sexta-feira, outubro 26

Viacheslav Mizin / Alexander Shaburov - THE BLUE NOSES GROUP, Moscovo / Rússia - arte conceptual contemporânea

«An epoch of clemency» 2005, photowork

«Kids from our block» series, 2004, photowork

«Hit-or-miss-art» series (Our Daily Bread) 2004, photowork

«Kitchen Suprematism» series (IV) 2005, photowork

«Revolution for export» series (Kill) 2006, DVD

«Revolution for export» series (Torture) 2006, DVD

«Revolution for export» series (Fire) 2006, DVD

«Revolution for export» series (Trample) 2006, DVD

«Bald Monkey» 2006, photowork

«Chechen Marylin - The Girl has a Date» 2005, photowork

«The Litttle Men» series (Reality Show) 2004, video installation

«The Little Men» series (Reality Show) 2004, video installation

«The Litthe Men» series (Billiards) 2004, video installation
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«The Little Men» series (Lenin turning in his grave) 2004
video installation

«Revolution to be continued» 2005, video installation

«Do I look like a looser» series, 2001, print on metallic paper,
plastic

«Sex-suprematism» series, 2004, c-print

«Headlines» series (Russia under the CHEKA's Hood) 2006
photowork

«Sex-suprematism» series, 2004, c-print

«Headlines» series (KGB Blows up Russia) 2006, photowork

«Sex-suprematism» series, 2004, c-print

«Sindbad and international terrorism» series, 2006, photowork

«Mask Show» series (sheet 1) 2001, photowork

«Sindbad and international terrorism» series, 2006, photowork

«The Hot Head» 2005, photowork

«Two men with blue noses in a bottle shaped cut out of ice»
2003

Sokolov é ministro e ficou escandalizado. Dois polícias a beijar-se? Uma vergonha. Sacou do lápis azul, já que a pistola não estava à mão, e vetou a obra. Essa e mais umas 16 do género, todas impróprias. As outras, as que não envergonhavam ninguém, lá foram despachadas para Paris, para serem expostas na galeria Maison Rouge. Nome adequado, se tivermos em conta os antepassados do censório pudor do ministro da Cultura russo. Jdanov, por exemplo, com a sua paranóica "arte para o povo" nos anos 40; ou até os nazis, com a feroz perseguição à "arte degenerada".Portugal, que acaba de receber uma pequena amostra do gigantesco Hermitage russo, bem pode desconfiar: terá Sokolov andado à procura de anjinhos mais ostensivamente eróticos? De imperatrizes de decote impróprio? De Vénus ocultas em telas guerreiras? Não se sabe, até porque na Rússia dos czares ainda não havia polícias aos beijos, pelo menos na tela. Já se avançarmos mais umas décadas teremos, com selo oficialíssimo, aquele que será o beijo boca-a-boca mais repelente e também mais icónico de toda a história: o de Leonid Brejnev e Erich Honecker, selando a submissão política da então República Democrática do Leste alemão ao poderoso império da União Soviética. Agora não: o que os desavergonhados artistas russos queriam mostrar, além de polícias "fazendo amor e não guerra", como diriam os adeptos do gerúndio, era uma espécie de farra mordaz, onde até se viam Putin, Bush e Bin Laden numa cama grande, em cuecas. Por estas e outras, e sabendo como Paris é uma cidade recatada e conservadora, avessa à ironia e ao vício, Sokolov puxou dos seus galões e declarou: "Se esta exposição aparecer lá, envergonhará a Rússia, e todos nós teremos responsabilidades." Pois. Os artistas, como era de esperar, não acharam graça. Slava Mizin, um dos fundadores do grupo Blue Noses, explicou à Reuters: "Não quisemos dizer nada. Quisemos mostrar - está aqui uma era de misericórdia a chegar depois dos severos anos de 1990 e duas pessoas estão a beijar-se. Ponto final." Mas os artistas confundem desejos e realidades. Porque a misericórdia não chegou, Sokolov sabe disso, e mais do que evitar escândalos, ele quer preservar o que muitos quereriam apagar de vez. Se ele se desse ao trabalho de, com Putin (agora em Portugal, para praticar algumas artes da diplomacia do degelo), assistir a pelo menos dois filmes do actual DocLisboa, Three Comrades e Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case (este último em exibição amanhã na Culturgest, às 16h30), veria a verdadeira vergonha: a de Grozni em cinzas e pejada de mortos devido à brutalidade dos bombardeamentos russos ou a de constatar que o maquiavelismo frio das novas máfias no poder vai alastrando ante a complacência geral. Claro que, para Sokolov, serão mais suportáveis mil mortos do império que dois polícias a beijar-se. Perante isto, o velho "agente" James Bond já não poderia escrever, como fez em 1962 na foto da espia moscovita Romanova, Da Rússia, com Amor. Horror seria mais apropriado.
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Nuno Pacheco,
Jornal Público
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The Blue Noses Group born in 1999 in Russia, is the most impressive phenomenon at the turn of the 21st century. The main body of the Group is formed by a couple of artists, who have come to Moscow from the eastern regions of Russia — Viacheslav Mizin from Novosibirsk and Alexander Shaburov from Ekaterinburg. They often work in cooperation with two other Novosibirsk artists — Konstantin Skotnikov and Alexander Bulnygin — and photographer Evgeny Ivanov. Besides, the Group often invites their friends-artists, relatives, children, curators and gallery workers as extra players. Sometimes they give the joint performances with Novosibirsk rock-group “Nuclear Elk”.
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Crítica:
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Blue Noses are known for their satirical and provocative videos, photographs and performances which parody and critique Russia's past and its present day capitalist boom. Their targets include political leaders, sexual and political correctness, and the platitudes of art history. Using low-tech methods they ape the look of high-tec. Blue Noses' intentions have always been to create work that can be understood and engaged with outside the restrictive realm of contemporary art; a populist approach for 'pioneers and pensioners'.
Their energy, black humour, irreverence and sense of the grotesque distill the spirit of Russian art (and life) today. For their exhibition at Matthew Bown Gallery, Blue Noses will present an array of works created over the last five years.
In the series entitled Mask Show (the title derives from a Russian TV programme), the artists portray themselves in a domestic setting wearing little more than oversized masks of Putin, Bush and Bin Laden. The photographic works The Lady And Death and She's Going On A Date address taboo issues of representation in the post 9/11 world: the twin towers, and a suicide-bomber in burqa. In the series Kitchen Suprematism, abstract compositions of iconic importance to Russian art historians are reduced to humble arrangements of cold meats, cheese and bread. Blue Noses also show two video works projected vertically into cardboard boxes, Boxing A Trois and Bowling, which deal with sexual and gender stereotyping. Longer movies, including Two Against The Russian Mafia, will run on the gallery video display.
Blue Noses emerged from a loose association of artists active in Siberia in the 1990s. Shaburov's conviction that art should flow from the everyday was expressed in works such as My daily route from home to the bus-stop: photographs every 15 paces (1987); in his hosting of the TV show Guess The Melody, where he mouthed words silently and viewers had to guess the song (1993); and his receipt of a Soros Foundation grant to produce the project Tooth Repair, documenting a trip to the dentist (1996).
During the nineties, Mizin explored performance and action art, making films which parodied the Moscow Actionists, including a series in which the leading role is played by his own virile member and another in which he destroys rival artists. On the eve of the new millennium (31 December 1999), in an attempt to avoid the promised year-zero computer apocalypse, Mizin, Shaburov and friends shut themselves in a bomb-shelter in Novosibirsk and made a series of videos in which they wore blue bottle-tops on their noses.
The epithet Blue Noses was coined and stuck to Mizin and Shaburov; they finally gave up trying to shake off the brand in 2003, when they arrived at a hotel to find that they were booked in with the surname Blyunosez. Blue Noses have represented Rusasia at the Venice Biennale and shown widely in Russia and internationally.
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Matthew Bown Gallery, press release


segunda-feira, outubro 22

Giorgio De Chirico, Vólos / Grécia - pintura moderna e contemporânea

«Metaphysical Triangle» 1958, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«The Conquest of the Philosopher» 1914, oil on canvas
(Chicago Art Institute, Chicago)

«Love Chant» 1914, oil on canvas
(Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York)
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«The Two Sisters» 1915, oil on canvas
(Kunstsammlung Nordhein-Westfallen, Düsseldorf)

«Piazza d'Italia con la Torre Rossa» 1943, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«La Statua Silenziosa Ariana» 1913, oil on canvas
(Kunstsammlung Nordhein-Westfallen, Düsseldorf)

«La Torre Rossa» 1913, oil on canvas
(Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice)

«The Nostalgia of the Infinite» 1913-14, oil on canvas
(The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York)

«Montparnasse Station» 1914, oil on canvas
(The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York)

«Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits» 1916, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«La Commedia e la Tragedia» 1926, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Andromache» 1916, oil on panel
(Private Collection)

«The Vexations of the Thinker» 1915, oil on canvas
(Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco)

«Ritorno del Figlio Prodigo» 1965, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Lui che Consola» 1958, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«La Ribera de Tessalia» 1926, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«La Cohorte Invencible» 1928, oil on canvas
(Museu Berardo Collection, Lisboa)

«Les Epoux» 1926, oil on canvas
(Musée des Beaux Arts, Grenoble)

«L'archeologo» 1927, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«The Archaeologists» 1968, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«La Vendetta» 1943, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)


«Trois Chevaux» 1937-38, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Bagnanti» 1945, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Naiadi al bagno» 1955, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Vita Silenziosa con Paesaggio da Venezia» 1952, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Busto di Minerva» 1947, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)


«Rittrato di Isa» 1933, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Ritratto di Isa con Testa di Minerva» 1944, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Autoritratto con la Madre» 1921, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

«Venezia, Isola di San Giorgio» 1955, oil on canvas
(Private Collection)

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Pintor italiano que também exerceu a sua actividade nas áreas da literatura, do teatro, do design e da escultura. Entre 1903 a 1905 estudou desenho na Escola de Belas Artes em Atenas, em 1906 mudou-se para Munique e em 1910 para Florença. Neste mesmo ano executou o seu primeiro trabalho importante, Enigma of an Autumm Afternoon. Em 1911 mudou-se para Paris, onde tomou contacto com os cubistas centrados em Apollinaire, Picasso, Derain, Brancusi e outros. Pintou as séries Italian Squares e, em 1913, vendeu o seu primeiro quadro no Salão de Outono. Em Maio de 1918 expôs em Itália com Carrá e, nove meses depois, realizou a sua primeira exposição individual na Galeria Bragaglia em Roma. Em 1924 regressa a Paris, onde o grupo surrealista se familiariza com o seu trabalho de 1914 a 1917, interpretando-o à luz do seu interesse pelo subconsciente, derivado da análise freudiana. Após sucessivas viagens entre França e os Estados Unidos, De Chirico insurge-se, nos anos 50, contra as Bienais de Veneza e contra o Modernismo em geral. De Chirico sempre desejou que o seu trabalho se aproximasse a um todo unificado e finalmente levou o público a aceitar uma interpretação do seu trabalho que corrigisse o desequilíbrio desencadeado originalmente pelo Surrealismo. Na sua "pintura metafísica", objectos, personagens e cenas são associados de forma insólita, criando um espaço pictórico misterioso e calmo, que transmite uma quietude alienante e enigmática aos seus quadros.
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The Berardo Collection, Museu Berardo Lisboa
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Crítica:
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Immediately prior to World War I, the Greco-Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico created enigmatic paintings in which he used a traditional style to describe not the external world, but haunting dreamscapes infused with illogical images, bizarre spatial constructions, and a pervasive melancholic mood. He was greatly inspired by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, who believed hidden realities were seen in such strange juxtapositions as the long shadows cast by the setting sun into large open city squares and onto public monuments. De Chirico called his art "metaphysical," and with it hoped to destabilize the meaning of everyday objects by making them symbols of fear, alienation, and uncertainty. His paintings were highly influential for the Surrealists a decade later in their effort to create art from the unconscious. Andromache refers to the beautiful and loyal wife of Hector, the Trojan warrior slain by Achilles in the Iliad. Here Andromache stands, reduced to simple ovoids, alone in a quiet, almost airless Italian piazza, her mood reflected in the dark shadows stretching across the square. The buildings, equally simplified, frame the image, lending it an almost stage-like quality.
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Cornell University, New York
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The Onassis Cultural Center presents Giorgio de Chirico and Greece: Voyage through Memory, an exhibition of works by major European artist Giorgio de Chirico, opening on October 31, 2007. Organized by the Giorgio and Isa de Chirico Foundation in Rome and the Athinais Cultural Centre in Athens, this presentation of 35 of the artist’s metaphysical paintings and sculptures, as well as 22 drawings and lithographs are drawn from the artist’s late period of work. Throughout his life de Chirico maintained a personal and academic interest in Hellenic culture. Born in Volos, Greece in 1888 to Italian parents, he went on to study at the Athens Polytechnic and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. His debut in the art world took place in Paris in 1912. Most commonly known for having inspired Surrealism, de Chirico’s work also adopted Neo-Baroque influences. His bond with ancient Greece harmonized with his appreciation of classical Italian art. The extremely innovate imagery of the 35 paintings and sculptures featured evoke the artist’s memories and reveal his poetic vision, demonstrating the inspiration he found in both cultures as well as his role in defining a different, modern reality. Voyage through Memory presents his artistic reflections on Greek tradition, history, philosophy and aesthetics, fitting the Onassis Cultural Center’s mission to engage and educate the public about the universal ideals of Greek civilization. It is said that de Chirico’s first painting was inspired by the horses he saw in his birthplace of Volos. The focus of horses later developed into a recurring theme for the artist, represented in the exhibition by the painting The Painter of Horses and his Ancient Horses, a bronze sculpture of horses standing in the wind. De Chirico was profoundly influenced by Greek mythology, of which he portrayed the Argonauts, Titans, Centaurs and Olympian Gods. An excerpt from the artist’s memoirs expresses his affinity to this land, “…all of those spectacles of exceptional beauty that I saw in Greece as a boy, and that are the most beautiful I have ever seen to this day, affected me so deeply, they were so powerfully impressed in my soul and in my thoughts…” (...)
De Chirico’s neometaphysical work is another important exhibition theme and is exemplified by paintings such as Harmony of Solitude and The Tower as well as the sculpture The Great Metaphysician, creations which evoke the mystery of space and time in the unique environment he created.
The First Art Newspaper on the Net
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Onassis Foundation (USA)
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