Out of Space: Many Happy Returns

Things discussed: The Kiss; Constantin Brâncuși; John Berger; Everything that Rises; Lawrence Weschler; Convergences; Perfumes and Shampoos; Early Christian Art; Jorge Luis Borges; Love, eternal.

written by f

       

The Kiss (Le baiser), the haunting sculpture by Constantin Brâncuși, is possibly one of the greatest works of art of all time. To me, it's up there with three or four others at most. 

And it's been part of my life for so long now it's impossible to imagine it without: it stuck in my mind when I saw a picture of it as a child, and, as I grew up, its power over my aesthetic sense, emotions, expectations, and fears, has never faded.

Weekends Without Words: Museo del Novecento

Things Shown: Museo del Novecento, Milan; Lights; Shapes; More Lights; Some other Shapes; Curves; Reflections; Spiral Pits. 

taken by the iPhone of f

Cura Te Ipsum: The Rest of the Words

Things discussed: Gravestones; Patches of Sunlight; Retirement; Inner Light; Shaven Lawn.

written by f

Constantin Brancusi, Le Baiser

Following up on e's obsession with captions—you may find examples of it here, here, and here—here's another curatorial speculation: an exhibition of captions.

Cura Te Ipsum: The Sustainable Art Project

Things discussed: Sustainability; Food Supplies; Distance; Discarded Kettles; Indigo Blue; Freshness; Taste.

written by f

Sustainability is the word of the day. On every speech we make, every paper we read, every good we trade.

At a Glance: The Stand of the Phoenix

Things Discussed: Cathedrals; Phoenixes; Xu Bing; St. John the Divine; Uptown Manhattan; Jim Woodring; Frank.

written by f



I saw them and photographed them on February 28, and they still weren't fully accessible to the public. But the two phoenixes by Xu Bing surely made for an impressive view.

At a Glance: See Change

Things Discussed: LAX; See Change Video Installation; People to Pick Up.

written by f

Please, go pick someone up at Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX in Los Angeles. If you don't have anybody to pick up, go there anyway. 

I was there for a few minutes. I was the one someone came to pick up. I didn't have much time to spare, and I regret it. 

So please, go there and find time to spare. Go by the Bistro&Bar—on your left facing the arrival gates—and look at the amazing video installation in front of you. 

An impressive collection of videos by seventeen artists, many of which are well worth your time.

Beautiful Boxes: Custom Space, 2

Things Discussed: Marlene Dumas; Thomas Schütte; Roni Horn; How to be Liquid in Many Forms.

written by f

The aim of these posts is not to review every sigle work or exhibition choice of a visit. That's the job of more competent eyes. The thing I do feel like doing is simply mention here a couple more things. 

Like most shows based off the François Pinault Collection, there's a strong tie to the past. The past is here the Arte Povera+Mono-ha rooms downstairs and a couple of other works scattered around the Dogana space.

It is also true, though, that among the artists living and working today, there are almost no new names here. And it's not really surprising to find two of contemporary art's sweethearts: Thomas Schütte and Marlene Dumas. 

Beautiful Boxes: Custom Space, 1

Things Discussed: Punta della Dogana; Prima Materia; Perks; Collections; Light; Holes; Bricks, Wood, Textures; Exhibitions Built to Last.

written by f

One of the perks of being a resident in Venice, Italy, is that you get to go places for free. Musei civici, that is: those directly dependent from the municipality. An impressive array of institutions that goes from the Doge's Palace to the Correr Museum, from Ca' Pesaro to the Museum of Natural History, from Ca' Rezzonico to Palazzo Fortuny. 

The deal is: you pay taxes to keep us alive, in turn you can come visit us whever you please. Gallerie dell'Accademia, alas, is not one of those, because is state-owned and it's not run by the city. And so aren't the famous private ones: the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, and the two venues of the collection of François Pinault.

But wednesday is a special day. Wednesday is the day you go to Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana for free. If you're a resident, of course. That's still part of the perks.

Board Vision: Tales From the Battlefield

Things discussed: Spatial Dysmorphia; Aliens; Coups and Ambushes; Blackboards; Emptiness; Boxes; Dinosaurs; Institutional Inertia; Vantage Points.

written by f

© Giorgio-Sebastiano Bertoni

Mantua is a small town, capital and namesake of its own province in southern Lombardy, Italy.

Founded by the Romans, like many—but more than most—Italian city-states, Mantua has been an important centre of political and artistic activity since the Middle Ages. 

Like most, if not all, city-states turned small towns, it's been struggling with the management of its immense cultural heritage for centuries.

Expansion: Et In Synesthesia Ego

Things Discussed: Rudolf Stingel; Carpets; Sailors; Lightbulbs; the Softening Sound of Your Own Steps; Patterns Repeated.

written by f

Rudolf Stingel: when you think about art and space, his is the name that comes to mind. No distance between space and the work displayed. 

There's no work displayed: the work dresses the space. It makes the space behave differently.

Phil, Fit, Mambo: So Museum would, were it not Museum call'd

Things discussed: Acronyms; Dismay; Cultural Habits; Institutional Obsessions; Italian Cats; the Importance of Branding.

written by f

I'm not an expert—but are there experts on this field? Is this even a field? Experience says that, when there are so many examples of a thing to put on a list, it must be a field. 

Anyway: I'm no expert, but I have the strong feeling that many new Italian museums may have been opened only because someone thought of a pretty name.

Let me drift away for a moment with a very strategic swerve. Let's talk about acronyms.

Beautiful Boxes: A City of Two Tales

Things discussed: Mart; Rovereto; radial patterns; catching up; Antonello da Messina; L’altro ritratto; different ways of missing the same exhibition; dinosaurs; the things you never learn.

written by f

I’d been to Rovereto twice, with the same friend I now came to visit. Both then studying in Venice, we came here for the International Festival of Archaeological Film. That was eleven years ago. And a full six years have passed since I last saw her, in Rome, the day of my birthday, before I went back to Saudi Arabia and she took off to Spain.

So why are we here now? Rovereto is a rather sleepy, pretty small town in the Autonomous Province of Trento—itself a small town. 

Scattered in a valley enclosed by the Alps, Dante talked about it, dinosaurs used to walk here, and now there’s a Museum of Modern Art.

My friend is from around these valleys. After a lifetime of travelling, she settled here with boyfriend and daughter about a year after I saw her last.

A year before that, in 2006, when she was living in Rome, we both missed the grand and beautiful—or so they all said—Antonello da Messina exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale. We got there the morning after it closed. She was confused, and I was pissed off.

When we learnt that, once again in her town, another massive Antonello exhibition was taking place, we decided that nothing and no one could stop us this time. We said it before it opened: we have all the time in the world. And that’s why I went to Rovereto the second-to-last day. A Saturday. Because, you know, you never learn.