Naima Morelli

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Tag "performance"

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Zihan Loo

At the end of 2015, I was wandering around SAM8Q looking for the proverbial exit through the gift shop — as Banksy would put it. I wanted to buy some books to bring back home with me. At the ground floor of the building there was something that appeared to be what I was looking for. Shelves of interesting books, and a few on exhibition. I was thrilled. When I walked in, something was not quite right. I asked the person at the desk: “I’m sorry, this is not the museum bookshop, it is an artwork.”

Damn! This is precisely what I’m talking about when I speak of the problem with contemporary art. The work, he explained, was done by artist Zihan Loo, and was called “Of Public Interest: The Singapore Art Museum Resource Room”. The artist moved 4,500 volumes from the Singapore Art Museum’s resource room — currently not available to public — into the space of a gallery. The public were invited to shape the collection for the duration of the exhibition from August 2015 to March 2016. The conditions were that each visitor was allowed to withdraw one book from the collection, restricting the public access to this book for the duration of the exhibition. These books were shrink-wrapped and placed in a separate area of the installation.

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TimesofMaltaEddie

Introducing my Times of Malta article number three! It’s really great the main newspaper of this gorgeous island gives me the chance to write about big names in the art world (you might remember my pieces on Marina Abramovic and Shaun Gladwell) with such freedom. It’s sometimes hard to keep down the world count, but I can’t complain! This time I interview British artist  Eddie Peake about his new show in Rome, called “A Historical Masturbators” currently on display at Lorcan O’Neill gallery.

Here’s the link to the interview

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The Times of Malta has  just published my review of Marina Abramovic’s 512 Hours performance at the Serpentine Gallery, London.
I’m very happy to have the article published on the leading Malta’s newspaper, because that is where my favourite comic book character Corto Maltese is from!
“When being tucked in for the last time as a kid – I must have been five years old or thereabouts – I couldn’t have imagined the next person to pop me under the bed sheets fondly would be one of the most famous performers in contemporary art: Marina Abramovich…”

Here’s the link to the online version of the magazine

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C’era insomma un tempo dove il garage non era più quel luogo dove parcheggiavi la macchina e stipavi il televisore rotto.
C’era un tempo dove tutto era spartano e vivido. Basico. Come dire, un garage, un gallerista e la centralità dell’arte.
Grossomodo è così che l’arte moderna in Italia si è incamminata verso la contemporaneità.
Erano tempi mitici, dove le gallerie venivano allagate o nelle quali passeggiavano cavalli.
L’unico problema a quei tempi, piuttosto marginale per l’arte contemporanea, era dove parcheggiare l’automobile.

Adesso probabilmente la gente prende meno multe per divieto di sosta, ma quell’atmosfera grunge e sincera sembra essere sparita. Diversamente da altre città europee, a Roma e a Milano le alternative alle immacolate stanze dell’arte contemporanea sono veramente poche.
“L’arte contemporanea italiana è diventata sempre più istituzionalizzata. Non c’è traccia delle esperienze d’avanguardia degli anni sessanta e settanta. Sono sorpreso in particolare dagli artisti più giovani. Sono infatti proprio loro i primi a cercare di entrare in un sistema dell’arte già bello e pronto, e nemmeno si sforzano di immaginare soluzioni alternative. La stessa pratica artistica sembra essere diventata una faccenda secondaria”, afferma l’artista Alessandro Cannistrà.

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edwinj

 

The Italian web magazine Art a Part of Cult(ure) just published the interview I had in Melbourne with Edwin Jurriëns, lecturer in Indonesian Studies at Melbourne University. The interview is part of my reportage about contemporary art in Indonesia.

Here you are the link to the interview

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Apparently there’s nothing new with it.
Apparently it’s something going on since 2003 or something.
Apparently it’s just me, a country-mouse from Italy not informed about the new trends.
All right, I get that, but still it’s difficult to me to be impassible whit this bunch of people stirring awkwardly on the crowded sidewalk for no reason.
If I were back in my Campania countryside, I would mistake the whole thing for a collective exorcism. But of course, the square in front of Flinder Street Station has very little in common with the Campania countryside.

So, these people are dancing with no music but with a lot of concentration in their absurd outfits.
With a more accurate observation I notice that they all wear headphones, so what is happening is that everyone is dancing with their own playlist.
The obvious consequence is that everyone is doing his own moves charmly out of sync.

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I came to know about the young Indonesian artist Oky Rey Montha from his solo show at Primo Marella Gallery in Milan and I’ll end up interviewing him for my book on contemporary art in Indonesia.

He seems to be the kinky and eccentric kink of artist that loves to get lost in his imagination.
With a dark, tim burtonian look and emo hair and makeup he’s directly out from one of his paintings.
His work reminds me of the pop-surrealism trend and is inspired by comics. Asian market sought this kind of paintings; at the same time Oky himself seems not to care too much about the market.
I look at him as a symbol of his generation that isn’t bother anymore with tradition and Wayang Puppets, but it’s more into pop and fantasy realms.
At the same time he knows how to take advantages of the web and he’s launching is own clothes collection called “Piratez” on facebook and on the blogosphere. He’s also an indie musician and loves to make drum performances during the exhibition openings.

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“Sic transit Gloria mundi” is what is written in burn marks on the white wall of Macro’s Enel Room.

That’s an epigraph that could sound powerful, but dramatic and resigned as well. It is not simple for an artist to deal with decadence. I mean, working on a concept so wide like “The word is falling apart”. He has to be careful, not to be demagogic or didactic.

He has to distance himself to the common sense, like your typical neighbour’s morning remarks “The word is changing. When I was young everything was totally different. Better than now, for sure. We have no autumn and spring anymore”.

Mircea Cantor luckly, succeed to be ecumenical not being banal.

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The American magazine NY Arts published my review of Mircea Cantor exhibition at MACRO, Rome with the title “Mircea Cantor: The World is Changing”

Here you are the link to the review

Here you are the editorial preview on NY Arts Tumbrl

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Ricordate quando da bambini facevate i funerali agli uccellini morti nel giardino? Gli costruivate una piccola tomba, scavavate un fosso e lo cospargevate di fiori. Poi cantavate una preghierina mentre gli altri bambini vi stavano a guardare.
Come? Non avevate un giardino da piccoli?

Mi dispiace per voi, ma sono certa abbiate senz’altro la prontezza di immaginarvi in ogni dettaglio la commovente scena, e dunque di capire lo spirito di fondo con il quale Robberto (uno dei più validi tra i nuovi artisti sfornati dall’Accademia di Belle Arti), ha deciso di muoversi per questa performance.

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artmonthlynaimamorelli

Art Monthly Australia published my review of  Gao Brothers performance in Piazza del Popolo, Rome with the title “Gao Brothers: The Utopia of Hugging for 20 Minutes”.
Photos of Luigi Ielluzzo.

Here you are the link to Art Monthly website

Here you are the editorial preview of the issue

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Sarà anche inserita all’interno del Festival Internazione della Fotografia di Roma, ma la mostra “Il teatro dell’effimero”, comprensiva di più di trenta scatti che ripercorrono l’attività di Giuseppe Desiato dal ‘60 al ‘78, è molto di più.

Forse.
Ecco, la prima impressione è di smarrimento.

Bisogna prendere le foto esposte per fotografia vera e propria, imbattendosi così in istantanee strappate ad un mondo onirico, oppure bisogna vederle come documentazione delle perfomance messe in scena da Giuseppe Desiato?
E’ questo il bello, e forse si tratta proprio la stessa cosa di cui ci parlano le donne, gli uomini, i bambini e i manichini un po’ sfocati dentro le loro cornici: la fluidità delle cose.

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