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    in Exhibitions

    Marina Abramović’s New London Pop-Up Features Crystals, a Martian Rock, and an Immersive Van Gogh Room of Her Own

    In her quest to transcend her physical body and live forever, Marina Abramović has done a lot of weird stuff.
    Throughout her career, this pioneer of durational performance art has pushed the limits of her body and mind, withstanding pain, exhaustion, and bodily harm in her pursuit of emotional and spiritual transformation—from a three-month sojourn across the Great Wall of China with her former partner Ulay in 1988 to her 700-hour-long performance The Artist Is Present at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2010.
    But in recent years, she has been experimenting with different media in an effort to bestow her work an afterlife beyond her own. Some have been more successful than others. (I’ve locked eyes with a blank-faced hologram of the artist at the Serpentine Galleries, and even eaten her in macaron form). But in her latest effort to surpass this mortal coil, the Serbian artist has partnered with the Internet-based file transfer service WeTransfer on an immersive experience in London.
    Yes, you read that right. Well, technically it’s WePresent, which is the company’s lesser-known digital arts platform, but you get the idea, and together they have created a pop-up Marina Abramović experience. Called “Traces,” the exhibition is set in the Old Truman Brewery in London’s vibrant Shoreditch neighborhood and features five rooms, each of which commemorates an object that has been important to her life and work over the past five decades.
    General view at the preview of ‘Traces’ by Marina Abramovic and WePresent by WeTransfer, at Old Truman Brewery in London. Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for WePresent/WeTransfer.
    The first room is dedicated to the Rose of Jericho, a desert plant that Abramović says embodies her faith in the power of life. Tripping on through to the second room, visitors will be met with a sure-to-be-popular moving-light show inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night. (The artist says the painting expresses something of her understanding of the cosmos, but even the Abramović fans among us can’t help being a little skeptical that this is not an effort to jump on the immersive Van Gogh bandwagon.)
    In the third room, visitors sit around a big hunk of ancient quartz to experience Abramović’s 1991 work Crystal Cinema. Next, a bright room commemorates Susan Sontag’s crucial book-length essay Regarding the Pain of Others; which the artist said helped cultivate her sensitivity to human pain. Finally, in a room dedicated to a rock from Mars, visitors can listen to a recording of her 2015 work reciting the names of 10,000 stars (within an installation that I can’t help but note resembles another much-hyped artist’s work: Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Balls).
    Installation view, Marina Abramović, “Traces.” Photo by Naomi Rea.
    In a wide-ranging discussion with Tim Marlow, the director of London’s Royal Academy, which will hold a postponed retrospective exhibition with the artist in 2023, Abramović opened up about her interest in building her legacy. “What is incredibly powerful about performance is that it is immaterial. There’s nothing there except for the memory of the audience left,” Abramović said, adding that it is difficult to maintain or cherish the energy of the work outside of these memories.
    While some of her performances have been photographed, and she has flirted with the idea of works being re-performed after her death—“Your work is not yours anymore, you give it up to the universe,” she said—she noted that she would “never” give permission for someone to repeat some of her most dangerous pieces, such as Rhythm 0, a risky performance the artist undertook at Studio Morra in Naples in 1974, when she was just 23: for six hours, she invited visitors to use any number of 72 objects she had laid out on a table, which ranged from feathers to a saw, on her body in any way they chose. 
    Installation view, Marina Abramović, “Traces.” Photo by Naomi Rea.
    “I’m going to die one day—what do you do?” she said. “The digital is one solution, and mixed reality is another.” A digital version of the experience will run concurrently on WePresent (Abramović has been a guest curator on the platform for a year), alongside spotlights on five emerging performance artists and a digital manifestation of her masterclass, the Abramović Method.
    The artist’s other recent experiments have included working in different styles of performance, such as opera—as in 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, which debuted in Munich last year—and creating an immersive cinematic experience of the work, Seven Deaths, which is currently on view at Lisson Gallery.
    Marina Ambramović’s “Traces” is on view through September 12 at the Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London. Tickets can be booked for free online.
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    in Street Art

    “DOUCE VIE” Hommage to Hyuro in Angers, France

    Hyuro was invited in 2020 to paint two walls for the festival Echappées d’Arts in Angers, France, where artists like Aryz, Nuria Mora, Jean Moderne, Tellas, Tania Mouraud, Hitnes, Daniel Munoz, Okuda, Vhils, and more were invited in the last years.During the preparation of the project, at the end of the month of may 2020, she sketched and wrote  :” The concept of the wall which I like most is a kind of celebration of life, there for the reading can work out with the actual moment we are living, with my personal situation which make it very special for me and to start, because I read an article, which stayed strongly on my mind, which title was ̈Angers and the sweetness of living ̈, it was a recently article talking about the simple nice things of this city. The idea are two figures dancing while sharing a beautiful blanket, one figure in each wall, you will see it clear in sketch, but I am happy with that idea since months now. “Hyuro was then in treatment to cure herself of leukemia, she wanted through this painting to celebrate the life and the sweetness of life in Angevin. Unfortunately, despite a long battle, the disease took her down in November 2020 at the age of 45.Tamara Djurovic, Hyuro by her artist name, was born in Argentina in 1974, then moved to Spain, to Valencia. Within ten years, Hyuro had established herself as one of the most respected painters in the world of “Street Art”. Her monumental works, of great gentleness and imbued with humanity, are visible all over the planet, all over Europe, but also in Brazil, Morocco, the United States and in her native country, Argentina.After discussions with her relatives, including the painters Escif and Axel Void, we made a point of bringing this project to fruition by paying tribute to her : the sketch she had sent us was painted in august 2021 by two artists who were close to her : FAITH47 (South Africa) and HELEN BUR (England).Take a look below for more images of “DOUCE VIE”: A Hommage to HyuroWatch the interview of the artists for the City of Angers here. More

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    in Street Art

    “Lḗthē” by Pastel in Lisbon, Portugal

    Argentinian painter Pastel recently worked on a new wall with Underdogs Gallery. The mural entitled “Lḗthē” (Greek term for forgetfulness or hiding) was developed to raise awareness about climate change and environmental sustainability.The project was based on the survey of the flora in extinction in Portugal, as part of the Public Art Program of Underdogs Gallery in association with the Museum of Natural History of Lisbon and the Botanical Garden of Lisbon. Curated by Vhils and Pauline Foessel.Francisco Diaz Scotto is a painter and architect (UBA). Far from conventional architecture, he understands public space work as urban acupuncture. Most of the mural contexts are the “non-places”. Those who are relegated from the irregular and non-inclusive urban designs. Many of his works are located in facades that operate as a canvas for his paintings. The main and most complex search is oriented towards creating a dialogue that is natural and respectful of the environment, since the limits of the work are understood between the painted space and its surroundings. The flora he uses as a reference in his paintings is that which grows in the cracks of sidewalks and facades. These cracks generated by a deficient construction process are reflection of the human need to control space for a rational and autarkic use. Taking these small plants and glorifying them with their change of scale can be a mechanism to question the modern methods we have as a society.Check out below for more photos of Pastel’s stunning work.Arte UrbanaArte Urbana More

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    in Street Art

    “Szczecin Wars” by Mariusz Waras in Szczecin, Poland

    Street artist from Poland Mariusz Waras, better known as M-City, just finished another mural in the city of Szczecin, Poland. The mural “Szczecin Wars” is an interpretation of  the Millennium Falcon, a fictional starship in the Star Wars franchise, highlighting the urban map of Szczecin city.Aerial view of Szczecin City, inspiration for the muralStreet artist Mariusz Waras have created more than 700 murals in Warsaw, Gdansk, Berlin, Paris, Budapest, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Jakarta, Bolzano, London or Prague and exhibited in several solo and group shows.With urban landscapes as their main motif, m-city murals have a specific, recognisable style. Black and white Lego-like forms and shapes of modular, anonymous and similar houses stand in dense agglomerations portrayed from a distance. With the help of stencils, images of never ending cities are spray painted onto empty facades, bridge pillars, staircases, alleys, underground passages, metro stations.Scroll down below to view more photos of “Szczecin Wars” and stay in tune for more updates from M-City. More

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    in Street Art

    “Amen” by Urka in Fermo, Italy

    Street artist Urka recently worked on a new mural entitled ” Amen” in Fermo for the event 360° of Fermo Urban Museum. His piece features devout individual carrying a golden vehicle with a cross. Check out below for photos of the mural.Urka is a talented, satirical scetch artist who enjoys also creating on city walls. Based in Italy, Urka is an introverted, meteoropathic and misanthropic person most of the time. His painting subjects usually revolves around silly and satiric puppets about human behaviors. More

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    in Street Art

    “Atlantis of the North” by Pener in Olsztyn, Poland

    Street artist Pener recently worked on a stunning piece in Olsztyn, Poland. Pener, together with the director of the Municipal Public Library in Olsztyn, Krzysztof Dąbkowski, came up with the idea that the project should be embedded in the literary tradition of Warmia and Mazury, and specifically intertwined with the notion of “Atlantis of the North”, the author of which is the poet and writer Kazimierz Brakoniecki.“I am very open to this type of synergistic projects that can significantly encourage reflection on our identity. Thanks to this, we can bend down and reflect on our common history related to Warmia and Masuria. As a creator and artist, I wanted to create something more than just an illustration for a literary text……because the image itself is ambiguous – birds appear in it – they change into geometric shapes – which interpenetrate and saturate each other. I am inspired by the space in which the wall is located, its shape and context, but I run away from unambiguous associations and strong dominant illustrative motives” Pener stated.Polish artist Bartek Świątecki, aka Pener, is one of the many artists using their talents to transform the façades of buildings into public works of art. He uses overlapping forms—some transparent and others opaque—to create a sense of motion in his work. He is inspired by the digital world and uses a modern, architectural style to capture its dynamism on a large scale. By layering structural forms together in an ambiguous space, he explores the face of virtual reality.His work ranges from, paintings, walls, animation and site specific installationTake a look below for more images of the project and check back with us shortly for more updates on the international street art scene. Photo credits: Mateusz Świątecki / Kamil Iwańczyk More

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    in Street Art

    “Sacral” by Edoardo Tresoldi in Ravenna, Italy

    From September 1, “Sacral”, an installation by Italian artist Edoardo Tresoldi will be open to the public at the Mar – Art Museum of the city of Ravenna. The work is the preview of the exhibition “An Epic POP” inside the exhibition project “Dante. The eyes and the mind”.With Sacral, built in 2016 and rehabilitated in the 2016th-century cloister of the city’s Museum of Art, the audience has the chance to physically enter the work, ideally in the Noble Castle, and retrace the Divine Comedy’s journey in a quasi-performative action.Within the path of the exhibition, the work has in fact a link with the Divina Commedia, poem written by the poet buried in the Italian city. In particular, the typical skeleton of Tresoldi’s installations refers, in the vision of the curator Giorgia Salerno, to the theme of souls and the Castle of the Great Spirits, described by Dante in the Canto IV of the Inferno, in which live the spirits of historical figures of the past, pagans and therefore not destinated to salvation.In a dialogue between classical architecture and contemporary art, the work transports the visitor into an unprecedented space-time experience in which arches, columns and domes create symphonies and contrasts with industrial materials. In fact, Sacral brings together some traits that characterize the artist’s work: the language of transparency capable of weaving in space something that is not there; references to Renaissance masters and classical architectural elements such as arches, columns and domes; the use of wire mesh to give shape to a new dimension in dialogue with light, atmospheric agents and the surrounding environment.Edoardo Tresoldi is an Italian artist, sculptor and set designer , known internationally for his monumental sculptures. explores the poetics of the dialogue between human beings and the landscape, using the language of architecture as an expressive tool and as a key to reading space.The artist plays with the transparency of wire mesh to transcend the spatiotemporal dimension and narrate a dialogue between art and the world, a visual synthesis revealed in the fading of the physical boundaries of his works.Scroll down below to view more photos of “Sacral” installation in Ravenna. More

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    in Exhibitions

    Banksy Gets the ‘Immersive Van Gogh’ Treatment in a Touring Show Hitting New York This Week—and the Artist Does Not Approve

    One does not expect the first big New York fall art show one attends to be Banksy, but the Art Gods will have their say. 
    Just hours before the remnants of Hurricane Ida steamrolled the New York region, I made my way to an exhibition space on 14th Street, near a Foot Locker and a Pinkberry, for the sprawling show “Banksy: Genius or Vandal?” The traveling exhibition (one of several currently making the rounds) offers a deluge of some 100 prints by the famed street artist, whose guerrilla works—sometimes politically incisive, sometimes absurdly humorous, sometimes just cute—have captivated a mass audience for years. The show contains a VR experience, a video montage of the anonymous artist’s works, and scene-setting flourishes like a mock British phone booth. 
    The artist is not amused by these tributes. When the show appeared in Moscow in 2018, his responses, in an Instagram post, included “What’s the opposite of LOL?” He disavowed the show, saying, “I don’t charge people to see my art unless there’s a fairground wheel.” Tickets to the New York presentation cost $29.50, or $19.90 for kids; to date, it has drawn over 3 million visitors in 15 cities…you do the math. (Banksy’s post did, however, acknowledge the irony of criticizing unauthorized presentations of his unauthorized works.)
    The show is organized in cooperation with Banksy dealer Andrew Lilley; a great many of the prints are from his holdings. Helpfully, if you’re feeling acquisitive, the wall labels point you to his website. And the spectacle is produced by Exhibition Hub and Fever, which between them offer exhibitions on artists like Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt, and Michael Jackson. Probably Fever’s best known offering would be “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” which got them in hot water with New York’s Better Business Bureau when customers confused it with “Immersive Van Gogh,” the Emily in Paris one.
    Installation view of the immersive (and unauthorized) Banksy exhibition “Genius or Vandal.” Photo courtesy of Erick Pendzich.
    Girding myself for what press reps promised was a “family-friendly storytelling experience,” I headed first to the VR presentation. To a politely funky soundtrack, I floated through grit-dusted alleyways, where animated Banksys pop up on the graffitied walls as if being painted live. The 10-minute voyage packs in the works, and they go by too fast. This sets the tone for an overstocked show that screams “I’m a blockbuster!” 
    Some of the displays are clever enough. At the entry, the organizers—admitting that they can’t offer the conventional biography—provide the next best thing: a recreation of the artist’s studio from his hit 2010 mockumentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. But it faces off with the show’s worst sin, a curtained room with a blaring videomontage, complete with grating soundtrack (sirens and police radios, get it?), of numerous works connected by red string in the classic evidence board motif. The sound drowns out thought in the neighboring galleries. 
    All the hits are here, represented by the prints the artist makes to complement his wall works in the wild—Girl with a Balloon, Riot Copper, Monkey Parliament, Dismaland, Walled-Off Hotel—and grouped under themes like politics, Brexit, consumption, and protest. Taken together, the breadth of Banksy’s output and the many tough subjects he has tackled, from the surveillance state to the police state to the state of constant war, is impressive. I was heartened to be reminded that he puts his money where his mouth is—raising money to assist women in Greek refugee camps, for example, and converting Dismaland’s building materials into housing for refugees. 
    A viewer takes in the Banksy exhibition “Genius or Vandal.” Photo courtesy of Erick Pendzich.
    But that made seeing this art in a gigantic, money-minting corporate expo all the more disheartening. Overall, the experience of encountering works that give form to ideas expressed in the street, continents apart, divorced here from their local and temporal context, had the effect of taming them, leaving me feeling as if I were observing one of Banksy’s classic feral rats, bathed, combed, and caged. 
    Banksy points out in his book Wall and Piece that rats “exist without permission,” that “if you are dirty, insignificant and unloved, then rats are the ultimate role model.” Fun fact: They can also swim for three days on end. As the skies opened up over New York, sending down a record three inches of rain per hour, I realized that maybe Banksy is right. Maybe we need to learn something from the rats. And that even an unauthorized show about a guerrilla artist has, like these animals, a right to exist.
    “Banksy: Genius or Vandal” is currently on view at 526 6th Avenue, New York City. 
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