Beautiful Boxes: Food for Your Eyes, 1

Things discussed: Triennale; Arts&Foods; Expo 2015; Impractical Furniture; 3-D Encyclopedias; Dioramas; Liver Cleavers; Houses of Better Days.

Special/Expo 2015
written by f

In the course its three "acts", Arts&Foods lets you see atomic shelters and space pods, avant-garde kitchens and bourgeois dining rooms, cocktail bars and wildly impractical furniture; a fully built temporary house; model cargo ships from a bygone era; tiny people buying tiny groceries and even tinier people tormented in a McDonald's hell; huts made of bread, and couches made of bread, and igloos, also made of bread. And giant hot dogs having a nap by the campfire. 

While We Lay Awake

Things discussed: Reboots; Art Biennale; Expo 2015; Enthusiasm; Vast Oceans Unspoken.

Special/Expo 2015; Special/Biennale 2015; 
written by e&f

It's been a very long hiatus. But how long can a hiatus be before ushering a reboot?

At a Glance: Art Before Christmas @ Art Kitchen Superground

Things discussed: Art Before Christmas; Art Kitchen; Superground; Amends; Delays; other things.

written by e&f

We've been distracted. We've been sluggish. And we've been busy on other things. But we haven't abandoned Bishops&Queens.

Things are about to change. Not just change back to the old routine, but, starting 2015, the blog will be snappier, buzzing with news and diagonal takes and fresh cuts. 

We'll be all over the place. In a good way. We'll be in, out, on and around the box. Literally.

Talking of promise: a very long time ago we had two interviews with the gorgeous people running Art Kitchen in Milan. We never got to post them. We will. First thing next year.

It may not be enough to make up for the delay, but we invite all of you who live, pass by or gravitate around Milan in these days to go and visit their great space Superground and take part to their new feat: Art Before Christmas.

Expansion: Cildo Meireles

Things discussed: HangarBicocca; Cildo Meireles; installations; Milan; stench; radios; glass; synaesthesia; Popes; bones; eggs; bullets; ice-cubes.

written by e

HangarBicocca is never a disappointment. (I am always more convinced it is truly one of the best art venues in Milan.) It wasn’t again when I went to see Installations by Cildo Meireles. 

via www.hangarbicocca.org

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.

Expansion: The Abramović Method

Things discussed: Marina Abramović; PAC; Milan; performance; being active; being passive; inner space; crystals; quartzes; earmuffs; being naïf; bad trips.

written by e

Among works with a different approach to space, another example is The Abramović Method, which explores one’s inner space.

via dmoda.it 

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.

Expansion: The Big Bambú Theory

Things discussed: bamboo; Doug and Mike Starn; suspension; Venice Biennial; interdependence; being active; being passive; chaos; strings; Mikado sticks.

written by e

Another great example — a huge example — of art in space & space in art is the installation Big Bambú, by American twin brothers Doug and Mike Starn, seen at the 54^th Venice Biennial in 2011.

via Doug and Mike Starn

Like the Tomás Saraceno’s installation, it is a work of art that generates a new space — an experience space which would be impossible in normal circumstances.

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.

Beautiful Boxes: Up to Tate

Things discussed: Tate Modern, guilt, Surrealism, dream, poetry, good ideas, bad seats

written by e

Talk of the Tate without being boring, redundant, repetitive?



The Tate Modern is great in so many ways: accessibility, richness, beauty and vastness of space, variety and value of works, selection of exhibitions. The permanent shows to enjoy for free and the temporary ones to see for a fee. Not to mention common areas, toilets, and a bunch of accessory services. It’s hard not to fall in love with it.

Expansion: Lost in Space, not in Meaning

Things discussed: Tomás Saraceno, being active or passive, void, Hangar Bicocca, Milan, space, time, craters, instability, quantum physics, foam, Yves Klein.

written by e

I am going to correct here my blog co-author who in a previous post wrote: 

Rudolf Stingel: when you think about art and space, his is the name that comes to mind.

Okay: I agree. But I must add a name: Tomás Saraceno. In his installation On Space Time Foam, which I experienced at the Hangar Bicocca in Milan, in January 2013, not only there is no distance between space and work, but also between space, work and you. 

All pictures © Tomás Saraceno

You become an active element of the installation, modifying its shape, balance, and in turn the balance of other active visitors. You have to be active to fully enjoy the work, because the work is an experience.

Out of Space: Francesca Blanc

Things discussed: Francesca Blanc, sculpture, suicide, bronze, naked, Giacomo Manzù, Milan football team, La dolce vita, birthday.

written by e

Francesca Blanc, via Museo Manzú

    Sculpture of Francesca Blanc 

    by Giacomo Manzú

    Bronze

    90 x 50 x 64,5 cm

    1941-50

    Manzú Collection, Ardea (Rome)

This life-size sculpture of a young girl, which I saw during my visit at the Manzú Collection aroused in me two feelings with the same degree: discomfort and grace.

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.

Beautiful Boxes: Giacomo's Sense of Space

Things discussed: Giacomo Manzú, sculpture, Rome, boxes, scary cardinals, fighting lovers, Inge Schabel, muse, captions, forgotten museums, obsessions.

written by e

Museo Manzú, via Isola Verde

Giacomo Manzú (born Manzoni: Manzù is Manzoni in the Bergamo dialect), was born in Bergamo in 1908. From 1964 he chose a hill close to Ardea, 40 km from Rome, as his home. The hill was later called after him. He is one of the great Italian sculptors of the twentieth century, working, exhibiting and teaching in Italy and abroad.

From 1981, ten years before his death, the Manzú Collection, in Ardea, is open to the public and is also the burial site of the artist himself, since 1991.