Gegen Warten | Reinhold Gottwald at a.i.p.

Gegen warten. Reinhold Gottwald´s concept for his exhibition in the a.i.p. gallery is a volatile, fragile Installation, combining room and wall space. Here he works with industrial made materials, objects that he casualla found on city sites, articles that caught his attention are rededicated and Incorporated in the installation. The open construction and mounting will take place directly in the gallery. Variability as a possibility to redefine the room at the present time.

gegen warten 
Reinhold Gottwald 
a.i.p.galerie 

opening reception April 1st, 7pm 
2.4.-7.5.2011


a.i.p.galerie artist in progress
Suarezstraße 8 14057 Berlin

Teller is a magazine of stories. Stories told in pictures, in words, in both; short sharp stories, 'so I once heard this story' stories, stories of pure invention and stories that might just be true.

Teller brings together photography, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and all kinds of graphic art, from well-known names and exciting new talent. It's beautifully designed by Neue Gestaltung and perfectly printed in Italy on lovely matt paper.

The first issue was launched in October and limited to 1000 copies, which have now sold out. Issue two will be bigger and better, perfect bound and priced at £5/€6/$8. But Teller your help! All donations raised here will go towards the printing costs of issue two.

Teller is now just 7 days away from the end of their kickstarter crowd-funding campaign, and still have some way to go to reach our target to cover the printing costs of Teller issue 2:

If they do not reach our target, we won't get a penny of the money that so many people have so generously pledged, so if you haven't donated yet, please help  to reach the target!

For a $10 donation you can pre-order issue two. You will receive your copy straight off the press, posted anywhere in the world.

And they have lots of nice rewards available for larger donations, from a very desirable Teller tote bag and the glory of a thank you in the magazine itself, to beautiful signed photo books by our contributors and even a limited edition print by Nina Mangalanayagam. Check out the rewards listings for more details.

So what can you expect from Teller issue two?
In a special themed section, we explore the curious involvement of animals in human affairs. Amber Marks, author of Headspace, the definitive guide to smell surveillance, speculates on the mysterious death of Paul the Octopus in the context of a history of animal spies. Thomas Thwaites examines how police might utilize the waggle dance of bees in the fight against horticultural crime, and Niven Govinden invites us to a nefarious hunter’s feast.
Comedian and artist Miriam Elia introduces Il Fascisto Dog, photographer Amy Stein brings human and animal worlds face to face in small-town Pennsylvania. Jose Navarro joins Spain's trashumante shepherds on an epic journey with a thousand years of tradition, and Ruby Russell and Bronwen Parker-Rhodes report on Ceausescu's legacy to the dogs of Bucharest.
In other stories, artist Anna Hughes describes delicate moments of narrative in an obscured conversation, John Angerson goes on a dry run at a space station, and acclaimed young author Lucy Caldwell depicts the pains of a teenage awakening. Salena Godden (founder of London's Book Club Boutique) leads us into a grimy London underworld. Playing with the boundaries between documentary and fiction, Anton Koslov Mayr directs a performance at the headquarters of the United Nations, in which world leaders become unwitting protagonists in a work of gonzo photo reportage.
Keep checking back - we'll let you know how issue two is taking shape. We hope you're going to enjoy it... and THANK YOU for supporting Teller!
"anything but ordinary" – Jeremy Leslie (Magculture), Creative Review
"Sure to become a collector's item" – Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian (UK)

Martin Schoeller

 

Martin Schoeller at Sweet station

Secret Life

Secret Life from ⓇⓇ Artstudio Reynolds on Vimeo.

Secret Life by REYNOLD REYNOLDS, portrays a woman trapped in an apartment with a life of its own. Transcending the narrative horizons of human desire, the film visits upon us a glimpse of a shared and sacred reality. A work that defies the ultimate metaphysical taboos of temporality by combining novel technique with intrepid philosophical vision; and daring to present that which is seldom, if ever, portrayed in any artistic medium.
Impossibilities are made possible through Reynolds’ signature aesthetic, a lens that can fill one with reverence for the mundane.
Have you ever wondered what time sees, experiences? Without mortal assumptions about time, the occupant of the apartment is no longer limited even to unique location, but here, seen through the eye of time, space itself is now become alive. Without the context of space and time, the woman’s mind collapses and neglects the organization of her experience, leaving her only with sensations. The viewer may ask: Is it her mind or is it time itself that creates the uncontrolled and uncontrollable environment? The work suggests that all living things are endowed with consciousness, meaning all living things have awareness. While the space increases in its activity, the woman becomes an ever more passive element in her world. She moves at a mechanical speed and her mind is like a clock whose hands pin the events of her life to the tapestry of time, all the while, the truth is transcendentally reflected in the mechanical eye of the camera. Her thoughts escape her and come to life, growing like the plants that inhabit the space around her: living, searching, feeling, breathing and dying.

HD video transferred from 16mm and photo stills

single channel HD projection 10 min or 2 channel HD projection each 5 min.

Synopsis:
Secret Life is the first of the Secrets Trilogy; a cycle exploring the imperceptible conditions that frame life and is followed by Secret Machine (2009) and Six Easy Pieces (2010)

Tomorrowland

B
en Sandler´s Tomorrowland
A retrofuturistic, ambiguous universe of disorder and design where cars can fly and time stands still.

                                      

digged at the art resort


Photographer: Ben Sandler; Stylist/Deco: Julie Vianey; Retouching: Pierrick @ Asile; 3D: Ben @ Asile; Casting: Olivier Duperrin; Homme: Edouard; Femme: Sylvija @ Idole; Fille: Jeannine @ Angels; Make-up: Corinne Gues @ B Agency; Rafael Pita @ B Agency; Hair: Emilie Chardonnet @ B Agency;

You are a country if you say you are

President Kevin Baugh of Molossia, still from How To Start Your Own Country by Jody Shapiro, 2010, 72 min

What makes a country a country? What makes a state a state? A nation a nation? And what’s to stop you from starting your own?

In a globe-hopping search for an answer to these fundamental but little understood questions of sovereignty, How To Start Your Own Country visits six micronations – unrecognized self-declared sovereign entities that you will not find on a political map.
Meet Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley of the Hutt River Province Principality, the second –largest nation on the continent of Australia; Salute President Kevin Baugh, the absolute ruler of the Republic of Molossia, entirely surrounded by the state of Nevada; say “buon giorno” to good folk of Seborga, a 1200-year-old principality which claims to have been included in Italy by mistake.

Through the lives and experiences of these micronational pioneers – whether farmer, artist, pirate or inventor -- the film lays bare the ephemeral nature of statehood while interviews with diplomats and experts in international law expose a revelation: there is no legal definition of a country in international jurisprudence. You are a country if you say you are.

But declaration does not guarantee recognition.

Along the way we learn of the exclusionary membership terms of the United Nations, the ultimate country club. We realize that the maps that shape our self-image as citizens are mere representations, the boundaries they delineate relative. Wherever you look in the world – from the high seas to forsaken desert -- there is someone with a different idea of what constitutes home. And an urge to put themselves literally on the map.
From the outback soil of the Hutt River Principality to the futuristic ocean cities of The Seasteading Institute, these visionaries are challenging the status quo, setting their own course and creating nations that you will not find in an atlas… at least not yet.
How To Start Your Own Country explores a concept most of us take for granted: the countries we call home. See the trailer here, read a review from the The Toronto International Film Festival after the jump.

Odes to the Mask

Calixte Dakpogan (Beninese, born 1958), Heviosso, 2007, Metal, plastic (shoes and combs), CD, tape, H. x W. x D.: 74 x 55 x 28.5 cm), Courtesy CAAC - The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, © Calixte Dakpogan.

Highly creative re-imaginings of the iconic form of the African mask comprise a unique installation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Featuring 20 works of art — 19 sculptures and one photograph — Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents reflects on the enduring relevance of African masks as a source of inspiration for artists across cultures into the present.

Romuald Hazoumé (Beninese, born 1962), Internet, 1997, Metal can, electric cables, H. x W. x D.: 32.1 x 29.8 x 27.9 cm, Courtesy CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, © Romuald Hazoumé.

 
In many world cultures masks allow performers to adopt a wide range of characters and emotions. They can take on an endless variety of forms: human or animal; sacred or profane; dramatic or comedic. They are not meant to be experienced in isolation but rather as an integral component of celebrations, from the epic tributes to Dogon elders in Mali to popular holidays such as Halloween or the Day of the Dead and to the numerous Mardi Gras carnivals held throughout Europe and Latin America.
It is well established that African art forms, most notably the mask, were a source of inspiration for modern artists such as Pablo Picasso, André Derain, and Henri Matisse in the early twentieth century. The aesthetic of the African mask thus contributed to a redefinition of the Western visual lexicon. Considered especially alluring were its accessible reimagining of the human face and its aura of inscrutability.

 
Romuald Hazoumé (Beninese, born 1962), Ear Splitting, 1999, Plastic can, brush, speakers 42 x 22 x 16 cm, Courtesy CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, © Romuald Hazoumé.

This selection of works from Africa, Europe and the United States attests to the enduring relevance of the African mask in modern and contemporary art. The five artists represented here—Lynda Benglis, Willie Cole, Calixte Dakpogan, Romuald Hazoumé, and Man Ray—have all used the African mask as a catalyst for creative exploration. Their works reflect on a century of viewing the mask as a disembodied form—that is, as an art object in a museum removed from its original performative context. Informed by his or her respective individual experiences, each artist harnesses the transformative ability of unconventional materials to achieve unexpected reinterpretations of the idiom
African masks are often thought of as carved wooden artifacts, but they are an inherently complex and dynamic art form: to fully appreciate them, one must view them in motion, animated by costumes, dance, and music; the various media added to their surfaces are thought to imbue them with mystical powers; and the influence of foreign materials and techniques have led to a continuous redefinition of the genre. Such dynamism finds parallel expression in the work of these five artists, all of whom operate outside these traditions. Responding to the sheer physicality of the mask while alluding to its spiritual quality, each of their works pays tribute to the powerful legacy of the African mask and its infinite potential for reinvention.

 

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976), Noire et Blanche, 1926, Gelatin silver print, Private collection, New York, © 2011 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris.

Portrait Mask (Gba gba), Cote d’Ivoire © Baule peoples, before 1913, Wood, 26 x 12.4 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Adrienne Minassian, 1997 (1997.277).

Surveying Contemporary and Modern African Masks as Sculpture

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
212-535-7710
New York
Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents
March 8-August 21, 2011

via

Wrong • The Questionable Reality of Asger Carlsen

The Doctor Is In(sane) : The Questionable Reality of Asger Carlsen
What are these?  They appear at first, like so many photographs do, as candid moments, mundane vernacular portraits or documents of small news events from the pages of a weekly local paper.  The on-camera flash blasts in with that harsh direct light we are used to seeing in our family albums, the black and white palette inexplicably adding to their authenticity (why is that?).  They are familiar, and there is nothing out of the ordinary in these photographs except everything. Are they even photographs? I think of the bumper sticker, stuck upside-down that reads "Question Reality", where the gesture itself is a visual pun of it's own sentiment.  The "truth" of photographs has always been in question, but in these images, it's the un-truth you are left wondering about, like vivid hallucinations you see out of the corner of your eye. They are optical illusions in the grandest sense, doctored images with invisible scars. I can look and know that no one has two functioning wooden legs, but there he is, vacuuming the floor. There he is, stopped at a red light on his motorcycle, and I believe in him, over and over. There is a funny expression that people use online in reaction to awful or disturbing images: "Cannot Un-See!" they say in dismay. The image is burned in, the damage is done. I cannot un-see the alternate reality that Asger has created in these images. I am convinced.
- Tim Barber
NYC, March 21, 2010

 

Design Is Culture • Lutz Rudolph

Lutz Rudolph, a charming, little, silver bearded man, started working as a freelance designer back in the early sixties in the former GDR.  This unusual independence, most design was done inhouse by permanent employees,  was as beneficial as it was hindering. While many design concepts never became real, like the pictured concept car from 1966, it offered the chance to work in total different fields from cutlery to radios to cars to lamps. Even so often ignored by the bureaucratic system, Lutz and his fellow Clauss Dietel managed to create an impressive collection of well designed products that can best described as literal simply beautiful. The beauty of their creations was always based in their functional quality. Lutz never was a luxury designer, he put as much effort into the usability as into the production process. For the series, design for mass production, was his declared goal, assuring that his designs became affordable.  And so, against great odds, the duo  inspired the average life in the GDR with a gentle touch of Bauhaus. Today, many of their creations are considered design icons. Lately Lutz spend most of his time together with his wife in an enchanted, century old cottage on the island Ruegen. Those who managed to find the way to his hideaway were rewarded with long night chats at the chimney. Scintillatingly witty talks about art, culture and all with a sincere artist from head to toe.
Lutz Rudolph passed away on Monday 7th of March in Gera. He will be deeply missed.

photo: Trabant P 603, Steilheckvariante, design by Dietel and Rudolph 1966.  Clauss Dietel und Lutz Rudolph - Gestaltung ist Kultur, Chemnitz 2002

MUSE: A Savage Cocktail (with a Dash of Bitters, Please)

Kudos all around for Massimo Salvato’s Muse, which keenly interposes the almost sepia-soaked world of earnest creativity with the LED-infused shock of the lean, mean and too clean new century that each of the two writers inhabit.

We see the story unfold with the three principal characters locked in the uncomfortable embrace of creative exploitation, resignation and cynicism.

Jules Mallory Skinner’s “Monty” is a reclusive poet spurred toward creative resusitation by Ludmilla (played erratically by Julia Krynke); a woman besotted with her role as the inspirational force behind two very different men. Equally obsessed is Richard Elfyn’s “Walter”(a personality best summed up by the description “wide lawn, narrow mind”).

It’s Elfyn who strikes the most plausible note here in his standout performance. His emotional directness sears as he stares unflinchingly into the camera – his gravel-tinged confessional a perfect complement to the oppressive psychological atmosphere.

Krynke’s “Ludmilla” seems more sterile than the piece requires – alternating a firm lock on her character with intermittent lapses, as the script also exposes bouts of incontinuity breaks in flow and style. There are however several instances of greater flavour added to the written pot.

Adam Harvey’s musical scoring shows admirable restraint, subtly supporting the entire paintbox of colour that Salvato brings to life in an understated surge at the film’s conclusion.

Muse seduces again with the weaving of darkness and light and turns their standard symbolism on its head in a reversal of value. The scene changes are arrestingly crisp and fresh and we are treated to a sumptuous visual feast of images; a snail crawls toward the high set keys of an old typewriter, a tank sits amidst the scrabble of a trodden field, an aerial view of divided farmland stretches out like
gauzy velvet before us.

All said, this is a high level offering. Fine editing and deft cinematography contribute toward making the viewer wish to see this long short expanded into a feature length (indeed it does strike one as a clip from a lengthier effort), as a desire to remain longer in the world that has been created.
One is ultimately left with a strong interest in seeing what will be up Massimo Salvato’s creative sleeve next.

-Angela Turk

MUSE by Massimo Salvato GB 2010 20 min | Screened in European Premiere at the 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge

Photo: Julia Murakami and Massimo Salvato at the 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge