Proving this is a current exhibition going on in the MUDAM museum of contemporary art in Luxembourg, bringing together many international artists under one main theme- fantasy reality. The exhibit’s name I’ve Dreamt About perfectly expresses what this collection of art is about. Creating fantasy worlds intertwined with bits and pieces of our cultural and social realities, one enters a dreamy and intriguing universe when visiting.
The participating artists each inject a sense of their own idea of the world into the exhibition. While some take the more futuristic path, others go for pure simplicity or elusive dreaminess. Tomás Saraceno’s purist style sees his piece, entitled Space Elevator, bring a breath of fresh air, while Nikolay Polissky’s naturalist thinking both fly the flag for eco-utopist realities.
This is contemporary art at its best, and in those transitional after-holiday months when life can seem a bit bland and lifeless, I’ve Dreamt About might just cheer up your spirits!
Exhibition on until 4th March 2012
MUDAM
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
3 Park Dräi Eechelen
1499 Luxembourg
All pictures from www.mudam.lu
by Manuela Mitevova
Smile at your sister
'Smile at Your Sister' is a Vienna based blog with a focus on women and sport, saying 'women in motion are beautiful'. The creators are Kathrin Knapp and Daniela Bily. It started nearly two years ago, and the idea behind it was: "It's about girls in motion. We love them on bikes, on boards, on the dance floor, when they sing and paint. Smile at Your Sister is for raw girls with soul".
Kathrin continues: "We wanted to promote girls that inspire us (we were focused on art, street-art, dance and board sport.. things we liked). We did interviews with artists and musicians, photographers… Girls who do great artwork. Then we decided to make little bags of wonders – DIY bags that we sold online. Its content was also artwork from different talented girls. We plan to do a second edition this year, and we are planning it at the moment. It's a great project we invest a lot of time in, and we love it… especially the DIY bags".
by Camilla D. Lorentzen
Heidi Slimane California Song Exhibition
Heidi Slimane is a photography legend and the world knows it. His pictures, portraying the youth culture in the most poetic yet rock&roll way, are globally recognisable and loved.
The Moca Pacific Design Center in California is honouring Slimane in an exhibition mapping his photo series inspired by the Sunshine State itself.
The alluring and classic black and white images show musicians, sportsmen but mainly common people in their everyday lives, creating extraordinary mementos of life.
For a piece of true Californian style, with all that comes with it, this is the best place to be! The exhibition will carry on until the 22nd January 2012 at Moca pacific Design Center, Los Angeles.
by Manuela Mitevova
Ruins of Modernity
© RoM – SS12 'The Big Nothing'
Ruins of Modernity is a Vienna-based fashion label run by Maria Steiner. Her fashion is driven by the need for transforming society. "Every day, we see images of crises showing us that we have no power. We see numbers, stats and charts showing us that the system is collapsing. We have come to a point where the end of all things seems a nice option. No wonder, people are frustrated and afraid of the future. Where is the perspective?"
© RoM – SS12 'The Big Nothing'
Ruins of Modernity chooses clean cut shapes with black, white and transparent textiles to get with the 'naked truth'. The SS12 collection called 'The Big Nothing', is sophisticated and beautiful. Flowing silks and mesh gives it a 'high-fashion' feeling.
© RoM – SS12 'The Big Nothing'
© RoM – SS12 'The Big Nothing'
Ruins of Modernity can be seen and bought at Artup, At First Sight and Mein Design in Vienna and Printa in Budapest.
by Camilla D. Lorentzen
Hermann Nitsch Exhibition
An exhibition dedicated to the extraordinary Viennese artists Hermann Nitsch is on at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, displaying the diverse and intriguing pieces from his lifelong work.
The exhibition, called Structures is based on Nitsch’s architectural designs, but also features sketches and prints, making for an entertaining collection of exciting art guaranteed to catch your attention.
Childlike scribbles take on the form of mature artistic expressions while the techno-coloured tiled canvases exert an expressionistic feel. You will find yourself equally taken in by the paintings as well as by the incoherent scribbles or blobs of colour.
Our favourite would have to be the stunningly minimalist and extremely contemporary Informal Scribble-painting from the years 1959-61. What is the definition of art we ask?
The exhibition is on until the 30th of January 2012 at:
Leopold Museum
Museumsplatz 1
1070, Vienna
Text: Manuela Mitevova
All photos are from: www.leopoldmuseum.org
Fabrikett
Lena Hieβböck (http://www.fabrikett.at/) is an Austrian jeweler with a different touch. Her collection Heimweh – 'Homesickness' consists of rings made of silver, cut out photographs, beads and toy train accessories. The rings are lovely and charming, naive and playful. En Passant – 'Passing' is another collection made purely of silver, but again inspired by animals. Footprints and impressions are cut out from the solid silver. All the jewelery is made in Lena's small workshop in Vienna.
The collections can be bought at Le Shop http://le-shop.at/ and at Moha http://www.moha.at/
© All photos http://www.fabrikett.at/
Text: Camilla D. Lorentzen
YSL Retrospective in Madrid
Following up on the hugely successful Yves Saint Laurent exhibition that took place in Paris last year, Madrid has taken over the YSL Retrospective. The extraordinary tribute to an even more extraordinary design talent, that has given us ‘le smoking’ among other things, is set to reveal the influences, inspirations and ideas behind Yves Saint Laurent’s work.
Over 150 haute couture as well as prêt-a-porter pieces are on display in the exhibition, all thematically organised and supported by various drawings, photos and videos, which together, create a wonderfully rounded picture of the grand fashion house.
The 40 years of the brand are also celebrated through the presentation on the life of Yves Saint Laurent, all the way from 1936 until his death in 2008. This is not just an exhibition for any fashion fans, but also a historical representation allowing any visitor to get closer to the times these clothes lived and were worn. It’s safe to say that Yves Saint Laurent was and still is a legend on the fashion scene, and off it.
The exhibition is on until the 8th January at Fondacion Mapfre, Madrid.
All pictures by: www.exposicionesmapfrearte.com
Text: Manuela Mitevova
William Engelen
William Engelen's sound installation 'Pleated Skirt' is being shown at The BOX at George Kargl Gallery. The musical works of Dutch artist William Engelen are so unconventional that it fits well within the discipline of contemporary art. The process, and also the result, of the songs are distinguished less by their tonal arrangements and acoustic characteristics, but rather by their relationship to the social space, the visual ratio of the installation.
The basis for the installation are eleven pleated skirts that are assembled into a free-floating arrangement. The installation is complemented by a variety of sheet music, which are attached to the walls of the gallery. Engelen's art is in the process of creating music from the scores of the compositions resulting from the folds of the hanging skirts. By folding the sheet of music, a sound pattern arises where the folds were. These are translated as sound breaks.
In June 1998 the Georg Kargl Fine Arts Gallery opened with an exhibition space of more than 350 m² on 3 levels. Besides the existing gallery in Schleifmühlgasse, Georg Kargl created the BOX in spring 2005. The new exhibition hall has made it possible to act flexibly and to realise exciting projects of artists on a short-term basis.
The installation is on at The BOX until 14th Jan 2012.
by Camilla D. Lorentzen
Fashion Christmas Cards
Christopher Kane
Peter Pilotto
Markus Lupfer
Vogue.com has commissioned some of the hottest fashion names in the business to create Christmas greeting cards to match the seasonal cheer and this is the result. Designer houses from Peter Pilotto, Mulberry, Julien Macdonald, Julie Verhoeven to David Longshaw, Emma Cook or Jason Wu have each produced a Christmas card loaded with style and individuality, proving that Christmas time is one fashionable holiday affair.
Judging from how stylish this creative activity can be, why not try it yourself and have a go at creating your very own card? It might be too late for Christmas Day, but there is still enough time before New Year, so let yourself be inspired and unleash your inner artist!
All pictures are from: www.vogue.co.uk
Text: Manuela Mitevova
Natures of Conflict
‘Natures of Conflict‘ (NoC) is a fashion design company based in Vienna by Kathrin Lugbauer & Nora Berger. The girls met while studying at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
© SS12 – Photo by Stephan Lugbauer
© AW11/12 - Photo by Stephan Lugbauer
‘NoC’ is dealing with origins of conflict in a conceptually aesthetic way in their collections and performances, where the boundaries between fashion and art is constantly aloof. In 2010 the label was shortlisted for the prestigious Hyères festival for fashion and photography.
